So many updates...

Let's start off with the most important update. Mel got me my own guitar for Valentine's Day! Along with a music stand and a stool to sit on. It's an accoustic electric guitar because she knew I wanted to try an accoustic just to be able to compare and get a feel for which direction I wanted to go in. It was kind of timely because I had just broke my first guitar string on Mels B.C. Rich about 2 days before. It was tricky at first because it kept going out of tune and the strings were rather high off the fretboard.
At my next lesson, David examined the guitar and filed the top nut so that the strings could rest in it without sliding around and it also lowered the strings somewhat. After my fifth lesson he suggested that I take out the bottom nut and file it down about a 16th of an inch to lower the strings some more. I have taken it out and filed it down but I haven't put it back in yet.
Also, yesterday, at my last lesson we started to leard the scale and how to read music. I said that I wanted to learn how to play "Happy Birthday" for Striders birthday in May. We went through the song with playing the chords a few times and then he wrote the frets under the notes for playing the song just on the third string. It was fun to practice and hear the guitar sing the words.

chord switching

My main focus the past couple of practice sessions has been learning my new chords and swapping back and forth between more than just G and C. With the practice today, I was shaky but better than last time. I find that working through songs helps me more than just switching back and forth from one chord to another. I haven't been doing the upstrokes and bass picking as much, unless I get a chord several measures in a row. Then I will either throw in an upstroke or do a suspended chord just to keep my head moving and to try to keep timing. I have also been trying to concentrate on my right arm movement. I need to just keep my forearm still and move my wrist and fingers. Thats about it for what I'm doing now.

Third Lesson

Eight AM guitar lesson, what a way to start the day. I learned more about the naming of chords, about suspended chords, and bass chords. I have to practice (of course) some more chord changes and some new chords. I have some minor and some dominate 7th chords added to my list. I mostly have been practicing switching between G and C thinking that some of the others were easier. I found out, that if you don't practice them then they aren't easy. SHOCKER!!

We switched guitars for part of the lesson today because I kept bending my E string up while playing the G chord. David has a nice electric accoustic guitar with 11 gauge strings. They are thicker and don't bend as easy. It was real nice, I didn't want to trade back. We talked about putting on some new strings soon and oiling the finger board.

David told me to keep the guitar handy so I could pick it up whenever I had a few minutes to practice. We also printed out and practiced Dust in the Wind by Kansas. It has a lot of chords that are a bit new to me. Amsusp2, Amsusp4, C2,Csusp, and a bunch of others. They aren't as hard as they sounded at first. Suspended chords are just ways to make the major and minor chords more interesting by making them slightly different.

The guitar at the top is what I use, except in blue.

I've been so bad!!

I haven't practiced for over a week. I promised myself that I wouldn't let work get in the way, even if I was only able to squeeze in 10 to 15 minutes a day. I did okay though, not great by any stretch of the imagination, but better than I expected. Wasn't a great practice session either, I was in the living room with Strider trying to play along with me. I really have to do this everyday if I am ever going to get better and learn new stuff. As it is I have to reschedule my next lesson because of work so who knows when I will get something new. I guess that is okay because I still have to get my chord switches to be smoother. This time I posted after I practiced so I won't end this post with now I have to go practice, I can just go chill.

Lesson 2

Nothing major with this lesson. We practiced a lot of movable chords and upstrokes. It was fun and interesting and I learned (well, was taught anyway) about the chords and their relationship on the fretboard. We tried playing Leaving on a Jet Plane together, and I just stunk it up. He was just jumping in with notes and rhythm and I just sounded so monotonous. Straight tempo, 3 out of 4 beats per measure, strum, strum, strum, skip, strum, strum, strum, skip... my guitar sounded like it was trying to be an annoying 5 year old bothering his older brother. David thought I did good, I just need more practice. (years and years more practice) It was fun and the next thing I knew it was over.

I start back to work tomorrow so it will be interesting to see where I can squeeze in practice.....

Have to admit I'm getting better

getting better all the time. ---It's amazing what 3 to 4 practices can do! I am not a guitar genius now by any stretch of the imagination, but I can really tell the difference. I started just playing the first 2 beats per measure before switching chords and then only with really looking at my left hand. Now I can do 3 and sometimes 4 (depending on which chords) beats per measure. The C chord is still a tricky one to switch to just because of the 3 different frets I guess, but usually it is the easiest to switch from.
With my chord knowledge limited to the major, minor, and D7, the number of songs I can do is fairly small. Especially because I don't have any B chords and because when I look up songs to play the were by Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Dire Straits, and other classic masters. I'll either have to ask David today about some basic songs or learn some more chords. Most likely I should do both. I did find Mother by Pink Floyd that was only basic chords, so I have added that to my repertoire.

I got up at 5:15 this morning to practice and I was able to get in a good 30-40 minutes before the kids needed me. I won't be able to do this everyday because I should be at the gym at that time, but today I have a orientation at 4 so I will work out then.

I have my second lesson with David today at 2:00. I can't wait to see what I learn today!

practicing

I have practiced a couple times since my lesson. It can be boring. Just switching back and forth between a couple chords is aggravating and monotonous. I think I get it down okay, go and work on something else, come back and make the same mistakes. I know I only have done it a twice since my lesson and I need to be more patient. Like everyone says "If it was easy, then everybody would be doing it".
You just can't hear the song as you play chords as you can with notes. One step at a time, I'll get there. It is fun even though it can be frustrating.
I still need to come up with some more songs to be able to play. Right now I have Leaving on a Jet Plane, Country Roads, and Take it Easy. I need to look on Chordie.com to check out Sweet Caroline and Dust in the Wind.

Lets stop talking about it and go upstairs and practice.