Friday's with Bri: mini post - guitar lessons

My First Guitar

I received my first guitar a long time ago. It is a Yamaha acoustic; it sounds like...a guitar, plays like...a guitar (in the right person's hands) and I have no idea how to play it. I have taken piano lessons and learned to play the trumpet in my youth, so when I got the guitar I also bought a book called The Idiot's Guide to Guitar. I always dreamed of learning to play the guitar, being that cool guy by the campfire singing and playing. And now I finally had the guitar.

Turns out, that is a lot of pressure to put on yourself and all I could do is play the open strings… do do do do do do do do. It was sad. Every couple of days I would pick it up and play do do do do do do. It then turned to every couple of weeks between tries, then months, and finally years. I was nowhere near being that guy by the fire...

My birthday guitar

Meeting Jordan’s dad with his passion for music and playing instruments has been inspiring. Bill is an incredible guitarist and I hear about the lessons he is taking with Canadian blues great J.W. Jones, and how he is actually teaching the teacher some tricks! He has an amazing collection of Vantage guitars.

Jordan and her parents got me a guitar for my birthday last year, and it is beautiful. It is the guitar I always wanted, a sunburst orange electric, and every time I play Guitar Hero I make my virtual guitar look like this one. My one fear is that the dreaded monthly session of do do do do do do do do do do will occur if I don't get some lessons. So what better idea than to finally get some lessons from my new family’s great guitar players: Jordan and Bill. Finally, after years of my first guitar collecting dust, and the new one being licked more than played, I am finally learning how to play it. 

So far I have been taking lessons for a month now and its progressing well. I am learning to play House of the rising sun, Blackbird and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It is a fantastic thing that Jordan and I are doing together and it gives us a fun activity to do with Bill. 

And hey, I can finally feel good about going into a music store, picking up a guitar, and playing with it.

Keep checking back in and I may even post a video soon, of us playing!