THE YEAR OF 35: TENDER FINGERTIPS

I pulled my guitar out of the closet yesterday. I can't remember the last time I played. My guitar dreams started all the way back in college, when I was inspired by a friend down the hall. I borrowed my mom's guitar and brought it to school. Didn't do much with it. That pattern has continued ever since - I'll play for a week or two before deciding I don't know what I'm doing and putting it away for six months or a year or what have you. The one good part is that I'm now proficient enough that I know a bunch of chords and can play a little every time I pull it out.

I played for about a half hour yesterday, getting used to some chord changes. I printed off the chords for a couple Old 97s tunes and messed around with those, as well as coming up with a little four chord pattern that may turn into something.

Last night I went to a local open mic with Graham, so I could hear him play and soak up some music. It was fun - you get some good and some bad. Two guys from Call It Arson (I'd never heard of them) were there on an off-night from their tour and they sounded amazing with two acoustic guitars and harmonies and a pair of interesting songs. Graham did a Bush cover and his own "Puppet on a String," which I really like. Anyway, the most important part of the evening was that Graham loaned me a bass guitar and a giant amp. Yup, I'm now attempting to learn the bass.

I spent a good 45 minutes or so this afternoon with the bass, trying to get used to how it plays and then putting some songs on the stereo and trying to play along. It didn't work too well but I didn't expect it to. I feel like I did learn something about how to play it, though, and that was exciting. Plus, I picked up the guitar after that and felt a bit more at ease with it. I even made more of an attempt to sing along to those Old 97s tunes.

I had great fun doing all of it and I can't wait to get back at it tomorrow...