The Sound of Music

This weekend has marked my daughter Sophia’s 7th birthday. She had her birthday party / treat at a hellhole magnet for undiagnosed ADHD children called Monster Mania which, for once, I managed to duck out of by looking after the two older boys. This appeared to have passed off quite uneventfully although what the other parents make of their sugar and artificial additive stuffed children for the rest of the day is anyone’s guess. Sophia spent the afternoon spending various gift vouchers at the local toyshop and came home with what every 7 year old girl really wants: a remote controlled car, a DS game, something slimy and disgusting looking and a toy drum kit.

The last thing came as a bit of a shock to me as we had already chosen a musical present for her. I suppose it is possible that she has a real talent for playing the drums and we could have the next Joe Morello on our hands but having heard her Death Metal ukulele playing I suspect she is more likely to be a budding Lars Ulrich (not that I have anything against Lars Ulrich – he is a fine drummer. It’s just I wouldn’t want to have his practice studio in my home). As it was, she had wanted a proper guitar for a while and that is what we had bought her for her main present.

The intention with the guitar was that I could teach her to play some basic chords and then we could take it from there. This is easier said than done as I don’t think I’m the best teacher in the world. I printed off a few chord tabs and looked for some easy to play songs. The problem with this is finding something that is both easy to play and actually worth listening to. When I started out playing guitar the first things I tried playing were simple folk and pop songs. Early achievements were things like Wild Thing, House of the Rising Sun, various Beatles things and the odd contemporary punk and new wave songs (Teenage Kicks and I Love Rock and Roll were mastered early on).

All of this requires a few rudimentary chords but it is easy to forget how much effort it takes just to hold the things down at first. I tried coaxing Sophia’s fingers in position and eventually she was able to get a reasonably harmonious sound out. Of course, at this stage changing chords takes quite a few seconds but this slowly builds up finger strength and finger memory. Unfortunately, she ended up putting her fingers in completely the wrong places – it was at this point I realised that standard finger tabs are not that easy to follow for a left handed player. There are examples of left handed chords available on the internet so I printed these off. It does seem to help.

We ended lesson one after about an hour. At the moment she seems very keen so I’m hoping that she keeps up the practice. I think the breakthrough with these things starts when it is possible to play whole tunes, no matter how simple. In fact she wanted to know how to play Whole Lotta Love which does sound a bit odd on a nylon strung guitar. At least she wasn’t trying to play Slayer’s Angel of Death or whatever it is that she attacks the ukulele with.