Roman Edirisinghe

Source of great irritation

As some of you are aware, I am taking a music reading class at MATC in an effort to refine my musical knowledge. I’ve been playing by ear for years, and feel somewhat deficient as far as reading music. For example, my sight reading is so poor that it’s not even worth mentioning. I’m slowly improving.

There is one guy in my class who noodles on his guitar while the professor is talking. It has become a real pain in my rump. Unfortunately, the professor is really laid back and the class can’t depend on him to say anything. I’m afraid I’m going to snap on the annoying noodler. It is so irritating having to hear him bend notes and pretend he is a wailing blues guitarist. For crying out loud, did he take the class to learn, or did he take the class to practice his scales? If I ever needed to hire a guitarist for a gig, it would certainly not be him.

This is turning out to be a type of rant. I can feel it now. I’m generally annoyed by guitarists. Why are they always wanting to draw attention to themselves? Why is it always, “look at me, here I am, me, me, me?” My conclusion, which is based on personal experience (and the fact that I, too, am a guitarist), is that guitarists feel deficient (most guitarists can’t read music and don’t know theory) and are consequently overcompensating. Compare the average guitarist to that annoying little companion dog that is always barking, while the Great Dane just chills.

I need to be careful with this guy. I don’t mind saying something to him, but I’m a little nervous about how he will react, and I’m likely going to have to deal with him, especially if I choose to take more music courses at MATC. I figure I can either approach him one of two ways:

1. I can pull him aside and tell him it’s distracting, and that I’d appreciate it if he would stop. How could he say no?
2. I can say something during class, when he’s noodling while the teacher is talking. This option is more likely to humiliate him. I will choose this option if I’m feeling especially cruel and want him to hate me.

Whatever.

Update:

I just got back from class, and for some reason, the aforementioned troublemaker was much quieter today. Unfortunately, the guy sitting right behind me seems to have picked up the slack. Guitar scales, noodling, and general sonic spaghetti were emitting from his fingertips as my teacher was explaining stuff to us. Thankfully, I took my quiz and got out of there quickly before I went ballistic.

Gotta love those damned guitarists.