It’s been years since I played guitar with my father. Suddenly, I was more nervous than when I played with Gaku san and Kaori san.

In the first place, my father didn’t want me to play guitar.

If anything, he was against it. Of course, I knew how tough this world is.

Even so, I started playing guitar because I admired my father. Rin started playing  guitar because she admired me.

And I got frustrated on my own and quit playing guitar.

When I told my father I was quitting guitar, he neither opposed nor agreed.

 [I told you so.] were the only words he said to me.

I didn’t even feel frustrated. I just wanted to run away.

Rin disagreed. She is against it with all of her emotions. Even so, I stubbornly refused to listen.

As a result, Rin began to show despise towards me.

I feel like I am indebted to my father and to Rin because of that.

“Let’s go with the usual.”

By “usual,” he means flamenco improvisation. My father is the only Japanese guitarist to have won the International Flamenco Guitar Competition. That’s why he can use flamenco guitar techniques.

My father starts his solo with a fast arpeggio and a flowing melody. I timed my accompaniment with a rasgueado, a technique in which four fingers are used to strum the strings as if they were compatible with each other.

The rasgueado and golpe create a passionate rhythm unique to flamenco. The golpe is a technique in which the guitar body is tapped by fingers to add accents. It has a slightly different meaning from the rhythmic slam. The flamenco guitar is making the right hand quite busy.

Back then, I had no idea what my father was doing. Well, I still don’t know all of his techniques in detail. But music is not only about technique.

I feel my emotions and put my feelings into it.

That’s my style now.

–I am the kind of person who can feel and put my feelings into my music.

I realized that my father was guiding me with his overwhelming technique and number of notes.

My father’s melodies had the same tenderness and melancholy as Iori’s. He was always guiding me with his “usual” style.

My father was guiding me all the way with his “usual” style.

A little ahead, he held out his arms as if waiting for me to embrace him.

I didn’t understand that back then. 

But now I understand.

I couldn’t stop my tears.

I couldn’t see the fretboard clearly because of my tears.

But I kept going.

I wanted to feel my father’s love more.