So recently I started trying to learn the guitar. Seems an odd choice of hobby for a poet who specialises in poetry about tigers. Still, having acquired a guitar from a relative last year, I'm giving it a go.
It didn't take me long to work out how to play single notes and how to pick said notes, but at the moment my repertoire is a bit limited. I'm having difficulty learning basic chords as my fingers aren't sticking together to form them, and somehow I'm failing at strumming as well. Still, I have learned a few select tunes, such as the opening riff from 'Pretty Woman', the Force theme from Star Wars, a couple of tunes from The Lion King, the main riffs played by the Doof Warrior in Mad Max Fury Road and the theme from the film Rango. They're not perfect by any means; the Doof Warrior's riffs in particular sound a bit weird when played on an acoustic, but it's a start.
Playing the guitar is an ideal hobby to have in a village as quiet as Frynwys. At the moment we're being constantly battered by wind and rain and there is a perpetual dimness in the day due to the thick cloud cover. At least I have plenty to distract myself from the dreary weather. If I somehow manage to play chords without string buzz (I'm assuming that's what it's called) I might be able to do something with it.
The guitar I'm learning on is an acoustic-electric (Tanglewood to be precise), and it's already broken one string (in fairness, it was my fault). It's not a bad guitar to learn on; after I finally managed to tune it to standard tuning I was able to play recognisable tunes. The top E string is the worst string for buzzing. If I play it particularly fast it buzzes like a wasp's nest, but it's alright when played slowly.
My early forays into playing the guitar have been quite improvised so far, hence the shortness of this post. However I received a guitar magazine for Christmas last year, and I'm using that to help me progress. Hopefully this time next month I'll be a bit better than a beginner.
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