The tempo rose, picking up speed, slapping the tiny music studio with a hard metal distortion. The notes stung the guitarist's finger tips and tightened his wrist, hoisting him from his seat.

Like a furious tornado, the music tossed the musician back in his chair. As an attempt to regain control, a few slow notes strummed the guitar, trailing off into silence.

"Wow. That was awesome," Pfc. Chris Pointer said, looking over at his friend who had just played "Aerials," by the band System of a Down, by memory.

He and Pfc. Dillon McGrath are combat engineers with 1st Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division and are deployed to Qayarrah, located south of Mosul. These two Soldiers use their guitars to express themselves and agree that music is a stress reliever after a long drive to a meeting or a day of patrolling.

"Playing guitar is like euphoria to me. It doesn't matter what's going on or how horrible the day could be. I don't care what anybody has said or what kind of phone call I just had, as soon as I pick up my guitar, it just kind of flows," McGrath said.

The troops said that they got their love of music from their families, Pointer from his father and McGrath from his sister.

"I really like music, and the guitar was a way I could play music. Plus, my dad always played and I liked how it sounded, so I started playing," Pointer said.

Pointer, who hails from Little Rock, Ark., and several of his friends, organized a band in high school, and though he said they weren't very good, they played for their high school's talent show and later for the high school's news station.

At the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Center on Forward Operating Base Q'West, the musicians play in a small room that has been "soundproofed" with padding and decorated with music posters and instruments. Several guitars, old cymbals, amplifiers, keyboards, microphones and of course the Soldier's ever-present M4 rifles adorn the floor, taking up most of the real estate.

Usually, they are alone in the music room. Today, a drummer and an onlooker, enjoying the makeshift band's talent, joined the two Soldiers.

"This should be interesting," McGrath said. "Usually the drummers that show up here don't know what they're doing."

Immediately it was clear that this drummer was different. Following McGrath's lead, the drummer recognized the beat for every melody the two guitarists produced.

"I'm 80% deaf in this ear," the drummer said, pointing to his left ear. "I can't hear you guys."

McGrath and Pointer looked at each other with indifference. "With talent like that, you could be blind and deaf and we'd still use you in a band," McGrath said.

After planning jam sessions back at Fort Hood with their new drummer, the guitarists headed back to their sleeping quarters, following the unlit path by memory. Refreshed, the young men were ready to face the next day's mission.

Every day is pretty stressful," McGrath, who is a native of Boyertown, Pa., said. "Everybody has their breaking point, but playing guitar gives me a clean slate, gets me pumped up to get the next day over with so I can come back and play guitar again."