Learning the guitar.

It's been a long time since I learned a new instrument. (I think the last one was probably the English Horn in 11th grade...) Over the past 6 weeks or so, however, I have been teaching myself to play the guitar. A work team that came in January left extra strings, picks, etc. I asked Alberto if I could have some, and he said yes. So I now temporarily own a dark blue acoustic-electric guitar! This guitar had been sitting in a gig bag (soft case) in our team house for, um, a few years, I think - the first chord I played broke a string, they were so rusty! Luckily, I have a few guitar playing friends, so I got it restrung and started practicing.

My reasons for learning the guitar were as follows:
1. I've always wanted to be able to play guitar.
2. It's much more portable than a keyboard, even the dinky little Casio sitting in my apartment.
3. Somewhere along the line, I got bit by the stereotype bug. I mean, you're not a good missionary unless you can play the guitar, right? Doubtful, but that crept into my mind anyway.

My goal in all of this is to be able to lead worship when we have work teams here this summer. We take them to the beach for an evening of worship, debriefing, and brownies at the end of their week here, and while singing a cappella is fine, singing with a guitar is better!

Learning to play guitar has been an interesting challenge. The physical part - building callouses (which I'm still in the process of), putting my hand in awkward positions, getting my wrists to adjust... I've had a few painful days. The mental part - memorizing chord positions, reading lyrics and chords simultaneously, thinking ahead to what the next chord is and how I need to move. The frustrations of a pianist learning the guitar - I'm used to being able to play any chord I want, being able to play in any key I want, having a pedal to sustain the sound while I move my hands... I'm limited right now to about 10 chords, and I certainly cannot play in any key! Also as a pianist, especially an injured/recovered one, I know my hands pretty well. So when my fingertips hurt or even just feel different than they usually do because of my baby callouses, my gut reaction is to panic - what's wrong? I have to remind myself that I know why they hurt and that it's ok!

Learning the guitar has also been really good for me. It's reminding me of humility and what it's like to learn a completely new skill, which is what my first graders experience almost every day. It's reminding me to have patience with myself and to appreciate the skills I do have - I'm so grateful that I can sit down and play the piano - it seems so easy compared to the guitar! It's teaching me discipline in practicing again - I feel like I shouldn't have lost that only a year and a half out of a conservatory, but if I go a few days without playing, my fingers pay the price! I'm challenging the musical part of my brain again. I'm learning to listen to songs differently as I try to pick up strumming patterns. I've noticed the last few weeks at worship team practice that I can look at Dustin's (the guitar player) hands and (sometimes) know what chord he's playing! Amazing! I'm also spending a lot more time worshipping God - most of the songs I practice are worship songs. And it's fun to look up songs I've been listening to and be able to play them. It's also fun to hear Lauren, every once in a while, tell me that it sounds good - my parents, when I practiced piano, would often yell from the kitchen during a pause, "Sounds good, Em!" A fun little nostalgia moment and a new appreciation for what my parents put up with raising three musical daughters!

So that's what I've been up to in my free time. Any words of encouragement, song requests (ha!), cheater chord tips, etc, send them my way!