.jeri.

Ric and I were interested by the premise of It Might Get Loud, in which a warehouse is filled with a comfy sitting environment and several guitars, and three different guitarists are invited to come, talk, play, and see what happens. The three guitarists are U2's the Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White. The documentary focuses on what the three talk about and play when meeting with each other, but it also goes back with them to important locations of their lives and reviews how each grew to be the musician they are.

The movie really does cover many different aspects of being a musician and guitarist. It doesn't feel like a stale talking head documentary. Instead, it seems to flow with what each of the artists are about. They are all famous guitarists but approach the guitar in very different ways. The Edge is all about effects in his use of pedals, Page is a classicist with nimble fingers, and White creates new sounds and revels in the struggle of creativity and will create one if one isn't already present. The Edge started off untrained and his band was influenced by the political events of Dublin as well as the beginnings of punk music. Page was well trained and headed towards a life of studio muzak sessions until he realized he had something more to offer. White grew up poor and influenced by the true blues, and tries to find creative ways to get away with being a white guy playing them.

I liked focusing on the three different guitarists and exploring where people find their inspiration from to how they produce their sound, and for each of the guitarists, it's an entirely different answer. Their personalities are really very different, and I think I came to like the Edge all the more for being the least pretentious of the three despite the massive success of his band. Ric left the theater talking about how he expected to identify with Page the most and was surprised to find that it was quite the opposite, and he found more of a connection with White. I agree that while White does seem to almost over-do it at being creative, he's the one from whom I felt the most drive and hope - Ric and I had just been talking earlier about how music doesn't seem to be going anywhere new anymore, but at least there's someone out there trying to find new ways to approach the old and produce something that sounds different.

And, as I sat in the theater thinking about how my piano sits mostly untouched in the corner of my bedroom, felt the yearning for music returning. The problem is, like most aspects of my life at this age, there always seems to be something blocking me from what I want to do. In the same way that my back and hip prevent me from being as active as I'd like to physically, where I live prevents me from doing what I would like with music. I would like nothing more than to spend more time practicing piano, learning more sonatas, Celtic folk music, and maybe even trying my hand at writing something. But I don't have the opportunity to sit at the piano until around nine at night, when it's too late to be pounding out those loud notes, for fear of upsetting the neighbors who share a wall with my piano.

As I told Ric on the ride home, it's frustrating to have played an instrument for so many years, and when I sit down to play in front of friends, I don't have a lot to show for that time, because most of the pieces need to be practiced regularly to be played well, and I tend to forget something I have memorized if I don't practice it often. So, without any practice, I'll bumble through something terribly by sight-reading and reminiscing of the days when I was able to play how I was meant to play. I mostly feel useless when I sit at a piano in front of friends who want to hear evidence of my 17 years of lessons. And I'm certainly no good at improvisation.

When the credits rolled at the end of It Might Get Loud, and one of the audience members declared to the rest of us, "Now go home and play!" I felt the same way. I wanted to go home and play something, but felt like I couldn't really do that, and felt the same frustration I've been feeling for the past year. And then I thought, why not go out and buy a cheap guitar? It can be played without disturbing the neighbors so much, and I've been wanting to start up more instruments (and the cello is probably a little too large for our current home). I think improve my improvisation and writing on piano by learning more about guitar, especially in the area of chords and theory. I did plenty of theory in my time, but never really cared about it or tried to apply it in practice unless I was forced to do so by my piano teacher. I'm such a literalist. I play what's in front of me, but have never tried to do something new. I'm the same way with art on the page as well as writing, and I've gotten kind of tired of being talented without being creative. So maybe it would be good for me to delve into this world and see what happens. Who knows? I may try it, get frustrated, and quit. Hopefully I won't, but just in case, I want to buy a cheap one. I think I'll try and give myself a leg up by buying a guitar for smaller hands. Ric and I went out yesterday to try out some different styles and get a feel for what I want. It's a step, and hopefully I'll make a choice in the next week or so.

All that to say that people and movies can inspire, and that was the case for me with It Might Get Loud, which I did enjoy quite a bit.