{"id":4649,"date":"2017-07-25T18:09:38","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T01:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=4649"},"modified":"2017-07-25T18:09:38","modified_gmt":"2017-07-26T01:09:38","slug":"bleedin-frustration-homer-alaska-07252017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=4649","title":{"rendered":"Bleedin\u2019 Frustration \u2013 Homer, Alaska \u2013[07\/25\/2017]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I got my first real six string. Bought it at the five and dime. Played it \u2018till my fingers bled\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, they aren\u2019t bleeding\u2026yet.<\/p>\n

I will tell you this though: they hurt.<\/p>\n

I have been blessed in my life with a good ear and a good sense of rhythm, which has meant two things: I never truly had to learn how to read music (much to the chagrin of my family) and\u2026I never had to practice. I was a good enough dancer that I could skate by with being lazy when I was a kid (although looking back I almost weep to think how good I could<\/em> have been if I\u2019d pushed myself beyond my comfort zone), and as for being a vocalist\u2026well, I was a good girl and ran my scales most of the time, but I don\u2019t remember a time when I wasn\u2019t<\/em> singing, so I don\u2019t remember a time when I couldn\u2019t<\/em> do it. It was something I was gifted with, not something I truly had to work for. As much as I intrinsically know the importance of practicing\u2026I\u2019ve not had to buckle down and learn something completely from scratch since I was 3 years old in my first dance class. Instinct has kind of always been my friend.<\/p>\n

Until now.<\/p>\n

Because this isn\u2019t<\/em> something I\u2019ve a natural talent for, or any background in. After barely mastering just two chords (and struggling with a third\u2026D-major is currently my worst enemy), my fingertips feel as if they are burning and I still<\/em> am not getting it right<\/p>\n

Goddess but I forgot how frustrating it is to start at the beginning.<\/p>\n

But I am not going to give up on this dammit. I want<\/em> to do this. I haven\u2019t really wanted<\/em> to do something just for the sake of doing it in a really long time. I haven\u2019t been excited about learning something in a very long time. I am not going to let this be another one of those things that I \u201calmost\u201d did.<\/p>\n

When I first mentioned that I was going to learn guitar, many people assumed (I suppose naturally so), that I was only doing it because Amras plays guitar himself. Allow me to clarify something: this has nothing to with Amras. He bought me the guitar yes, which is fantastic, but he would be just as happy if I hung that guitar in a shadow case and never laid a finger on it. He bought me the guitar because he knew how badly I wanted it, how much that particular instrument went \u201chey, I think I\u2019m supposed to go home with you\u201d, and that\u2019s where that part of it ended.<\/p>\n

My actually trying to learn to play? That\u2019s mine. That\u2019s coming from several places, and only one of them is that I cannot bear to have an instrument in the house that isn\u2019t played because no instrument deserves to just hang on a wall. The other reasons are more personal: no one in my close family has ever played guitar (save for my Uncle, who was actually a close family friend, not a relative -and even then, he played acoustic), I am not doing this for<\/em> anyone, or because <\/em>of anyone. This is mine, just mine.<\/p>\n

This? This is something I am taking up just because I want to<\/em>. Because I can. And because for once I want to be able to prove myself that I can actually follow through on something<\/em>. \u00a0And because there are only two real instruments in the world where if you can sing and play you are almost guaranteed work: one is piano, the other is guitar.<\/p>\n

I keep reminding myself of that, especially when my fingertips are almost too sore to type..<\/p>\n

Damn D chord\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got my first real six string. Bought it at the five and dime. Played it \u2018till my fingers bled\u2026. Well, they aren\u2019t bleeding\u2026yet. I will tell you this though: they hurt. I have been blessed in my life with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-leisure-lady"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1cZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4651,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4649\/revisions\/4651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}