Learning the Guitar

Since I will be going to Uganda this March for our outreach/missions trip, I will be learning how to play the guitar. I'll learn how to play the basic chords and some worship (and maybe some pop songs!) to play while we lead worship in Uganda. I have always wanted to learn how to play a different instrument, especially the guitar. What always intrigued me about the acoustic guitar was the simple, clean, raw and real sound it makes. It has such a simple, but complex design and it sparks wonders to me that such a simple instrument of wood and strings can create such a beautiful sound.

Luckily, I have a friend that has been willing to help me learn. With one lesson under my belt, on December 10, 2013, I learned the basic chords G, C, A, D and Em.

Over the christmas break I was sure to practice everyday for at least half an hour to improve my chord transitions and to practice making a clean sound. Learning the guitar was definitely not as easy as I first thought, I especially didn't expect it to hurt my fingers! I'm struggling with making a 'clean' sound and not muting the other strings, keeping a consistent strum pattern, as well as chord changing. To overcome these, I'm going to practice changing chords or 'spot' practice and just change between a few chords over and over again, rather that playing an entire song to really get comfortable changing the chords.

There are so many values to learning the guitar, and any instrument for that matter. I now have a greater appreciation for guitar artists and their time and effort put into learning and perfecting the instrument. If I continue to practice and learn the guitar after outreach (which I hope to do!) I could take apart in the worship band at my church or school, or teach some people on my missions trip, and all of these are values of learning how to play a new instrument.

Although learning the guitar can get frustrating, I am extremely happy that I am. I love it and am very excited to improve! It has a beautiful sound and hearing the chords come together to form a recognizable song (just barely!) is very exciting. I'm looking forward to practicing and learning a lot more about the guitar in the next two months in preparation for Uganda!