My artifact is the electric guitar. My guitar’s color is blue, and I think its design is very simple. It was made in Japan. I bought it when I was a high school student. So, I have had my guitar for three years at least. It was a little expensive. I paid about thirty thousand yen. I saved money to buy it.
This story was when I was in high school. In the summer of my freshman year of high school, I saw a band perform at the school festival. It wasn't a famous band. It was a performance by a student from my high school who was only a few years older than me. It was the first time I heard a band perform closely. When I saw the stage for the first time, I felt they were cool! I wanted to be able to play the guitar and play it in a band. In my high school, there is no light music club. However, some students who can play the guitar, electric bass, drums, and so on can play on stage at school festivals at my high school.
Then I started saving money because I decided to buy a guitar. I was not allowed to have a part-time job in my high school, so I saved up my allowance steadily. Then, in the fall of my freshman year of high school, I got a guitar. After I got the guitar, I didn't know what to do with it, even the right posture. So I decided to ask my friends who could play the guitar what I should do. “Hey, what should I do to be able to play the guitar?” One of my friends said, “You need to practice the guitar chord. By doing so, I think you can play some of the songs. Yeah, if there's a song you like, you can search for it on a website called U-FRET. Some narrative scores include guitar chords along with the score. I think it's a great way to practice.” I started practicing the guitar chord at that time. I like Ringo Shiina, so I was practicing with a music score for playing the song Marunouchi Sadistic.
About the same time, I was approached by a friend who started playing guitar around the same time as I did. “Hey, do you want to be in a band with me?” It was an invitation to form a band. I had always dreamed of playing in a band, so I replied, "Of course!" My friends and I formed a band. At that point, there were only two guitarists in the band. I was a member of the brass band club, so I looked for someone among the club members who could play instruments other than the guitar. I approached some of the club members and found that we had drums, keyboard, and vocals. The only thing I couldn't find was a bass player, but I knew that the song would work if the keyboard took the role of the bass, so we formed the band without a bass player. It was fortunate that the members came together so quickly. Our band's name was "Glitter".
With the band members assembled, we set a goal to perform at the school festival next year. We had a lot of discussions about what songs we should play there. In the end, we decided to play "Mabataki'' by backnumber. Since the performance time at the school festival was very short, we decided to play only this one song. From there, the days of practice began. Unlike the previous practice songs, this one had many guitar chords that I was not good at. I felt nervous so I researched the tips for playing. I wanted to get better. The skin of the index finger of my left hand, which was holding down the strings, peeled and sometimes bled, but I kept practicing. With practice, I could play the guitar chord gradually. I could play the song which I will play in the band.
During the golden week of my sophomore year in high school, my band members decided to practice together. We rented a studio and planned to practice for three hours. We played the songs to the end using a metronome, and when we were done, we reflected on our performance. "I can't switch my fingers very well. I got behind." "I think the balance would be better if the volume were louder." After these conversations, we played again. The more times we played, the better we got at it.
Then the day of the school festival arrived. We were divided into a guitarist, a vocalist, a keyboardist, and a drummer and I. We were waiting backstage. It was time to go. “Next up was the sophomore girls band, Glitter!” We walked out onto the stage. The lights are very bright. And hot. There are many students and teachers in front of us. They are looking up at us! Let's start playing. I felt so excited. My band members all seemed to enjoy the performance. The song we played was not intense, but my heart was beating wildly while we were playing. After the performance, a moderator said, "Thank you, Glitter! That was a great performance!" There was an announcement. We were satisfied. We had achieved our goal. We had a lot of fun. I still remember this memory very clearly. I want to perform on stage again.
I will consider the issues related to music in this part. First, I will consider the lack of CD sales recently. Nowadays, a lot of people listen to music on their cell phones. So, CDs are not selling as well as they used to. Should people listen to music on CDs or on their own cell phones? I think people should listen to music on their cell phones. CDs can keep the real things at hand, but I think it would be inconvenient to carry it. If you listen to the song, you might as well do it easily.
Second, I will consider the opinion that “music can save people.” I think sometimes we hear this phrase. However, can music really save people? I don’t think so. Of course, listening to music is one of the relaxations and people feel good when they listen to music, but I think it is not “saving” the people. I think that "saving" means that a person's life is involved. For example, there are refugees and wars. Music may not be enough to save lives.
