like a song...

Inspiration is a funny thing.

I've been feeling a little dry since I got back from TO. Like I have used up my reserve of creative thought, lost my muse, or whatever else it is that sparks an artist to create. I haven't felt this way in a while. It has been a little disconcerting.

Then I was invited to an open mic night.

Now, I've never really done an open mic night before (unless you count the classic campfire confessional), but for whatever reason I got really excited about this. So I pulled out my guitar for the first time in months and started to play. I figure I can contribute either a song, some slam poetry or a stand-up routine, and of those three I think a song will be the least embarrassing.

It was quickly apparent that I only know about 5 chords. And that writing music is really hard. And that you lose the callouses on your fingers when you don't play for a while (seriously, the tips of my fingers feel like they've been attacked by extraordinarily vicious rodents). But I had a blast. I've always liked the guitar, and I've always wondered what could have been had I, at age 13, chosen the guitar instead of drums.

Guitars are, by and large, way cooler than drums. Guitar players definitely get more attention (or more accurately, attention from girls) than drummers, so one would think that any thirteen year-old boy would naturally choose guitar. I was rather introverted as a kid though, and I think the drums appealed to me because I could hide in the back of the stage*.

But for now the drums are over at my brother's house while I am here, attempting to incorporate a Cmaj7 into my song somewhere. It would be a shame to waste 20% of my guitar knowledge.

8.5.08. Cropped to 3X5

*I vaguely remember this being the same reason that Jughead was the drummer of The Archies, and sure enough, it was confirmed by Wikipedia. Yay for crowd-sourcing.