Pickin' and Grinnin'

I've wanted to learn how to play guitar for a long time. I come from a fairly musical family, more art-oriented but music played a pretty good part (plus marrying the most beautiful violin player in the world helps). I took piano lessons from our church choir director for a few weeks...nothing came out of that but a few songs, which is no fault of hers.

I finally bit the bullet and bought some guitars. Now that the boys are old enough to appreciate my delicate strumming and/or shredding, I figured this would be a good time to ease them into music.

Now, I'm no pro, but feel free to check out Powderburn, Thomas Brady or Havilah Tower if you want to see people who know what they are doing.

Here is my electric. I bought a Squier starter pack from Guitar Center and got a screaming deal on it. Please ignore my mouth in the first picture - I got snapped while humming some notes.


Observant readers may notice some other instruments behind me. A guitar from Russia (20,000 rubles!! Wait, that was only $20...) that is unplayable without some neck work and my grandfather's National Triolian dobro from the 30's are up on the dresser, and just peeking over the bed is my new acoustic, but more on that later.

Here I am shredding to Ode to Joy. The Fender book that came with the electric is pretty good. I've learned a few chords and three notes each on the first two strings. The book teaches you how to read music, not just bang out some chords.


Below is my acoustic from Rondo Music. A friend and I found a good deal, and just wait for our golden country sounds to follow.


You may notice some silver stuff on the body of my guitar. Yes! We took our youngest to a Biscuit Brothers concert at Dougherty and I had Buford and Dusty sign it. If you have kids who are in to music, or learning about music, or if you are a local musician (they have locals on their show) please check out their Emmy nominated PBS show.