Guitar Lessons

-


My church has an auction every year. This year it is online. I decided to donate something new to the auction. I will give 1-on-1 online guitar lessons to up to ten people who contribute to the auction. This is something I have only done a few times before in person, and never online. It is long overdue.

I have been playing guitar since I was four, with a decade off in my teens and twenties. Over forty years altogether. I learned mostly on my own, by listening to songs on the radio and working out how to play them. I had a few books with introductory lessons and chord boxes. I only learned to read music a few years ago. But I can play hundreds of songs, and have written more than twenty of my own, in three different tunings.

I needed a photo for the auction site, so my wife took this photo of me on our couch. The guitar is a Yamaha NTX 700 classical acoustic-electric, with nylon strings. It has a beautiful sound and is easy to play. I bought it ten years ago and it is still my favorite.

I've already started to put together a beginner lesson plan. I'm hoping these lessons will help others to find inspiration to start playing, continue playing, or take their playing to the next level.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

After the heart attack

-
Image
Last week, on December 2, at 8:10 AM, I had my first heart attack. I was at home, helping to get my nephew Luke get ready to leave for school, when out of nowhere I felt a powerful pain in my chest, like a fireball was burning me from the inside. I told my wife LeAnne I didn’t feel well and sat down. She called 911, and within five minutes of her call, the EMTs from the Renton Fire Department arrived and started talking to me. This was not the first time I felt something that I thought might be a heart attack. Almost a year before I had a numbness in one arm which quickly spread to my other arm and then to my chest. It was much less intense and faded after an hour. LeAnne drove me to the ER that day, and after many tests and scans they were unable to find a root cause. But this attack was very different. By the time the EMTs arrived, the attack had intensified to the worst pain I can remember feeling, and spread to my arms, hands, neck, and head. LeAnne noticed I was sweating and said
Read more

Marking one year since the murder of George Floyd

-
Today, May 25, 2021, marks one year since George Floyd was murdered while in the custody of Minneapolis police officers. My prayers go out today to Mr. Floyd's family and to all those who were affected by his murder. The conviction of the former officer who killed Mr. Floyd is a step forward. But it is only one of many steps that need to be taken. A year later, I am forced to admit that I can do more to demand justice. I watched the trial of Floyd's killer as much as I was able. But the violence continues. I cannot keep track of all the police killings. I try to remember all the names. But I notice them when they are reported, and I try to stop and take a moment to feel it, and to imagine what that family is going through. I do the same when police officers are killed doing their lawful duty the protect the public from violent citizens. My church had a guest minister this past Sunday, a black man who grew up in a poor Detroit neighborhood. An amazing poet, musician and activist
Read more

A spiritual summer

-
As the country starts to open up, my summer is getting busier. I am attending an two online conferences in the next month. The first is General Assembly, the annual meeting of the Unitarian Universalist Association, where I am a delegate for my congregation. My wife and I did a reading for the Summer Solstice Celebration video contributed by the Covenant of UU Pagans . The second conference is Eliot Institute,  a series of UU camps in Seabeck, Washington. I am on staff for the July camp.  I have lots of vacation time that went unused during the pandemic, so I am taking all the days off for both these conferences. I am looking forward to rest, learning, connection, and to hopefully to a much needed spiritual recharging. My novel is going well, at over 70,000 words now, it is about halfway done. I hit a slump back in April, but I've been getting feedback from several beta readers who kindly agreed to read it for me and give me their comments. I've been doing lots of editing the
Read more