A New Adventure

I have to confess:  There hasn't been any knitting these past few day.

This happened instead

Isn't she beautiful!

Can I play guitar?

No.

No I most definitely can not.

But I'm hopeful.  Once upon a time I didn't know how to knit.  And look at me now!

"They" say it takes 10,000 hours to master a new skill.  And we all know "they" are always right.

I'm willing to do the work and learn.   10,000 hours?  It might take me two decades, but I got this.  I can do this.  I even cut my nails ridiculously short for this.  You know I'm serious when I deliberately cut my nails crazy short.  I've spent a life time trying to grow them long.  But if I want to be a Guitar Goddess sacrifices must be made.

I've practiced so much over the last few days that my poor fingers are literally blistered and bleeding.  My pampered fingers are accustomed to dealing with smooshy soft merino wool.  And silky smooth wool blends.  And even cotton or linen is softer than a steel guitar sting.  They are used to being treated gently, so as not to cause a callous or break a nail.  I even wear gloves to clean.  They are not used to this sort of abuse.

I am not exaggerating when I say I had to stop practicing today because my finger was bleeding on the low E string.

I am so metal.

I showed the Queen my bleeding finger and explained to her how metal and hardcore this makes me.

She was unimpressed.

I guess everyone's a critic.

And just to make it extra fun

The Greatest is learning to play too.

I'm trying hard not to hate him because he is already better than me.

We have very different approaches to learning.  He watched a video and has been very focused on practicing his finger exercises.  He is very precise in what he does.

I stumble my way through the finger exercises (badly), then I try my hand at a few cords (badly), then I practice individual notes from a guitar book (badly), then I go back to my finger exercises (The Greatest has been focused on his finger exercises this entire time).  I flit around doing stuff that feels fun while trying to keep good form as I go.

And this is the perfect description of us.  He is so precise and meticulous in all he does.  And I just kinda throw myself in and roll around with it.

My fingers are blistered and bleeding.

His aren't.

I'm making no judgement calls on who is doing it right and or who better in their approach (although he's already better than me, so maybe I do know which approach is better and what I SHOULD be doing).

But I'm definitely more metal than he is.

And that's all that matters.

I'm about five hours in.

Only 9,995 to go.