“See? Same chord, different stories.”
We spend twenty minutes on dynamics alone. She picks things up fast, really fast. When I show her how to add a bass note between chord changes, she gets it on the second try. When I demonstrate how to mute strings with the palm of her picking hand for percussive effect, she’s doing it within minutes.
“You practice a lot,” I observe.
“Every day. Two hours yesterday. Three on Saturday.”
“It shows.”
She looks pleased but stays focused. “My regular teacher just gives me songs to memorize. Page twelve, page thirteen, page fourteen. But I already know I can memorize things. I want to understand them.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like . . .” She pauses, searching for words. “When I learn a song, I can play it exactly like the book shows. But I don’t knowwhy it works. Why those chords in that order make me feel something. Does that make sense?”
“Perfect sense.”
“Can you teach me something new? Not just fixing what I already know?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Something that sounds cool. Something that when people hear it, they stop and pay attention.”
I think for a moment. She’s beyond basic chords, that’s clear. But there’s a balance between challenging her and overwhelming her.
“Ever heard of harmonics?”
She shakes her head.
I position my finger over the twelfth fret on the low E string, barely touching it. The note rings out clear and bell-like, almost ethereal.
“Whoa.” She leans forward. “How?”
“Physics, basically. You’re dividing the string at specific points. But forget the science for now. Just barely touch the string, right over the fret. Don’t press down.”
She tries it on her guitar, gets a muted thunk.
“Lighter,” I tell her. “Pretend the string is hot and you can only touch it for a second.”
She adjusts her finger pressure, tries again. Still muted.
“Here.” I reach over and guide her hand, showing her the exact pressure needed. “Feel that? Almost nothing.”
She tries again. This time it sings.
“Yes!” She grins, the first real emotion she’s shown beyond focus. “That’s amazing! Where else can you do that?”
“Seventh fret. Fifth fret. Different spots give different notes.”
She experiments, finding them on different strings. There’s no hesitation in her exploration. She’s not afraid of making mistakes, just determined to figure it out. She finds theharmonic on the seventh fret, then the fifth, then starts combining them into patterns.
“This is way better than what I usually learn,” she says, still exploring.
“Different approach.”
“No, it’s more than that. You teach like it matters. Like music is important, not just something to check off a list.”
“Music is important.”
