hmm... childhood memories. let's see.
i've obviously heard people play the guitar before, in church, on tv, etc. never really listened to music much, got my first cd player when i was sec two, i think, and the first cd i ever ever bought was u2's all that you can't leave behind. without anyone's recommendation. i'm damn proud of myself right now. bono's voice was so strong and calling and mysterious, and the edge's guitar was so emo, so fantastic. so that was when i really started to listen to music, thank God. narrowly missed the tween pop rubbish.
but i've never really really really wanted to play the guitar. my dad and mom used to play deep purple damn loud, i mean Damn Loud, like downstairs can hear from my house loud. strange people! and i was quite unaffected by the loud riffs and the strong wailing singing and the percussive drum beats. it was just noise to me. like as a child you wonder, why do grown up people gotta do things so loudly? but that was then, when music meant little to me.
oh my mom signed me up for piano with my sis when i was young. but i stopped after one lesson. i couldn't give a shit about it, even back then (lol!), and couldn't at all be bothered to find a note on the keyboard, like the first lesson was about. incredible, come to think of it, that my sis was forced to learn and i wasn't. *shrug* i actually bought a yamaha clp-810 digital piano for $165 three months back, what september 2009? but that's a story for another time.
so, memories, hmm. nope, really. no recollection of musical influence, encouragement or inspiration in my childhood. except for the odd musical toy (you know the kind that runs around playing a midi of i forgot what tune, i can hum it but God knows what song it is [Llorando Se Fue omg], and a digital keyboard my grandpa bought for us once, that ran on 6, or was it 8, count em' 6 C size batteries, that played a midi of Billy Joel's Just the Way You Are). i hated the karoake, i always thought it sounded damn phony to be singing about everlasting love when my family was having its difficulties (well which one doesn't, right), and i just didn't sing much, other than the anthem and school song and various p5 chinese songs at gep camp (gep camp!) and the blimming beautiful ac song. i always used to get goosebumps when the school sang that song. and be Thou my vision. and to God be the glory. God bless acs. acsi, mind you. oh... ac primary too.
so, indifferent, indifferent, okay. why not give it a shot. cheap, right, hundred odd bucks, learn a few songs, tickle a few girls. Ha! that really worked out! as if. anyway, j1, nothing to do, called up some old friends, jonk and jonlin, and went to ranking at bras basah, picked out an el cheapo black guitar, went home none the wiser.
i'm chuckling as i write this. God i'm an old man.
hmm. couldn't quite get my fingers in their right spots, couldn't really make the notes strum out, couldn't change the chords to save my life! string noise, bad technique, fingers touching where they shouldn't, not getting the terminology right, (up was right and down was left, goodness!), memorising Eddie Ate Dynamite Good Bye Eddie, tuning, rusty strings, fingers hurting after like ten minutes (pussyyy), oh Lord my rhythm was so bad! i couldn't get a rhythm going to save my life, man. bass strings, then treble strings... huh? strum with wrist or forearm? holding the pick felt funny, cranking my wrist to reach the frets, hand muscles Really Really tired, arm too, man i was useless. utterly useless. first song i tried to learn was urh stairway to heaven, i think. that took damn damn long, the first part, starting with the hand at the fifth fret (yeah you know that one). oh no! the first song jonk taught me was i could sing of Your love forever. it was easy, e shape chord, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 9th frets. goodness. the first what six weeks i went absolutely nowhere.
and then i learnt a strumming pattern. who was it that taught me down, down-up, up-down. goodness i think it was chris teo. and he passed me a brown fender pick, which i still have now. those shitty pick-this-pick picks kept breaking. Shitty picks. anyway, with that one rhythm, my whole guitar playing experience changed. that was definitely my first level up. i broke into a giant ass hugest grin that i have in my collection of expressions grin. exciting times, man, exciting times to be young. i played some easy worship song with that, and i was there. ding! a level 2 guitar noob.
i'll admit there's never really been a high like that on my acoustic ever since that first rhythm. there's been ups and downs lar. as far as acoustic rhythm goes, i can strum, maybe a little bit of improvised strumming, but the real rhythmey stuff i've yet to scratch, i'll admit. the bluesy robert j stuff? the neat stuff pastor dave showed us that time? slappin' n poppin'? whatever, man. in my defence i think that it's hard to improvise when you're not getting great tone, as when you have a crappy guitar. but that's a shitty excuse. obviously, and i one hundred percent believe this, it's in the hands. but tone really makes you wanna play, it does.
so, this guitar then. her name is milady, but i'm not real big on that. and this is where it all started.
ah well, moving on then. introducing in the next episode, my first electric guitar. stay tuned!
