I have learned a few new songs on the guitar this week. "Turpentine" by Brandi Carlile (my daughter's favorite song) and "Come on Get Higher" by Matt Nathanson being two of them. If it were up to my daughter I'd play "Turpentine" and "How Far We've Come" by Matchbox 20 all day long. She loves to sing and dance to those songs while I play. Also on the "playlist" this week are"Black Balloon" by Goo Goo Dolls (one of the first songs I learned to play years ago) and "Rivers of Babylon" by Sublime.
When you haven't played the guitar in a while it always kills your fingertips. That is until the callouses build up and provide some protection from the strings. In my pre-children days I used to play everyday for hours. In the past 3 years I have rarely picked up the guitar for more than a few minutes at a time. When my daughter was real young I used to play her a lullaby I wrote for her when I was pregnant with her. As she got older and our son got added to the mix, finding time became harder and harder to do.
Lately, both kids have been on a guitar kick, though. They want me to play all the time. My son will stand by my guitar case and cry until I get out the guitar and play. I am happy to oblige as it's a good excuse for me to get in some practice. Plus it keeps them happy and occupied for as long as they find me entertaining.
When I was in college and my early years of working I used to make up silly (okay, I admit sometimes dirty...very dirty) songs about drinking or sex or funny little songs about people I knew. Somehow playing those songs now would be very inappropriate. So, I now find myself making up songs, both silly and serious, about my children or my love for them. It is amazing the difference a few years and a couple of kids can make.
I love playing and I love the feeling after mastering a new song. I love even more that it is something I can share with my children.
2 comments:
I recently discovered Matt Nathanson through my son -- I like him.
I wanted to play the guitar when I was little but being left handed that presented a problem with my little plastic guitar so I never pursued it!
True secret - when I was little I used to sit at my aunt's upright piano and make up songs about Jesus in my head and make myself cry! I still have a hard time when I "do" go to church not crying when I sing the hymns. Hmmm-in need of a psychiatrist perhaps?
I love those songs. I saw Brandi Carlile in concert with the Indigo Girls. She was incredible. I'm impressed you can play. Did you take lessons?
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