 
My First Guitar
Background:
My dad has played guitar as long as I can remember. We used to have
campfires when I was young and some of my dad's friends could come and bring
their guitars. We would sing by the campfire late into the night. I
have fond memories of those campfires. Music by John Denver, James Taylor,
Jim Croce were some of what was sung.
I always sang in the church choir. From first grade in Junior Choir
through Reunion Choir (the choir we formed for all those that went to college
and didn't want to join the Senior Choir when they came back). I sang in
chorus in school for a while, but was persuaded to quit with a friend over a
disagreement with the director. I don't even remember what it was about
anymore. I'll always regret quitting. I took singing lessons for a
while and I was in all the musicals in High School, but never a lead. I
often thought it was because I had quit chorus. Nevertheless, I love to
sing.
Jacob was about 3 years old when we started attending Schuylkill Valley Bible
Chapel in Mohrsville, PA. They did not have a full time choir. The
choir only sang at Christmas and Easter. Instead, they had "Special Music"
performed each week by various people in the congregation. I mentioned to
the guy that scheduled the Special Music that I would be interested in singing.
He said "OK" and quickly scheduled me to sing.
Since I didn't play an instrument, I sang to accompaniment CDs. Anyone
using CDs had to have them approved by the pastor. I was getting more and
more into Christian Contemporary music and was bringing that type of music in to
sing. Several songs were turned down due to "too much drums or electric
guitar". I was told that if I had live instruments, the songs would be
fine. They were pretty conservative.
My First Guitar:
I had always loved the guitar and had thought about trying to learn to play
for a long time. One Christmas, I think it was 2002, I was at Walmart in
the checkout line. Right in front of the cash registers was a big display
of musical instruments. Since it was just after Christmas, they had a sale
and the one sign said: "All guitars 50% off". I thought "wow"!
They were about $120, so doing the quick math, it was $60 plus tax. I
figured if I didn't stick with it, it wasn't too much of a financial loss.
So, I picked one out and anxiously continued to wait in line.
It was my turn at the cash register and she started ringing up my purchases.
I was watching to make sure it came down, but it did not. I told her they
were supposed to be 50% off and she said "well, it didn't come down". I
pointed to the display and the sign. She called over the manager, they
went over to the display and talked a little. The manager ripped down the
sign. They gave me the price. I believe they only intended the
Junior guitars to be 1/2 off. I would not have spent $120 on it.
So, I had my guitar. Anyone that knows anything about guitars could
figure that this guitar probably would have issues. The strings were too
far off the frets (called the "action") making playing pretty painful.
Tuning was another issue. It came with a pitch pipe - like a beginner can
tune this low quality guitar with a pitch pipe! The guitar stayed unplayed
for about a year...
Learning to play:
I had started attending a Bible Study at work on Thursdays. One week,
one of the guys (Jose George) brought in his guitar and we spent the time singing praise
songs. At the end, I told him that I had bought a guitar and tried to play
it, but had trouble tuning it and keeping it in tune. He told me about
electronic tuners and suggested I try one. (Thanks, Jose!)
With renewed interest, I went
to Keyboard World in the Mall to buy a tuner. The man behind the counter
was very nice and we talked about music. I told him I wanted to accompany
myself for singing at church and he said he played on his church's worship team.
He said if I ever needed any adjustments made on my guitar, that he did that
there as well. He had showed me how to use the tuner and I went home to
try to tune my guitar.
Unfortunately, the guitar had more problems. The tuning keys turned very
hard, making it very difficult to tune. While trying to tune it, I broke
one of the gears. I thought, "now what"? I took it back to the guy
at Keyboard World and told him what happened. We got out the book that
came with it and it had a website. He contacted the company and ordered
the parts he needed to fix my guitar. He had to order the whole three key
set because it was slightly different than the original. He installed it for me, changed the
strings, and adjusted my action. He called me and I went to pick up my
guitar. He only charged me $10! I think he was an angel sent into my
life. I went back later and he was gone.
After that, learning to play was much easier. The keys turned nicely, I
had my electronic turner to tune it, and it didn't hurt so bad to play. I
started working on the songs in the book that came with the guitar and learning
the chords. I then bought some books of Christian Contemporary music for Easy Guitar with the chord finger
positions shown for the chords in the songs. I started playing simple
praise and worship songs. Eventually, I played my first songs in church
with my guitar: "Come, Let Us Worship And Bow Down" and "Come, Now Is The
Time To Worship".
On a side note:
I've had my third guitar since 2007 - a Breedlove
electric-acoustic guitar from Meadowood Music (my favorite music store:
www.meadowoodmusic.com). I
bought a Fender acoustic after the first year. In April of 2010, with our first CD Release Party for our CD, "BGTF
", we had a drawing for that first guitar. My niece happened to win it and
donated it to The Journey Cafe in Hamburg, PA. B9 Fate signed it and
hopefully you can still find it there! They run an after school program
and the one thing they do is teach kids to play guitar. I am glad it has
been put to good use!
Yvonne and her Breedlove guitar
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