As a professional educator who is supposed to create “lifelong learners,” I feel it’s important for me to be one myself. In addition to learning Spanish, I am trying to learn to play guitar. I have really always wanted to play guitar but either I didn’t have the means (ie. a guitar to play) or I didn’t really know what to do.

Today, the Internet has a confusing multitude of sites and places for you to go. It’s possible, I think, to learn today in ways that were impossible only a decade ago. It’s another one of those moments where I think, “How did we live without this stuff?” There is almost too much information out there.

What I’m adding, I guess, is my experience in trying to learn and what I’m learning to do. You won’t find instructional theory here, or chord charts. But, instead, I plan to journal my process.

I started about a month ago. My stepson got a guitar and my daughter got a flute in July. The daughter got some lessons, practiced a lot, and was able to join her middle school band! I was so jealous because she appears to have actual musical talent! I always wanted to have musical talent! Maybe I could do it she could. So, I picked up my stepson’s guitar and started trying to learn based on the stuff I saw on the ‘Net. I found http://www.justinguitar.com for one. I also bought a Hal Leonard Essentials for Guitar  book that was similar to what my daughter had for flute.

After about a week, I decided to get my own guitar. This is where I made a mistake I hope others could avoid.

I bought a very inexpensive guitar.

I purchased an Epiphone DR-100 which is not a bad guitar. But, it’s not a good guitar either. What I should have done instead was to read just a bit further and realize that getting a decent starter guitar was a better idea. I thought, “Well, what if I don’t really like it? I don’t want to buy an expensive guitar and then not play it.”

Of course, buying an expensive guitar might be the reason I kept playing since I didn’t want the money to go to waste. I didn’t look at it that way.

Most importantly, I think it’s important to have a guitar you really like and that is a quality instrument. For me, that is the Yamaha FG700s. Go look around the Internet and you will see it is universally praised as a great entry-level guitar that is good enough to last you years. And, some people say it sounds good enough to stand amongst the Martins, Taylors, and Guilds that cost much more. I can’t say that for sure, but it makes me happy to think I have a guitar like that to play.

I can say it’s a really nice guitar for $200. Every time I play it I catch myself thinking, “Wow, that’s pretty!” It has a really nice sparkle and resonance in the tone that I very much admire. And, it keeps me wanting to play. I recently found some measurements online and checked. The factory setup is pretty good. The action is a little high but completely acceptable.

Okay, so that’s my first piece of advice. Don’t buy the least expensive guitar. Get a decent instrument. This Yamaha is the equal of any $400 – $600 guitar you can find. That I can can say pretty confidently. It’s important, I think to get a solid top on your guitar, for sound quality. This one has a solid spruce top.

My second piece of advice is to make sure you have light gauge strings. It’s easier on your fingers. My third piece of advice is practice a little bit, at least, every day. I shoot for about 30 minutes per day. Once per week my stepson and I go to a group guitar class through the city. It’s inexpensive but worth it to have an actual teacher watching you and correcting your issues. There’s also that aspect of having accountability to someone. I don’t want to show up and not have practiced the things from last week and have the teacher realize I haven’t been putting in the work.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing. I’ve been practicing my chords like A, E, D, C, G, G7, A7, D7, E7, and the dreaded B7. Why dreaded? It’s the only chord I’ve been working on that uses all four fingers! I have a lot of trouble getting all the fingers on the strings and not muting nearby strings. But, I have to say that when I first started with that chord, it just was a dull thud. I have definitely noticed that it is getting easier over time. Today, it still has a couple muted strings here and there, but I can usually get it to ring a bit better.

My friend Pat says it’s about developing touch. I also know it’s about muscle memory. Like so many things, to learn it is to repeat it. It takes hundreds, if not thousands, of repetitions, for the brain to internalize it and the muscles to memorize the movement.

I’m gonna go now and practice for a little bit. I plan to update as I go. Until then…