I have had the pleasure of having
some very powerful and moving experiences involving music. Some experiences have
been in a big group setting like in a chorale concert, in a religious setting
like during adoration of the Eucharist or during a retreat, but one of the most
powerful moments that impacted my life was when I was at home and my brothers
best friend picked up my guitar and started playing music that he had learned
in his classical guitar class.
I grew up listening to music all
the time and singing, but in middle school I decided to take a more formal
approach to my interest in music and I enrolled in a mariachi guitar class. I
bought my guitar and I took it to class, and in class my teacher taught us
chords and strumming patterns because in mariachi music, especially beginner’s
mariachi, the guitar is simply serving the purpose of accompaniment to the
melody which is usually sung or played on the violin.
One day I was at home practicing on
the guitar, and my brother, along with his best friend Shawn, walked through
the door. This was nothing strange, Shawn lived right across the street and he would
occasionally come over, but this is the first time that he had seen my guitar.
I remember he got excited, picked up my guitar, and he said, “Cool, you have a
guitar? I learned to play a little
guitar in high school in a classical guitar class.” Then he sat down and began playing one of the
most beautiful things I had ever heard. He only played for a few minutes, as
much of the piece as he could remember, when he abruptly stopped and chuckled
saying, “I’m not very good, it’s been a while since I played.”
I wouldn’t be able to tell you the piece
he played or even hum the melody, but it left a lasting impact because it opened
my mind to so many new things. This short moment changed the beliefs I had
regarding music. I didn’t realize that my ordinary guitar (I assumed you needed
a special one) could play something as beautiful as that. The idea of the
guitar as something more than an accompanying instrument in ordinary life, not
on TV or in the movies, was revolutionary. I had only really seen performances with the guitar in
church, in mariachis, and in bands. In all of these settings people were
singing and the guitar was strumming. I also realized that all people could
learn to play many different styles of music. I had felt that certain styles of
music were out of reach, it seemed like you had to be a musical genius to play
the way I heard Shawn playing, but the fact that he had only taken one class in
high school and could already play something that sounded so beautiful to me,
demonstrated that I could also play something like that.
This experience also impacted the
contexts for music in my own life. I had associated music playing with church,
parties, concerts, and at home if you are practicing or working. Sitting with
someone informally and just listening to them play just for the heck of it was
something I wasn’t used to. I only sang at home to myself or with my mom while
we worked or before going to bed, but this experience felt different to me. It
felt more like an informal, private, performance.
With regards to repertories of
music I had come into contact with a whole new genre of music. There is the
possibility that I had heard people play classical guitar before, but this is
the first time I was really aware of it and became interested in it.
The material culture of this
experience was the guitar; this ordinary guitar that had been bought to play in
the mariachi and that had been converted into a gateway of learning new and
exciting things about music, people, and the world.
