As I look back on my experience of learning to play the guitar, I can recognize the stages that my guitar playing ability has moved through, though I was unaware of my progression at the time. My guitar playing skill developed with very little conscious effort and as I progressed from one level of playing to another, I was just as surprised as my friends and family were. From the very first time I picked up my mom's guitar, I had a very big desire to play it. But as big as that desire was, I never actually thought I would ever be able to play it.
I was in sixth grade when I first pulled my mom's guitar out of the closet. I would sit with my fingers on the strings at random positions, listening to the sounds it made. I didn't even know that there were such things as chords or harmonics, and the concept of tuning a guitar was completely over my head at the time. For a couple of weeks, I had the guitar out and would experiment with it. The curiosity soon died out due to lack of improvement so I put the guitar back into it's case and again it sat untouched for years. It wasn't until I first went to a summer camp that I became re-interested in learning to play it. Shortly after I moved
Playing the guitar is a skill I have even though, when I started, I had no intentions of acquiring it. I still don’t consider that I have gained all the necessary experience and practice but with more time and effort I know that I can get better at it. What started off as a spurr of the moment thing to learn a song has developed into a skill that can become very enjoyable for myself and others.
By the next summer, I had learned several other simple songs and was pretty well practiced on the basic chords. Norbert had returned again and he and I stepped into my most recent level of guitar playing together; performing for an audience. I also find that I am sometimes able to play songs by ear. I continue to improve or add different variations to my songs and that is what has been the most exiting things of my playing.
into a room with eight or so other guys that I became interested again. A guy named Norbert (who later became a good friend) pulled out his guitar and started playing it. I watched him intently because I had never really seen someone up close playing a guitar. On TV, they just show quick half second clips of close up guitar playing on MTV, which is hardly adequate for learning to play. I watched how his fingers moved from one strange position to another and then back to the original position. The placement of his fingers seemed really quite simple ye
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