Strumming on My Guitar

Last Thursday was my second guitar recital. I think I can confidently say that it went much, much better than my first...for so many reasons. First of all, this time we picked ONE song that we knew we were going to perform. Second, more people showed up. Thirdly, I was really confident about all the chords in the song we chose for this recital.

The first time around, I showed up for the recital and one other guy was there. It was terrible. It ended up being us and our teacher. Plus, we had decided we'd practice three songs and call for an audience choice, an ambitious and terrible idea. Instead of practicing one song and learning to play it well, we practiced three and learned to play them only okay. And the song we chose (R.E.M.'s "The One I Love") had a C chord in it, which at the time, was my suck chord.

This time around, our class chose the song "Wagon Wheel" to play, which is a great Old Crow Medicine Show song that I'd never heard before the class (see video below). We also got to show off our capo skills, as you capo the 2nd fret to hit a higher pitch. (Jazz or classical guitarists will look down on you for using a capo, arguing that you should just know how to play the notes to achieve that pitch. But, I'm a FOLK guitarist, people. So I don't need no stinkin' snobbery. : ) )

Anyway, I practiced like hell before the recital and then before the actual show, I sat in the audience practicing changing chords for the whole song over and over again. That meant that this time I didn't make nearly so many mistakes. I'm not going to lie; I missed one chord. Still, I recovered fast and picked up right away again. And not only did I recover fast, but I also played well after. I didn't let it screw me up, which is what counts.

Okay. So, here's the thing. I got really brave. I made A.P. take a video of the performance. And I really wanted to post it here, alas, it would not upload. So, instead, I'm including the one photo he took of me. If I can mess around again later, I will try to upload the video again. Grrr...technology!

(I'm the one in the oranger sweater...second from the left.)

******UPDATE******

Here's the video! I was finally able to upload it on youtube and then embed it here because of course I can't use the upload video feature on Blogger. Shocker. Anyway, please:

1. Don't judge A.P.'s cinematography skills. It's a miracle he took any pictures/shot any video at all seeing as how I am the family photographer/videographer.

2. Don't judge me. I'm a beginner!! This was only my 20th lesson. There are whole chords and techniques I know nothing about. And I'm aware of that.

3. If you must judge me, please do it the high school way: behind my internet back. In other words, don't leave hateful messages in the comments.

Enjoy!

(Photo by me!)