Everything Bianca

Continued from Part 1.

When I bought my guitar, I thought I could learn to tune my guitar by ear.  I employed relative tuning.
Hold this thought.

Style of Play

You think you know, but you don't know.

It was listening to fingerstyle that pushed me to buy a guitar. I wanted to play that. I enjoyed practicing picking patterns. I abhored strumming. It felt weird. I sounded worse. I couldn't do it right. In that vein, you can guess how I felt about flatpicking. I didn't even bother to read about it.

Towards the end of February, I began looking at classical guitar lessons. I liked those! I loved the complexity of plucking the strings. I wanted a classical guitar teacher! 

That ended fairly quick. I am still growing out the nails on my right hand, but for 'normal' fingerstyle, not classical play. I do like fingerstyle better.

I found the tabs for a song I rather enjoy. That's what softened me up to strumming. I listened to some really nice music on a website and learning that the style was flatpicking. Suddenly, I wanted to learn that too. So, I've added flatpicking techniques to my practice repertoire (which I will share in Part 3).

The lesson here is, at least for me, I do not know what I want to do. I am glad I don't have a teacher. I would not have wasted money claiming to want to focus on one speciality. Learn the basics for everything. Sort it out later.  (I am still 'sure' I don't care for blues or jazz, but when the time comes, I'll learn the basics anyway. I might grow to like it.)

Tuning with a Dull Ear

Late February again, I had been relative tuning my guitar. I took it in once to be tuned by the person I bought it from. He said I was doing well and only had one string slightly off. Somewhere, I fell off the wagon. I ended up in a torrent of tears one night because I thought I was tuning low E and was all happy as I felt I got it just right. Then, when I got to the D string, realized I'd actually been turning the key for that one. Cried like a baby. No lie. And I kept trying to tune it, because I was stubborn, and it was practice time.

I thought I did pretty well. It sounded bareable at least.

I bought a tuner the next day. It picks up the vibrations and gives me a green light for 'just right', yellow for 'too low', and red for 'too high.' Every string on my guitar way into red. Whole notes off at some points. Sadness. 

If you don't have a teacher, and you're not musically trained (and passed the test) to know notes by pitch, buy a tuner, use it to back you up. I still try to tune by ear, but I look to my tuner to keep me in line.