Sure, I'd be happy to walk you through the solution.
1. The first step is to rewrite the absolute value term in the equation to make it a little easier to work with. We can write |a| as 4|a|/4 to help solve the equation in fractional terms. This makes our equation 4|a| - 3/4 = -5/8.
2. Now, multiply every term by 4 to get rid of the fractions. This result in 4*4|a| - 4*3/4 = 4*-5/8, which simplifies to 4|a| - 3 = -5/2.
3. In order to solve for |a|, we'll need to isolate it on one side of the equation. To do this, add 3 to both sides, which gives 4|a| = -5/2 + 3.
4. Simplify the right side of the equation to get 4|a| = 1/2.
5. From here, divide each side by 4 in order to solve for |a|. This gives us |a| = (1/2) / 4.
6. Simplify |a| to get |a| = 1/8.
7. Now that we found |a| = 1/8, we know that a can be positive or negative because it's the absolute value of a number. Therefore, the solutions to the original equation |a| - 3/4 = -5/8 are a = 1/8 and a = -1/8.