In seventh grade I realized what I wanted to do. I love music, so I decided to play an instrument. My favorite instrument is the guitar, so I set my mind on learning it.

For Christmas that year, I asked for a guitar. My mom and dad bought me a pink guitar. It came with a purple case and a purple guitar strap. I asked my mom for guitar lessons. She said she would pay for lessons, but she never found anyone to teach me.

This left me with one choice. I had to teach myself. It sounded challenging, I thought I needed help. In eighth grade, I walked to the Batesville Public Library in town. I looked around and found the music section of books. I found a book titled “How to play guitar”. That book looked old and like it was made in the 70’s, but I checked it out anyway.
I was walking home and looking through this old book I just checked out. It told the parts of the guitar, what strings have what note, and a ton of chords and simple beginner songs.Well, when I got home, I picked up my guitar and tried the G chord. The strings really hurt my fingers. It sounded stupid, so I figured I wasn’t pressing hard enough on the strings. I pressed harder. It hurt so bad that my fingers ached, but after a couple of days I could play almost two chords. I practiced up in my room forever. It took me two months to be able to make over a dozen chords and to switch from one to another easily. I went to my mom’s best friend’s house. Her name is Anita. She taught me the first song I learned. It’s called Last Kiss. Pearl Jam re-did that song in their own version of it. I told












her how I learned to play the chords. It’s the easiest song I know. It’s C chord, Am, F, and a G chord. At first, I couldn’t switch fast enough. But after practicing all day on and off, something finally clicked in my mind.

I learned how to play four different songs, in just one week. But something was missing, and it was the lyrics. I needed to learn the words and learn how to play and sing at the same time. First, I tried memorizing the words, then putting it with the music. This didn’t work. I couldn’t do that so easily. I wrote the lyrics down. And I would play the chords without looking. The whole time I read the words and sang along. This finally worked for me. It always took me and still takes me two days to memorize lyrics.

The thing that inspired me most and set my mind on learning how to play guitar was my favorite band, Led Zeppelin. I love how Jimmy Page makes it look so easy when he played “Whole Lotta Love” or “Immagrant Song”. I learned that if I want something bad enough, I will never ever give up.