Techne When It Works

My thirteen year-old niece, Emily, who's been playing guitar for about four months, points out Chordfind.com to me, and lets me know that she's having trouble figuring out how to hold a C# chord, because she's working out the tab to David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World".

I'm just about flabbergasted that she's even trying this at her level of experience. Way to go, Emily. Get on with it.

I tell her to go get her axe because I want to show her something. (She wonders what "axe" means. I tell her that "it's for 'chops', but nevermind; just grab your guitar.") She does. I point out how to hold the chord, by telling her to hold an 'F' at the eighth fret. This is because the frets are closer together up there and it's easier for her fingers to manage. She does so. Then, it's time for the principle: "Okay; hold that same stack at the fourth fret. That's C#."

And she gets it. Right away. She's just learned that chording the guitar is a two-dimensional exercise: chords change with fingerings and neck position.

Here's what's cool: we were a thousand miles apart and we did the whole thing with instant messaging.

Ten years ago, it would have been a very different thing to have her questions addressed so casually. It probably wouldn't have happened. And she has never known that world.

In lots of ways, her life is very different from mine.