The first day I went to my guitar class I was so nervous because I didn’t know anything of how to play or use a guitar. Good thing that I wasn’t by myself, my sister was there since she also wanted to learn to play guitar. When we entered the room there was no one, just the instructor. She welcome us with a happy and friendly “hi” and told us that her name was Elizabeth Ortiz. We introduced ourselves and she asked us to tell her a little bit about us and why we wanted to learn to play the guitar. My sister talked first, then when it was my turn I told her that when I was little, the guitar was the instrument that caught my attention.
The first time I heard and saw someone playing the guitar was when I was 6 years old and at that moment I fell in love with that instrument. What I loved of the guitar were its melodies and rhythms that were coming out of it. I was also impressed of how fast the man was moving his fingers without any problem as he played the guitar. I was so fascinated that I told myself that in the future I would learn how to play the guitar. After we were done talking she taught us the name of each strings that the guitar has, and in reality the names were letters (E, A, D, G, B, E).
It was cool because each one had a different sound that helped melodies sound beautiful. Mrs. Ortiz told us that because we are beginners, the acoustic guitar was the one that we had to use and since it was easier. We didn’t have a guitar that day so she let us borrow some of hers. She taught us (G, C, D7) which were some of the easiest chords, then she showed us how to put our fingers in each chord. It was a little bit hard because the ability of my fingers was slow. When I tried G it was easy, then she told us to change to C and when I made the change two of my fingers were in the wrong chords.
I made mistakes many times, but the instructor told me that it was okay because it was my first time and that the more I practice it would be easier to move my fingers. She let us borrow her guitar so we could keep practicing and not forget the chords she gave us. The next class was easy and at the end of the class told us to keep practicing. When we get to our guitar lessons Mrs. Ortiz asked us how we were doing with our first chords and I told her that we did well but that the bad thing was that our fingers hurt us and were tired.
She told us that it was normal because we weren’t use to it but by time goes on we are not going to feel the pain any more. She quizzed us on the last class chords, we did pretty well because we practice a lot for three days, then later she taught us new chords (D, A7, G) that also were easy. Like the last time, we did the same thing again and we practiced the new chords. She also showed us a song with the last and new chords. She made us join her in the song, but it was hard because we had to move our fingers to each six chords and sometimes we were left behind for the mistakes that we were doing.
Next guitar lessons we did the same pretty much but this time we already had our own guitar, our new chords were (E, B7, A). In this class we played the guitar and sang, well the instructor was the one that sang because I can’t or I can but I sing like walrus giving birth were also and I just follow her alone in a low voice. For the other two classes that followed we did the same thing but it changed a little bit and it was hard because in one day we learned (C, G7, F) chords.
This chords was hard because chord F is weird, one finger covered the six chords and the other three are a little bit apart. She tried to teach us the easier way but I found it as hard as the one before. This new chords were the ones that gave me a headache. I practiced, I swear I did but F was hard and it got on my nerves and that made it harder for me to learn it. Next class she taught us (C, A-, D-, G7) this chords actually were easier than last class. I practice all of them and I did well but F still was my problem, to overcome it I needed to practice more until I dominated it. Mrs.
Ortiz gave us the “Happy Birthday” song and we practice it a little bit in class and then she told us to keep practicing because the next class we were going to play it by ourselves without her. We went to the next class and played the song and we did well and was surprise because we didn’t make any mistakes. She asked us how we did it and we told her that we practiced a lot that’s why we did a good job. I’m proud of what I had accomplish in this new challenge because I overcame one of my dreams that was learn to play the guitar. I don’t care if I got blisters because it shows the effort I put when learning how to play the guitar.
Now I know some of basic chords of playing guitar that I was taught by my guitar teacher. I’m still going to take guitar lessons because I want to learn more and I want get better on my guitar skills. I want to keep playing and learning guitar because I love it and I want to be able to play any song I like. Some of the music that I like have guitar on it like country music, some pop, and Mexican music etc. No matter how hard it was I enjoy being in the class because I learned how to play guitar. I would like be more professional so I can play the songs that I like and maybe in the future make my own music.
