Three West

The guitar was never one of those instruments I was ever dying to play however when I was in my early twenties I purchased an electric guitar off of Ebay (when Ebay was first starting and had great deals). I admit the most compelling thing about the guitar at the time was its rich red color (my favorite). I’d also picked up a sort of older brown and orange electric guitar as well; I believe from a yard sale. I didn’t learn to play either of them. At the time, I couldn’t get past my hurting fingertips.

Later, I bought an acoustic guitar and because of my extreme affection for songs by The Cranberries, I was able to overlook the finger (and arm) pain and at least learn one or two of their easier songs. I learned to play “Dreaming My Dreams” and part of “Zombie” (which I later started playing on the red electric guitar). This was many years ago and definitely didn’t last long.

Lets fast-forward 10-12 years to today. My life is different and I’m different. So I thought, “why not really learn to play the guitar?” and I added learning to play to my creative life goals. This change of heart partially stems from the realization that the guitar is a complete instrument, meaning one can compose entire complex songs using only a guitar. On the other hand I’m also a musician. I learned to play instruments starting in elementary school onward and stopped playing about my 2nd or 3rd year of college. I wanted to have that part of my life back. Also, playing by ear has always been easy for me so I can imagine what I’ll be able to play when I master my new instruments of choice.

About six months ago, I impulsively set out one day to buy a guitar and strolled into Drome Sound near my home in Upstate, NY. I strolled around for a while looking at the different types of guitars and I knew I didn’t really want the average cheapo electric guitar one might pick up when first starting to play. My thoughts leaned towards getting an electric acoustic but to be honest what I dislike the most about acoustic guitars is how wide they are. I’m short and I have short arms. I remember it being uncomfortable for my picking arm because of the thick guitar body and my short arms. Just to see if that would still be the case, I tried a few acoustic electric guitars at the store and yep…still uncomfortable. I am aware that I simply could have gone with a smaller acoustic guitar to solve this issue but I guess I wasn’t that committed to using one.

During my quest for the perfect guitar I kept finding myself standing in front of the hollow and semi-hollow body electrics. I’d never liked they way they looked but at that moment, it was as if a choir were singing behind me and I knew I was going to buy one. How could I have not liked the way they looked? They are the smoothest looking guitars in existence. *Smile*

One of the employees sensed I was really digging the hollow and semi-hollow bodies and came over to tell me all about them. You know he was one of those 100 year old cats that eats, sleeps, and breathes music, who claims to have met many a fantastic musician in his day (I’m sure all true). He took some time to play several of the different guitars (hollow, semi-hollow, solid body electrics), playing different music styles so I could hear the differences.

Ultimately my choice was a delicious sounding and looking Epiphone Dot Studio semi-hollow body electric. I love it! It was well within my budget and I can practice on it without needing an amp. I did buy an amp but at night I like to sit and play a little with it unplugged.

Feast your eyeballs on my guitar:

My next quest was to learn how to play the thing. The circumstances were such that I did not arrange for lessons. I had too much going on at the time. However I made attempts to learn on my own as I did before. I was already messing up. I’m pretty good at learning things on my own and surely the guitar will be no different but I had to force myself back to the basics. I tend to naturally want to jump in at a higher level than I should because it’s how I learned to play many different instruments growing up. I had to come to an understanding that this is a different situation and process because once again, a guitar is a complete instrument as is a piano (which I also made this mistake with). Jumping in and playing a more complex musical piece on trumpet was pretty easy but then again, mechanically, so is playing the trumpet. There is simply too much to consider at once when playing the guitar; i.e. fret number, string number, chords patterns, etc..

I’m not saying this makes playing the guitar rocket science, just that I need to start from the very basics just as any one else would. Once I came to that understanding, I put away all the crazy books and videos and started with one book: Guitar Fretboard Workbook: A Complete System for Understanding the Fretboard by Barrett Tagliarino. Not only does this book have an amazing way of teaching the basics, it’s funny as well which makes learning it a lot of fun.

Now I have a sweet sounding guitar that is comfortable to play and a great learning tool from which to learn the basics of playing. I feel confident that I will learn to play the guitar for real this time!