Guitar Class, Tonight

Wore my new hat to guitar class, tonight.

I have been playing guitar for about 30 years, now, but I am mostly self-taught. I picked up a few things at jam sessions, or from friends who played, through the years but I never had any formal instruction. I simply got some song books, applied my limited understanding of music theory (learned in high-school jazz band, mostly, and from reading books), and started playing.

At the beginning, I actually worked on learning chords, strumming technique, etc. Then, I discovered electric guitar power chords and "box-shaped scales", and started playing and writing songs in what is basically guitar-shorthand.

I am liking the guitar class, because it is making me relearn the open position chords (beyond the 3 or 4 I normally use) and some actual acoustic guitar technique.

Tonight, we started in on TAB and playing scales. This week, I will have to do a little more practicing than last week, I think. And, that's the main reason I signed up: I need to practice rather than play, so that I can get better.

And, getting better is very important to me, because playing guitar is very important to me. As Brad pointed out, on our ride last Sunday; Playing guitar is a very big part of who I am. It is a genuine passion, rather than a pastime, and I want to be able to better express that passion to the world.

So far, so good.

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