The Good Musician

How I Missed Becoming a Superstar

by Arjun Muralidharan on January 15th, 2008

This little escapade is about missed chances, and the utter consequences that come with it, in a butterfly-effect manner.

Yesterday, I was going to my apartment in the town of my university on a 2-hour train journey from Zurich. I lgged along my suitcase and crashed into the first free booth I could find. In the opposite booth was a young guy sitting with his electric guitar hitting out some blues scales. His guitar caught my eye, I have the same one.

“Hey, there, that a Mexican Fender?”, I asked.

“No, it’s US.”, he replied with a grin.

The conversation took its way into my guitar “career” over the last ten years (which seemed to impress him and made me feel sheepishly proud). The guy plays the guitar since two years, so he told me.

A while later (we were approaching our destination) I heard him play a really fast blues solo, involving tapping and a lot of goodies - stuff I couldn’t do myself (since I focus on classical most of the time). My brain started spinning, and I wondered whether this kid would be someone I could start a band project with.

I asked him whether he plays in a band, he replied he’s started out with a christian hard rock group.

I felt uneasy. He’s perfect. I want a jazz band, and this guy knows the blues inside out, and he’d be able to play in two bands, wouldn’t he now?

Well, fact is, I never asked him, or exchanged numbers, or anything. And I’ll regret it forever, because when you don’t grab these opportunities, you never know where you might end up. Thus was the day I may have missed the chance for super-stardom.

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