On the week of February 14th, I decided that now was the time to learn how to play the guitar. That Saturday (the 20th), I went to Island Guitars and, amidst information overload, picked up my first guitar. An Epiphone DR-90. It was part of a player pack, meaning it came with the guitar, a bag, guitar strap, tuner, picks, extra strings and a DVD. The folks at Island Guitars were even nice enough to toss in a cleaning cloth too.

David Chang was the person who was primarily helping me, showing me their selections of acoustic guitars and introducing me to the complexities of choosing one. He then gave me breathing room to look through the selections and see if there were any that “called out” to me. Being a complete newbie, however, hampered whatever siren call any guitar may have cooed my way. Instead, I went back to David and asked if he could recommend something to start with. Informing me of the player pack and all it came with, I was sold on it. The guitar is good quality but not an immense investment. Likewise, the bag isn’t the best but good enough for my first guitar. It was such a joy to have the guitar in my hands even if I had no knowledge of any chords, much less know how to hold it properly, and I couldn’t wait to get started learning.

For lessons, Island Guitars lets a lady come in to teach. I left my number in hopes of beginning my (Jedi) training soon. In the meantime, I downloaded the Garageband guitar tutorials (the free ones) and learned the first three chords (E, G and C) they teach as well as a couple strumming patterns. Being as it were, the lessons weren’t as good as a real teacher being right beside you, but they were good enough to help prepare me for what was to come both physically and mentally. For the physical side, I worked on building up finger strength and getting my fingers accustomed to the steel strings (still am, but a headstart is a headstart). When I first started, I barely could hold the strings down for a few minutes, but now as I practice more, I can hold the strings down for longer periods of time. The mental side was learning the strings both the numbering and their notes (tones?). I had a very difficult time learning chord progression via the Garageband tutorials. Tim, the guy teaching in the videos, said to practice switching between chords as fast and smooth as possible but I didn’t know when to switch between strumming and would just avoid strumming while I practiced the chord progressions. I previewed the advanced lessons but never progressed further than the first two as I didn’t have a good grasp on the second lesson.

Then, the instructor at Island Guitars called me and we were able to set up an appointment for my first lesson, which was held on Friday the 26th. That thirty minute lesson taught me an immense amount. Good hand placement and proper grip strength (I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to strangle the neck; though I still have problems loosening the pressure). The teacher, Ilisa Peralta, got it in my head to keep strumming and not to stop to change chords. She had me in immediate chord progression repetition and while I sounded horrible, she did say I was quite well off. I’m very self-critical and think she was just saying that. However, that didn’t stop me from having fun, which is exactly what she wants to make the lessons… fun.

The song she was teaching me was Ku’u Morning Dew, although it didn’t sound anything like the majority of the youtube videos. While my suckitude was large, the dissimilarities also stemmed from the strumming patterns. Definitely not a big deal because I wouldn’t be able to do the strumming that folks do (nor the slack key style itself). Before I knew it, the lesson was over and she had just introduced Yakety Yak. She not only teaches how to play, but also the fundamentals like what tones, chords and keys are so it’s great stuff.

It was quite exhilarating and I feel very good about starting this up, even if I do have to tighten my spending belt more now. This, I believe, is a great investment in both time and money. At home, I try to get in at least an hour of practice and it’s going well so far. I even saw marked improvement in my chord progression this past Sunday compared to how I did on Friday. Earlier tonight, after I practiced the first song, I took a stab at Yakety Yak. Come this Friday, I hope to do well on the chords for both songs but expect I’ll need coaching on how to better place my fingers as I tend to slightly hit other strings. Short stubby fingers ftw, lawl.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1, 2010 at 11:36 pm and is filed under Guitar Stuff, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.