Last Thursday's lesson raised the bar a bit.
Okay, it was only my third lesson, so I guess each one of them raises the bar to be honest. Or more simply, each time I leave Gernot's flat, I know a lot more about guitars than I did when I walked in. Obviously, this is a very good thing.
So, first thing first: he replaced my guitar string in less than five minutes and now I at least have an idea of how to do it myself next time. We then went through the tuning process and he suggested that I get a digital tuner (and his has a metronome function, too). The explanation was a bit complicated, but basically speaking, I might not be ready yet for my pitch pipe, and the digital tuner gives fairly precise information about what needs to be tuned and how.
There are a lot of choices out there, including software (for Mac OSX) and hardware like these. I'll probably try the free download first, and if I'm not satisfied, I can buy a "real" one.
Okay, back to the raised bar. On Thursday we began discussing music theory. No, it's not just fun and games over here, with me playing Dust in the Wind repeatedly and memorizing one chord after another. Nope, there's also a "serious" side to the path of instruction I've chosen. One of the main points for this is if I understand at least a bit about music theory, then I don't have to memorize the chords, I'll know how to put them together . . . a strategy that proved very useful for me with calculus formulas back in the day.
So now I am working on whole and half steps and becoming comfortable with (finding) and playing individual notes on the guitar.
I'm really enjoying this.
Update: The Mac software I linked above isn't free, so I'd just as soon buy a "real" one.
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