| | | Hey Friend,
There was a #1 song back in the early 70s by this title (the full title is "Killing Me Softly With His Song" by Fox and Gimbel). It was made famous by the stylings of Roberta Flack.
It tells a story of how a well crafted song can open up your soul and expose it to the world. A great song can tear down every defense and leave you in a smouldering heap on the floor...
Kinda like stress.
Yup, you know what I'm talking about.
We're all speeding along at 120 MPH, trying to get more done and fit more into our lives. More work, more money, more fun time, more education...
We're connected more to the world than ever before with our smart phones and wireless connections. Facebook and Twitter (and the hundred other social media platforms) supply us with an ENDLESS stream of attention-grabbing posts...
And yet how often do you realize that you're not actually getting anything done? Unfortunately for me, it's a lot more often than I care to admit.
That realization does nothing more than increase the stress I'm feeling to GET THINGS DONE.
The problem is, stress is killing us. Every one of us. Stress leads to so many physical and mental problems it's a wonder we all aren't either keeling over from heart attacks or living in a mental ward.
NO! Bad Stress!
This is just another fabulous reason to play guitar...
Playing through a song you enjoy allows you to put stress in a time-out. Heck, even practicing scales or new chord shapes can help take the edge off a particularly stressful day.
There's something therapeutic about the mind-body connection in creating music. The fingers working in concert with the instrument to produce pleasing sounds...
Even if those sounds are deep, growling, distorted power chords coming out a huge stack of amplifiers... Man, it's frickin' liberating to hit a power chord with my amp cranked up!
Try it with an E5 or A5 power chord in the open position.
You know what? It's just as much fun with an acoustic guitar. You don't have to play an acoustic quietly - it can handle you getting aggressive with it (as long as you don't start swinging it around and smashing into things).
When you strum the chords make sure to hit them hard with your pick - listen to the pick attack of the strummed chords in this song ("Grand Theft Autumn" by Fall Out Boy). You can hear how hard the strumming is to get maximum volume.
BTW, "attack" is a dynamic that indicates how hard you hit the strings with your finger or pick. A light attack would be like a gentle brush of your fingertip to make the string sound, versus a hard attack like what you can hear in that example.
You should join the Stress-Busters Allegiance (kinda like the X-Men or Justice League of Superheroes) and play your guitar every day. Super heroes would use power chords.
Get your hands on stress-busting Easy Power Chords and do your part to fight the good fight!
Peace~
Dave
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