The 24 Hour Post

It has been less than 24 hours since Google Day 2.0, and I am POSTING.

Let's get down to it.

So today started with me having to bring Laurent on the bus. Which sucks, by the way. I hate that stupid case, it's impossible to carry without looking ridiculous and hitting it against walls and stuff.

Anyway, I went to band and started messing about with some chords to warm up. I tuned Laurent (he wasn't that badly out of tune, surprisingly. Assuming, that is, that I actually successfully tuned him and didn't just make it worse). Then, Mr. Matthys filmed me playing an A chord. And laughed at me, which I think is a good sign. Look on his page for the video of me. That is, if he didn't cut me out of it, which I wouldn't blame him for doing.

After he walked away to film more talented and interesting people, I showed Emma my prowess over "This Land Is Your Land". She wasn't too impressed, probably because it sounded horrible. I then googled the piece to make sure I was playing the right chords. That didn't work very well, so I settled for asking Mr. Matthys what I was doing wrong, which he was very excited to tell me. Kidding, but it was helpful. Turns out I was pressing the strings (incorrect terminology for the win) with the wrong part of my finger and it's supposed to be done closer to the pad of the finger than the nail. Yay other places to put through extreme and permanent pain!

Then I spent about 15 minutes or so guest starring in Blake, Tony, and Darden's music video. It was scary. Here's the link to their project page. It isn't as cool as mine. http://translationkorealand.blogspot.com/

At the end of the period I recovered from the emotional torture Blake the steamrolling director put me through and lent Megan my guitar to use in her project (loltaylorswift)

Good day, guys. Also, my great pal Rachel whom I dearly love (and who I gave one of my two purple guitar picks to) said she'd give me the chords to some easy real music that isn't awkwardly patriotic. So that's exciting.

Bye, all seven million (or 2, as of last count) of my viewers!

At This Point, I Can At Least Be Patriotic

So yesterday, with a lot of help (hi, mommy), I successfully got through "This Land Is Your Land" (the first song my mom learned when she played). It was a remarkable accomplishment considering my innate guitar skillage. As far as legit music goes, it isn't difficult because the song is only three different chords and, quite handily, they are all on the same page of my chord book (aka Google Bible). It's still insanely difficult to switch my hand position all flowy and so there isn't an awkwardly long pause between the words "from" and "California". I sang along with myself when I played it (no doubt off-key), which totally made me feel like Taylor Swift.

In other news, for some reason I am finding it impossible to tune Laurent. Don't ask me why, my brain is refusing to comprehend the difference between flat and sharp. It's frustrating. RAWR.

This guitar thing is really hard and I am one million percent certain my fingers will be in need of amputation before the semester is out.

Improvement is on the very very distant horizon.

Google Day One = Not Success

So, the first google day was yesterday.

Biggest news of the hour: I still can't play guitar.

What a shockerooni.

So, I lug Laurent to school yesterday. Which, by the way, was a total pain because guitars are HARD to carry. Especially if you don't want to look like a tool, which no doubt I did, dragging Laurent around.

Then in class I spend the period learning chords. I learned a lot. And then proceeded to forget them, but that's why I have a book. I also figured out how to play individual notes, which is a whole lot easier because you just have to hold down one string. Using this technique, I successfully played Mary Had a Little Lamb in D major and Hot Cross Buns, also in D major.

And then my fingers hurt for the rest of the day. Yay guitar.

Hopeful improvement is on the horizon. Stay TUNED, y'all.

lolbandjoke

Happy Birthday To Me!

It's my sixteenth birthday, and I decided to put my birthday good luck omens to the test and take a crack at guitar.

Yes, for the first time.

No, I haven't been procrastinating. I've been fearing my inevitable doom. Because there is (there are?) only so many times that I can try something and fail absolutely positively miserably.

And then be screwed.

So, long story short, I put this off forever because it's scary to learn new things! Freaking terrifying, man! But today I prayed to Apollo (god of music, y'all) and set a course for my destiny with purple guitar pick in hand.

And then ten minutes later I hoisted my white flag and admitted defeat. This instrument is HARD. I'm talking ROCK-LIKE. It's just...mindblowingly challenging with the chords and the notes and I don't even know how to count frets or what note each fret makes and it's just no fun.

I have surrendered to the terror of Laurent for now. I'll play again tomorrow, on the Google day. Or, you know, I'll fail band. Which is seeming more and more likely by the second.

Just kidding.
But seriously. I'm dying here. Waaaaaaaaaaaaah :( :( :(
Also, my fingers are owie.

It's Not Cheating, It's Taking the Easy Way Out

This guitar stuff keeps getting so much more exciting! Maybe I'll actually play it sometime! :)

But in all seriousness, I am so pumped right now.

In the latest news, I abandoned my idea to take Laurent to school to tune him when, last night, my mother was playing him and snapped a string (chord? Wire? What's the official term?). So, since it was her fault and all, she took it to the Guitar Doctor for me today while I was at school and got him all fixed up with a new string/chord/wire/whatever. The doctor also tuned him...so I don't have to. That's not really cheating, is it?

In addition, she also bought me not one, but TWO beautiful guitar picks so I can have pretty accessories to make me look more pro. Shoutout to Mommy for being AWESOME!! <3

Also, today at my voice lesson my teacher leant me her Beatles book AND a book on how to play chords! Yay!

I am SO READY TO START!!!
WAHOO!
LET'S
GET
EXCITED

OMG LOOK AT ALL MY NEW COOL STUFF

So That Plan Failed

Since I know everyone is DYING to hear more about my guitar-ing adventures, I'll bring Y'ALL up to date (all seven million people who read this blog, ha ha).

This morning, I asked Mr. Matthys if I could borrow a tuner. Despite my pleas and highly ineffective and probably very emotionally damaging begging, he was resistant. Since I have no inner tuning device to speak of, and am probably very tone deaf, I will have to rethink phase one.

Unfortunately for me, phase two will probably result in me bringing my guitar (let's call him Laurent- pronounced LAH - RAHHHHNT in a pretentious French accent) to school to use the tuner under Matthys's watchful and mistrusting supervision. One would think that if one trusted other one to be a DA (possibly the most dangerous and emotionally stimulating responsibility in band- involves stacking chairs and photocopying), one would trust one to borrow a tuner, but I guess not (I'm totally kidding Mr. Matthys please don't fail me)

So, I will plan on bringing LAH-RAHHHNT to school next A Day (Thursday?), to tune this bro. And then, well....the real fun begins!

All Instrumented Up and Nowhere to Go

So, in the latest of GREAT news, I have concluded to take the boring way out, and teach myself how to play the guitar. My voice teacher has a book of Beatles songs for guitar, so maybe for my final project I'll play one and sing along, if I don't die of crippling performance anxiety under the fear of singing in front of crowds of millions (or forty).
And, as if today couldn't POSSIBLY get better, I am now in possession of my cousin's borrowed guitar, having obtained under the threat of "if you break it I'll kill you or, like, whatever". So my next step is to obtain a practice book (library/Mr. Matthys's extensive music collection) after I have figured out how to tune the thing, as I'm fairly certain it has sat in the corner of Hannah's room for the last six months, casting an air of worldliness and feminine mystique.
Happy Sunday, everybody! :D

SO FULL OF EXCITEMENT!