Call off the dogs...

One of my nieces came to visit me at work yesterday, and by a stroke of circuitous karma a co-worker brought in one of those $200 Yamaha starter electric guitar rigs - a strip-mall strat with a 15-watt amp with on-board overdrive. I also had a nice new pick in my wallet that I'd just purchased. Can you see where this is heading?

I was mindlessly noodling through a tapping run when suddenly out of the shadows and high above the distortion rang a shrill, "Uncle Jas...teach me THAT!" I gave the little one, who's never picked up the instrument before, a quick lesson on how to look like a rocker in 4 notes: an e-minor palm muted/pull-off/whammy divebomb/pick rake combo lick. She spent the better part of 45 minutes sussing it out, especially enjoying the noise produced by the raking bit. I made the mistake of informing her that you can tell when you've done a mean rake the right way by the indentation it makes in the pick. My bad.

Behold the casualty of war:

The plectrum is totally destroyed...much like I wrecked mine the first time I wanted to play. I've seen (and owned) picks with less damage after weeks of intense use. I guess I forgot that at the tender age of 10 you really take 'if some is good, more is better' concept to heart.

Rock on, Tyler.