With Wings As Eagles: Craig P. Steffen's Blog

what just popped in there ray

2009 April 08 07:03

I've always thought that I wanted to learn to play an instrument. I mean really learn it. I played piano when I was in grade school, and again for a semester in college. I played tuba in high school for a couple of years. Except for the stint in college, I was too young, and then, I didn't have the time to continue with it.

But now I'm older, and I have a little more time to throw around, and I more have the ability to decide to commit to something like that. The question is what instrument.

I'd love to learn to play drums. But they're loud, take up a lot of space, and are totally non-portable on the scale of taking it with you on vacation/to a party.

A flute would be the other end of the spectrum; a simple, very classic instrument that's perfect for carrying around. My wife made a face when I mentioned it; she doesn't even like good flute music. So that's probably out.

Piano is far more universal than drums, but it worse portability issues.

Guitar strikes a reasonable medium. It's not something you can throw into a shoulder bag, but it's easily moved in a car and can be taken on an airplane if you have a nice case. It can be used to play a vast swathe of different kinds of music, and you can play it and sing at the same time.

So I'm going to sign up for guitar lessons starting in the fall. It should be fun.

Here's my strength training regimen:

I got Guitar Hero III and a guitar controller as a birthday present from my awesome mother-in-law (I picked it out). I've been playing it the last few evenings, and it's really fun. I'm still in the trying-to-get-used-to-the-controller stage, and my wrist is sore after 20 minutes of playing. But did a "concert" the other night, and game asked for an "encore". The song chosen was KISS's "I wanna rock and roll all night", which I managed to get through without being booed off stage on medium difficulty, without having practiced it. So now that song is unlocked.

And while GH isn't going to help me understand pitches, it's already improved my ability to separate out instruments in a song, and I'm much more in tune with the rhythm of guitar parts in songs.