Guitar Express: Accompanied “Songs of Deserts”1 as Oases in Life-long Memory Journeys

Being able to play the guitar and sing one’s favorite songs is often an unrealized adolescent dream. Guitar Express is a group music making approach that aims to enable people to realize this dream and develop an identity of amateur musician regardless of age. This is achieved through the use of an alternate tuning of the guitar and a variety of 'tricks' that are being constantly developed to address individual and group needs. The following paper is informed by arts-based research and attempts to provide a general impression of the Guitar Express group approach. Based on the expressions of adults and senior aged adults who have participated in one or more of its groups—as well as the verbal contributions and interpretations of two teachers, a collaborating psychologist, and myself as initiator and supervisor of the program—the major benefits for the Guitar Express participants are, that a) it functions as a means for them to express and regulate their emotions, b) it counteracts feelings of isolation, c) it allows them to experience deeply personal and shared group moments, d) it provides opportunities for dealing and preparing for various kinds of losses, e) it helps people accept personal limitations while searching for alternative solutions, f) it improves the quality of everyday life through its infusion with collective musicking, and g) acts as motivator for involvement in a social music activity. At a more general level, the Guitar Express group experience may be seen as a musically driven journey into the linearity and circularity of time; it may revitalize the participants' memories of their 'songs of deserts', transforming them to oases in personal life-stories, re-enabling connections with the past and augmenting meaningfulness in the present.