The Motif:Guitar Picks

    From the time I was born, I have always been surrounded by music. Whether it is my music, my mom's students (she teaches piano), or even elevator music, I have always enjoyed its shadow like presence, rarely leaving me alone. I have always been intrigued by it, and how ti can produce such great emotion, whether in the form of new genres or fallen idols. As a kid, I had tried piano, but with my mom as a teacher, I always found and excuse to not play. The one instrument that has always seemed to find a way into my mind is the guitar. It has always fascinated me. It is truly full of endless possibilities. The great part is how it is an instrument that will always be "hip" because it is so adaptable. First there was the classical guitar, then later on we were given the electric guitar, equipped with pickups and effects to produce the sounds of generations, all of which were easily alterable. Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin in the late 60's and early 70's, Brian May of Queen in the 1980's, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana in the 90's, Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters since the 90's, and many many more.

    Back in 6th grade I got my first electric guitar. It was a dirty yellow Fender Squier (essentially a cheaper Stratocaster) that my mom bought with a tiny Fender amp for $200 at a garage sale. Then a few years went by until I began formally taking lessons. I had been recommended a teacher at Bananas at Large, a music store in downtown San Rafael, by a friend of mine.When my mom went to go schedule a lesson, we learned that he was not currently accepting new students. But all clouds have a silver lining, and in this instance, these was more lining than cloud. On her way out she met Miles, my current teacher. Miles is the son of Neil Schon, the guitarist for Journey, but you would never know it because of how down-to-earth he is. Miles is insanely good, I should point out. And I'm not just saying that from the perspective of someone who has never touched a guitar and thinks even the simplest riff sounds fantastic. No. Even from the perspective of somebody like Carlos Santana, he is good.

    So from that day he taught me the ropes, from riffs to scales to any song that I wanted to learn. It was really the perfect learning experience. It's interesting however, when it comes to learning. See we have a deal set up were I get an hour long lesson for the price of a half hour lesson and in return, my mom teaches him piano for half an hour. But see there are a couple different types of musicians. Miles and I, we play by ear. It's cool really, we sound it out, rather than learn by the book, and in my opinion it is much more fun because you can just hop into any song and get the idea. My mom however, plays by the book. She is fluent in the language of music. But she relies on the book so much that she really doesn't memorize any songs. So you can imagine lessons between them went smoothly. It was like putting out fire with paper. It doesn't work unless you REALLY know what your doing.

    But they managed to have worked around it. Since then I have been picking up guitars whenever there is one available and playing around with what I know, just ask Ben.