Conscious of my previously loathed guitars I wanted to make sure that I bought an instrument that I actually liked the look of. It would be my fourth guitar but really my first one as it would be the first one that I would learn to play properly. I wanted an electric rather than acoustic guitar as unplugged from an amplifier it would make less noise as I learnt to play it and would be more tolerable to my girlfriend, Selina.
I didn’t want to go for the Les Paul Gibson or Fender Stratocaster shapes as, for me, these are showy guitars and cheap copies look even worse in the hands of someone who can’t play them. Out of the most common guitar shapes that left me with the Fender Telecaster. It’s my favourite guitar shape as it is simple, yet beautiful, which is what I am aiming for musically. Its simplicity is its beauty and it is a fantastic design. Many of my favourite guitarists also chose the Telecaster – Joe Strummer of The Clash, Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones, Graham Coxon of Blur and…Francis Rossi of Status Quo!
Whilst I was more determined to learn this time, I knew myself well and didn’t want to waste money on something that I might soon give up, so I went for the best cheap guitar I could find. I chose the Encore E-2 Blaster in beautiful sunburst. It may be a cheap guitar in that it cost under £120, but for me it is absolutely gorgeous. Guitar purchased I set about learning properly for the first time, giving myself the rule that this was a musical instrument, not a toy. This meant if I was going to play it I was only going to play it properly and not trash about aimlessly on it.
IMAGE: My guitar, an Encore E-2 Blaster in beautiful sunburst
I soon picked up my previously leant chords and concentrated on strumming away on A, E and D. I did this for a while, playing but not really practising about once a week. Then unsurprisingly I lost interest again. A few months later I renewed my interest and started playing along to free online videolessons from Justin Sandecoe. This helped and I got as far as playing a slowed down version of Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. But again life got in the way again and I stopped playing for a while.
Then early January this year, frustrated that my very busy life contained nothing creative, I decided to pick up my guitar again, with the determination that this time I would really learn how to play it properly. I learnt to read guitar tab for the first time and to my pleasure learnt some very simple yet instantly recognisable songs including Three Blind Mice and Happy Birthday to You. After years of strumming away aimlessly at chords, I was delighted to discover that it was actually easier to play notes. Being a massive Damon Albarn fan I also learnt the easy guitar parts to the Gorillaz songs Clint Eastwood, Feel Good Inc. and Stylo.
Pleased with my progress I also learnt a few more chords and set about trying to play some more simple songs. But I felt that despite finally putting some real effort in, I was years away from where I wanted to be as a guitarist and decided that the only thing I could do to speed things up would be to take some proper lessons with a guitar tutor…
Lessons learnt: Guitar tab; C, G, E minor and A minor chords; the guitar is a musical instrument, not a toy; get a teacher and have some lessons.
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