Photo By Staff Sgt. Michael Selvage | Pfc. Kyle Booi, a Piper City, Ill., native, wheeled vehicle mechanic assigned to...... read more read more
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – If you ever find yourself walking past the maintenance bay of the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 142nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 10th Sustainment Brigade, you might hear the faint sounds of callused fingers strumming the stings of an acoustic guitar.
Pfc. Kyle Booi, a Piper City, Ill., native, wheeled vehicle mechanic assigned to HHC, 142nd CSSB, decided to finally learn how to play a guitar, rather than just make noise, soon after arriving in country.
Booi said learning how to play the guitar is something he has always wanted to do.
Staff Sgt. Jake Harris a motor sergeant for HHC, 142nd CSSB, borrowed a guitar from the chaplain’s office to help teach Booi how to play.
“Learning how to play the guitar isn’t as easy as it looks,” said Booi.
Harris said he taught himself when he was 16 years old and has been playing guitar off and on for 20 years.
He taught Booi how to play the basic open cords, proper finger placement and how to pick strings.
“Staff Sgt. Harris just kept pushing me to learn my cords,” said Booi.
Sgt. Jon Ritch, a Baltimore native, wheeled vehicle mechanic assigned to HHC, 142nd CSSB, said when Booi first started learning, he could hear him through the walls of his room playing the same cord over and over again for hours.
Booi said he really likes playing the guitar because it’s a constant challenge and it’s a great way to relieve stress because when he plays, the guitar and music are the only things on his mind.
“I’m nowhere even close to as good as Staff Sgt. Harris is,” said Booi. “But at the same time, he has almost two decades of practice I don’t.”
He said he was getting more and more into playing and he decided to start checking around base for guitars for sale.
He paid $60 for his first guitar, which also came with the book “Guitar for Dummies” volumes 1-8, which he also learned from.
“I’ve learned the most from just watching Staff Sgt. Harris play,” said Booi.
He said he’s also been learning from watching YouTube videos and from Ultimate-Guitar.com, which provides lessons to teach people how to play songs from their library.
“I average about an hour of playing a day now,” said Booi. “Sometimes when the guys from the shop go out for a smoke break, I like to go in the office and play around on the guitar for a little bit.”
Harris said Booi has learned to play the guitar a lot faster than he originally anticipated.
He said he can play four songs already and hopes to learn a lot more before going back home. Country songs seem to be the easiest to play, which he said is fine by him since that is one of his favorite genre of music to listen to but he would also like to learn a few rock songs before going back home.
“Anything that takes time, hard work and dedication is always going to pay off in the end,” said Booi.
He said it would be cool to start up a band and play some covers down the road but doesn’t really know what he is going to do with his new found talent. When he returns home from Afghanistan, he said he is going to a Guitar Center and reward himself with a brand new guitar.
Booi will always have the skills he learned while deployed and is capable of passing them along.
“The best advice I can give is to first learn the cords,” said Booi. “Learn one cord at a time. It takes a lot of practice and dedication so pace yourself. It also helps to have someone teach you first hand. Just don’t get discouraged by little things like sore fingers.”
| Date Taken: | 04.18.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 04.20.2014 10:56 |
| Story ID: | 126739 |
| Location: | KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AF |
| Hometown: | BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, US |
| Hometown: | PIPER CITY, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 209 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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