Learning to play the guitar!

Yep, that's right - I've just started a 6-week guitar class at Alameda Music School and feeling so excited about this new creative challenge I'm embarking upon! I've always wanted to learn how to play, and I actually ended up buying a guitar about 4 years ago as a Christmas gift for myself - a basic but quality classic Fender, a nice starter guitar. At that time I thought I would just teach myself to play, but that didn't pan out as I got frustrated with the do-it-yourself DVD and lost motivation. So lonely and dusty my guitar has sat under my bed in its case for many years....until this past Tuesday that is. I enrolled in this class not only because I'm craving a new creative outlet in my life, but I have a dream of being able to play guitar and sing to my children some day....and now that I'm pregnant I figure now's the time to learn!

My first class was quite fun, although it's made up of mostly teenagers, one of the boy's mothers, and myself. Should be interesting! We received a good intro to the mechanics of holding and playing our guitars, the numbering and lettering of the string, frets, and playing fingers, and even started learning some basic chords. We all received a lesson book that includes a cheat sheet for tuning, a couple pages with all the chords we'll be learning, a lesson overview for each week, and a number of fun songs we'll get to learn durging the class. And our first song is.....Yellow Submarine by the Beatles! I know my mom will love that one. : )

So I spent about 30 minutes practicing tonight and I've made such great progress already! By far the most challenging part for me is smoothly transitioning between chords without a pause or causing the strings to buzz. But considering this is my first week, I'm happy with what I've learned so far. Now I just have to be a good student and practice everyday. Wish me luck! Hopefully by the time our little Zoey is born I'll be able to play her some lullabies and fun, entertaining childrens songs. That's my motivation! : )