palatable plucking

Guitar learning has been getting more fun of late. There was that initial period of excitement and anticipation of learning new stuff. Then came the period where it wasn't so shiok anymore because fingers were getting painful, there were more things to catch up whenever classes are missed, and discipline was required in order to stay on top of par with the rest of the class.

Now I'm slowly beginning to see the fruits of my classes. We're entering the 2nd semester and things are gradually picking up. Learning more chords and various strums. It's such joy just getting them right and listening to nice music coming out from the guitar.

I must confess I am nowhere near performance level, I always play better when I'm practicing alone. I get a little nervous in class, especially with that grrl who's supposed to be in the intermediate class. She seems to already know whatever the teacher's teaching. I secretly think she's there to give the rest of us unnecessary pressure. Maybe my teacher paid her to sit in and show off her skills, so the rest of us have no choice but to buck up. In a way we're actually better than the other beginner's class.

2 weeks ago, we started plucking. I find it quite tough controlling the fingers to pluck at the right string. At this point of time, the challenge is to get the left fingers to get the right chords, and the right fingers to pluck the right string for the various inversions, and at the same time concentrating on the score sheet in front of me.

Our first plucking piece was "As The Deer". We started with strums, slow ones, and it was ok. But once I picked up plucking, it became apparent that plucking was reallllly nice! Just perfect for this sorta song.

Just hearing the raw tones vibrate through the instrument is good enough to motivate me to better myself. It's still a long way more before I can even play smoothly. But as they say, practice makes perfect. It's still painful, still frustrating at times, but I think more palatable music's on the way :D