Guitar Progress III
Okay, so it has been seven days since I last posted about my progress in learning to play the guitar. Furthermore, nine days have passed since I bought my guitar, and I'm sure I haven't missed a single day of practice. In fact, virtually all I have been doing with my evenings is fingering frets, fretting about fingers and strumming strings (and in some cases afternoons).
One might wonder if there is anything to show for this practice. I am uncertain whether my progress is slow, average or distinguished. I tend to assume I am learning at an average rate for a person my age. There is enough noticeable improvement to keep me encouraged enough to continue. In fact, I'm hoping my love for the peace that music brings will carry me through times when it feels I'm not improving at all.
Even though I want to continually improve, I don't want to lose site of reality. I have no aspirations or delusions of grandure. Basically all I want is to be able to pick up a guitar and play chords (and maybe melodies) of an average worship song. I don't want to have to forever rely on sheet music. I'd like to be free to make the chords up as I go. Hopefully that is not too much to aspire to.
The realization is becoming plain to me that I need to either take a music theory class or find a way to teach myself some of the basics. There's not a single music fact that I know. I'm basically clueless when it comes to reading music, adapting, interpreting, whatever (I don't even know the terms to describe what I'm talking about!). I think the forceful memorization of chords is going to reach its limitation. I need to know how to build chords, why the notes sound good together, etc.
After nine days I'm already reaching the point where it no longer hurts to hold the steel strings to the frets on the fingerboard. It feels weird to have callouses. Something I'll have to get used to is touching things and not really feeling them. It's as if I have thin gloves on: quite strange. I find it quite amazing to see how the human body adapts to injury, disease, and other various hardships. What a design, eh? Even after the fall, our bodies still do some pretty amazing things!
My latest complaint is a painful pinky. The muscles in my left pinky are rather weak toward the top joint. I can't keep that finger bent naturally when I'm holding the strings. The pressure and angle often cause the tip of my finger to bend back unnaturally. I was unaware of the consequences - it is now quite sore. I'm hoping that either my finger adapts to the pain and that the range of motion is not harmful or I can strengthen it enough to be able to hold a natural inward bend in the joint.
As far as chords go, I've learned a few new ones. So far I haven't pursued learning a ton of new chords. I want to master each one slowly until I no longer need to rely on the chord charts. The C Major Chord, one of the first I learned, is still giving me some trouble. The only chords I am learning are those demanded by the songs I want to play. If there is a chord noted that I do not know, I look it up and attempt to play it. Here are the chords I've learned not previously mentioned (not all of them memorized or perfected, but I've used them):
