My fingers are sore and his are backwards
There’s something about watching other people play a musical instrument; they make the process seem much easier than it IS. Lately, I’ve been doing my exercises (in futility) on a standard acoustic guitar. The usual: chord sheets, and finger movements and a whole lot of wincing from virgin calluses.
This evening, I decided to explore the path of web based learning. After all, the stuff is available 24/7 and although holding a guitar and typing and mousing all at the same time requires a new level of dexterity, I’m willing to give it a try. What I’ve learned after twenty minutes is that my brain isn’t (yet) wired for watching someone else. Not exactly a mirrored image, but what HIS hand is doing isn’t the same as what MY hand thinks I want it to do.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve already added some simple chords to my repertoire. It’s just that I haven’t a clue about how to copy the instructor’s efforts. His hands are going in the opposite direction to mine, and they’re doing it very quickly. Obviously this isn’t the way I like to learn.
Across the table, my spouse is dusting off the WOW CD. For those of us who don’t game, the whole WOW experience seems like a bad day in the subway. People with swords slashing to and fro. Monsters coming out of nowhere and ruining your karma. Coloured indicators that leave me bewildered.
Between backward chords on the guitar and worlds filled with characters straight out of a KISS video, I’m missing something.
