Fret one, fret three

I recently made a huge commitment: I cut the fingernails of my left hand index, middle, and ring fingers to the quick. “But Christine!” you cry, “You have long been known throughout the land for your stunning natural fingernails!” Ah yes, it is true. I do have amazingly healthy fingernails, but there are sacrifices that need to be made for our art. I am learning to play guitar.

Art is used here in a very loose sense to describe my guitar playing. Since I haven’t figured out how to tune it and I am teaching myself, I described my chords to a friend as “as acoustic bleeding ear assault.” She thought this would be a good name for my future band. She might be right, but she’ll have to be a member because she’s the one who tunes my guitar!

I am now able to play eight notes on three strings, and sometimes they go together in ways that sound like songs. I was initially proud of my first callous and thrilled with my progress, but since I only practice 15 minutes to an hour every night, I have sort of plateaued at my eight notes. I have also committed myself to a better discipline of finger position on the frets, hence my need to reduce or eliminate fingernail beauty on my left hand. Form over function. Sigh. It makes me want to find my old college roommate and tell her, “I understand.”