Mini-project #4 - Erin Carney

From the moment when I first read the description of this mini-project, I knew exactly who I would choose for my subject. For the past seven years, I’ve thought to myself ‘this kid is going to be famous one day,’ but I’ve never actually said it out loud. The reason for keeping this thought hushed for so many years is because it’s rather hard to convince people that a ten year old should be famous for playing the guitar. My younger brother, Kevin, is seventeen years old. He got his first guitar as a Christmas present from my parents at the age of ten. Each Christmas, my brother and I always have the “it” present. The “it” present is the gift that we mark with stars on our Christmas lists. It’s the present that we’ve talked about all year long. My brother’s “it” present that year was a guitar. Sure enough, when he opened up the guitar-shaped box under the Christmas tree, he was ecstatic. I thought it was kind of a silly thing for him to ask for because this is a child who has the attention span of a gnat and he has been known to tire of things very quickly, but I let him continue to get all excited about his guitar, knowing that it wouldn’t be long before that guitar was shoved into the back of his closet.

In the weeks following, my parents enrolled this little twerp in guitar lessons so that he would learn how to play, however, after about the fourth lesson little Kevin said, “these lessons are stupid, I don’t want to go anymore.” That was that. My brother never again attended another guitar lesson. As sad as that may sound, my story is not over.

After my brother “retired” from his lessons, he continued to strum his guitar. He did not know how to read music, nor did he know what notes he was playing. He would listen to songs in his room and then take what he heard and simply replicate it. Within that first year, my brother had taught himself how to play bits and pieces of several songs just by ear. As the years went by, little Kevin was playing entire songs – and he was playing them well. At the age of seventeen, my brother can play any song as long as he listens to it first.

This talent that Kevin has is the reason that I always thought he could be famous one day. Very few people can learn to play music that way, so when I told him that he was going to be famous for it, the response I got was mind boggling. He almost laughed in my face when I told him. He shrugged it off by saying, “it’s no big deal, anyone can do it,” and went on to explain that he would never become famous for the way he plays. Most (and I use that term loosely) famous people are famous because they are able to do something that other people cannot do, and they can do it phenomenally. If “anyone” could do it, then nobody would ever be famous for it.

After I was unsuccessful at convincing my brother that he should be famous for his talent, he told me that he doesn’t want to be famous for playing the guitar. He likes to play for fun and that if he were to become famous one day, he would rather it be for something more important. If someone were told that they had the talent to become famous, you would think that they would run right out and do so. The reaction that I received from Kevin was much of an unexpected one, but I’m kind of proud of what he said.