Sweet!  Now that the guitar is set up and with online guidance from Rick I am learning to read TAB and found some Van Halen Tabs on the Web that now make sense. I am figuring out " Ice Cream Man"  and I want to maybe see if I can find D.L.R. "California Girls"  looks like it might be  fun.  some strummin chord changes.

 I learnedhow to tune down a 1/2 step, and things are really making sense.

My daughter and I used The "make it up Blues" lesson to get a clue on how to read Tabs.  She is trying really hard to make her fingers tougher and stronger so she can get the notes to sing.

We are still doing the open chords lessons and adding in the blues or VH to keep it fun.

To be continued.......

WOW!  what a difference.    I no longer have to strangle the neck to get the right sounds.

Money well spent.

I am not sure if you can have someone set-up an electric the same way but I would think you can.

I would tell all newbies like me to at least have ther guitars checked and set-up if needed. A lot less frustration and maybe more folks would not give up if it was easier to play.

After practicing for the last few days my fingers are Raw. I felt something was wrong and I was having pleny of trouble with buzzing and deadened notes.  I had a Firefighter friend that plays look at my Guitar and he showed me how high the action was and that the neck bowed in a valley shape. I got home and checked my daughters out and found hers was not bad but did have a hill shape to theneck. 

My friend suggested I go see KING BEE GUITARS in Franklin,TN.

WOW! what a great, off the beaten path, Guitar shop

There were old, new, refurbs, classic fender amps, sitars, banjos, steel guitars and a stage. there were autographed pictures of the musicians. Brad Paisley, Heart, "Goober",   My daughter got a kick out of it.

Gary Gilert looked at and played our guitars. He said that my daughters could use a setup and that mine was a real "cheese grater". He said it hurt his fingers and he has played for over 25 years.

I am paying $55 per guitar and $7 for strings to have them both set up properly.( It will take him a week to do it.) I hope this will make learning more enjoyable and easier.

I will keep you posted as to the end results. 

I quit my corporate job and took my 18 years of Volunteer Firefighting and moved to Nashville to be a paid firefighter at the age of 40. (I should have moved here sooner). Now I love country music and have decided to learn to play guitar. (I did have an electric when i was 15, but i wasn't serious then- I think my dad bought it at a Sam Ash store around 1981.)

My 12 y/o Daughter wantsto play also. I bought 2 acoustics and some picks and books(extra strings and a tuner).  I am 2 days into it here at SAMI and I like what I have been able to learn so far. It is alot more fun than the method book.

I really liked the Intro to" iron man" lesson.

my fingertips feel raw and reading music seems impossible, but I can already see that this is going to be a great stress reliever, and a more productive hobby than XBOX 360.

Now if I could just get my daughter to practice more...