The first song I ever played in front of a group of any kind was "Black Betty" by Ram Jam. This was out of request by a fellow classmate during my music/comedy project. I got nervous half way through by paying attention to the student singing the song and I myself began singing the wrong words. The bell then rang and I luckily got to get out of there with little pride taken from me, luckier, few people noticed the mistakes. My nervousness never really went away until my senior year. Before then, I never really felt comfortable with my guitar playing abilities. In 11th grade, my math teacher of 2 years, Mrs. Menz, brought in her guitar so I could play it, and so I could teach her. She optimistically learned the C-major chord and E-minor chord, but we eventually stopped the teaching process due to a lack of time on her part. The guitar's been in the school ever since, and I often bring it around with me and play it, aside from 6th period's jam sessions senior year.
Perhaps it wasn’t that I felt I’d gotten better in 12th grade (although I do), maybe it's just the evolution of who I am personally and mentally. It could be that maybe I’ve just grown up and stopped caring that there are people out there that'll hate my performances, and instead opted to embrace those of which who enjoy my playing. In 12th grade I played "RE: Your Brains" by Jonathan Coulton in English for a project for the topic "Suspense". Since then, I played what I’d like to be the most awesome rock session of my existence so far. On a random day during a random week, I dawned Lady Gaga attire and took a day off in Lattrator class to have a small jam session with a friend. We were simply playing for our own amusement, but during our/my rendition of "Poker Face" by Lady Gaga (who I was dressed as, so I thought it fit), I looked up in amazement to see Videos and Camera lights shining on us. This moment was then later immortalized forever in that year's Yearbook. We went on to play such songs as "I Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd and "In Too Deep" by Sum41, and it was one of the best moments in my life, being recognized as awesome by a group of my peers, even though a girl I cared very deeply for was crying due to a comment I had made before the guitar playing started.
On the last day of Yearbook class, I was to play a final farewell to the class, and more specifically the girl who'd garnered my attention the entire year. The set list is to include a group of songs meant to signify the importance of her in my life in the short time I’d known her, and to ensure her happiness on the last day of our seeing each other daily. Hopefully she'd taken notice and realized that I'm completely amazing and worth keeping around years after my leaving from Barker High, since I intended to visit often and text more often than that.
Although one of my final acts of musical prowess was to take place in that Yearbook class, it was also planned for I, and other friends to hold our own "farewell concert" of sorts outside Barker High as a tribute to how far we've come and where we're all now headed.
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