My first song was by the Eagles named "Tequila Sunrise" It was 1976 I had made up my ming that I was going to learn to play the guitar because my friend I was rooming with at the time had a Gibson Heritage standing there and he said "you can play that antime I'm not." and he showed me 7 basic cords. I stumbled through it and forced it on everyone, one year later I smashed the end of my middle finger off on the fretting hand and was out of comission for about six months they grafted skin from the front of my elbow on to it and it actually grew and still grows a few hairs on it. But that damned thing never did callus. So I took what I knew and played the best I could, some cords especially bar chords were extremely painfull but I learned alternate ways of playing certain songs and it wasn't until about a month ago, 31 years later, when I cut one of my other fingers and someone said "here trust me let me to put some super glue on it". And that glue held that cut together for 3 days. So I thought I'm going to try it on my skin grafted finger and found that I could put a small drop of super glue on the graff and play and it didn't hurt so bad. Then I thought I would just super glue a small piece of cardboard on to it then trim it down with finger nails clippers and wow it dosen't hurt at all. Now I can play the bar cords without any pain AT ALL and I just leaned "Desperado" by the eagles and it is pretty darn close. and after 31 years of playing and thousands of attempts to get Tequila Runrise just right, it is prrety close too, well It will never be exact but I keep trying to make it exact. I actually started playing a 12 string about 25 years ago because it felt better on my skin grafted finger. So anyone out there thinking you can't make your fingers endure the pain of developing caluses. Just have a dream about being able to play your favorite song and get some super glue.
Great story huh?
I just moved back to Alaska near the area where my buddy and I used to room and he is gone for the winter and I haven't seen him in twenty nine years. I heard he is still playing too. So can't wait to jam with him when he gets back..