Do you play other instruments?

[swillis]

Hey Marty-
I bought myself a guitar and lessons for my big 3-7 this year. As a long time piano player, I am finding it somewhat difficult to read music in terms of the guitar strings--it seems upside down to me--down the guitar strings, up in notes, whereas up the piano keyboard, up in notes. My question for you is, do you play any other instruments, and if so, was it difficult for you to learn to play guitar? I am assuming it will become more natural as I continue.

Cheers,
Shelley

[martinxavier]

I started out playing the guitar in 8th grade and never took any formal lessons. I just played around with the guitar till I started to figure out some chords. I would get Guitar Player magazine and learn from the tableture and eventually I kinda got the hang out it. After years of playing with Billy and Ben Kelly I really got a lesson on song construction using a series of chords and I just based everything on whether it sounded good to my ear. At times Billy would tell me the progression was wrong but I would want to keep it because even though theory tells you to do things a certain way, I always liked being "wrong" if it still sounded good to my ear.

There is a sharp learning curve in getting the hang of playing the guitar. If you keep up with it you get the basics and then can get really good really fast. Kinda like snow skiing. It's a real bear in the beginning but by the end of the day you are divbombing to the bottom of the hill and having the ride of your life.

Keep it up!

Marty