This is the guitar my son learned to play on at primary school. We bought it in the local Barnardos charity shop for £10, and it came with a highly-unfashionable brown leather-effect case.
It’s not something I’ve ever managed to grasp – playing the guitar. I managed to remember 2 chords – C and F on the ukulele, but even that was quite taxing. I had to have a wee sticky label with the finger positions drawn on the side of the thing!
This is something that struck me back in 6th year when I took an O’Grade in secretarial studies (how old does that make me sound!). I needed 2 O’Grades different to my Highers to get into Art College. So in 6th year, I took secretarial studies and (hides head in shame) re-sat my O’Grade Arithmetic, which I’d failed in 4th year!
(I put that down to stage fright. It was the first exam I’d sat, and I don’t do well in exam-type situations. When things matter right now, in this moment, no second chances, I freeze! Numbers were never my forte anyway back then, and memories of panic-inducing mental arithmetic ‘games’ flooded the remains of my consiousness. I did however, meet my friend Lisa, who was a fellow 6th year resitting the arithmetic exam she’d failed in 4th year (and was also too embarrassed to resit in 5th year!). We decided that on the day of the exam, we would pretend we were the only 2 6th years sitting an advanced level of SYS maths, and had to sit right at the front of the hall, not a part of the 4th year throng…).
Anyway, back to secretarial studies. And typing. Some folk must have a really fast connection between their brain and their fingers, because I could never type fast enough, nor make my fingers play the violin fast enough, nor for that matter, can I read fast either. I have to think about everything – so I see the note written, think it in my head, send the thought down to my fingers, all as fast as I possibly can. But it seems that some folk have the ability to go from ‘see’ to ‘play’ without going via the slow-lane to the brain!
My brain can’t think fast enough for my fingers!
Back on track… Long outgrown, other guitars took the first guitar’s place, but this is a wee reminder of these times gone by.
It hangs in the bay window of the front room, the wooden tones complementing each other beautifully.
