Learn how to Play Guitar

I've been a music geek for as long as I can remember. I started playing trumpet in fourth or fifth grade, and played it until eleventh grade, when I switched to baritone. I can read music -- both bass and treble clef. I was in marching band, symphonic band and jazz band. I'm blessed with perfect pitch. I tried out for the Marine Corps band on both trumpet and baritone... two separate auditions, both of which I missed by one point. I did a basement band with some friends of mine in my mid-twenties. I was talented enough to do better, but not ambitious enough.

One of the things I've long wanted to do, but never gotten around to, is learning how to play guitar. I've had some books for about ten years. I learned how to play a couple of cords and a couple of songs, but put the guitar always down and forgot what I had learned. I can learn how to play a song's melody by ear, and have done so, but that's not the same as learning how to play the guitar. I've played bass guitar, but that's not the same, because you're generally playing one note on four strings, as opposed to playing more intricate music on a six-string. A couple of years back, my friend Greg left his guitar at my house, but I didn't do anything with it.

Finally, a few months back, my younger daughter asked for a guitar; her older sister bought a cheezy $20 Wal-Mart acoustic guitar as a birthday gift for her sissy. For Christmas, she asked for a better guitar. I got her lessons instead. The deal is that if she's disciplined enough to keep up with the lessons, and keep learning, I'll get her her own guitar. But in reality, it's me that got hooked. I've been playing every day since. So here I am, going on 40, and I'm finally realizing a goal that I've had for over ten years.

Learn how to play guitar.