Tear Drops on my Guitar
lifeGraph – 02.10.10
It was the nth day of September 2005. The thought of turning 15 greeted me as I woke up. “Today you’re a year older than you were yesterday,” I said to myself. I went on with my daily routine and prepped for school. At the table, our threesome family gathered for breakfast with much smiles and laughter. I was happy, just as my parents were. Then, my father and mother paused gulping down food and looked at each other with a grin. I knew they were up to something, but I had no idea what they had in mind.
“Juks akyat ka sa kwarto namin (go up to our room),” said my dad.
As I went up the stairs, I thought of the things that my parents might have actually bought for me as a gift. Remote controlled car? Die-cast toy car? Watch? Shirt? Shoes? I opened the room’s door and instantly looked for a box of some sort, wrapped in who-knows-what gift wrapper. No, I didn’t see a box, or a wrapper. Instead, I saw lying on the bed was a black bag of some kind, with the words “Power flex” on its front.
I was taken aback when I realized that the bag was shaped very much like a guitar. At that time I was starting with a path that was open for musicians only. A family friend had been kind enough to give me a battered, but usable classical guitar some three or four months before that month. I know I stood there, silent but smiling, excited but not moving, for a moment. I grabbed the bag that was quite heavy to be just a bag, and went back down to my parents. All of us were smiling as I unzipped the bag and found out that my parents have indeed given me my own guitar. It’s been more than five years since then, and my guitar is still by my side, humbly giving me full control with every moment that we would together make music.
Present day
At the moment I was about to unzip my guitar bag, I was already smiling. In my bag were my laptop and all the usual stuff I bring for school. Today, however, it contains a small box, about 4in X 4in in size, which was the cause of the smile painted on my face. It was a set of Martin acoustic guitar strings. That’s what it is. If you still don’t get my hype about it, allow me to elaborate more. While the musicality of a guitar’s sound depends, I believe, heavily on the skills of the guitarist, the quality of the sound depends on the guitar itself. By guitar, I mean its body, the materials used for it, and the strings on it. The quality of the guitar strings have a direct effect on the quality of the sound that will be produced by a certain guitar. Different brands abound, each with a specific use. Not all strings are of the same quality though. I have been playing the guitar for quite some time now. I have tried a few different brands, but I will say that Martin acoustic guitar strings are the best of them. The quality of produced sound even after more than a year of use is better than competing brands that have been used over a shorter period of time. This, of course, is a plus on its value for money factor. When you play your guitar on the day you get these strings, you get excellent sound quality. Play it with the same strings even after some time and compare it with other brands that have been used for a shorter period of time, and Martin strings might actually sound better.
I am not a part of the company that manufactures the said guitar strings. I am simply sharing the information. If you are a guitarist with an acoustic guitar, do try Martin acoustic guitar strings. It’s not cheap, but if you consider the quality and durability of the very cheap (less than 10 pesos per string cheap) brands, you would find out you are better off with the high quality brand.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? I guess you believe that. Maybe I do, too, so enough with the almost-like-sales-talk on my preferred brand of guitar strings. Let the pictures speak for themselves.
If music is a window to your soul, then what business has violence, rebellion, hatred, bitterness, and anger have at the forefront of music? It has been proven that music has a direct impact on the behaviour of people. Choose carefully the music that you allow to resonate in your soul. [ juRo™ ]
Chronicles of juRo 