My first real guitar

When I was young my parents thought it would be good to put me in guitar lessons.  I'm guessing I was in grade 5 or 6.  The idea was good, but the instructor wasn't.  He tried to teach me straight off the top a song called "The Green Green Grass of Home", a classic country song. Not something I listened to, nor enjoyed at that moment...Bryan Adams was the king back then.  The song has some advanced chords for a raw beginner and there is no doubt that was part of the reason I didn't practice and failed to fulfil any guitar playing prodigy aspirations back then. 

I picked up an electric guitar in grade 11 because some of the other kids I was hanging with played guitar.  I learned the odd power chord and could play the intro to "Smoke on the Water" by deep purple pretty well.  Other than that...no idea what I was doing. 

Eventually, when my youngest son was born I decided that I was going to teach my kids a lesson about sticking with things and decided to buy a used beginner Yamaha guitar on kijiji.  I picked it up for $100. It had no pick up to play live, which was not even in the realm of possibility in my mind at that time.  I picked away at that for a little bit until I decided to buy CMT's Top 100 Country Song guitar books.  I was finally learning to play some songs that I liked.  I enjoyed the practice (I still do).  I would practice for hours at a time, normally when my newborn son was asleep.  I mean 4 hours could literally go by and I would be practicing the same song over and over without realizing the time had past.

Eventually I got good enough that I started playing live.  There is more to that story that maybe I will share another day, but needless to say I had improved.  The problem was that my guitar as I mentioned earlier had no pick up, meaning I couldn't plug it in to play through any sort of speaker, PA, amplifier, etc.  A pick up can be installed after market, but it would have cost more than that guitar was worth.  So, I purchased one that could be taken in and out that rested in the sound hole.  It did an ok job and at least I was getting some sound.  I used that for at least a year.

Christmas came that year and that's when I received my first real guitar.  Kelly and my Parents went in on a guitar for me from the local music store.  The sales person told them (once he heard what I was currently playing) that he might just cry when he gets this. I can't tell you the feeling that I got when they gave me that guitar.  It was completely unexpected to have received it, and the reaction was not something I knew that I would feel.  I opened the case and the wood smell of the guitar consumed me.  When I lifted it out of the case and held it...tears started streaming down my face without apology.  Over some wood and wire!!!!  I won't ever forget the feeling of getting that guitar.  Next to my kids and my wedding ring, it's the best gift I believe I have ever received. That guitar led me down a path that I still travel on to this day, even now as I type a blog that you are reading on the website that came from that.  That guitar was a vehicle that gave me a chance.  

Yesterday, Kelly sent me a picture of our 13 year old, Luke, of him with her Dads old Martin guitar in his hands showing her what he learned in music class.  Maybe, just maybe, that wood and wire may show him a few things as well.

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