Tune Up

Playing my 12 string that I’ve owned and played since 1978.  

 

”Blessed be the Lord my Rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle— I will sing a new song to You, O God; On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,“ ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭144‬:‭1‬, ‭9‬ ‭NKJV‬

    I’ve played guitar for over 50 years now, and no matter how long I play there is always something that’s required in order to play, and that is to tune the guitar. No matter what guitar you play, it requires tuning at some point. There are some guitars that stay in tune better than others. But even the most expensive guitar at some point needs to tune. No guitar plays by itself, and depending on whose hands it is in, will determine the sound coming out of it. Even though I’ve played for over 50 years, I personally know people that have played for way fewer years, but can make my guitar sound like I’ve never been able to make it sound. Level of skill and talent. But that doesn’t stop me from playing.

   Sometimes life is like my guitar. It needs a tune up. There are a couple of ways of doing that. You could just tune it to itself, and you’ll be fine as long as you don’t try to play along with someone else, then you may be out of tune depending on what you used for your starting tuning pitch. Next you could use an electric tuner. This is often my go to now, and they now make them that easily clip on your head of your guitar, and hear and feel the vibration of the guitar to get it in tune. The final way you can tune a guitar is to go an instrument like a piano, and tune to it. If you’re tuning to an electric keyboard, your pitch will be exact to A44, as an electric keyboard can’t go out of tune, like a stringed instrument. 

   The devil loves to come along when you’re not looking and twist your tuning pegs down a pitch, to get you out of tune and sounding awful. Your own human nature can do the same. But it’s when you realize you need a tune up, you can turn to the one with the true pitch. God never goes out to tune. His pitch is perfect, and when we tune UP to Him, we can begin to do battle with our fingers and fight a winning war with praise on our ‘stringed’ instrument. 

   So how do we tune UP to God. By digging into His Word, the Bible, and not just reading, but doing it. Don’t worry, you’ll need to tune up often. I often have to tune up in between songs, as I tend to play pretty hard, and can easily get my guitar out of tune. I don’t beat myself up for getting out of tune, I just make the adjustment and get back in tune, so I can continue to play and make music that’s pleasant to listen to.