The Sound of Music (cont.)
I still didn't have a guitar, but I was still praying that God would provide one. Then one night around 10:00 after I was already in bed and sleeping, me Dad came in and woke me up. He asked if I wanted to see something. I didn't have a clue what it might be. Maybe there was another alligator on our door step. (That did happen once.) Well, to make a long story short, that "something" was an acoustic guitar that a young lady from our church wanted to give me. I was so happy that there aren't words to describe it. I played the few chords my friend had taught me over and over. (Click Here For Picture)
The next day I could hardly put the guitar down in spite of the fact that me fingers got quite sore and I really didn't know what I was doing. I had no books, no one to teach me, and hardly knew anything about guitar. However, an excellent guitarist from our church said that he would give me free lessons. It started out as 30 minutes lessons, but when he saw how dilligently I praticed and how seriouse I was, he lengthened my lessons to one hour a week. I faithfully made sure to practice me guitar ten hours a week. I found a book at the library which taught me a lot of helpful things about playing guitar. (Click Here For Picture)
Somewhere along in here, me art teacher found out I had an interest in the Beatles and started bringing their music to class so I could listen to it. I loved it and though Mom and Dad wouldn't approve of it, I enjoyed it. It sparked me excitement about guitar even more. (Click Here For Picture)
Around me 16th birthday I began really feeling the need for an electric guitar. Finally I had enough money and bough a brand new black Sqier Stratocaster, amp, gig bag, cord, and a few other accessories.
A passion for guitar gripped me once I got me electric guitar. I went from practicing two hours a day, to practicing five, six, seven, or eight hours a day. All my free time that normally would have gone to writing, drawing, reading, or playing games, went into playing my guitar. In that first month that I got me electic, I practiced over 100 hours.
It was that same month that me sister and I got to record a short tape in our friend's home recording studio. The tape, ten minutes long, contained two songs we had written and one Beatles song. Then we had short songs for filler. We spent eleven hours in the recording studio to make the tape and were very pleased with it. We titled it "White Side Out" which is the names of one of the songs on it. (Click Here For Pictures)
We moved back to Colorado a few months later and Sarah and I were both very excited to find out other band members. However, our lives took an unexpected turn when our Dad became very ill and was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Although we were in no position to afford lessons, I continued to practice me guitar as much as ever.
By this time my parents had permitted me to have a couple of the Beatles albums which I would listen to and get the chords off the internet. I also began writing many songs. And seemed to be doing just fine teaching meself guitar actually.
Every Saturday night Sarah and I would go to Fire Escape, a thing for youth at our church. Every Saturday night they would have a different Christian rock band come and play. Then there would be an awesome time of upbeat praise and worship too. I loved everything about it. The cool people, the colorful lights, just everything! Then much to our surprise, Sarah and I were invited to play at Fire Escape. We would be opening for another band.
Then, less than a week before our performance, our Dad passed away. I was glad he wasn't in pain, but I missed him so much. I felt so empty. I just sat there and play "Blackbird" on my guitar over and over and it somehow made me feel better. He was gone. He was gone. I wrote so many songs about him in those few days. Did we still want to play at Fire Escape? Oh yes. Nothing could stop us from that.
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