I’ve made more progress on my oil painting of a guitar (mine!), and I’ve also made progress toward learning how to play the guitar. You might remember that I started with a common “starter pack” of four basic chords (G, C, D, Em). I was calling myself a “4 chord wonder” because it felt like I was limited to playing songs that only had those four chords in them for a long while. But, in retrospect, it feels like the rank beginner phase went by quickly.
Now I’ve added four more chords (a simplified F, Am, A, and Bm). Since I’ve noticed whenever I get to one of the new chords I start lagging behind, struggling to remember what to do and how to make my fingers move fast enough to form the new chord shape, it’s a good idea if I don’t add any more new chords until I’m confident playing my “level 2” set of 4.
Today’s song has one of the new chords in it, A. This is a typical beginner guitar selection, “Grandpa Tell me about the Good Old Days”. I think of my grandpa whenever I hear this song. I miss him! There are very few left from “The Greatest Generation”.
There’s also a learning curve for switching back and forth between playing the guitar while sitting (what I usually do), and while standing (recommended when playing for or with others). I find myself sliding off the sound hole, or getting chord placements wrong, because I’m used to the way the guitar feels when I’m holding it in my lap. I’m adjusting to this, though, and I want to make sure that I push myself to play while standing. It would be more difficult to learn this after becoming too set in the habit of sitting while playing.
Below is a picture of the current state of my oil painting project, with my real life guitar next to it on the floor:
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