Back in December the dark evenings were in full gloom and all hobbies had stopped due to winter. The previous year I took the Day Skipper Navigation course at the excellent Bowwaves to keep the brain ticking over. This year I decided to try and learn a skill I could put into practice every day and settled upon learning how to play the guitar.

Equipment was needed and I opted to get a Yamaha F310 Acoustic Guitar. It is my first guitar and I just love the sound of it even with my limited playing skills. I tried to teach myself initially but quickly realised that I was looking down a long road and that it would be twice as long without assistance.

I did some research and took a 10 week course with Guitar Made Easy. Kevin, the main mover at Guitar Made Easy, made the classes fun and enjoyable. Yes, it was Guitar Made Easy. He knew what was in my head before I did at each stage of the learning process. On top of his humour, impressive guitar skills and his insights into the struggles of the learner, his trump card was his motivational skills. Kevin runs an improvers follow up course and I will attend that once the summer hobbies have ebbed with the advance of winter.

I am now plucking unsupported and try to keep up the 30 minutes a day practice. Should I ever get a song to performance standard I may just post an mp3 on the site, but it will be some time yet as it is a very long road indeed.