in which i pick up another hobbie because lord knows i needed something else to do with my butt-loads of free time

It all started with this:

This is the ‘string bowl’ that Luc made.  He walked around the yard strumming and singing to himself for several days.  He just charms the heck out of me.  I told Paul about it and said if his Magical Mystery Manifestation superpower could get on the ball, maybe he could turn up some kind of stringed instrument for Luc that would push Luc’s troubadour tendencies to the next level.

The next day Paul came home from a yard sale with this:

This is a clunky sort of kid’s lap harp, but Luc loved it, it was exactly the next thing, with real strings and a sound like some Chinese instrument, what are they called, a pipa I think.  He played this for a few days until I, of course, broke it, trying to tune the strings (with a chromatic tuner app I got for my ipod because apple insinuates itself into every single thing I do.).  Paul’s ability to manifest is trumped only by my ability to break what he manifests.  It’s a rule.

So I bought Luc this:

It’s a 1/2 size guitar that I got for $30 bucks that has real strings and sounds decent enough not to set my teeth on edge.  Sophie likes the pretty red back.  Perhaps it was this shiny red that got Sophie’s attention.  Or perhaps it was just the escalation, but now she started picking it up and fooling around with it.  See in the picture, how she is playing a C chord?

Well, I started picking it up and fooling around with it, too.  At first just to try to show them the few bits that I know, like which way is up or how the sound of a string gets higher when you press it down against the fret board, that sort of ultra basic stuff.  But then I needed to learn how to tune it, which took me to youtube, and before you can say Kaki King we were all crowded around the computer watching “how to play guitar for beginners” videos.  Turns out there are TONS of them!  Now we were learning a few chords and a few strum patterns, Sophie alternating between pretend rock-out strumming frenzy (complete with faux picking) and quiet focus and determination, trying to get her little fingers to make the chords, pleased as punch when she got it right.  Luc, never one to tackle something head on, gradually worked new tricks into his long, experimental, improvisational pieces. often played first thing in the morning, with the guitar flat on his lap so he can see the strings, and mostly when he thinks no one is paying attention.  He’s a private little guy.

Meanwhile, I got more and more into finally understanding how the heck a guitar works.  See, I’m a piano player.  You press a key, you get a note.  I’ve long admired finger style guitar, and love listening to it, but it has been a mystery to me how you get all that music out of six strings.  Now, with the help of youtube, I was starting to understand.  Maybe, whispered a little voice in my head as I crunched my long piano fingers in on the 1/2 size guitar frets, maybe I could learn that finger picking stuff after all.

But I’m a piano player!  I started playing piano the first time when I was about eight or nine, for heaven’s sake.  I can’t learn guitar!  It’s too hard, anyway.  I took piano lessons on and off into my twenties.  I played classical and blues, plus assorted this and that.  What I loved were pretty, emotional pieces, like Debussy, or more the contemporary George Winston or Phillip Glass.  I’ve often felt like the culmination of my piano playing life was a year in my early twenties when I played Clair De Lune every day, month after month.  It was like a meditation. But it’s all been musically downhill since then. I can’t start something new now.

Here is my piano:

It’s like a shrine.  The photo in the middle is one my cousin took, of my hands playing a baby grand my then-boyfriend had. I was maybe eighteen or nineteen, nearing the height of my piano powers.  The top is covered with pictures of my family.  I love my piano!  And I still play sometimes, my muscle memory allowing miracles to emerge from my fingers that I have no conscious ability to duplicate.  But it’s mostly a lost art to me.

But here I am, getting all into an entirely new instrument.  Because, honestly, after a few days, who was spending the most time on the little guitar?  Me.  I think my piano is feeling seriously cheated on.

Long story short: I went and bought myself a full sized guitar yesterday.

Isn’t it pretty???  I’m so excited!  It sounds like butter, just beautiful, rich and gorgeous.  You strum it and it rings for days.  It makes me wonder if, maybe, maybe, I could ever play those beautiful finger style songs, ever, you know, like in a million years?  The guy who sold it to me could play amazing stuff, and he said he’d been playing for fifteen years.  I thought, if I played for fifteen years, could I do what he can do?  That would be so cool. But then I thought, in fifteen years I’ll be almost 55.  Can a woman of, um, certain age play guitar?  Am I too old for this project?  Are there any old women guitarists?  (Oddly I can think of loads of old men guitarists, but few old biddies, what’s up with that?)  Not that such speculations stop me!  Maybe all the yoga will keep me young….

Tonight, Sophie and I learned two new chords, her on the little guitar, me on my new gorgeous guitar.  I’m telling you, we were rocking out!  Holy cow, the yurt was hopping, us with our three or four chords and one strum pattern, so pleased with our little selves, grinning like idiots about our tiny accomplishments.  Luc drew pictures off to the side, but I’m interested to hear what he plays tomorrow morning as we’re all waking up, because I know he was paying close attention to everything we were doing.  That’s his way.

So, here we have our new adventure for this summer.  To go with all the swimming, I mean.  We’ll learn us some guitar, that’s what we’ll do!  So far it’s great.

Except for the swollen, tender fingertips, that is.  Ouch.

And I’ll leave you with the mind blowing, previously mentioned, Kaki King.  She does this stuff, I think it’s called slapping, or maybe air tapping, I’ve heard both. She’s amazing, if you ask me. I showed this video to Luc and halfway through he literally ran to his guitar, in a frenzy to try it for himself. “Don’t you want to see the whole thing?” I called, but no answer, just music.

Take it away, Ms. King!