Oowweee...

Alright... Who forgot to warn me about the pain that follows learning to play the guitar?



I started messing around last night, after a quick trip to target for a tuner and some picks. It was all fine and dandy until about 20 minutes into it.



I found this website online that, until I can get some lessons or a DVD or something, will teach be basics of guitar play (and it's pretty impressive and easy to follow, too!). It teaches you how to tune your guitar, what all the parts are called, the proper way to hold it, and then the musical stuff.




So this is a little bit of what I learned last night:


- The strings on the guitar are E-A-D-G-B-E (which I'll remember by thinking eat all day, get big easy).
- Each fret raised the pitch of the string by a half step.
- When tuning, tightening the string raises the pitch, while loosening it lowers the pitch.
- Playing a string, while not touching any part of it is called playing the string "open".




And the biggest thing that I learned last night about playing the guitar? It's SO not as easy as it looks. So the tips of about 3 of my fingers are pretty much hurting, today. But ya know what? I think it'll be worth it. Apparently my fingers will eventually start to callous up and not hurt so much. And hopefully by then I'll have at least mastered my first chord!!


So it's not coming as easily as I'd hope it would, but I guess that would mean I wouldn't appreciate it nearly as much, either. So it seems to be a fair trade, I suppose.




For those of you whom already know how to play the guitar - rock on! You guys make it look wicked easy, and it's SO not!! Hopefully I'll be one of you some day. But until then, any tops on how to keep from killing your fingers? It's actually hurting as I type this blog...








*sniffle sniffle*

Stella

Here she is. I picked her up in Annapolis last night - ain't she a beaut? She's simple. Nothing too fancy - just does what she's made to do... make music.

So, I guess you could say we have some things in common, so far. :-)

I haven't really gotten to know her all that well, yet, but that will come. I'm super excited to learn how to play, and can't WAIT to get started!

But, alas... I have to wait. *sigh* She's WAY out of tune, at the moment. I can't really blame her, though - she hasn't been played in about 2 years, so... I'd probably be a bit out of tune, too.

Okay - I think I'm starting to sound a bit odd, here. Forgive me. I just wanted to introduce you two since you'll be hearing a lot more about her in the coming blogs, I'm sure.

Now that you've met, I'll be on my way for the day. If I get bored, I'll probably be back. But until then, Happy Thursday - I hope you have a blasty-blast!

Asta Shasta!

So I heard...

back from "those people", and guess who's getting a guitar tonight?!


ME!! Yep that's right - I'm leaving work to go meet them in Annapolis to pay and pick it up. SOOOO excited!! *EEK*





Toodles! :-D

PS: Anyone got some old accessories I can have for cheap or... I dunno... say, free?!

That ol' Gee-Tar

Well, I found a guitar on Craigslist and *fingers crossed* I'm really hoping that this guy will get back to me... like... YESTERDAY!!!

According to the listing, he bought it for his daughter and she's only used it about two times. So he's only asking for $125. :-) I'm SUPER excited!! AND - the real kicker... McStudly said I can go for it!! Well, his actual words were "It's up to you, babe." So that means yes - SCORE!!!


I've been itching to learn since high school, so I'm really praying this will all work out. It's in the price range (really cheap) and it's WAY local (as in only about than 10 mins from our house). Here's hoping!!







Now... I just gotta figure out how to play the dang thing, if I get it!!

Feeling Lead...

It's an interesting concept. Do you ever felt impressed to do something, or go a certain direction, but you don't know why? Like... your mind knows something it won't tell you?

Well, I've been having a day week YEAR like that, I suppose. I feel like there's SO much to life that I'm missing, because I make silly excuses. But NOT anymore!! Well... maybe just a few here and there.


ANYwho - McStudly and I should be getting our tax refund within a week or two. We opted for direct deposit (why didn't I do this SOONER?!) and are eagerly awaiting our refund, to include our first time home buyers credit. This will free us of over HALF of the debt we currently have, and that means less stress (not that it keeps me up at night) and more time to dream. :-)


Debt doesn't really worry me, because we are still living within our means - just paying it off and not adding to it. We don't worry about phone calls from creditors and we have a pay-off plan. But after this refund arrives, we'll have a SINGLE blob (blog - a very technical financial term, of course) of debt on our credit. Wait - scratch that... a single blob outside of our mortgage and car payments, that is. For us - that's progress.

We're still paying off our wedding, so this will make it FINALLY almost complete. PLUS - with our pay-off plan, after you pay one debt off in full, you apply that amount to the next blob of debt, and you are paying your debt off at an exponential rate. It's amazing. So in NO time, we'll be done with this blob, too, and we'll get to start paying off our cars, AND finally fix up the house and add a little bit of "us" to it. :-)


This isn't exactly where I intended this blog to go, but oh well. It went there. So no, moving on!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paying off all of this debt just adds a little more breathing room, and a chance to pursue a few other things that I've been putting off, so as not to add to debt, or anything like that. Hopefully, I'll get to buy a rather cheap guitar and finally start to learn how to play. I've considered getting a keyboard, but guitar is the one I REALLY want. As awesome as keyboards are, I MUCH prefer the sound of real piano, so... it's never been a big hit with me.

ANYWHO - this means adding to the whole song-writing thing. I've been working on a few other songs, but always get stuck in trying to make note of the melody and the ideas in my head for the music, since I'm not one of those people who can accurately jot down what notes I'm singing or thinking. That'll come, I'm sure, but I gotta work to get there, ya know?

So, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to work on it. And paying off all of this debt will make it that much more possible. The only thing that would make it even better? Being able to find a nice sounding guitar for UBER cheap. I check craigslist pretty regularly, and occasionally take a gander on ebay, but... nothing so far.

Anyone cleaning out their closet full of musical instruments that are in great working condition anytime soon? Yeah. I won't hold my breath on that one. But a girl can dream, right?




Right. And in the meantime, I'll just keep working with what I've got.

La Musica

I think I finally decided it. In fact - I know I did.

I want to learn to play guitar.

There - I've said it. I played piano when I was younger, and was pretty dang good at it, if I do say so myself. But the problem with a piano - you can't take it with you. And who wants to strap on a keyboard, right?! Plus - I don't think I could get back into piano without having one at home to practice on, and then there's the problem with reading music... don't get me started. I missed the bus on this one. (FYI - my children will be taught to read music at a VERY young age. If they decide they don't want to be musical later in life, then fine. But it won't be for lack of education!) But with the guitar - you just read the note... I mean... it's spelled out for you. There's no "third line up... that's... every good boy... that's a B... no play a B". Noo... it just tells you what to play. It says "B" So there... you play a B.

So I want to play the guitar.

The problem - we can't buy one, right now. Financially, it's not a good time. We're getting debt under control. Getting ready to buy a house. Living on a budget, for the time being. So buying a guitar won't work for now.

BUT it WILL HAPPEN!

Eventually... maybe not anytime soon, but it will. And I'm excited!!

PS - know any good methods of teaching yourself how to play?! Cause I don't want to take lessons... that's more money... and why not learn on your own, right? Lemme know!

Peace out!