Showcasing Lopez-Vences’ guitar and pedals used to produce his music. photo by David Lopez-Vences
After months of being bored in quarantine, playing instruments has become a creative outlet and a new form of entertainment.
In the span of a few months, I went from listening to music every day to trying to make music of my own. Quarantine has given me the time and space to learn how to master an instrument. In January of 2020, I decided to pursue learning how to play the guitar as the first instrument I’d learn to play. Being a self-taught musician, I was simultaneously learning to be the teacher and the student. Months later when quarantine started, I finally had the time and the space to make real progress towards this goal. I started this year knowing only one or two guitar licks, both of which were very simple. Now, I am able to learn the entirety of most songs in under a day. I have even gotten to the point where I can even learn some songs by ear.
Learning songs that you love can be very rewarding: you’re able to play the parts of songs that already have positive associations to your brain; it’s addicting in a way. While it can be a struggle to play for a while, when you slowly hear it coming together, it can be impossible to put the instrument down. Most of the songs I’ve learned have been by artists like The Strokes, The Beatles, and even unique songs people have requested me to learn. As much fun as it is to learn existing songs, I’ve always had an itch to try and make a song of my own. It began with random guitar riffs, then random chords, and finally to the theories behind them.
On my own, I was able to accidentally find scales on the guitar. I honestly don’t know how it happened, but I am able to put something that sounds good together. This led me down a path of trying to learn music theory on my own. I started watching random lectures on YouTube by music professors. As a result, I was able to learn how to create my own chord progressions. I would take notes and use what the videos taught me in order to play these chord progressions. While it’s still very new to me and I have a long way to go with it, there isn’t a day that goes by where I’m not passionate about it.
The only problem I’ve encountered is that making two guitar parts without any other instrument can get a little dry, which is where my friend Nicolas Chinea, a junior, comes in to assist. Chinea has been learning how to play the drums and the guitar. Throughout quarantine, Chinea and I have been trying to learn to create music together, with me on the guitar and him on the drums. We have been learning songs together and have been practicing to do full covers. Our only successful one so far is Is This It by The Strokes. Believe it or not, it can be intense to play a full song all the way through without making a single mistake. With factors that include staying on beat, not hitting the wrong string, or accidentally unplugging my guitar somehow, there is a lot of room for error. Playing something live is one of the toughest challenges to overcome, but no matter how hard or frustrating it can be, the satisfaction it brings is worth it. When learning a song and playing it live with one another, you can see how much hard work is put into even the simplest of songs.
After working with one another, Chinea and I have settled on a shared goal: to write at least one catchy, good sounding song. With a couple of guitar pedals and his drum set, I’m confident that we’ll be working hard to even write something that sounds amazing. Just the guitar parts and drums though, as I’m not a singer by any means. This whole quarantine hasn’t made this year the greatest at all, but I’m happy I was given the opportunity to pursue a passion I have with one of my closest friends.
