Guitars for Christmas

Margarit and I bought our middle daughter Annelise an acoustic guitar for Christmas.  We bought it new from the Long and McQuade music store here in Edmonton.  It is a Simon and Patrick guitar made in Quebec.  Quite a simple but nice guitar.  I had planned on buying a guitar for myself and learning to play.  I have no great aspirations to become a rock star or anything like that, but would like to learn to strum chords well enough to have sing alongs around the campfire.  My plan was to buy one after Christmas and then sign up to take lessons together with Annelise.

Well... the girls bought me a guitar for Christmas.  It is a lightly used Takamine acoustic with electric pickup.  I don't have an amplifier to plug it into yet, but it is a nice sounding acoustic.  I signed us up for lessons starting at the beginning of January, at Long And McQuade.  Every Monday evening at 8:00PM Anna and I go for a lesson with Gary Myers.  So far it is really basic, but lots of fun.  I actually took several years of piano lessons when I was a young child.  When I was about 12 years old... the same age as Anna is now... I switched to guitar and took a couple of years of lessons.  That was over 40 years ago and I've forgotten most of the little bit I knew.  But a few chords and notes are starting to come back to me.  I need to make a point of practicing every day and working at learning it.  Part of the challenge is getting Anna to practice as well.  I remember what it was like when I was young.  There is an impatience wanting to be able to play right away, and a lack of commitment to the required practice time.  I'll try to keep her in line.