What started with a cheap beginner’s guitar kit from Amazon and some free video tutorials from a website lead to what became a passionate hobby for economics teacher Scott Li. 

Li wasn’t always determined to play guitar, with his main passion being gymnastics training. Though he is a skilled gymnast, his severe training had led him to face many overuse injuries, causing him to stay home for long periods of time.

“I was just kind of aimless. It’s very, very aimless. It was like, you know, sitting at home and [thinking], ‘Oh man, I just don’t feel like I’m accomplishing much,’” Li said.  “Well funny enough when one door closes sometimes another one opens.”

And with that Li was ready to pick up the guitar again. Li’s gymnastics training, although a hurdle at first, had taught him to be determined in his journey to learn guitar.

“Right at the beginning I was pretty awful, very terrible,” Li said. “But the thing is one of the things I’ve learned a lot from my physical training, gymnastic strength is that if you want to get to the fun stuff, you have to go through the boring stuff, especially the beginning.”

Junior Evan Bulitt, another avid guitarist, agrees that learning guitar is a challenge at first. 

“I didn’t like it at first. I guess learning the fundamentals wasn’t very interesting,” Bullitt said. “But over time, I started to create more with it, get creative, and that was more fun. So now guitar takes up a lot of my time.”

Bullitt started talking about guitar with Li last year, helping him learn more about playing the instrument. 

“One on one interactions [with Li] started whenever he figured out like I started playing guitar and he was trying to learn also,” Bullitt said. “He asked me questions and I was able to help him in his learning process.”

Li’s guitar journey hasn’t always been an uphill path, he faced many bumps in the road before becoming consistent in his playing.

“I tried once in 2015 [and] once in 2017. Both times I played for like, a month or a little less than a month and I quit and I did not get very far at all,” Li said.  “This is by far the longest I’ve ever played for.”

This year was the year things had changed for Li. 

“I started back in the middle of March, and I learned this time because I was just Googling ‘Oh, what’s a good resource to learn on your own because I don’t have that much money to spend on private lessons,’”

Li said. ”So then I kept looking up a way to learn and I kept hearing about this one website called JustinGuitar.”

From there, Li kept practicing, inspired by a variety of genres.

“My favorite genres are probably rock and roll, blues, folk. I have a wide range of genres,” Li said. “But I especially like the 60s and 70s such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Stevie Wonder, Freddie King, etc.”

Despite his diverse enjoyment of genre, he has a special place in his heart for Led Zeppelin.

“If I were to have a summary of it,” Li said. “I like [Led] Zeppelin a lot because their taste in [music] is so diverse. … They have music like Celtic, rock, and they even have Indian style influence.” 

But whatever genre he’s playing, playing guitar helps Li relax.

“When I’m playing, every other thought leaves my mind. I’m only focused on playing and it helps me relax and have a good sense of calm focus,” he said. “Whether it’s a bad day or a good day, anything like that, playing guitar is just a way for me to not only decompress for a day but it just lets me be creative and it gives me a sense of accomplishment.”