Dalton 1

Christian Dalton
Mrs. Scharf
ERWC 2
27 April 2015
Integrity
Integrity is word that has a profound meaning in terms of the human personality.
When we were little we were taught to never lie, to never cheat and last but not least, to
never steal. Everyone is expected to be honest and maintain the principles listed above,
but integrity is something that is not easily defined since it has the potential to have so
many different interpretations as to what it is and what it actually means. My
interpretation of integrity is that it means that someone is honest and is always willing to
tell the truth, no matter what the consequences may be. Someone with integrity has moral
soundness and I believe that I am a man of integrity that will uphold the values of
integrity so I can be a person that people not only believe in but someone that they will
also look to for guidance. Something I do almost everyday is play the guitar and because
of that I feel as though my guitar is almost like an extension of my own body, therefore I
believe that the integrity of my past, present, and future life can best be summed up by
the image of a guitar.
Without a body a guitar is nothing, this is one of the most important structures in
it. The body represents everything that the guitar has been through, the body may have
some scratches, some dings on it, and maybe some deformations, but that's what makes
that guitar special and sets it apart from the rest, and shows everything that the guitar has
been through throughout its existence. The body of the guitar is my ambition to keep

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moving forward so that I can be sucessful. This relates to my life because there have been
plenty of times where I was knocked down to the ground and had to stand back up and
maintain the integrity of my body so that I may move forward, making me acknowledge
my mistakes and admit that I was wrong so that I never make the same mistake again.
The "body" will always be there but it is my responsibility to make sure that this "body"
makes it through the entire journey and doesn't give in to all the cumulative little things
that will effect it. I will walk through the darkness of life undiminished and undefeated so
that I may bring light to my own world because I am the guardian of the integrity of this
structure and I will do everything in my power to ensure that nothing will come between
the preservation of myself and the goals I wish to accomplish. Nothing will strike me
down and permanently immobilize me because this body is meant to take a beating, it's
meant to go through the inevitable hardships that it will face but with enough practice,
dedication, and ambition, I will play the final notes in the song called "Life".
The style of my guitar is what will set it apart from everyone else's guitar, the
style is my personality. My type of guitar is an electric, it can play soft mellow melodies,
but it can also play hard hitting rock licks that are sure to demand the attention of my
audience. This brings diversity to my playing, which in turn brings diversity to my
character and the way in which I approach things now and how I will approach things in
the future. Something else that sets me apart is my play style, my guitar teacher once
asked me who my favorite guitarist is and I answered with "me", I am my own favorite
guitarist because I don't want to play like anyone else, I want to play like myself, I want
to embrace my uniqueness and show the whole world that I'm different, I don't want to
blend into the crowd, I want to stand out. Something that may come of no surprise to you

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is that I wasn't always amazing at playing the guitar, there was a time where I was
downright horrible, but I kept on practicing, and I remember playing until my fingers felt
pain as they pressed into the strings on the fret board to produce the sound of which I had
so desperately wanted to hear, but to no avail I couldn't play the way my teacher wanted
me to, so I tried a different approach, this time I was going to play the way that felt
natural to me, and alas, I had finally achieved my goal, I learned how to play my first
song.
Without strings a guitar would not be able to make noise, and at the same time,
without the fret board, a guitar would not be able to produce the different pitches for a
note. These two components work together, the strings bring sound, and the fret board
brings variation to the sound. If one of these elements were to be absent the guitar would
pretty much be useless. In a way I am the strings and my guitar teacher, Michael, is the
fret board. Willpower and integrity are two traits that are connected to one another, when
I decide not to lie, but to tell the truth I am displaying my willpower to exhibit
genuineness and my integrity to make sure that I do so, not because I have to, but because
I want to, and because it is the right thing to do. When Michael goes over music theory he
will constantly ask me "do you understand?", and he expects me to tell the truth, and not
just act like I get it, because he expects me to have the willpower to admit that at times I
have no clue what he is talking about, and the integrity to confess my want for him to go
over the subject once more. It's like when my parents scold me over doing something
wrong, they expect me to understand that what I had just done was bad and not just have
the whole conversation go in one ear and out the other. This makes me a better person I'm
able to display my willpower and have the integrity to do so in the right times.

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The last component of a guitar that is very important is the tuners on the
headstock. The tuners adjust the string tension so that the strings will give of a different
sound so that you can play in tunings such as Drop D tuning or E Flat tuning. So the
tuners serve as the directing force of what the guitar is going to sound like, and if it will
sound excellent, or if it'll sound awful. This applies to real life in terms of attitude,
sometimes we have to adjust our attitude in different circumstances, and if we have a
negative attitude then we're going to have a harder time in that situation. My tuners in life
are my parents. My parents always told me that you get nothing in life if you just sit
around and do nothing, in order to achieve something you have to work for it. They'd
always remind to not lie, cheat, nor steal and that upholding these values would make me
a better person. They are the ones that told me to never give up on something that I want,
they always remind me to pick a career that I know that I would love and to follow that
passion so that I can live a prosperous life full of happiness. The person that I am today is
because of my parents, without them I wouldn't be the same. My parents are the force
that fine tune me so that I can play the song in the correct tuning, that way I can sound as
good as possible.