Guitar Love

Last December as I was awaiting the activation date for my 1st implant (R), I still wore a hearing aid on my Left ear...and it wasn't doing a whole lotta nothin'. I remember sitting in my room one cold night, hoping that strumming a few chords on my guitar would warm me up. I remember bending forward, trying to get my ear as close to the guitar as possible. I remember desperately wishing I could CREATE an expression of what I was feeling through music. And I remember putting the guitar down about 3 minutes into it, fighting back tears because this guitar that I once loved had been reduced from an instrument of expression to an object sitting in the corner of my room.

At the time, I didn't know WHAT Cochlear Implants would be able to do, if anything, to help me regain an appreciation for music. It was a very difficult time, with a lot of unknowns, and fewer answers.

Fast forward 7 months, now 6 months active on the Right, and 2 on the Left, and I'm posting things like THIS on Twitter for the world (and by "world" I mean my current 47 followers) to see:

@wisemanandy:

Sometimes I play guitar at night, and it does nothing more than make me smile...and THAT makes all the difference...

 

Wait, WHAT? 7 months ago I was on the verge of giving up guitar for life. Now it's making me smile? Yeah...it is. CI's did that. It's ridiculous. I was sitting here playing 15 minutes ago and I had to stop, because I'd rather write and tell you about how much my life has changed with CI's. 

If you are a CI user and you are debating the jump to Bi-lateral, STOP waiting and do it! I do experiments from time to time while playing guitar, listening with one then the other then both, and I'm telling you from my heart, this guitar is sounding better than anything I've heard in the past 10 years now that I have bi-lateral CI's. This might also have something to do with it:

At first it was difficult to hear the higher notes as they all just kind of blended together and I could tell it wasn't the right pitch. Now I can strum each note through a chord and hear every note uniquely. And all of the sudden I'm getting short licks and ideas pop into my head, and I can actually go home and sort them out. I'm slowly regaining confidence that I have the ability to take an idea, thought or experience and make it into something people would be moved by. I CAN CREATE.

So for now, I'm gonna rock Baby Martin to sleep. That was a pun...you should be smiling. God knows I am :)