Almost sorry I posted this. Was a bit depressed for a spell. Long posts probably my therapy.
Friend of a good friend came out on vacation to see the eclipse. Brought his 12 year old daughter.
We had a post eclipse jam with the locals and the girls dad said she wanted to come to jam too. Dad said she was learning electric and brought her gear and wasn’t bad for a 12 year old girl.
All I was thinking was there would be alcohol there and who knows what else and a 12 year old girl destroying the jam.
Came jam time and she was late. Her finger nail polish wasn’t dry yet. She showed up, said it was a special polish to keep her nails from breaking while playing. The little waif had butterfly hair clips, dayglo metallic pink to match her nails to match her shoes.
Her rig was the same dayglo pink ¾ size Jackson with a matching cord and matching Crate amp. The guitar had a Hannah Montana decal on it. She proceeded to ask the drummer if she could play where he was sitting. Please please. Anything for the little princess. Gave her the spot where she said she would get the best effects. Asked her in small talk who her guitar idols were. She said John someone and Linda someone. Never hear of them and asked her where they were from. Linda lived next door and John was in her English class and was 13 years old. (Good grief)
Asked her if she needed a pick but said she never learned to play with a pick yet. Asked her what effects she used and said none, just her guitar, amp and the room.
We started to tune up the instruments. Keyboard man gave us an E from the VB3 Hammond. The girl didn’t tune and was frowning. Said she couldn’t tune with the swirly sound and asked for a sine wave, specifically A 440. This was getting unbearable, but anything for Miss Barbie.
A 440 provided and she slowly tuned her A string. At least she had a good sense of pitch. Then a game changer was upon us. Ding,ding,ding, ding, ding. A flurry of harmonics almost like church bells. What just happened?
Shook off the momentary confusion. We decided to warm up with some blues. Young miss can’t break a fingernail said I could take the first lead as she very softly played some actually neat chords. I was impressed and any fear we had about her ruining the jam vanished.
It was her turn for the lead and started with a long feedback sustain note. Understood what she meant about having to be where she was in relation to the room and amp. Then all hell broke loose. Van Halen on steroids. Graceful crescendos and tapping harmonics. Incredible vibrato. She was shooting back and forth from jazz to metal. At one point I put my guitar down and took a seat, told her I just wanted to listen for awhile.
I know better than to compare skill levels, because there will always be someone better. Having fun is all that matters if you don’t have to make a living out of it.
Still, felt like crap. Got home and tortured myself with the E-Bow for 3 hours trying to get some semblance of her vibrato style. Ended up with blistered fingers and realized I could practice till the end of my days and not get to a tenth of where this kid is. Makes me wonder what John and Linda sound like.
I did noticed when she packed her guitar away, the back had another decal of Hannah Montana with the crossed circle over it and the word “NOT !!” under it.
Oh well, back to practice. Still having fun chasing mediocrity.
John