I grew up listening to rock songs, introduced by my parents, such as November Rain by Guns N' Roses and Should I Stay Or Should I Go by The Clash. Hence, since young, I've always been in awe of all the guitarists in the music videos who play impressive solos so effortlessly. But to play with such great skill would require years of committed practice and at a young age, I was lazy and did not want to learn how to play the guitar, which at that time to me had a steep learning curve.
It was only when in Primary 6, during music lesson, where I got introduced to and was taught on how to the guitar with simple chords such as C, D, G and A. I was also introduced to the bass guitar, but what really intrigued me more was the guitar. A while later, my group and I formed a small rock band and we played Yellow by Coldplay. Looking back, it sounded horrible, especially my playing, but it was definitely a great experience. The thrill on stage, playing the guitar to a large audience with my other friends jamming to the song was something that I definitely enjoy alot.
After my PSLE, during the long break, I asked my parents whether they were willing to buy me an acoustic guitar and sign me up for a guitar class. Thankfully, they were supportive of my decision to pick up an instrument and signed my up for a guitar class jsut a stone's throw away from my house. I learnt many new techniques, such as strumming, finger-picking, barre chords and the most exciting part, learning how to play songs that I enjoyed. I also had to learn some theory which I hated, but the idea of it being able to help me become a better guitar player motivated me to master it properly.
Unfortunately, after about a year, my guitar tutor stopped teaching, and I decided to stop my guitar lessons and attempted to self-learn online. As expected, it was significantly more challenging as I had no one to guide me through and with the overwhelming information on the Internet, I got lost. Luckily, I discovered a YouTube channel that I could understand concepts well called Ben Eller, also popularly known on the Internet as Uncle Ben. Through his channel, while I learnt much more advanced concepts and skills like playing solos, I realised that it was hard to play solos on an acoustic guitar as it is more for strumming.
As time went on, I started to gain exposure of more rock and metal songs through Uncle Ben's channel and started listening to them on a daily basis. I slowly realised that having an electric guitar was quintissential to playing metal and rock songs and that was when I decided to purchase an electric guitar at $150 only, with my hard-earned money from side hustles after O'Levels. As I had never played an electric guitar before, although both acousitc and electric guitars are ultimately guitars, there was a slight difference in terms of the feel of playing them and needed time to readjust to this unfamiliar style of playing. However, it did not take long until I enthusiastically started learning my first two rock songs: This Charming Man by The Smiths and All I Think About Now by The Pixies. Some of these songs are definitely not easy and I'm still learning some, such as the famous Sweet Child O' Mine by Guns N' Roses, but its the sense of satisfaction after practicing repeatedly for an hour just to get one part of the song correct which keeps me wanting to play the electric guitar.
