Like I’m trying to drive train rail studs into the ground with my fingertips. Holy Mother of !@#%^. This comes as a result of me taking two or three hours a day to play lately, driving myself forward! ( roar! ). That is until I look down at my fingertips, wholeheartedly expecting there to be blood weeping from them and quite amazed when all I see are some small indents where the strings have attacked my fingers. I think the five years of practice it will take me to learn the guitar will mainly be because my damn fingertips are so soft. I don’t think I was ever told that soft hands would be a consequence of having a computer job for a living. It’s also something my more manual-labor intensive friends enjoy making fun of.
Lately I’ve just been practicing my scales and chords, trying to drill them into my head until they feel like ( geek, I know ) a keyboard does to me. I know every key and I can type somewhat quickly ( 88 wpm last time I checked with a 95% accuracy rate ) – it’d be awesome if I could own the fretboard on the guitar like that. I’d so be an awesome guitarist. Like, Jimmy Page awesome. Yeah.
Ok, maybe not.
I have seen that it is something that takes constant practice however and it’s something I’m not used to. Not to toot my own hard but I’m a quick learner and usually take to new things quite well. Admittedly I’m a bit less dexterous that I wish but having to constantly practice at something, just in order to play the easiest of songs makes me appreciate these rock legends and all musicians even more.
On a completely unrelated note, I have to go to bed now because I have to present at the company All Hands tomorrow about Opsware. You can see the smile on my face, can’t you? You can?
That’s good, because I lied. I’m not smiling.
Ha.
Hey it’s great to hear that you’re practicing so much. One of the biggest hurdles for me was getting past the agonizing pain right beneath the fingernails. (yeah, manual labor was not really present in my life when I started playing) Give it time…the bloody grooves start to develop into these gnarly callouses that will handle the punishment so much better than your precious little keyboard-jockey fingers. Another option is weekly sandpaper treatments on end of your tips.
btw: jimmy page does rule..and slash, eric johnson, srv, eddie vh….the list is long
http://bit.ly/3MkaX0