This year, I’ve kind of gone out of the way to start a few things completely new, and make sure I do not give any of them up after one month. Like many, we love starting things, but never actually follow through and finish it. As the title suggest, playing guitar is one of them. Like surfing, I started it years ago, gave up after just a few shot at it. But not this time. Not sure where the sudden inspiration and energy came from, I have actually delved myself right into it, and learnt 4 songs so far!
Admittedly, these 4 songs are ultra slow, ultra lovey-dovey songs. Songs like Tears in Heaven, and More Than Words… these will either make ladies drop their panties, or throw hard rocks at me. I think the latter is probably more likely. I can’t wait ’till I pass the beginner stage, and play something more exciting!
And you know what? This is probably the cheapest hobby you can get into. Not because guitars are cheap. It can range from $100 to a $10,000 one made by Martin! And since I have no way of gauging just how dedicated I would be, I don’t intend to blow any large sums of money on something I potentially won’t continue for very long. Fortunately I have a solution…
It just so happen that many friends started playing guitars just like me, but quit after a few go at it. Some have bought cheap ones, some lashed out on an expensive one. But they all have something in common. Their guitars sit in their room gathering dust! So, I went and ‘borrowed’ some..
Yeap.. "borrowed" is the word. Not sure when I’ll return them. Hehe.. So I managed to collect a nylon and a steel guitar! Both aren’t exactly top of the range, but they do the job very well. If I feel like a bit of Spanish music, or do lots of fingerprinting, I pick up the nylon guitar. If I feel like a happy strummy song, I pick up the steel-stringed guitar!
It’s amazing once you research a little more about stringed instrument, you start finding all these variations of guitars like a ukulele (Hawaiian mini-guitar), a lute, and pipa (Chinese guitar). All look and play similar to a guitar but creates very different sounds! I definitely want a ukulele though!
You might ask, what the hell is a UKULELE!? It’s a Hawaiian guitar, only a quarter of the size of a guitar and makes this high-pitched cartoon-ish noise. Perfect for playing retro-games music like Super Mario Brothers! If you played this on Nintendo back in the 80s, you would know EXACTLY what I’m talking about! Checkout how it sounds here on YouTube! Absolutely hilarious!
A ukulele is only about $30 for a decent one. No doubt I’ll have one very soon! Right now though, when I think guitars, it conjures images of Jack Johnson with his acoustic guitar playing by the seaside. Once in a while, he gets off and go surfing. LOL.. now you can see why I’m into surfing as well 🙂 No doubt, I am aiming to at least be able to play a few Jack Johnson songs soon!
