Hiya! I'm 62, a mostly-retired communications/editor type. My name is Sheila, my grandkids call me Lala, I'll answer to either of those. I'm married to the love of my life, children are grown, we have six grandchildren and three dogs, my hobbies are words, crochet, and growing food and flowers on the surface of the sun.[br][br]Short version of the long tale below: I'm new to guitar, but have some background in strings that has proven helpful. But each instrument has her own unique "tricks," right? So here my guitar and I am.
Long version:[br]I picked up guitar (finally!) a couple of months ago. This past year has been one of expansion. My life in music started when I began violin lessons at age 8. Kept that up until I was 22 or so, took 5 years of piano in there somewhere, added in a mandolin at 14 or 15. Then I got stuck adulting and didn't play anything regularly for a long, long, long, time. [br][br]Last year my husband decided he wanted to learn mountain dulcimer, so just to be, you know, supportive, I got myself a mandolin. Today I have five of those (but they are all different, I swear!). Then he confessed that ever since he'd learned that I had played violin, he'd longed to hear me play one--so I picked out a decent used violin and added her to the barn. I think the violin came in the midst of the mandolin-collecting spree. Two of those five mandos are octave mandolins, btw, and one of the octaves is a resonator. [br][br]We sent a granddaughter a ukulele for her 9th birthday and I've been giving her lessons via video chats, so of course I needed a uke of my own for demonstrations, right? So the next instrument to follow me home was a ukulele. [br][br]At this point, my husband bought himself a banjo. I think he was hoping to scare some sense into me or something. [br][br]The only sensible thing to do at that point was to finally, after all these years, buy a guitar. So I did. And here I am. I'm an acoustic kind of woman, even though a few of my finds have pickups. I'm so clumsy I'd trip over cords and somehow cause a tornado to ensue. And, full disclosure, Santa made an early stop just this week and brought me an A/E bass guitar. (Oh, yeah, played double bass for a bit back in junior HS, too).
Sheila Lagrand[br]Calluses are your friends.
Every day is a gift.
