Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, Santana…John Mayer?

They were all great guitar players – guitar legends. If there was anything that Jim could learn from the history of rock and roll it was that the guitar players got the ladies. Play the guitar? You were in. It didn’t matter how socially inept a guy was, it didn’t matter how unattractive a guy was. If a guy could play the guitar he would be flocked by chicks.

Jim came to this realization during college. His freshman year there were several guys who lived in his dorm, or lived in the vicinity of his dorm that played guitar. He remembered the first week of classes, every time he would step outside to go somewhere there was that one guy with the long dark hair and the 12-stringed Martin guitar that would always be sitting on the picnic table. And always, always he was surrounded by at least four girls. Jim remembered walking by the guy on so many occasions, staring at him, trying to figure out his appeal. The guy had crooked teeth, he looked like he hadn’t bathed in a few days, his clothes were old and out of style but every damn time Jim saw him, he had his own mini entourage of women following him around.

“This guy is my hero…” is all that Jim could think whenever he saw him.

Jim bought a guitar the summer after his freshman year at college. He found an old acoustic for sale in the local newspaper. He had absolutely no idea how to play; he didn’t even have anything to teach him how to. However, if he could learn how to play the instrument half as well as the guy who sat outside his dorm on the picnic table maybe he could finally get his chance with some of the gorgeous women around his college campus.

It was the first day all week that it hadn’t rained. It was sunny outside of the cafeteria and the grass was dry. Jim figured that if he had any chance, this would be it. He collected up his guitar case and the guitar chord lessons and tabs that he had printed out from the internet and walked outside to find a spot to sit in the grass.

As soon as he had pulled the guitar from it’s case and started to tune it, he noticed that he was getting a little more attention from the people that passed by. He wasn’t sure if it was because he looked like – in his opinion – a complete idiot out on the grass with pieces of printer paper scattered all around him or if it was maybe that guitar magic doing its work.

He strummed out a couple of chords: ‘C’, ‘G’, ‘E’ and ‘A’ – the easy major chords. He heard a couple of girls somewhere behind him, the sound of giggling stinging his ears. Were they giggling about him? Were they giggling at him? Maybe this whole guitar scenario was just an all around bad idea. His mind started to wander. Did he want to play the guitar because he wanted to learn a musical instrument or did he want to play guitar to find a girlfriend?

Jim thought over his options as he absentmindedly picked away at the strings, playing nothing in particular. When he snapped back to the world around him and out of his thoughts he realized that his fingers had barely even moved from the ‘D’ chord.

“This is a horrible idea…” he thought to himself as he turned to open his guitar case back up. The moment he lifted the lid, a breeze came through the trees, scattering papers in the direction of the wind.

“Shit…” he said as he laid his guitar to his side and quickly jumped onto his knees, only to find that the papers had scattered right at the feet of an adorable blonde girl wearing a jean skirt and light pink tank top.

“Yours?” she asked as she picked up the wad of white paper in her hands.

“Yeah,” he replied with a nod as she walked over to where he had settled back down in the grass.

“Here,” she said, handing the papers to him. He graciously took them and tucked them safely back into his guitar case.

“Thanks,” he said with a smile, “these winds…” she giggled and sat down next to him, their knees almost touching.

“So you play?” she asked as she pointed towards the guitar.

“Kind of,” he replied with a shrug, “not really.”

“Well, I saw you doing something with it from across the lawn,” she said with a smile. “If you weren’t playing it, it certainly looked like you were.”

“Oh, yeah, well, I was it’s just…I’m really new to it, I’m just learning,” he said a little awkwardly.

“Cool,” she said nodding. “Can you play anything for me?”

“Oh. I uh…I…well…” he picked up the guitar and set it across his lap again. “I really only know chords right now and I don’t actually know any songs.”

“That’s okay,” she said with an earnest nod and smile. “I’d still like to hear you.”

“Oh…uh…okay,” he said nodding dumbly to her comment. He quickly strummed together a few chords and finger picked a few strings, looking up at her every few seconds. She was smiling so earnestly at him and she was so cute. He could feel himself blushing and the thought of him blushing in front of this cute girl only made him blush further.

He ended his series of haphazardly strung together chords on ‘G’ and quickly set the guitar aside.

“Yay!” the girl exclaimed, clapping her hands together and smiling.

“Really?” he asked, feeling the pink returning to his cheeks.

“It was wonderful!” she exclaimed.

“Wow,” he said, biting his lip. “Well, thanks.”

“No problem,” she said. “I’m Alison.” She held out her hand towards Jim.

“I’m Jim,” he said, taking her hand in his and squeezing.

“Listen Jim,” she said, reaching around her back into a small purse, “if you’re free this weekend, I’m going to this small party with a few friends…” she pulled out a pen and a small pad of paper. “If you’re interested in having something to do…” she handed him a small slip of paper. “Call me.” She smiled a large smile and quickly stood up.

“Oh, uh…okay,” he said looking dumbstruck down at the paper, realizing that he had just received the phone number of an adorably cute girl without even trying or asking.

“Keep playing,” she said as she brushed off the back of her legs and quickly skipped away.

“I…I will,” he said quietly to himself as he tucked the piece of paper into his pocket.

And that was how Jim Halpert learned that playing the guitar was one of the most valuable skills that he could ever pick up.