Ziggy's Mom Played Guitar.......

 ...while his dad played bass.

Last November, Hal told me he once tried to learn electric bass guitar in school when he was about 13. But the school had fewer basses than guys wanting to learn and because Hal was tall the teacher decided he would be the one to tackle the double bass. So much for Hal's fledging rock star career. So, as it was Black Friday weekend (the buying frenzy in the US) I suggested he go ahead and get himself a bass and teach himself to play. So, he went on Amazon, and he did just that, ordered a cheap bass with a small practice amp, etc. This made him extremely happy.

Ziggy's Dad

Now there I was sitting next to him while he's searching the website and it occurred to me that I once told me parents when I was around 12, 14, can't remember, that I wanted to learn guitar. I had played recorder in second grade and in 3rd switched to clarinet. It all went nowhere, and I don't really remember why though I have told people for decades my parents didn't like hearing me practice Jingle Bells in July. For all I know it could have been the cost of renting the instrument, maybe I wasn't that good, who knows? But, back to last November, while Hal was merrily loading his Amazon cart, I wondered why the heck wasn't I buying myself a guitar and learning to play it, too?

So, onto Amazon I also went and looked and looked and had no clue what to get. I had always figured in my past musings about playing guitar that I would someday get an acoustic, possibly a used one, no amp required, and I could sit around outside and strum away, etc. Hal convinced me to go with an electric guitar. We knew there was a small guitar store in the nearby town, but I didn't want to get a hard sell, or possibly be pushed into whatever they had. Plus, Amazon was right there.

All I knew about electric guitars were the brands Fender and Gibson. I looked, pondered, read many, many reviews and decided on a Squier Bullet by Fender Stratocaster, made in Indonesia. It came in 2 colors, black/white and brown sunburst, the latter the color of Hal's bass. I opted for the black and white one. It didn't come with anything, not even a pick or guitar strap. Hal gave me his picks, bass players seldom use them apparently, and his wimpy strap as he bought a nicer one. I have since bought a nicer strap as well. 

Shall I name him Eric?

Of course, I was out of town when it arrived, so I didn't get to open the box for a few days. It was now December and I had no idea what to do with it (though I did discover you can hear the strings without an amp), and the "manual" was laughable, Next stop, the internet to look for lessons. I found an English guy on You Tube and learned the E major, E minor and one other easy variation and watched his next video. There didn't seem a rhyme or reason to the lessons, so I looked around some more. Stumbled upon a phone app from Justin Guitar. Downloaded that and listened to this nice, likeable man from Australia tell me useful things like how to hold the guitar, how to hold a pick, aka a plectrum, how to tune a guitar, a very important thing and easy to do now with these little electronic tuners that Hal happened to already get for me. 

The first lessons were free, so as I sat on the edge of the bed, (Hal practiced in the TV room) I learned about the A and D major chords, a little about strumming, and practiced 3 karaoke style songs, none of which I had heard before or even particularly cared about. But it was something as I was now learning how to switch between chords!

Then my sister her boyfriend and Ember arrived, the holidays quickly intervened though I still managed to practice the 20 minutes a day recommended by Justin and built up my callouses, so the metal strings didn't hurt anymore. And they really did hurt a lot for the first couple of weeks. Two days after Christmas I came down with Covid, followed by Hal a day later and neither of us felt like doing anything again till mid-January. I lost all my callouses.

I debated buying the phone app for the rest of the beginner classes and the karaoke style play along thing, but then it occurred to me to look for Justin Guitar on the internet. And there it was, everything "free" and available (there are a few paid for specialty lessons). I re-watched all the videos I had watched on the app and have been continuing on. I now count my actual learning from about Jan 25th when I started with the website. As of this writing I can play A major and minor, D major and minor, E major and minor as well as C major though that is still a bit "fuzzy" need lots of practice to perfect it.

I'm also learning a few songs, but more on that later. It's time to make dinner.

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