Educational
Experience
As a child, we all go through a phase and
thrive to become something we’re not. Maybe it’s a rock star, or a
football player, or an actor. There are many things we come up with in
our imaginative minds as a kid. I once had that dream believe it or not.
I wanted to become this musician that everyone would listen to and found my
music unique. Kind of lame, I know. But we all have those
dreams. It seemed fun and something to do as a hobby since I wasn’t going
to pursue the musician world. My grandfather as well as other musicians
was a huge contribute to wanting to pursue learning how to play.
When I was younger, I would always go in my grandpa’s office where he had a
stereo and his guitar. I would dress up and get really into performing,
as if an actual audience were there. After a while of jamming out, my
grandpa would come in and have me sit down with him while he played a few songs
he learned back in the Navy. That’s when it all hit me. Seeing the
joy out of my grandpa’s face, seeing him light up as well as myself, made me
realize I wanted to learn how to play. I figured it could be such a great
learning experience and back then I didn’t really know a lot of young kids
playing the guitar. Another thought that came to my mind was how fun it’d
be spending time with my grandpa. We’ve always been close since the day I
was born. In a way my grandpa is like my dad. He is such a great
man and has so many talents. Around the age of seven or eight, my
parents bought me my first guitar for Christmas. I can only imagine how
priceless my face was when I opened my present.
Ever seen the movie The Christmas Story, when Ralphie gets
the bee bee gun he had been dreaming of?
Well my first guitar was the same way for me. Sure I didn’t necessarily need the guitar but
I was fortunate to have received one and now here I am playing the guitar
now. For the first few weeks, I would
practice tuning it but that was as far as I had got. Years had gone by and all the guitar was good
use for was a pretend prop for when I was “performing.” After my step dad came home from deployment
the end of my sixth grade year, he had taken up a guitar class. Of course I had found myself wanting to learn
how to play and repeatedly told myself each time after passing it, “I will
learn how to play.” Once again, a couple
years had passed and I had found myself becoming curious while home alone
cleaning. My first thought was, why not
go ahead and mess around on it since no one is home. Right there was it. It hit me all over again just like it did for
the first time when I was sitting down hearing my grandpa sing and play in his
office when I was younger.
Guitars have
that look about them. They just look so
cool and fun to play around with. I first
started to learn how to play the instrument upside down. I was left handed and my step dad’s was a
right handed which led me to start off playing that way. I would watch YouTube tutorials on how to
tune your guitar. Once I had got tuning
down, I would turn the guitar around and start playing right handed to see
which way I was more comfortable with. My
very first song ever learned how to play was “Your Body Is a Wonderland,” by
John Mayer. He’s one of my favorite musicians.
John’s music is so down to earth. From there,
I had learned a few more songs becoming more and more excited after the more I learned. I kept begging my parents to buy me my own
guitar since I outgrew my other. A couple
months of begging led to a brand new acoustic left handed guitar, just for
me. I don’t care how crazy that sounds
but guitars are such a beautiful instrument to me. They have this look to them that captures my
attention. From then on, I was on my way
to learning more songs. John Mayer,
Maroon 5, Cold Play, The Fray, One Republic and many more various bands and
musicians have been inspirational motivation.
The wonderful instrument not only entertained me, but my friends as
well. It was fun to play while we would
all sing and just jam out. We could be
silly and not care how dumb we looked because all that mattered was we were
having fun.
When I play, I find
myself not doing it just for fun, but for other reasons as well. I didn’t grow up in the greatest
household. I would constantly be
fighting with my step dad and towards the end of my junior year, I found myself
actually wanting to be at school instead of at my own house. Music took that pain away for me. Whenever I was stressed or upset I would just
pull out my pick and guitar and sing and play as loud as I could as if no one
were around. Living in Florida majority
of my life, we would have many sunny days so it was nice to go outback
sometimes and just enjoyed the fresh air along with my guitar.
To sum it up, my guitar is like my security blanket. When I had moved out here to live with my aunt and uncle, I unfortunately was not able to bring my guitar with me because of all the luggage I already had to bring along. I find myself missing playing whenever I’m bored or homesick. What did learning how to play the guitar teach me you may ask? It taught me to challenge myself and become patient. Learning how to play a right handed guitar while being left handed can be frustrating. It’s already frustrating enough learning with a guitar that’s specifically made for right handed people. I developed even more of a bond with my grandpa because of learning to play. I can’t wait to go back and visit Florida and just be goofy with him. Learning to play the guitar may not be the most educational experience someone can have, but it sure is memorable.
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