Jamming

A had her first session with her band and I think it went well. At the very least A got a big charge out of playing with a group. It was a fun and rewarding experience for her, and I think it will inspire her to practice her guitar more and take it more seriously. I can push her to practice and play, but nothing motivates you more than the expectations of your peers. They seem to be fairly serious musicians, so she is in good company.

Another good aspect of this is that she was terrified going into it for two main reasons: she was going to face the scrutiny of her peers who also happened to be accomplished musicians, and she was not as prepared as she could have (or should have) been. I don't think expectations were high because she didn't receive the tabs until a day or two before, but she knew what songs they were practicing, and she had easy access to the chord sheets online. I was nudging her for the past few weeks to learn some of the songs, because we were familiar with all of them, but she let it slide. She learned one or two, but the band has a repertoire of at least 20 songs.

We headed over to the studio and I could tell she was nervous. I said it was a good lesson in taking some initiative and being motivated, and that she should remember to just have fun with it, and I believe she did. I dropped her off and went to do poster stuff, and returned just in time to watch them play some Ozzy. For whatever reason, Crazy Train is popular with this generation. They were jamming and looked really good. A seemed to be meshing, and afterward she was charged and told me she had a blast.

I'm glad, for a number of reasons, but mostly because she took on a challenge that was uncomfortable and went with it. It's always better to regret what you have one than what you haven't done, right? Just to make things fun, I think they said they are doing a show in about a week or so. How's that for getting thrown to the lions?

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to paolospiga for the pic.