The Journey Begins

So I did it.  I walked in to the music store and bought an electric guitar.  I've thought about doing this for years, but there was always a reason not to buy it.  But not this time.  I bought the guitar.  I bought the amp.  I bought the cable.  I bought a soft case.  I bought several picks.  I bought a beginners book. (I since found that the book is horrible.)  I brought it home.  I plugged it all in.  I turned it on, and what followed was both horrible and amazing.  It hurt, and yet somehow, it was alright.  I had no idea what I was doing, but it didn't matter.  I was making this guitar sing.  Some would argue it was more of a death scream, but they just didn't understand.  My 6 year old son Alex stood 2 feet away, a look of wonder on his face.  I walked over and pushed the "metal" preset on the amp.  The noise changed, and my son immediately responded.  "Rock out, Dad!".  I spent a good couple hours playing with the thing.  I learned a chord.  I tried to play Stairway to Heaven.  I made the guitar make sounds that sounded more like a crazed chipmonk.  It wasn't really music, but it was from me.  I think my son "got it".

The next several days I did the same thing, and tried to go through the book I bought.  I finally figured out that the book was complete garbage.  I went looking for another book and ended up with The Complete Idiot's Guide To Playing Rock Guitar.  I'm much happier with this.  I feel like I have a curriculum to follow.  I'm being taught stuff.  I admit that my years of playing Trumpet are coming in handy, as I already know how to read music, and understand a lot of what is being talked about.  Still, there's a lot to learn.  I'm working on a song at the end of Chapter 3.  I can't seem to get myself to move forward until I can play it.  But I don't care, because it's fun.  I sat in front of the TV watching a movie with the wife last night strumming out the parts of the song I was learning.  I still got just as much out of the movie. =D

The final development?  We signed up my 6 year old(Alex) for guitar lessons.  He's high functioning autistic.  This might actually give him an advantage.  When he focuses on something, he really shuts out everything else.  He's been wild about guitars for weeks since I bought the guitar.  And here's the cool part.  It only cost me twice as much to sign myself up for lessons as well.  So I did.  =D  $195 for 8 lessons... 4 for me and 4 for Alex.  They start on Wednesday.  I'll let you know how it goes.