i bought an acoustic guitar about three or four years ago, and today i changed the strings for the first time — all by myself! it was something i've been working up to for a while. i watched a few videos until i felt confident i could do it myself, then gathered what tools i could find (old pliers and my dad's wirecutters), and set to work. it took a while to figure out the right way to wind the new strings, and even longer to remember how to do it right, but i managed not to snap any strings or lose an eye during the process :)

back when i took guitar lessons, i treated them about the same as school or piano: glossing over the important stuff for shortcuts that would get me where i wanted to be. i wrote one or two songs, learned a few other favorites, and eventually stopped showing up to lessons. it wasn't as if i completely stopped playing guitar afterwards, though. i still learned a few songs, performed once or twice, dreamed of performing thousands of times over. but i still had this heavy guilt. it would be a waste of time to change the strings and clean the fretboard because i would abandon the instrument anyways. with my more recent yearning for an electric guitar — it would be a waste when i could barely play the guitar i have. i don't even know my scales, or the circle of fifths, and i've been learning music for most of my life.

recently, though, i've been seriously considering buying that electric guitar. it would've happened sooner if i didn't have this unreasonable guilt about owning things and being bad at things. but i've been working through it bit by bit, starting with a trip to guitar center to try out some guitars and buy strings. i feel more committed to my current guitar after making the decision to take care of it, and i know i can take care of a second guitar just the same. an electric guitar would open up so many new chances to perform and new songs and techniques to learn, and, of course, my pipe dreams of eventually being in a rock band require a pipe dream guitar to come true.

i'll be guitar shopping for the forseeable future :) —7