The Guitar Face.
Inevitably, when someone finds out that you know how to play guitar, they’re going to ask you to show them. Now admittedly, I’m not what you may call a “showy” person, but I have on occasion played some guitar for a few folks here and there. They may have been placated. They may have been wowed. They may have been underwhelmed. They may even (but not usually) even been jealous. But on most occasions, as their eyes dart from my fingers to the guitar and all about elsewhere, they ask one simple question:
“Why don’t you sing and play guitar at the same time?”
For a while, I didn’t have an answer. Sure some of the stuff I know/write are just simply instrumentals. BUT in most cases they actually do contain lyrics/random beat poetry.
But then a little while ago it hit me. I was watching something along the lines of a Paul Gilbert solo on YouTube: Marvelling at the fast fingerwork and whatnot.. But then I happened to take a gander up at his face.
His GUITAR FACE.
You may actually already be aware of this phenomenon, or you might be blissfully unaware… But here’s the skinny: Guitarists (and probably even any musician) have a delightful array of strange and wacky faces they make when pulling a note of their guitar trick bag. It’s scientific, I’m telling you.. It’s like your eyes autonomously closing whenever you sneeze… If you play guitar, you’re gonna look like a dumb-dumb. Your lips make pucker, your jaw might quiver, your eyes might bulge out of their sockets: no two bozos are the same!
So indeed that is my excuse. I do not (and maybe CANNOT) sing and play guitar at the same time because I am too busy looking silly. Try it yourself: I’ll bet you can look silly just like me!
(A quick google of “Guitar Face” led to this little blog-gallery. While they are not the most shining examples of guitar face, they’ll have you on the right track to musi-facial hilarity in no time. http://blog.wfmu.org/photos/guitar_face/index.html )
octopiemusic
