Indulging your inner rock star

Got my first electric guitar this weekend. It's nothin' fancy (a Epiphone Les Paul-model Standard, if anyone cares), but I'm pretty excited about it and am killing scores of trees today as I print out tab for stuff I probably can't play but am sure gonna try for.

It's funny how playing an instrument -- even badly -- connects you to music you love to listen to. You start to listen a little differently, I've found. For example, driving home from downtown Tokyo with my prize yesterday I was listening to White Stripes' "Elephant," and this time I was really paying attention to the guitar stuff -- noticing how some songs that sound very complex are actually quite simple, maybe three chords with a fancy strum. Easy peasy. Can I ever hope to play them like Jack White? Um, no. But maybe I can rock out a little in my living room and just for a minute get inside the song (if I can ignore all my sour notes and flubbed chord changes), kind of make the song mine, temporarily.

It works for any instrument. My (terribly neglected) viola has helped me hear fiddle (and the rare actual viola) solos differently. Even if it's a lick way above my abilities, I can still kind of imagine what it would feel like to move my fingers that fast, to pull the bow across the string. Being able to imagine that makes me appreciate the artist's work that much more. Not just because it sounds cool, but because I have an inkling of just how much practice and work and creativity it must have taken to come up with it.

It works for anyone, I think, no formal training or instrument ownership required. You know full dang well you sing in the shower -- so next time you're listening to a kickin' CD, really listen to the vocals, think about how it would feel to sing them. But try not to get shampoo in your eye. And next time you are performing the rockin'est drum solo of all time on your steering wheel on the way to work, take a break to listen to the percussion in your favorite song. Try to keep up on the steering wheel. Try to outdo! Yes. But watch the road, jerkface.