newbie

My female owner realised how serious her guitar teacher is holding regular guitar lessons when he called her up two days before he went off for an extended holiday, requesting that in his absence, she conducts a Saturday class for the other regular student and another person who has expressed interest in learning.

The extent he goes to make sure that people meet regularly to hone their guitar skills amazes my female owner (which inadvertently signals to her that she also better pull up her socks and be more serious about her guitar learning whim and fancies. In the first place, she didn’t even know there was going to be regular lessons).

So, under instructions from guitar 师父, my female owner dutifully met with the newbie (oldie had to attend a wedding) today and helped him make baby steps in guitar playing. Should have been a fruitful time for him coz at the end of class, he decided that he really wanted to get a guitar to practice the new stuff he had learnt (and even made a bid on ebay).

My female owner shares that same philosophy as her guitar 师父: as long as the person is willing to learn, she is willing to facilitate learning. And the lazy bones in her add, she derives the most satisfaction when the people she teaches supersede her in terms of skills and knowledge (that’s just an excuse for her not to improve!). She has seen it happen a few times already.

With regards to her own learning progress, she figures that she better practice more, so that she won't "let her teacher down". Such an Asian mentality!

brook

My female owner had another guitar lesson today. At this present moment, her skills level is elementary. She can play songs as long as she has the chords and knows the fingering for them. Her strumming repertoire is limited but still “passable”. She can pick up different strumming styles when taught.

Things she still can't do: She can’t play properly with a guitar pick. She can't play with much feelings coz she gets all self-conscious when people look at her play. She can’t work out individualised strumming patterns for songs.

She appreciates the soothing, gentle but firm playing style of her guitar teacher. If her playing is like a volcano erupting (no thanks to her noisy and irregular strumming), his is like the gentle trickling of water in a brook.

At this time, she has no overt goals she is working towards but she reckons that she will work on her rhythm (she always had problems with timing, even with flute), her repertoire of strumming patterns and chords knowledge and maybe, if she is really into it, get a guitar of her own.

guitar

I said that I would write about my female owner’s guitar practicing efforts.

She was scheduled to play again today. Actually the worship coordinator had scheduled her to play ALONE after the first time but she threw up a mini-fit (I’m exaggerating here) about it. So he ended up having to play with her again. Poor guy coz he ended up being on duty three weeks in a row.

My female owner first learnt to play the guitar when she was about 13 or 14 years old. Someone from her first church put together a basic guitar course booklet and many gals from her group joined the class. The main thing my female owner struggled with was figuring out the chords to play in a song and help came in the form of a compilation of songs in a chords book. Hence, her repertoire of songs was restricted to the contents of that chords book and ad-hoc chord sheets that people passed around.

For many reasons, my female owner stopped playing the guitar after a few years.

Fast forward to today. By “no choice” (that’s another story in itself), she picked up the guitar again. Rusty and laden with a sense of responsibility (that since she agreed to help out with being a musician, she better pull up her socks), she agreed to meet the worship coordinator on a Saturday in preparation for her first slot. She never expected that session to morph into a weekly guitar class with other students.

She was amazed at how things, in terms of learning things, have changed over 10 years. The internet now holds the keys to self-improvement. Chords for songs and chord charts are now freely available online. There are even instructional videos teaching you how to play specific songs, in accordance to the original sound tracks. In terms of individualised coaching, the coordinator started at her current skills level and erm…. must have lowered his standards considerably as he modified the strumming patterns and chords while balancing the technical aspects to maintain a decent standard. His patience and example helped my female owner to develop a wider repertoire of techniques and to sandpaper off the rust that had accumulated.

My female owner was encouraged (actually, she was more relieved and shocked) today when he suddenly turned to her to say that she had improved greatly since the last time they played. Well, there’s certainly more room for improvement (which at this point I must say that I am glad she is not in Singapore coz we turtles have suffered a good 3.5 years when she was trying to master the flute!) and the real acid test would be when she plays alone in future. She is NOT looking forward to it.

practice

My female owner says she had an awesome worship practice last night.

Okies, this is the background. A while ago, she agreed to help out with playing music in her bible study group. They decided to start her off on guitar first, even though they needed keyboardists, because she was more familiar with guitar. However, because she played the instrument sporadically over the past ten years and was/ is in need of more consistent practice, the decision was made for her to play alongside a seasoned guitarist first. So that’s what they did last night. Two worship leaders, two guitarists and one extra guitarist (who happened to be in the house).

And you know my female owner. She enjoys playing music with people. Just adds to the synergy, she says.

For example, there was a slow song where the lead guitarist starting plucking the strings. On hearing that, my female owner switched from strumming to just using her pick to go down the strings gently. This resulted in a quiet and soothing mood. The two of them became so caught up with the music that they totally missed the worship leader’s hand signals to increase volume and finally, out of exasperation, she had to verbalise her instructions “go louder and strum!” Always fun to play differently but complementary (just like her flute and piano pieces).

And of course, working in a team with like-minded people who are forgiving and tolerant of her inadequacies was uplifting and inspiring. Correction was done in the spirit of love and pain (on the part of the guitarists mainly!) was endured willingly for the greater objective. In spite of time pressure, the session was marked with laughter, joy and energy. Even though my female owner had rehearsed for worship with other people in her younger days (think: more than 10 years ago), this was an eye-opening experience. She saw that her friends were not doing things as a matter of routine or mere practice. They were striving for excellence in the way they conceptualised the worship session, great attention to details and persistence in working out the stuck points, with the sole aim of leading the rest of the group into an intimate time of worship on Friday.

It was a refreshing change for my female owner as well.

Having been casted in a helping role where people look to her for help/ direction and being on her own (i.e. independent) for so many years (yah, she felt that she couldn’t depend on her ex-boyfriend to fulfil his promises), my female owner was thankful that she could “sit back and relax” while the lead guitarist figured out the technicalities of the songs and modified the level of difficulty to suit her proficiency (the Chinese sometimes call this “eat snake” but she begs to differ, she is just allowing someone better to take the lead). She didn’t have to find a solution to any issues and left the “hard bits” for him to play. Even something as simple as tuning the guitar, my female owner felt so relieved that she could just hand it over to someone to do it for her. Ah, basking in the shadow of someone else’s talents.