Progress report:
You learn three chords, you can play any rock n’ roll song in the books
My father said that…and much as I hate to admit it, he was probably right.
I knew for the last two weeks that Strange (that’d be my guitar) was definitely not tuned properly. She was tuned enough for me to kind of fumble through things, and was basically in tune with herself, but she was definitely not actually in tune. The truth is, I have great ears for melody – you give me the starting note and I can most likely sing you the whole chart, just don’t ask me to find the starting note, because those ears of mine are really not that good with pitch. Guilty secret – the singer has great intonation but lousy pitch detection. It is ever my shame. So anyway, I knew my E-string was tuned too low, but I couldn’t for the life of me manage to fix it. Thankfully, Amras was able to easily. Note to self: your boyfriend will not usually be there to tune your guitar Shaughnessy, get yourself a tuning app for your phone please? Or learn to use a tuning fork. This is not a skill you can continue not having.
Anyway, when he first walked in the cabin tonight, Amras asked politely if he could say hello to Strange. I said yes of course, but watched him wince as he struck the first chord
Ouch
Yeah, I know, my E-string is off, I can’t get it tuned right
Whole thing’s too low, give me a second here
So now my guitar is in tune properly. Which obviously makes a rather big difference in being able to play it. Let’s just say she sounds better now. And after a steady 45 minutes I had another three chords to add to my tenuous library.
Okay, so first finger here…second finger here….third finger here. Now play that. There’s your B.
I think B may be my new D, replacing D as the “chord my fingers really hate the most”. It stretches two frets and it hurts, my wrist does not like adjusting that way. Yet. But I got used to the D, I can get used to this. As it is I did manage it slowly and carefully.
Okay, now finger an E major, right…now take that first finger and slide it over one fret. And now slide it back. There’s your “Ahem” chord, also better known as an Esus4
Heh, everything takes a two
What was that?
Just something my piano teacher used to say, everything takes a two. Got into big debates with Dad about it. Sus chords always remind me of it.
And then there was my favourite moment of revalation
So, do you remember how to play a G?
Ah, no…I know that was the first thing you ever showed me, but it was a really long time ago
And it was. At least in ship time. Amras showed me that chord at least two seasons ago when I had passingly mentioned an interest in one day maybe picking a guitar. Well before I owned Strange. At the time, I couldn’t even come close to mastering it, I remember trying to fumble through fingering it on the Tele and being so unable to even press down the strings that I laughed and explained that my ‘fingers don’t bend that way’.
So today, I started back at the beginning.
Thumb here, third finger here, crossing those two strings, yup, like that…there’s your G
And I could do it! Now only could I do it, it actually felt…almost comfortable?
Okay, now switch that to a D, and back, and again, and now to a C…wild….thing…you make my…heart…sing.
Gah! I can actually hear that! I mean that actually makes sense to me!
Yup, three chords, and you can play rock n’ roll
And I burst out laughing
What’s funny?
That’s what my Dad says.
He’s right
And suddenly the chord chart in front of me for Candle in the Wind that I have been trying to get through and getting painfully frustrated with for days started making sense. I’m not fast, it’s not smooth, but what it is is recognizable
When I realized that I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to laugh or cry. Because in that moment, for the first time since I actually picked Strange up…I started to think hey…maybe I really can do this.