In the past few weeks, I have been experiencing traditional college senior stress when it comes to life after college. While I have always been sure that music is what I have wanted to do, I'm wondering if I have the stamina to do it. Then I began thinking about a band I saw playing in the streets of Dublin, Ireland: Mutefish.
Mutefish is a band that is fairly popular, I guess you could say, but if you were to look them up you would see that many of their videos feature them playing on the street. I remembered noticing that they all were having such a great time and they weren't in a studio or recording their next big hit. They were playing music for the love of it. Therefore, helping me realize that even if I decide not to become the next Carrie Underwood, I can still enjoy music as I always have...like Mutefish.
I am performing tonight at the university's Egyptian Crisis Information Session and Vigil in Isaac's Auditorium at 7 p.m. I will be singing "Stand Up For Love" by Destiny's Child in honor of all those affected by this situation in the Middle East. Please stop by if you're around. I will be posting a video of the performance tomorrow so look for that!
My latest obstacle on the guitar? Fingerpicking. Personally, I think fingerpicking is the most beautiful method of playing the guitar. The greatest thing I have experienced in practicing fingerpicking happened monday night.
I was practicing the song, "Falling Slowly" by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, and all the sudden I was moving through the progression without watching my fingers. It sounds trivial but it was a big deal for me. Hopefully I will get better and be able to play this song fluently and comfortably enough to begin performing it. Here's the song I've been practicing to play:
Another triumph for me came on the next night where I finally had a breakthrough with a song I had been writing for a while.
I got the inspiration for the lyrics from my roommate who is a Creative Writing major. I had written the lyrics but could not come up with a guitar part that worked well with it. Sure enough, I found the guitar progression to fit it perfectly and have begun practicing that. So, I'm finally on my way with an original song and working on perfecting a guitar skill (fingerpicking). I'm really excited and hopefully soon I will be able to perform on and/or off campus and really get on my way!
