House Atreides

El Kabong!

A long while back, a friend of mine suggested that I get a guitar since I am into music, citing it as a instrument that is easily played with others; a social instrument, if you will. I have always wanted to learn how to play but never committed to buying one. It is a instrument that easily played in groups or by yourself. Also, I have always wanted to be able to sing and play the music I was singing, by myself. (I keep telling myself that I am going to go back and finish piano lessons.) Last month, I was talking to a Neil and expressed my interests in playing guitar, and in no time he had a guitar picked out for me off of Musician’s Friend.

I was all geared up when I ordered the Ibanez IJV50 JamPack and I was surprised with how fast they shipped me my order. I was even more surprised when I opened up the shipping box to be greeted by an electric guitar case. No guitar, no starter pack, just an empty electric guitar case. So I called their support number and explained the situation. They said they would have to file a missing item claim and to call back in a week to find out the status. So a week later, I call, “Oh, our missing items department is about two weeks behind. Let’s just treat this as an exchange and we will e-mail you shipping labels.” Great, wish the first guy would have thought about that. After another week delay, I get the dumb thing shipped out. My fault because I am inherently lazy at times. So, after yet ANOTHER week, I start wondering what the status is, so I call them back up. “We don’t see that as being shipped yet.” I’m like, “What? The tracking number that I have says it has been there a week.” Turns out, the person who arranged the shipping accidently set up two labels and I the label I happened to send it back with and they one they were tracking were not the same one. After sorting that out, they 2-day air me the guitar. Finally! I get the thing and it is the correct product! And of course, the first think I think of after I take the guitar out of the box is good ol’ El Kabong.

Then the next hurtle, I have a nice guitar and know idea where to start… Google to the rescue. After some diligent searching, I come across Justin Guitar. Australian living in West London hosting free guitar lessons online? How can it get much better? The guy does an amazing job with is lessons and in just one week’s time, I now know how to play D, E, and A and apparently there are enough sounds out there where three chords is enough to play along. Kind of funny when one starts to thing about it. So, I am at the point where my finger tips aren’t excruciatingly, just really, really sore and I am starting to work on 1-minute chord changing drills. After I get some callouses built up on my fingers and get my hands on a capo, I will start trying to actually play some songs.

We will see how long this phase lasts. Hopefully a while, since a guitar is a pretty versatile instrument. Plus, if current plans still hold out, the church I am attending in Omaha has expressed interests in wanting someone who can play guitar in church. We shall see.

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