Up the scale

The moment he walked into my matchbox house, it hit me. "Please will you open this container of home stewed peaches. It's really tight!" single girl problems- we see men for one thing only; opening tightly closed things and lifting heavy objects if there's nothing broken to fix in the house. But that is a blog for another day.

While I made myself lunch before we headed out, he mused over my 3 guitars, "Do you play these?" he asked. "No, they're just decorations", I roll my eyes in response. Why do they always ask such silly questions, I wonder. He picked up my red steel string, sat down and began to pick. "Oh yeah, you used to play base!" I said. "Yup", he responded as he picked the A major scale.  SCALES!! I NEED TO LEARN SCALES!!! I told him that he had to teach me how to play that because I needed to grow musically.

"Each finger stays in a specific fret", he said. The penny finally dropped. I have been yearningly watching people play scales for years and not being able to do it myself and he finally taught me!

I have a new fire in me now. I've been practising for 10 minutes every day -30 minutes is too long ok! - Of course my fingers look like awkward claws on the fret, but practise makes permanance and already I can see some improvement. I'm trying my hand on Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares For Me and it's actually quite doable! Yay, me!

I'm so glad I'm out of my rut! I was starting to worry that I'd lost my love for the 6 string...

Play That Funky Music

Today, I decided instead of staying at home, I should pay my brother a visit at the Vaal.

After waiting - I hate waiting!- in my car outside his house for almost an hour, he finally arrived. We took a drive in his car to get some food and the prettiest song came on. We had arrived back at his place at this point, but because he knows me so well and gets me - as few people do- he switched the car off and in the quiet darkness of his car, we sat and listened until it was finished.

It was quite fitting because when I was driving to the Vaal a thought occurred to me that one should always have the kind of playlist in their car that makes you want to drive around the block just one more time so you can finish that awesome song. Of course, you will have heard it a thousand times before, but one more time won't dilute what draws you to it.

My brother and I never grew up together and so we keep discovering new things we have in common all the time. Tonight our shared love for music was re-instated.