I Need a Thicker Skin

Thanks, Becca, for lending me your guitar! I had a guitar once. When I was in grad school I lent it to my friend Diane Morrill (Diane, if you ever Google yourself and find yourself looking at this blog entry? I want my guitar back. You've had it since 1994...). So, yeah; she took a bunk with my guitar!

I was never good. I took lessons when I was in middle school, which was pretty fun until my eighth grade meltdown. Now, I am kind of a ham and don't mind getting up in front of people. I used to sing in front of lots of people, but I'm more comfortable usign my own vocal mechanism than playing an instrument. It's not my own body; it's this object I pick up, you know? But I was enjoying guitar lessons and when Mr. Paskey asked Alan Johnson and me to play Silent Night at the middle school Christmas concert, I was down with it. I took the melody; he took the arpeggio. Alan's mom was a music teacher and made sure we kept practicing.

I vividly remember this incident. I sang with the choir; I played my cornet in the band; but all the while I was getting nervous about the guitar thing. When it was time to play it, I had my first and only attack of REAL stage fright. I have been nervous since, but this was a dig-in-the-heels, no-way-Jose moment. I saw these two metal folding chairs out there on the gym floor. And microphones. Whooooo, boy. I recall walking up to Mr. Paskey as he was about to introduce us (imagine me tugging at his sleeve) and saying, "We're canceling this. I'm not doing it. There's no way." He handed me my guitar and said, "You'll be fine!" Nonononononono! It really was not fine. Alan was already perched on his folding chair, ready to go, looking at me like I had lost my mind. Which I had. I wish I could tell you that I pulled it off. But... Ididn't. Imagine two eighth graders playing Silent Night really badly. Now, imagine them playing so badly it's laughable. Aaaaaand dial it to one notch worse. There you are! I think we even finished at different times.

Afterward in the music room, Alan said, "Sit down." We played it perfectly. His mom stopped by my house later that evening with a chocolate eclair. I think this my have been my expereince as a user. Chocolate as a drug.

After that, I was content to strum away in my college dorm.

Soooo...here we are again. I remember some things. I can still tune, using the 5th fret system.

A basic arpeggio, a hootenanny strum.
A few chords. I have some music books that include chords. I need a basic book, though. I'll go get one next week.

And the big question. Did it help? Briefly. While I was actually playing, I was concentrating, and it helped. If only I could just sit and practice all day. But my finger tips are swollen and sore. In this, as in most things, callouses would be very helpful.