Guitar

I'm not sure if I posted this, or if you read it, but about a year and a half ago, following a fancy, I picked up a guitar. From Walmart. In Nashville. This guitar.

I picked at it a little, having practically never touched a guitar before in my life. This chord, that chord. Pling pling pling pling.

I hit a couple of chord and tab websites. This one is a good'n. Simple legend for chords. Man - tab websites are a pain in the ass. Its like crummy porn sites - more advertisements than there is content. Anyway, I made little cheat cards for a half a dozen songs, and could strum along to songs like Polyester Bride, When September Ends, Horse with No Name, Hurt, Edelweiss, and maybe one or two others. A little slow and disjointed maybe, but at least recognizable.

So, like all things that I pick up, I put it back down. My guitar sat, relatively untouched, for about a year. Let me quickly comment though, that for a hundred bucks at walmart, this is a damn fine guitar. I'm no expert, but the sound is good. My brother-in-law, who does play the guitar, seems content enough to pick at it when he comes down to visit.

Anyway. I picked it up again recently. Don't know what inspired me to grab it, really. But I grabbed it, and started trying to recall the couple of chords that I knew. I cheated, and went back to the chords chart - and kinda stopped there. Like I said - tabs sites are a pain in the ass.

Now: Guitar Chords and A Little Confidence

So the big guitar chords are A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. There are a number of varieties of each chord. But my point here, for you guitar people that have flocked here seeking advice, is that there are apparently 3 really easy chords, 1 easy chord, 1 kinda tough chord, and 2 chords that I cannot figure out how to play. A, D and G: Easy as Pie. E: Pretty easy. C: I have a little trouble with, and B, F: huh? Man, I don't have that many fingers, and the ones that I do have aren't that long.

I love the transition of D to A to G and back to A and then D, then back up again, ad nauseum, just mix up the rhythm a little. DAG/GAD

I'm providing hours of entertainment for myself with these simple chords. If I was a little more bold/enterprising, I'd make audio recordings and post em. But I ain't there yet.

But speaking of confidence, I've noticed some interesting differences in the two times that I've picked up the guitar. Sure: the first time I was starting totally from scratch, while this time I was just starting mostly from scratch. Still - I have not really been in dire need of trying to do a terribly terrible cover of someone elses song - I've been content do play around with rhythm and pace and such, and just become intimately familiar with the chords.

Music Theory? I either slept through it, or didn't take it at all. So I can't discuss with you the finer points of it, but I can tell you this:

I sure am enjoying the guitar.