Neglect.

I feel terrible for neglecting my blog, but in contrast, I haven't neglected my guitar. I've been practicing a few times a week and am feeling better and better each time. I'm having a bit of trouble singing and strumming for one song, doing the 2 things at once is throwing me off, but I'm optimistic I will get the hang of it eventually. Oh and last week, Elora came by for a jam session, in which my dad got to listen in and was astounded at our skills (and especially my singing, cause he's never heard me seriously sing before).

Anyway, today I started learning a new song for kicks, and have been slaving away at my guitar for two hours. My fingers are in some serious pain, but it was worth it. I'm starting to geniunly enjoy the guitar, and it brings me joy to play something.
I took some photos, with a timer while I was practicing. I have made some videos, but youtube wouldn't allow me to upload them, so I don't know if that'll happen any time soon. Oh and I've been experiencing some wierd twangy sound with my guitar, only with certain chords (lower ones), and don't know why. I've tried pressing harder on the strings, but it still does it. Anyone have any idea why?

Being the teacher.

Tonight I had the opportunity to be the teacher. My good friend Lisa got a hold of me about a week ago telling me how she was trying to learn the guitar and wanted to know how I was doing since I was also learning for this class. She was really starting to get frustrated and ready to throw the idea of learning the guitar out the window, but I was able to change her mind. I had her come over tonight for a "jam" session.
She brought over her guitar and I had her strum for me. The first thing, it was WAY out of tune. So I brought out Eduardo and strum mine, to show her how it should actually sound like. I tuned it a little for her but than decided it would be best if she learned how to tune it herself, so she knows how to do it when I'm not around. I also showed her a free guitar tunning website if she ever needed one.
Then I basically told Lisa what Denise told us in class: to learn the chords D, A and G. I showed her using my guitar, than showed her the actual chords from the hand outs I had. With those chords I than showed her the song, Leaving on a jet plane, and some other easy songs using those 3 chords or less. I could totally see that twinkle in her eye of encouragment as it now seemed more achievable than before. Lisa had the same problem, she didn't know where to start. She struggled finding helpful videos, videos that didn't just teach you of the different parts on the guitar, but began with easy chords and familiar songs that only used a few chords. Their is no real filter on youtube, so unless you have hours to kill, you won't find a very ressourful video.
So I ended up making Lisa some copies of my sheets and e-mailed her this site where you can find almost any song in either chord or tab form. She was a lot happier now knowing just some basics, and I felt really (as lame as this sounds) proud of myself even with the little knowledge that I have, that I could help one person. This experience definitly makes me feel more confident and motivates me to continue and learn more so the next time Lisa and I hang out, I can show her some new stuff.