There’s no way I got this. I had asked for a long time, and there it was, staring back at me. It was 2018, I was in 7th grade, and I had just got my very first guitar, a blue acoustic, just like how I asked that my aunt had gotten me. I felt like searching up a song right then and there and playing for my family at my uncle’s house, knowing I would fail horribly if that did happen. Let me remind you I didn’t know anything about guitar and how to play, and thank god I meant another guitar friend that year because she introduced me to a guitar class at our school.

I had looked into this guitar class and talked to the orchestra teacher Mr.Newbold, the person that would teach me the guitar. I told him that I even got my own guitar, so I didn’t need to pay the fee that would cover up if you damaged the guitar that was given to you. I told him my name and prayed that I would get this class in 8th grade, and I guess all that praying came in handy since I got in. On my first day, I learned all kinds of things, such as tuning your guitar, what each string is called, and simple chords like C with one finger.

 “I heard a Led Zeppelin song when I was younger, my dad always wanted to learn how to play, but he didn’t. So he wanted me to do it, so he got me one when I was six, and I didn’t really care for it. It was just too big and couldn’t really make anything work yet, and then once I got older, and I heard that song on the radio was like; I went and pulled it out of the closet, figured out how to tune it, and started learning,” said Dustin Newbold, Orchestra teacher at Northbrook. Even now, I’m still inspired by Newbold and hoping someday I will reach that point in life where music is so important to me that it’s my job.

Fast forward to today, and I’m still learning chords and trying to get into music theory finally after four years. Trying to get my cousin to learn how to play is one of my jobs right now too. I still play guitar with my teacher Newbold to this day, And of course, my friends and I also like to go to each other’s houses and jam if we can. We are currently looking for a bassist and drummer. As a guitarist, there’s going to be a point for most guitarists where you want to start a band or join a band because you realize that there are other people who share your interests in playing each other’s songs or making songs.

My friend Aiden, who I will soon jam with, says, “Playing guitar makes me feel like I can express the way I feel better than words can.” Which I can also agree on. Once I started playing and picking up the instrument, I was inspired by the song Lithium by Nirvana and wanted to be that person. Kurt Cobain was the reason I started playing. Playing guitar is as if you’re being possessed, not knowing what to practice, blanking out with just you, your guitar, and music. And to me, that’s the best part of playing guitar. You’re always learning, whether it’s songs, music theory, or from one another.