Posts tagged guitar
Random Picture Post
Jul 21st
Just took this from my phone, using an app called “Retro Camera“. I plan on playing with it tomorrow when there is more light, but I had to share this off the cuff shot of my guitar. I love it!
Monday Happy List… on Tuesday
Jul 20th
Yes, I know; it’s Tuesday, and I didn’t post at all yesterday. I was suffering from allergies, a headache, and an extended bout of extreme grumpiness. Rawr.
However, I would like to fill in the gap that I left yesterday by not posting. Here, in random order, are five things that make me happy:
- Zyrtec (cetirizine): It’s like the nuclear weapon of over-the-counter allergy medications. One a day, and all my sniffles are gone. Unfortunately, it can have the side effect of putting me in a coma, so we’ll see how that works out today. So far, so good.
- David Eddings, author: I just got finished reading Belgarath the Sorcerer for I think the 30th time, and it’s just as fun to read every single time. What a wonderful character. Warning: read all of The Belgariad (5 books) and all of The Malloreon (another 5 books) before reading this one. It’s an in-depth look at one character from those stories, and reading it without reading the others… well, it would be a shame. Follow this one up with Polgara the Sorceress, you’ll be glad you did.
- Air conditioning: seriously, how did anyone ever live in the desert before air conditioning? It was 104° F here over the weekend. I think I would have expired. Seriously. At least the humidity was only about 10%, so the swamp cooler worked wonderfully.
- justinguitar.com: I’m (slowly) learning how to play my new guitar, and since I can’t afford lessons at the moment, this guy is awesome. Step by step videos for the absolute raw beginner. I love it. I now know three whole chords, and I may be stringing them together into a song after a bit more practice.
- Ravelry: Have I mentioned Ravelry lately? I haven’t been knitting much because of the heat, but if you knit (or crochet), this is the place on the internet to go for all your fibery needs. If you don’t feel like knitting (or talking about knitting), there’s a forum there for everyone, on just about every topic under the sun.
Random guitar related post
Jul 15th
I managed to get out of the house for a bit today, and drove down to the music store. I wanted to get some picks for my guitar, but I had no idea what kind of picks to get. So, I got an assortment of light to medium picks in assorted flavors and colors.
I’m leaning toward liking the Fender “thin” picks the most, but the others all work pretty well too.
I bought a lesson book for blues guitar, but I think it’s not quite so “beginner” as I think I need. Right now, I’m doing the video lessons at justinguitar.com, and they start and the beginning beginner level that’s working for me. The blues guitar lessons will come later, I think.
I think I’m done playing for today, though.. my fingers hurt.
UPS brings me another present…
Jul 14th
My guitar was on the porch when I came home. UPS came early today, they usually don’t come until around 4-5pm.
I’m really excited about this. First thing I did (after taking pictures of the unboxing) was to get it in tune. Brian told me about a guitar tuning app for the Android called gStrings. Once I figured out how to use it, it was awesome. If you have a guitar and an Android phone, give this app a try. Seriously. It’s a chromatic tuner. For free. Scan the QR code with your phone to download it.
If anyone knows good “total noob guitar lessons” website, feel free to link it in the comments. I’m just going to pretend I’ve never played and start from scratch. It’s been 25 years. I’ve forgotten 98% of everything I learned (though I mostly remembered how to tune a guitar, which made me happy). I need lessons.
This is going to be fun. :)
Guitar
Jul 11th
I haven’t played guitar in 25 years. I had a guitar that I loved (and played all the time) when I was in junior high/high school, but it got broken in our move to Japan and I never replaced it. I thought about it, often, but for some reason it was never my main priority. So here I am, 25 years later, with no guitar. Until now.
Have I mentioned that I’m married to a musician? A man who carries his guitar through the house and plays it constantly? Someone who will play his guitar during breaks in WoW ICC raids? Yeah. I’ve mentioned to him on several occasions that I’d like to play again, and he was definitely listening.
I got an unexpected check for $100 on Friday, and I dithered for a little while on what to do with it, and wound up sticking it in savings. Apparently Brian had other ideas… he felt I should spend it on myself, and suggested that I should get a guitar. I was actually really surprised; I’d put it out of my mind (like everything, lately), but he hadn’t. Something just clicked. It just seemed like the perfect thing to get. Unfortunately, I don’t really know anything about buying guitars, so I had him pick one out for me.
This is what’s coming to my house next week:
What’s really awesome about this is that this is a $99 guitar, on sale for $35! Perfect for a starter guitar, and it got great reviews at Musician’s Friend. I’m really looking forward to it getting here… to the point where I’m looking at the UPS tracking number every few hours to see when it actually starts its trip here.
I kind of feel silly for being so excited over a $35 guitar, but it’s almost bringing tears to my eyes. It feels so good to know that someone cares, and listens, and thinks about me so much.
I better stop before I get too gushy. Needless to say, I’m really excited about this. Updates to come. Oh… the rest of the money? New video card for my computer to replace my aging card. I feel so spoiled.
