Guitar History

This is a long post. Consider yourself warned.

As mentioned before, I am currently taking guitar lessons. Also mentioned before, I play a gloss black Schecter Omen 6. Funny story how I ended up playing it. Want to hear? No? Too bad - I'm telling it anyway.

My husband, Ed has always wanted to play guitar from what I understand. At his last job, he worked with a guy that became a pretty close family friend (along with his room-mate). Said friend had been involved with guitar lessons at our local Guitar Center, and I think it gave Ed a renewed interest in learning to play.

A couple of months passed, and we started getting closer to Christmas, so I thought a guitar would be a nifty present. So I spent the next few weeks doing research on the different models, reading reviews online, talking to guitar players, and trying them out myself in the store. Ed's totally into 80's music, so I was looking for a guitar that produced that kind of sound, as opposed to an alternative rock sound à la Green Day or Blink-182 (and if you don't think there's a difference, then you've got your head in the sand).

I finally settled on the Schecter line, which got incredible reviews online - a good, thick sound for a reasonable price (in between $300 and $500 for the models I was looking at). I went to Guitar Center and snagged a floor rep. He told me that they had two Omen 6's in stock, and a handful of the Omen 7's. I didn't want a 7 string, so I looked at the Omen 6's. Of the two they had, one was a mahogany wood finish (ick), and one was a floor model in gloss black. "And," says the sales rep, "I'll give you a discount on the black since it's got a small scratch on the back.". Sold!

So fast forward to well after Christmas. Ed's been playing off and on at home, just fiddling around mostly compliments of Comcast and the OnDemand guitar lessons, but then the guitar lessons start. He's VERY excited when he leaves, and then evidently they gave him a prostate exam or something during the lesson, because he comes home looking defeated (violated?). He says that the lesson went horribly, his fingers won't do what he wants them to, and that he's frustrated. I tell him that it can't be all that bad, and so he gives me the guitar & the lesson sheet he brought home: "Here, YOU play this." So I did. And evidently I did better than he did, because he got irked.

Fast forward again to the next week. It's right before lessons, and Ed is dragging his feet. He hasn't touched the guitar all week, and has even gone so far as shooting dirty looks in passing (I've heard the guitar weeply quietly in the night: "Why doesn't he love me?!"). I keep asking him if he's going to practice even a little before he goes to lessons. Then he drops the bomb: he's not going to lessons. He's not having fun. He's looking at me like I'm going to be mad. Ha ha, here's fooling him! I didn't care - I told him that if he didn't enjoy it he could stop, and that wasn't a problem. The whole reason I bought him the guitar was so that he would have fun. It certainly wasn't meant as a crude form of torture. Only problem is the Guitar Center's cancellation policy - you have to give at least 24 hours notice, or you have to pay for the lesson anyway. So I figure what the hell - I'll give it a try. And what do you know? Love at first strum - I enjoy it alot, so it worked out alright.

Fast forward some more, about two months. We're all at Guitar Center (Ed, SD, and I had been out at dinner that night, and Ed was tagging along to lessons). While we're upstairs in the lesson he's downstairs in the drum room playing around. When SD and I come down from lessons, he says he wants to play drums & take lessons in that, in effect making lessons a family activity (which is nice). Only problem - we don't own a drum set. Wait, that's not the only problem. Well, we live in an apartment. Here's some very simple math for you. Loud Drums + Pissed Off Neighbors = Eviction Notice. Wasn't that easy? Instead of risking, ahem, domicile displacement, we started looking at the electric drum sets. Very cool. They plug into an amp, just like an electric guitar, and you can use headphones when you play. The end result is a lot less noise and happy neighbors. Only problem is there about twice as expensive as normal drums (a decent starter kit will set you back about $2000), so we were going to give it some thought.

After his first lesson, we're all standing around talking to the instructors, and Ed's drum teacher says something to the effect of "Wow! Ed is like, so good. Are you sure that he hasn't played before?". Well, yeah, I'm pretty sure. Guess he's just a natural. Now we're even for the guitar (even though when I'm practicing, he'll still tell me what a bitch I am, laugh, and then say "No, just kidding, it sounds good" - too funny).

We did cave and buy the electric drums - they're very cool, although Ed still has a problem with the crash symbol malfunctioning. Nothing major. It's just irksome. He's only gotten better though, so that's cool. In fact, his ability surpasses my guitar playing. I'm hoping that one day we'll be able to rock out "Mary Had a Little Lamb" together. Totally killer.