Heather Zimmie

Dr. Rand
UWRT 1103
September 23, 2014
Literacy in Music

Guitar Hero was my favorite video game as a kid. I loved watching the different colors of
notes flash across the screen in tune with the song while I hit them on my plastic guitar-shaped
controller. It was so simple to me but so much fun. I would play for entire days only taking
breaks to eat or go to the bathroom. I memorized all of the songs and knew how to play them
without even looking at the screen eventually. Being good at Guitar Hero made me confident that
I could play the real guitar so I started looking into getting my own.
I had always wanted to buy something off of an infomercial. What kind of kid does not
desire to have everything they see on TV? Unfortunately I did not have access to a card to pay
for the item with. Around my twelfth birthday my mom decided to open up a debit card for me. I
got on the computer and started looking for guitars. I was overjoyed to see that I was able to
afford one. I figured that if I bought one there was no way they could make me return it because
it would cost a fortune to send back through the mail. A few weeks later a giant box was dropped
off at the house. My parents came knocking on my door, Heather! What did you order? I
cautiously opened my door and in a tiny, fearful voice said, nothing. As soon as I saw the box I
ran for it and opened it up, my guitar was perfect. They were furious because I had spent all of
my money on it and I did not even know anything about guitars in the first place. Luckily the one
I bought was pretty nice and my parents let me keep it because they wanted to show me that

whether or not I actually played the guitar I had chosen to buy it and I was stuck with that
decision. After seeing how excited I was about my new toy and listening to the awful sounds I
was making with it my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to actually learn how to
play.
I decided that I wanted to take lessons. My first teachers name was Andy. He was good
at guitar but he was also very unreliable. Whenever he did not come it was a let down because I
was always looking forward to lessons. After awhile I just decided to stop taking them because
the disappointment made me less motivated to practice. I told my parents that I did not want to
play guitar anymore because of him and they felt bad. They searched for more people who taught
locally but it took awhile for them to convince me that the next teacher would be better.
My second guitar teacher was named Guy. He was an older man but he still played live
shows every weekend and lived a rock star lifestyle. He could probably play more songs on
guitar than anyone I have or will ever meet. He was an inspiration because he taught me that
there was no time limit to start doing something you wanted to do. Guy taught me almost
everything that I know about guitar and music theory. He always encouraged me and made sure
that I never gave up. Whenever I would get frustrated with a song he was always there to help
me figure it out. He had the most impact on my literacy because he was the one who taught it to
me and opened up a new world.
I think the difference between Guy and Andy is that one of them saw guitar as a passion
and the other saw it as a hobby. Guy took guitar seriously because it was his job as well as his
dream. Through teaching he was able to make others good at guitar and improve his skills while
making money. He was passionate about it and he instilled that passion into others. Andy taught
guitar as a side job. It was something he was simply good at doing and could show someone else

for an hour if he needed some extra cash. I loved guitar because it made me excited to learn and
that is why I did not like Andy.

Have you ever thought about singing?

No Im an awful singer!
I dont believe you.
I really cannot sing. That is why I want to play guitar.
I cant sing but I still do both.
Yeah but its different.
How is it different?
Your voice is not as bad as mine.
Anybody can sing.
But not everybody sounds good.
Who said you had to sound good?
Why would I sing if I did not sound good?
Because you like to sing.

One of the reasons I do not consistently play guitar is because I cannot sing well. Both of
these are music literacies but I feel like without the voice to go with an instrument it is less
appreciated. It becomes monotonous to hear the same three to five chords played over and over
again for three minutes without anything else to add to it, even I get bored sometimes listening to
myself play. Guy asked me if I could sing because eventually the music center decided to start
giving group lessons and he thought it would be a better experience for me if I opened up and did
both. We created the groups on our own so that we could work on songs together and become
better at expressing our literacy, especially in front of a crowd. We found other musicians at the
center to fill in the spots we needed such as a guitarist, bassist, drummer, or singer so I never had

to worry about singing. There was always someone to do it for me and to make my part feel
complete.
Learning how to play guitar made me feel really good about myself because I picked it up
pretty quickly. I could watch someone else play and be able to replicate it without being taught
and I knew immediately when something did not sound right. Reading tabs and sheet music was
as simple as reading a book to me. Whenever I listened to music, instead of remembering the
lyrics to a song I would listen for the chords that the guitarist was playing.
Playing guitar was a popular literacy amongst my friends. Most guys learn guitar so that
they can impress girls, at least thats why my friends played guitar. Whats more romantic than
someone playing your favorite song on an instrument for you? Nothing. In order to become
comfortable serenading people we liked we had to be able to serenade our friends first.
Whenever we would hang out we taught each other chords, riffs, picking and strumming
patterns, and songs that we knew which made all of us better. It helped us gain experience in
different styles of music that we would not have tried to learn otherwise. Since I was the least
experienced, my friends focused a lot on me. As well teaching me how to play, they taught me
things that dealt with taking care of my guitar such as how to tune a guitar, restring a guitar,
clean a guitar, and use an amp. Without my friends I would have been able to play well but I
would not have been able to do fundamental things that are just as important.
Sometimes I struggle with self-assurance in my literacy because most of the people I
know that play guitar have been playing almost all of their lives. I have always hated when
someone would grab my guitar and play something then ask me to play because my confidence
would instantly drop. I would think, How could I do better than that? This probably stems
from my Guitar Hero days because I always wanted to have a higher score than my friends when

we played against each other and I know that it is not a competition but I feel like people always
have high expectations when they find out that someone else has the same literacy as them. I
think my insecurity is caused by a misconception that to be good at something you have to have
a lot of experience with it. This is not true because quantity of practice does not mean quality. I
think this comes from the belief that people are either good at something or theyre not and no
amount of practice or effort can make up for natural ability. This ideal is especially prevalent in
the arts because their talent usually shows up at a young age. Playing less helped me avoid the
bad habits that many musicians acquire with carelessness and repetition. I am confident that I am
just as skilled as another person at guitar and I do not need ten years of experience to prove that.
The only difference between someone that has been playing guitar since they were little and me
is that they will be able to play more songs by memory.
When I played at the music center it was always a competition for who was the best band or the
better student. We played in front of each other and we were all at a similar competence so the
pressure to be great always felt high. I do not feel this stress in college because there are people
of all skill levels and even more people who cannot play an instrument at all. Being able to play
in the comfort of my room for nobody but myself has made me less critical than I was before.
Guitar is now something I do to get away from the stresses of college life and to learn something
because I want to, not because it is required.

Literacy is not reading or writing, it is knowledge in any subject or specialty. It does not
have to be something that you do every day or even every month. It is a skill that you can pick up
whenever you want and still be good at because you desired to learn it and that self-motivation
made you learn deeply. That is not to say that you cannot see literacy as a continuum because

most of the time it is but in my case musical literacy is full of breaks and interruptions but
always something that I come back to.

Reflection
1. What do you think is the most successful part of your paper/project? Why?
I think the most successful part of my paper is the argument because I feel like it is
something that will make the reader think. It is also important in explaining the way I
feel about my abilities compared to other people with the same literacy. I have a unique
perspective about learning that not all people will agree with but I have supported it
through my story.

2. What are you proud of in this paper/project?

I am proud of the first person narrative and stream of consciousness writing in my paper
because I am used to writing five paragraph essays in third person and it was difficult for
me to complete this paper. I have learned a lot about using different writing styles in
order to get my story across in a more effective way.

3. What part of your paper/project would you like to work on more if you had the time?
Why?
If I had more time I would like to work on the connection between my literacy and
myself. I think that it is interesting that my culture reflects the way I learn and that it can
make my experience different from someone elses. I never realized how much who I am
affects what I do and how I do it.

4. What do you want your reader to notice or comment on specifically?

I want my reader to comment on the argument about literacy being or not being a
continuum because I think it is an important part of my paper. If I had thought of literacy
as a continuum I would have never learned how to play guitar because I would not have
had the confidence to take on a new subject or the passion to pick it up again after not
playing for awhile.