You can have the snazzy instrument. You can have the constant lessons. You can have the family history. But to gain and grow a skill in music, you also need the passion, the dedication, and the perseverance.
Junior Wyatt Smith has been on his guitar learning journey since December 2023, and has all of these traits. So far, he has primarily learned to play classical music, as well as some Italian. He also learned to read sheet music, which he didn’t know previously, as it was something the other instruments he briefly played, including the ukulele and the banjo, didn’t entail.
Smith stated that his biggest inspiration had to be his teacher, Tom Nothnagle. Nothnagle has been playing music professionally for over 50 years, has traveled around the world to study guitar, and even hosted his own guitar focused TV show, Tom’s Guitar Show. Smith found out about Nothnagle after seeing him perform both in person and on TV, and his mother set up lessons with Nothnagle at Orchestra Iowa in Cedar Rapids.
Smith shared that a big reason he liked Nothnagle was because of his teaching style. “If you’re doing something wrong, he’ll tell you,” Smith said. “He’ll show you what you need to do and how you need to do it. If I didn’t have a teacher, I would’ve quit already. He shows me exactly what I have to do to get to my goal.”
Smith practices with his teacher once a week, where “half of it’s playing music, half of it’s him [Nothnagle] telling some story from, like, 80 years ago.” Although Smith admits that sometimes not much playing gets done, he said that he finds himself learning a lot from the stories, as Nothnagle has had so much experience, in both guitar and life.
Smith also practices on his own nearly every day, during almost any free time he has. At the moment, Smith has two guitars, but said that he was looking forward to getting a nicer third one, which will become his primary instrument.
Prior to the guitar, Smith played a bit of banjo. After retirement, his great-grandfather would often sit on the porch and play his own banjo, which Smith’s mother later became the owner of after he passed. “My mom was really happy I was playing that and continuing the legacy,” Smith shared. He said that he chose to switch from banjo to guitar because there was more variety available, in both songs and sound.
Although he’s had a lot of fun, learning an instrument is difficult. Smith’s main struggle has been learning technique. “When I first started, my fingers bled,” he said. Smith said he overcame these struggles mainly by taking a lot of breaks and trying not to overthink too much. He also said it helped to see the time and effort he put into the skill pay off.
Smith had only performed at a few recitals, but in his opinion they didn’t go very well. In the future, he said that he wants to be able to perform better and for a larger number of people, but “the nerves really get to me.”
However, Smith stated that his main goal was to be able to play any song, in any style, from just the hearing sound or looking at the sheet music. He hoped to achieve this goal in a few years, and planned to keep working until he gets there.
