My Fingers Hurt

Many many years ago, after my brother and I completed few years of basic musical studies, it was time for us to choose a musical instrument to learn. I chose the accordion, my main reason being to uncover the secrets of the bass-side keys. Strange as it may seem, being driven by curiosity and being indifferent to subjective aesthetic preferences is still who I am, mostly. My brother, on the other hand, chose the guitar. We experimented switching a few times but we never really cared to teach each other the intricacies of each one's musical instrument.

Funny thing is, the reason this blog was started is my brother letting me have a go at his guitar recently and jokingly daring me to outperform him in a musical duel. Even if that session was short, it was then that I had the idea of using something I had no real knowledge of as a "mental stimulant". Add regularity to that and you get this blog. It's ironic how my brother has been consistently denying to help me have a guitar lesson as a novelty for this blog.

That is, until today. He finally agreed to give me a 1-hour lesson in playing guitar and I jumped at the opportunity. So, here I am, after completing it, my left hand index finger numb and hurting with each keystroke it is used on.

First thing he did was tell me which fingers are used and how. He made me do a little exercise for a while to get used to the idea:

Next, I did a fairly similar exercise, only for the left hand:

Soon, after that, I began playing the first song I was to learn, Sur le pont d' Avignon . It took quite a bit of time but after a while I was able to play it well enough:

After that, my brother didn't seem to be certain on what we should be doing next. He tried to teach me a technique to play a note with just the left hand. After I failed again and again he decided that it was too early for that. Then, he made me do an exercise to stretch the fingers, which was somewhat painful. After I failed to make any real progress with that, he grabbed the guitar and played a song of his own. After that, he took out one of his old books and he started teaching me to play a second song, Der Weihnachtsmann. Unfortunately, the time was up long before I could play it well.

I enjoyed playing the guitar, it's a neat instrument, if a bit painful at times. I guess you get used to it. I also began to understand how the exercises and the songs made me better in playing the instrument in general, not only the specific exercise. It's one thing knowing that in theory and a completely different thing experiencing it in action. It's very difficult to notice it in higher levels of practising something. So, the fact that I was new to this helped in identifying the procedure.

The Disc Jockey of Doom!

Many years ago, when my brother and I were little, our mother used to sing us to sleep. I think these lullabies were a really interesting experience and I am thankful to her for that. Later, she started to sing less and put cassettes for us to listen to more and more; cue the necessary evils of technology and all that.

Anyway, today I decided to put my media player on random and listen to songs without ever skipping them. To my surprise, it turned out pretty well. I used last.fm to keep track of what I listened to and also searched for the lyrics for some of them. I put on my headphones, sat on my comfortable chair, then changed its direction to look towards the balcony and to allow the wind to gently caress me. The view wasn't exactly breathtaking but at least I didn't have to move the computer elsewhere. It didn't matter, after all, I kept my eyes closed most of the time, anyway. After waiting approximately one minute for all the files to be loaded, the songs started to play:

• Dust and Echoes (God Is an Astronaut)
  This is a post-rock band I discovered fairly recently. They're nice. They also forced me to re-evaluate my opinion on how songs should be listened to. I used to think that if you ever do anything else while listening to a song, you're missing something. That holds true for many songs, especially ones that have lyrics, but doesn't mean this is the only legitimate way to experience songs. On the contrary, sometimes it's better to miss that aspect and add your own activity to the experience. For songs like this one, this makes for a very different and important experience, which may even be better than just listening to it without doing anything else.
• Wishing Well (Black Sabbath)
  Once in a while, you get a song you like. But then it's ruined by just one miserable stereotypical, clichéd lyric:

  Love isn't money, it's not something you buy

  While it's not very bad, it still ruined my perception of the song. Couldn't they have done something a tad more subtle? I realise this was in 1980 but still.
• Μαργαρίτα Μαγιοπούλα (Μίκης Θεοδωράκης)
  This is a song from one of the classical modern-era Greek composers. It's a very earthly song, which he wrote for his daughter. I really like it mostly because I hate most of modern-era Greek music and this stands as an exception.
• Battle of Sudden Flame (Blind Guardian)
• Οι Παλιές Αγάπες Πάνε στον Παράδεισο (Πυξ Λαξ)
  This is from a really famous Greek band. I personally think they are vastly over-hyped. I often get the impression their lyrics don't make any sense at all. Still, this is one of their better songs...
• Eva's Reminiscence (Norihiko Hibino)
  I have many songs in my library; perhaps they are too many. I haven't listened to all of them by any stretch of the imagination. This is why, once in a while, I come across little hidden gems, like this one, which I haven't listened to before. It's instrumental and minimalistic and ambient. What more can you want?
• Theatre of Pain (Blind Guardian)
• Kandatsu (Michiru Oshima)
  Soundtracks, particularly ones coming from animé, are a large part of my musical diet. I hold a special place in my heart for the Full Metal Alchemist one.
• Surrounded by Flames (Koji Kondo)
  Speaking of soundtracks, I have found that sometimes they happen to feel good in-context, but when you listen to them on their own, they're almost unbearable. This is one such song.
• Ming's Theme (In the Court of Ming the Merciless) (Queen)
  Sometimes bands experiment. Sometimes, when this happens, the results can be like this:
  

  Pathetic earthlings, hurling your bodies out into the void. Let us see.

• Premonition of a Snow Storm (Toshio Masuda)
• Puropera Jitensha (Joe Hisaishi)
• Fingers (Yoko Kanno)
  This one was lovely. It's a pity I can't find the words to express what I felt. Or maybe it's an elaborate way to turn this into an open invitation for everyone to try this one.
• Puppetmaster (Yoko Kanno)
• Jikai Yokoku (Misato) (Shiro Sagisu)
• The Glow (Mark Morgan)
  I have a big confession to make: I haven't played the Fallout games yet. It's on my long list of things to do in my life. My brother seemed to love them and since our tastes in videogames are similar, I probably will, as well. I guess the soundtrack should suffice for the time being.
• Back to Madness (Stratovarius)
  I liked this one's lyrics. They ask questions we all come to ask ourselves. Questions we reply "yes" to too often.
  

  Have you ever been hurt?
  Have you ever been abandoned?
  Have you ever been truly scared?
  Have you ever felt you don't belong here?
  Have you ever felt you don't have a home?
  Have you ever felt you don't have a chance?

  
  I don't really agree with the definition of freedom the lyrics seem to imply but I do think they do a good job of showing how close to madness every person is.

That's it for today. Now I wonder if the tracks were representative of my musical taste or not. I guess they were... kinda.

PS: The "lullaby" picture was taken from davidcarmacklewis.com.