Guitar coming along
As indicated, I took my first guitar lesson on Tuesday, 4 days ago. Our 8-year-old daughter took HER first lesson on Friday. Out teacher, Matt Lister, is absolutely fantastic. In the period of a half-hour lesson he was able to get each of us (separately) playing songs and actually using the instrument. To me, that’s huge. My first lesson was actually fun, and so was our daughter’s, and that’s a good thing. After all, that’s the goal, right?
Practice — especially the first day or two — was quite painful. The strings felt like fiery needles to the fingertips on my left hand, but sure enough even that’s (slowly) getting better. Practicing 15-to-20 minutes per day has been enough to push through the pain, have some fun, gain some facility, and begin to build up those calluses. It’s odd to notice the feeling slowly slipping away from my fingertips. Typing has become a whole new experience. Not bad, just… new.
And I guess that’s the point of this: a whole new experience. I’m very much looking forward to practicing together with my daughter this weekend, as well as my next lesson on Tuesday!
August 2nd, 2008 at 3:28 am
That’s great, Dave. Congratulations on finding a good guitar teacher out there; there are a lot of bad ones. It’s also good that you are enjoying it at an early stage, a lot of people are put off by the early pain of not being able to do much. I hope you both continue the interest and especially continue together.
August 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 am
That’s great, Dave. Congratulations on finding a good guitar teacher out there; there are a lot of bad ones. It’s also good that you are enjoying it at an early stage, a lot of people are put off by the early pain of not being able to do much. I hope you both continue the interest and especially continue together.
August 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pm
The fingertip pain can be greatly eased by a high quality guitar if you decide you will continue with the instrument. Some callousing will likely always remain, but a good guitar can be the difference between *really* enjoying it and just using it, in the same way that you can spread cold butter on a bread after a fashion, but not recommend it. A really good guitar plays itself the way creamy butter spreads nicely on your toast.
I’m a MGG fan for several months now, but I’ve been playing guitar for 38 years. Glad you’re getting into it. Found you hear as I’m trying out twitter and wanted to someone to follow.
August 3rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
The fingertip pain can be greatly eased by a high quality guitar if you decide you will continue with the instrument. Some callousing will likely always remain, but a good guitar can be the difference between *really* enjoying it and just using it, in the same way that you can spread cold butter on a bread after a fashion, but not recommend it. A really good guitar plays itself the way creamy butter spreads nicely on your toast.
I’m a MGG fan for several months now, but I’ve been playing guitar for 38 years. Glad you’re getting into it. Found you hear as I’m trying out twitter and wanted to someone to follow.