pickin' and grinnin'

A couple posts ago I mentioned that we've been doing Holden Evening Prayer for our Wednesday night Lenten services. Well, I have something to add to that.

Tonight I played guitar at our services.

Now, I've been going to guitar lessons for a little while, but I have to admit I'm a bit of a slow learner, and my schedule hasn't always allowed me to make my weekly guitar lessons. So I'm probably not quite up to the level that I should be for having been in lessons as long as I have. But the woman who teaches my guitar lessons has been accompanying the services on her guitar, and after some conversation and practice, we both played tonight.

Now, my playing was not like her playing. She strummed some parts and she played arpeggios on others. While I, on the other hand, just strummed some chords, and not even all of them. I skipped some of them that I thought were too hard, or would take me too long to get my fingers to cooperate. But I played along as best I could.

But I was proud of myself because this was my first public display of my guitar playing. I've been hesitant because I'm not the most confident in my ability, and I like the safety of playing in my house. But I thought I'd step out of my comfort zone and play along at the services. And I'm glad I did.

Many people were very supportive and expressed that they liked seeing me playing up front and were glad that I was taking guitar lessons. Several made comments like, "You rock!" and "Good job, rock star!" In fact, one of our custodians actually made a sign that said "Rock Star" and held it up so I could see it after the service.

So, overall it was a great experience. It was a boost to my confidence as a guitar player, and encourages me to practice harder so that next week I can play it even better!!