I have been trying to learn how to play the Beatles’ Michelle on the guitar for about three years now. It’s a classical arrangement and requires a strong ability to read music, which I have, and a decent knowledge of the entire fret board of the guitar, which comes and goes.
It’s damn hard, but I plug away at it almost every day. Classical guitar is similar to violin in that it takes highly coordinated, but very different, movements from each hand. Michelle, for example, involves a lot of moving up and down the fret board, a modicum of stretch between the index finger and pinky—and I have an annoyingly weak pinky—which is a major liability with my instrument. As for the right hand, there’s a lot of intricate plucking of interior strings throughout the piece and I am prone to hitting the wrong adjacent strings or stroking more than the requisite number of strings in certain passages.
And this has been going on for years. The first year was just figuring out the notes and where to play them and which fingers to use to stroke them. Now it’s a matter of playing cleanly, accurately, and with emotion—you know, the things that require endless practice.
Natural musicians can conquer such a piece over a period of a few weeks. But I am not a natural musician and I could go my entire lifetime with but a handful of passable Michelles to my credit.
But I love the challenge and embrace the frustration. At least during the times that I don’t have an overwhelming urge to shatter my beautiful Martin D-19 against the cinderblock walls of the basement!
It’s damn hard, but I plug away at it almost every day. Classical guitar is similar to violin in that it takes highly coordinated, but very different, movements from each hand. Michelle, for example, involves a lot of moving up and down the fret board, a modicum of stretch between the index finger and pinky—and I have an annoyingly weak pinky—which is a major liability with my instrument. As for the right hand, there’s a lot of intricate plucking of interior strings throughout the piece and I am prone to hitting the wrong adjacent strings or stroking more than the requisite number of strings in certain passages.
And this has been going on for years. The first year was just figuring out the notes and where to play them and which fingers to use to stroke them. Now it’s a matter of playing cleanly, accurately, and with emotion—you know, the things that require endless practice.
Natural musicians can conquer such a piece over a period of a few weeks. But I am not a natural musician and I could go my entire lifetime with but a handful of passable Michelles to my credit.
But I love the challenge and embrace the frustration. At least during the times that I don’t have an overwhelming urge to shatter my beautiful Martin D-19 against the cinderblock walls of the basement!
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