Musical Me (by sarah)
I've been practicing the guitar like a demon - well there's this little gap in the day when Mary is awake but not feeding and it coincides with Jean being around so I tend to spend then practicing the guitar. With a dose of nursery rhymes.
I am also learning the Firefly theme The Ballad of Serenity and the Hero of Canton just to be geeky and music mistro at the same time 🙂
Now I'm not really what I would call naturally musical, I can't read music, have little technical knowledge of the subject and spent a chunk of my early life with hearing problems, but I love music and I want to play it - I know I'm not really any good at it but I know that this also doesn't really matter.
I am making leaps and bounds with the guitar playing (still know 13 year olds that would make me look like a beginner because though I have had a guitar since I was 15 that is what I am!). Little things are clicking in my head - like I never could do strumming patterns - I still don't look at what they are supposed to be I just play but I noticed that I am hitting the right strings automatically some of which I always concidered impossible.
I have finially broken the back of reading tabs though I still end up with furrowed brow and pauses as I try and position both hands with multiple fingers for plucking. I am also attempting to combine strumming and plucking - again something I never thought I'd be able to do.
I know this all basic stuff but believe me it took me along time just to get rhythm - I'm not what you'd call a natural. Also the guitar music I was trying to play was far to advanced for me and getting the Nursery Rhyme and Christmas Carol book as helped so much - they are aimed at kids and so are my level.
The ability to tune the guitar is coming back too though I am still a slave to the tuner - when we first moved here I tried tuning from the piano at Barbara's but it never sounded right (mainly it turned out because the piano was out of tune).
I have also found things much easier since I stopped trying to completely mimic songs - I need to know what the song is supposed to sound like in order to start playing it but then I alter it to fit with how my voice wants to sing it. I'm sure half of you are cringing at that and Mum has apoplexy that I don't play the right tunes but sometimes the tunes are boring or it's too low for me.
Issues I still have is that my hands are being a little bit rubbery at the moment but I swear playing the guitar helps prevent the complete collapses that I've had in the past but I still have to restrict practice and incorporate it into the 'pacing' for pain management. On that note I can't currently play my new guitar due to it being too heavy for me to lift and swore joints make the extra push down on the metal strings painful.
I still fail at bar cords and those that I can make 'ring' (not sure the technical terms for half of this) I can't change into quickly and changing from one to another just is not even on the horizon. This is a shame as alot of my favorite songs use them :/ On the other hand I have found that I can work out simpler/easier for me to play cords that with me singing soprano works - though I again can see people throttling me as I sing heavy metal in a choir voice!
And this leads me into the singing thing - I really miss singing - I miss it so much - I sing to the girls all the time but though that is lovely it is not the same. I've hunted around for choirs but they do tend to be either just choral stuff - Latin etc... or they are naff and they cost a fortune!
But in desperation I had a little look around on the internets again and found there is a group that sounds vaguelly like MT Soc (Op Soc to the oldies) that I belonged to at college and they put shows on at the Everyman Theater and the Playhouse in Cheltenham. I really want to join this group though I need to learn to drive first really - the only down side is they do focus almost entirely on Gilbert and Sullivan - this only makes me sad as I feel there is so much more to musical theater and light opera.
I really enjoyed being in things like The Little Shop of Horrors at college but from memory just the right to perform the modern stuff is sky high. But The Cotswold Savoyards definatly sounds more up my street - I tend to prefer it if there is some acting involved plus you get outfits!!!! Droool.
But as I said joining this group would be in the future once I learn to drive and more importantly am back off of crutches.
Part of me is kicking myself for not having claimed domestic space for the music stuff before - I always hide the guitar away and had trouble keeping tuner, plectrums, guitar and music all in the same place and then the flood happened - mixed in with the issues with my hands and it's makes for poor neglected guitar. I'm sort of thinking - wow if I'd spent all the time form 15 until now playing guitar with daily practice I might actually be ok at it rather than at the - well I can play some nursery rhymes stage :/
Tue 15th Mar 2011 10:40 am 
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By Gavan, Wed 16th Mar 2011 @ 2:34 pm
It's great that you're getting somewhere with the guitar. It really is all about spending time with it. Playing an instrument isn't something that you just pick up in a few minutes. Also, don't worry about not reading music or technical knowledge, that's nothing to do with being naturally musical. As you love music and you want to play it, that's already a big part of being naturally musical. The rest is what you are now developing.
Go you!