Strings of Legacy

By Daniela Estrada

I run my fingers along the smooth mahogany, feeling the scallops left by my father’s fingertips on the faded wooden neck. The large instrument feels heavy and foreign in my hands, and my nose sniffles at the 40 year old dust. I brush the thick rusty strings with my thumb, creating a dissonance of notes that sends a jolt of exhilaration through my bones.

“Try this,” my father’s voice comes from behind me. His large hand reaches out to cusp mine. Gently, he places each one of my fingers on a string and pushes a small amount of pressure. My fingers awkwardly try to fill the shape my father pushed them to, unaccustomed to the feeling.

“It feels like my hand is playing Twister,” I complained to my father with a short laugh, but some part of me finds familiarity in the contact between skin and wood. I think I felt it from the moment I laid my eyes on the instrument in the corner of my parents’ room, shrouded in dust and graying with decades of desuetude.

My father’s hand retreats from mine. “Now give it a try,” he says, a proud glow on his face. I slowly raise my fingers, tentative and unsure, to the heart of the guitar and turn to face my father. He gives me a nod, a knowing smile on his lips, and I strum.

In a swift brush of fingers, the rich tones of the G chord fill the air, enveloping me in a flurry of music. I can smell the metallic strings all around me, the same strings vibrating beneath my fingers, pulsing with energy. The chord illuminates the room around me, and the deluge of elation rushes back. It’s in that one stroke that my life changes, and the world opens up to me.

All I could think to ask at that instant was: Is this how it feels? Is this how my favorite artists feel when their fingers stumble upon understanding, when they discover a piece of themselves unknown to them before? Is this how my father felt when he was my age, playing the entirety of Abbey Road by The Beatles and Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy on the same rusty guitar, once shiny and brand new? Is this how I will feel, when my fingertips earn their rightful calluses, when my hands find a home on each string and fret?

I can feel the infinite opportunities right at my fingertips, right where the pads of my soft skin curve around the coarse strings. It was then, with the entire world in my hands, that I knew I had found a part of me that had been missing all along.

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Biography

My name is Daniela Estrada, and I am a sophomore. In my free time, I love reading, painting, and listening to music. At school, you can usually find me in the robotics lab or at the garage driving the robot.

What is your main source of inspiration?

My main source of inspiration comes from the world around me, whether that be through the media I consume, the places I visit, the people I surround myself with, or generally just the everyday occurrences of my life.

How do you resonate with your piece? Why is it personal to you?

My piece details not only my love for music but also the special relationship I have with my father and how music allows us to connect with each other on a deeper level. Sometimes words get in the way of what we try to say, especially with those we love. At least for me, music helps me overcome this barrier and share my emotions with those I care about when words make it hard to do so.