Guitar Troubles
I have been trying to teach myself how to play guitar lately and it's going... not well. First I borrowed a guitar from a very generous friend and I was working hard on learning the first few cords. In the beginning I thought I was having a hard time because learning new things can be hard sometimes. Then I realized that my fingers might be a little too big for the guitar I was using. The friend I borrowed it from is much, much smaller than I am and the guitar is 3/4 size.
I mentioned this all to my dad and he told me that he still had his old guitar in the basement. He looked for it and found it, still in the case. It's not a very expensive guitar, and it's probably 40 years old or more, but it's in good condition. The only issue was super old strings and the top string had broken from age. I took my dad's guitar over to The Guitar Store on Atwood ave to see if they could help me out. For 40 bucks they restrung the guitar with brand new nylon strings and cleaned up all the finger boards and frets and oiled everything. When I went to pick it up this afternoon the man who I spoke to told me that the way these strings work you have to re-tune the guitar pretty much every time you play it. Huh? He strongly suggested that I buy an electric tuner but I passed on it.
I bring my newly strung guitar home and crack the case open to start to play. It doesn't sound good. Not at all. I don't know why. I think the third string is out of tune, but the guy tuned it in the store right in front of me just minutes before. The cords are easier to reach with my fingers but the sound is awkward and discordant. Unfortunately the book that I got to learn from has little melodies to play but they aren't any familiar songs, so I don't know what it's SUPPOSED to sound like and if I'm anywhere close to getting things right.
I mentioned this all to my dad and he told me that he still had his old guitar in the basement. He looked for it and found it, still in the case. It's not a very expensive guitar, and it's probably 40 years old or more, but it's in good condition. The only issue was super old strings and the top string had broken from age. I took my dad's guitar over to The Guitar Store on Atwood ave to see if they could help me out. For 40 bucks they restrung the guitar with brand new nylon strings and cleaned up all the finger boards and frets and oiled everything. When I went to pick it up this afternoon the man who I spoke to told me that the way these strings work you have to re-tune the guitar pretty much every time you play it. Huh? He strongly suggested that I buy an electric tuner but I passed on it.
I bring my newly strung guitar home and crack the case open to start to play. It doesn't sound good. Not at all. I don't know why. I think the third string is out of tune, but the guy tuned it in the store right in front of me just minutes before. The cords are easier to reach with my fingers but the sound is awkward and discordant. Unfortunately the book that I got to learn from has little melodies to play but they aren't any familiar songs, so I don't know what it's SUPPOSED to sound like and if I'm anywhere close to getting things right.