I'm Taking Up Guitar!... Again...

When I was in high school, I inherited my grandfather's old OLD classical guitar. We're talking the kind with the nylon strings that sound like something out of an old western. In retrospect, it was great to learn on: the neck was wider, and the strings were bigger so it was easier to maneuver my hand around when trying to pick out chords. But as I blossomed into an avid guitar player (eggageration: I only thought I was good at the time... my reality was a bit skewed.), the old OLD classical guitar and I were not quite meshing anymore.

Nevertheless, I pressed on with the old OLD classical guitar, and she and I (yes, she was a "she") went off to college together with high hopes of becoming accomplished musicians at the UW-Stevens Point School of Music. During the daytime, I focused more on my voice, learning and practicing such genres as jazz and Italian opera, just to name a few. On the side, however, the old OLD classical guitar and I made our debut at the "Brew House" on campus, plunking out a rather choppy rendition of the one of my one and a half songs that I managed to compose my freshmen year. This experience left us slightly disappointed and slightly embarrassed, only because, like I mentioned earlier, we had thought we were much better than we really were. Not to mention that this botched endeavor crushed any hopes of us ever becoming national recording artists together.

After this experience, I am embarrassed to say that rather than pushing forward with "practice! practice! practice!, "oOcg" and I took a bit of a break from one another. This brings me to the year 2001 when I betrayed her, which I will never forgive myself for, only because it left me guitarless for four whole years afterward. I took her to Cascio music in town because I needed a bit of extra cash to get me through the week. Now, I had been meaning to trade her in for a newer model for some time anyway, and the plan was that after my next paycheck, I would just turn around and purchase a new one. "oOcg" and I said our goodbye's, the clerk handed me my hard-earned fourty dollars, and I was on my way.

But alas, paycheck after paycheck went by, still no new guitar. Each year, I would go back to Cascio and torture myself, looking at all the pretty new models that had just recently graced the walls of the ever-evolving music superstore. Every year I would tell Chad (an old friend of mine who works there), "This is it. I'm coming back for THIS one tomorrow. You can count on it." Chad would roll his eyes, tell me that he really believed me this time, and that he'd see me in another six months to a year. He couldn't have been more right. So, four years of this, and then: the 25th birthday rolled around.

I suppose I failed to mention in the birthday wrap-up that I recieved a nice sum of money from my very generous family members, on account of the fact that any time I was asked, "so what do you want for your birthday?", I would reply, "A GUITAR!". I got money instead. SO! I pooled it in, tossed it in the checking account, and trapsed off to the Guitar Center to check out thier selection for a change. Well, my poor friends who offered to help me shop, and the poor guitar shop clerks found themselves in my tangled web of indecision for what really turned out to be hours. I was back and forth between the Guitar Center, bible study/my surprise party, Cascio, volunteering at the nursing home, and the Guitar Center again. Every clerk I talked to thought that they had landed themselves a sale (including poor Chad again: I had put a beautiful mahogony and black one on hold at Cascio... yeah. Never came back for it. I'm mean.) But eventually I did settle on a very nice, decent quality, solid-top Ibanez. It's oak, has a burgundy pick guard, and an iridescent vine pattern which runs up the neck. It's purty. AND it sounds purty. After all that tough decision making, I settled on the most basic looking one. Nothing flashy. Just simple and yet, still beautiful.

So, as I take on the exciting task of re-teaching myself how to play this bad boy... or... girl, I will keep you posted as to my progress. And when I set my tour dates, rest assured, you will all be invited...