#2 Learning my first song! (and also chords) (and C scale)

If you read my previous post, you’d know I broke a guitar string, and I’m sure you’ve been wondering if it got fixed. It did. All it took was taking pulling off the bridge pin and the old string, putting on the new string with the bridge pin. Then the new string was stuck through and wound around the capstan until the string was tight. Now you’ve got a brand new string!

I've gathered some knowledge on the guitar over the last week, for starters I’ve learned how to tune the guitar.  I use a tuner, so after I figured out which way to twist the knob to make the string tighter or looser tuning became easy. I would just keep twisting the knob until the tuner lit up green. As far as playing goes, I’ve learned each individual note, and my C chord is literal fire.

On top of that lit C scale, I’ve also tried my hand at playing some chords. I started off with C and G7, since these two were very similar to each other. It shouldn’t be too hard, just press in the right place and strum, right? Well no. What happened to me was that while pressing one string, my finger would accidentally touch another string making the chords sound off. To solve this dilemma of mine I’d looked at this video:

After applying the tips mentioned in the video I started to play chords clearly more often, so I started to learn D, A, and E. Despite my efforts so far, it’s still going to take some practice before I can switch between chords quickly. (right now it takes me a few seconds to set up and play a chord.)

Anyway, while I was having trouble with chords, I had also found an easy version of Jingle Bells without chords. I figured it wouldn’t be too hard so I started to play,

(My brother pops his head in like half way through. Doesn't know how to keep his head out of the shot.)

I’ll continue to improve it, and then move onto a song with chords. (Probably Streets of Laredo, and I have got to find a song to play after that.) Anyway, I’ve got to go eat some dinner now. I’ll let you know more about how I progress with the songs and chords next week.

#1 The beginning. (I've already broken a string)

So I’ve decided to learn the guitar! Believe it or not, I was actually planning to learn guitar anyway, but had just never got around to doing it. When the Genius Project came around I decided to take advantage of the opportunity, and bam! Now I’m learning another instrument. (I already play the piano)

Getting my materials was easy enough. I just had to pick up some old guitar stuff from my grandfather’s house which he had bought but never gotten around to using himself. The stuff I’d gotten from him was a tuner, a guitar, a pick, and a guitar book (in case you were wondering).

Over the next few weeks I plan to do a few things with the guitar. I’ll start by learning some chords and memorizing where to press to play each note. Once I can play the chords one after another without much pausing I’ll try a couple songs. First I’ll learn Jingle Bells and after it begins to sound good are try Streets of Laredo.

I was anxious to get started, so I began learning some basic things about the guitar last weekend. I’d learned that the lines running along the guitar were called frets, and that the best place the press down was right behind the fret. I got this information from The Standard Guitar Method, by Dick Bennett. I also determined which chords I’m going to learn, and how to play them. It’s explained very well in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzb7OBccXU8  (if you’re interested)

Of course there are going to be setbacks that come with learning something new, and already I’ve hit one. While attempting to tune the guitar, I twisted the knob for the sixth string (e) the wrong way and it snapped off. The good news is I’m getting it fixed on Friday, but I won’t be able to play any chords that require that sixth string just yet. I’ll let you know how the chords are coming along next week.