Art & Lutherie Acoustic Electric & Playing Progress

This is my newest guitar.  Actually, it is "our" newest guitar - as in my husband and mine.  We have an "ours" guitar (isn't that sweet?).  It is an Art and Lutherie dreadnaught with pick-ups. My husband wanted me to look at folk-size guitars but I wanted a full-size.  It's just my preference right now.  I also wanted to be able to hook it up to my Behringer amp so having that capability was important obviously. 

My hand doesn't get sore anymore when I play.  How cool is that?  Pretty cool!

The pads of my fingers still get sore but that's because I wasn't practicing as much as I should've been before the holidays (holidays are busy times with six kids). I'm doing better though.  Going from G to C chord used to give me a hard time but I'm going between the two so much better!

My Playing Update - This Old Broad is Doing Good!

I've been playing the chords for Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton) and Hootie and the Blowfish song! I am actually playing!! I'm excited.

I really like both songs. The Hootie song was a favorite of a close friend of mine that passed away a few years ago so it has special meaning to me.

I've had a little pain in my left hand and sometimes my hand "locks" up when I need to play the G chord. I'm not sure if it's the neck on my guitar (perhaps I need a thinner neck) or if it will just take time for my hand muscles to get used to it. My husband is going to lower the action on my guitar for me and see if that helps. I hope so because I LOVE my guitar and don't want to have to get a different one.

Women's Sunglasses in All Styles

I was looking up sunglasses online and came across these really gawdy, glittery guitar sunglasses. Reminded me of something Elton John would wear or something you'd take out only for New Year's Eve. I love learning to play guitar right now (and practice is going great by the way), but I wouldn't go that far with the guitar paraphernalia. I'll stick with the stylish women's sunglasses please! I have to look cool ya know! Wouldn't want to tarnish my image of the 38-year-old, mother of four, soccer mom whose trying to learn to rock.

Santa Bringing Two New Guitars

Santa is bringing two guitars for Christmas for two of our kids. One daughter is getting a Fender Squier Bullet electric guitar in a brown sunburst color. My eldest is getting an Art and Lutherie Dreadnaught in Cedar Blue.

In this first picture, the guitar my middle daughter is getting is the brown sunburst in the very front.



Obviously, this is the Art and Lutherie cedar blue acoustic guitar my daughter is getting:

The Art & Luthrie are great guitars. My husband has this guitar in a burgundy. Since they are such great guitars, he's trying to talk me into selling my own electric and getting this same guitar in the blonde/white color he just saw over the weekend.

Playing Eric Clapton Already!

My second lesson with my husband went well. We started working on a song "Bye Bye Love" with C, G, and D chords. Then I came down with the flu so didn't get any practice in that week of my second lesson.

This past weekend, I took out my guitar and started practicing again. We worked on "Bye Bye Love" and "Wonderful Tonight" (Eric Clapton). I enjoy playing Eric Clapton's song quite a bit and Bye Bye Love not so much yet. It's a lot faster and my fingers don't quite want to switch between chords that fast yet. I'll get there though!!

First Lesson with Hubby

My husband gave me my first lesson yesterday (I'd previously wrote about not taking lessons from an outside teacher last time). He showed me two new chords (C, big G...as opposed to baby G that was really easy) to learn along with D that I already know. These three chords are in several songs in my new guitar book, Easy Pop Rhythms Book.

While at Staples, he also came across a computer CD called Learn to Play Guitar Essentials that we picked up for $10. We figured we'd see what it was, if there was anything helpful on it. We thought it was a good price. Amazon has it for a lot less! Oy.

My Takamine Plays Beautifully!

I LOVE my new guitar! My husband put on the Martin Acoustic Silk & Steel Guitar Strings for me today and I love the way it plays. I didn't have to struggle to find the right chords. The strings didn't hurt my fingers. It played nicely before the strings and now it is even better!