Acoustics

At the rate I'm going these past few days, I ought to start performing at Wala's on a pre-UnXpected/EIC evening:

Blind - Lifehouse
The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice
Far Away - Nickelback
Best I Ever Had - Vertical Horizon
Storm - Lifehouse

It's been slightly over a year since I first picked my classical guitar up and began self-instruction. The surreptitious nature of passing time becomes painfully obvious when I think of music: I remember bemoaning the difficulties of starting up- painful fingertips, impossible-to-reach finger contortions, and so on. I remember the adolescent excitement of being able to simultaneously strum a piece and have a vaguely recognizable go at singing.

It's all past now. Whaddya know? It really is true that practice makes perfect.

It's hard to imagine life without a guitar on my lap now. Holidays will never be boring with my Yamaha, and I continue my ignorance towards common complaints of being sian at home. I'm perfectly at ease with the thought of spending days on end holed up in my room learning new material. Maybe it's the narcissist in me, or the consummate musician-wannabe - I remain continually fascinated at my ability to do songs which I never thought I'd hit right, and I enjoy the fact that I actually sound good. And no, I didn't declare that - I'm merely repeating what I've been told. (Heh.)

I regret not having the guts to do this earlier. Huh? you say - but yeah, I never did have the courage to give it a shot. I've always loved music, and my capacity for varying tastes and genres is still rampant. I still pull regular searches for new material, and I'm still proud of the fact that three-quarters of my iTunes library belong to bands which most haven't heard of. Despite this, I've always been somewhat apprehensive about actually picking up the skills. In hindsight, I can't understand the inertia I experienced: I'd always been afraid of criticism, and I'd constantly beleaguer myself with excuses like I don't think I'll ever be as good as Chalk is.

And it's only now as I begin to really, really grow up and come to terms with life, that I realise that I don't ever need to concern myself with what others think. I don't ever need to live in anyone's shadow, because I cast my own (and if you've a weaker mind than mine, you'd probably be stuck in it). We joke and call it thick-skinned, when in fact it's simple confidence and assertiveness - being at peace with who you are, what you're capable of.

I honestly wonder why it's taken me so long to understand this. Interesting. Anyway, the guitar beckons, so - toodles!