Who Needs Guitar Lessons? I do.

It feels like a lot longer but I've only been playing guitar for about 8 years. I started fooling around with a guitar that my sister borrowed from a friend at the beginning of my senior year in high school. Then after messing around with basic chords and cruising the internet for tabs of easy songs that my fingers could most easily fumble through, my parents decided it was time for an upgrade, a guitar of my own. My journey with Siggy began at my high school graduation party.

It's been a good self-taught ride so far and I'm proud of where I've gotten myself so far. But my self-taughtness (Not a word is it?) is starting to shine through and my lack of skills is beginning to become frustrating.

I started writing music sometime in my first year in college, mostly with simple, first position chords and straight forward melodies. And really, there's nothing wrong with that. It's not the simplicity of the song but the quality of the song as a whole that makes it good. But, especially in recent years, as my songwriting skills have slowly developed, there are so many things that play in my head and that I want to fit into a song, but I just don't know how to translate it into actual music.

I know a lot of this has to do with my lack of technical knowledge when it comes to the guitar. I'm stuck playing the same chords, strumming the same rhythms, and altogether, not really knowing what I'm doing. I don't write music because I know it's musically correct, I write because I know what I like hear and I understand what sounds good and fits together.

Once I net myself a job I think one of my top priorities is to find someone locally that I can build some knowledge from. I know if I want to take my music to the next level and if I want to get out of the rut that I've been in, I need to learn more than I have the patience to teach myself.

Reading books, getting tips and learning other people's songs is all well and good, but sitting down with someone that has much more guitar knowledge than me is really going to make all the difference. Back in college I had similar thoughts about my singing skills and how I could improve for the band I was in. I took lessons for a month or so and though a bit uncomfortable, I feel it really made a difference.

So first comes job, then comes money, then comes guitar mastery. Good plan.