A couple of years ago, I purchased a fairly decent acoustic dreadnought guitar. I had tried to learn guitar before, but living under the shadow of my child-prodigy brother who had taken all of Old Dominion University's music theory classes by the time he was out of third grade and who was probably born with a guitar in his hand, I got discouraged and learned clarinet and percussion instead.
For whatever reason, with the purchase of this guitar, I started playing it every day. I learned a few things, a cool picking pattern, some pretty chord progressions, but I couldn't really sit down and play. Then my beloved husband surprised me with guitar lessons. I've been doing that now for about three months. It's surprising what a little "direction" can do when you are trying to learn something new.
Next, for my birthday this past April, my husband gifted me with an electric guitar (Cort G200... strat type body, very nice) and two amps (Line 6 Spider IV 15a and Fender Frontman 25a). It's also amazing how much longer one can practice when not having to reach so far around the guitar... I am um, generously endowed, which can complicate guitar playing quite a bit if the body of the guitar is deep. It shortens my reach by about eight inches (you lady guitar players out there know what I am talking about. The electric guitar has a much thinner body. I'm in heaven. I also can play "backing tracks" on my ipod through the amps while I practice. It's much more fun to practice soloing around a scale with some percussion and bass in the background. Much more fun than a metronome for keeping tempo too.
At 46 years old, I'll never be a guitar hero. I'm not a teenage boy who can lock myself in my room for seven hours a day to play. I'm lucky if I get ten uninterrupted minutes in a row to practice. I have to steal a few minutes in the morning while my 7yo eats breakfast, a few in the evening while dinner is simmering/baking/boiling, and a few more before bed, after I've got kiddo to sleep, and Mom's diaper changed, meds done, etc... But you know what. I'm having fun. I'm making progress. And my new electric guitar is so ... Shiny!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment