Strings and Things

I have an old guitar that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was in the sixth grade. When I got it I loved it! So I took some lessons, learned a few chords, sang and strummed in public a few times, and then abandoned it to be a teenager. But I never, ever parted with it. 

Now my son is playing that very guitar and every time he brings it out I can feel my heart smile. I love the sound of an acoustic guitar, and while mine may not be the nicest, or the prettiest, or carry the richest sound, I think I might always love mine the most. Why? Because through my parents it links me to the past, and through my son, it links me to the future.

Today it needed restringing. I usually pay someone to do this, but Landon's teacher taught him how (Thanks, Dave!!) and he needed a little help completing the job. So I got to learn how to restring a guitar!

I also learned a few more things along the way:

1. The biggest gauge "E" string is hard because it is thick and difficult to wrap tightly around the whatever-the-thing-you-wrap-it-around is. (Pretty sure there is a technical name out there. Help anyone?) And I annihilated both thumbnails trying to hold the coiled string in a neat little stack while Landon tightened it up.

2. The smallest gauge also "E" string is hard because it is thin, and slick, and also difficult to wrap tightly. And it bit me, which I didn't even feel until I saw the blood.

3. Until we have a little more experience, this will probably be a two person job. I'm okay with that!

4. A newly strung guitar needs tuning. Again. And again. And again!

5. You can tune to the piano or other instrument, or guitar tuner, or you can tune to the other strings. But I found I got the most accurate tuning from tuning each string to itself, using the octave fret. This gave me a sweet, sweet result. I have no idea if this is a for real method, but for me it worked great. Yay!

6. Landon loves guitar! He doesn't say this, but I know because every time I try to mess around with it he takes it away to show me something he's learned. This is super fun- - - and super frustrating, all at once. But he gave a me one of his sweet picks to call my own. So 'sall good. : )

7. I can play scales up the neck of the guitar using each string individually. This is easy to learn, but challenging to do (for me, anyway). But there's another way to play scales. I honestly had no idea of this! Landon showed me. It looks harder to learn, but easier to do. I'm going to learn it.

8. Obviously, I remember next to nothing from my sixth grade guitar lessons. And the daily 15 minutes I decided at the beginning of the year to devote to relearning guitar will probably have to be lengthened. A lot!

9. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you spend your time doing with your kids. Time spent with your kids is time well spent.

10. And I will probably never, EVER part with this guitar.