October 17, 2008
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Strumming the blues
I taught myself to play the guitar about 25 years ago. I read music, so I learned from a music book. I got pretty good at it, and even learned to pick out a few tunes by ear (like House of the Rising Sun). But when I left my first husband, I sold my guitar for $50 to my sister so I would have gas money to drive from Florida to Michigan. I’ve always wished I had kept up with it.
I told Mac that a few times. So for my birthday LAST YEAR he got me a guitar. I don’t know much about guitars, but Mac’s brother played in a blues band in Toledo during the 70s and 80s and still plays when he can. I asked him about the quality of my guitar and he said the brand (Washburn) was a decent brand – low end professional. I got several books and started trying to play again, but knew that unless I had lessons or something, I would end up letting it collect dust.
I did.
So this fall I signed up for a guitar class at the local community college (no college credit). Turns out the class is all about strumming chords. So we are learning chords and different strum patterns and not reading a note of music. This is very strange to me, to play a D chord and not think about the notes that I have to make sure I’m playing to get the chord (D, F#, A) but instead, just make sure my fingers are in the right position. Now I can see how some guitar players, even famous ones, can play without reading a note of music.
So at our last lesson, we learned a pretty cool “blues strum” so now I can play the blues – simple 12-bar blues using three chords. But with that knowledge, I can play almost any blues tune. Of course, I can only do it in the key of E. But I actually had FUN practicing last night! Woot!
I also bought a new mixer, and an attachment for my guitar (it’s acoustic) so that I can plug into my mixer and record. When I get good enough, maybe I’ll record something and link it here.
