Creativity--Guitar Lessons

Every Monday, I take guitar lessons in the ISK drum room with my teacher, Chris. I started taking guitar lessons a month into school. I always wanted to take guitar but never found a teacher before. I have taken three years of violin but was not very good and found the whole experience unappealing and unpleasant. I love rock music and guitar seemed like an excellent instrument. I got a guitar about a year ago, and tried teaching myself. I learned a few basic songs, my favorite of which was Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes. When I started taking lessons, I found it very hard to keep up. I was used to playing occasionally, at most two times a week. However, when I started to take lessons, I found it hard to keep up with the amount of practice needed, and did not improve as fast as I should have. I was making very slow progress until winter break. During winter break I spent a week in Nairobi, and seeing as how my teacher Chris was also free, I had a one-hour long lesson a day.By the end of the week, I was able to play House of the Rising Song by The Animals and could even improvise melodies while he was strumming generic chords as backup. I started off playing on an electric guitar, a cherry-red Fender Stratocaster.

 This was mainly because I wanted to be like the rock & roll legends I listened to on my iPod and did not actually think of a guitar as a practical instrument, more as a way to attract girls. However, I realized a few months into actually playing guitar, that maybe an electric guitar was not the best instrument to start off with. Using my Stratocaster was a real hassle  If i wanted to actually play music, I would have to carry around 20 feet of cable to plug into an amplifier. Speaking of which, if I wanted to play at all, I would have to find an amplifier. Add all of this to the fact that I had to lug around a 20-pound instrument, the whole electric-guitar legend idea would have to wait.
I decided it was time for change. After persuading my parents that I would not quit guitar like I did violin, I managed to buy an acoustic guitar, the Jasmine by Takamine S34C NEX acoustic guitar. After receiving my acoustic guitar, I was delighted. The acoustic guitar was what got me practicing often, almost everyday of the week. It was so light and portable, I could just pick up and strum anytime I wanted to.

February was when I started becoming fairly proficient as a guitar player. I decided to take the initiative to play some songs that I like. I managed to learn the riff of Layla by Eric Clapton, my favorite song of all time. It uses some very tricky techniques known as hammer-ons and pull-offs. However, my guitar playing completely changed when I started learning the tab of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin. First, an introduction to "tabs". Tabs are written pieces that tell guitarists how to play songs. They are much easier than learning notes because they tell the guitarist exactly where to put which finger on which string. They have a disadvantage where you cannot learn the melody of a song through listening to tabs, this is where notes are superior. I started learning notes 3 months ago, and still find them difficult. I must go over them a few times in my head, then match the note with the position on the string, and then can finally play. Anyway, Stairway to Heaven was a perfect song for me because it was very challenging, but still obtainable at my skill level, I practiced and practiced each day and now I can play the first few minutes nearly flawlessly.
Yesterday I received the news that in a month, around mid-may, I am actually going to play Stairway to Heaven in front of a cohort of kids and their parents as part of a recital that my teacher does with his students. I am very excited and scared at the same time. I am practicing nearly every day to hone my skills.
When I first started guitar, I thought it would be just another instrument I would fiddle around with (no pun intended), and then toss to the side. However, now that I mastered the very basics and am becoming fairly proficient, I find myself loving guitar, even bringing it on vacations just so I can play it some more. Guitar has honed my brain into a multi-tasking machine. I have to look at notes, comprehend them, and then translate them into two separate hand motions simultaneously  all of this at the exact same moment. Though it can be very tough some times, i have learned the benefits of perseverance and am now on my way to perform in front of others and to share my skills.