Pondering 2015's goals
Dec. 28th, 2014 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lilfluffThis post inspired but not an exact copy from latest deviantArt journal post... Also, as noted at the end I'm going to be open to advice from readers with guitar knowledge.
As we all know we're rapidly approaching 2015 which means of course New Years Goals. The past few years I've set a goal of writing 100K words of fiction and this year I actually made it (crossing 100K late last night/early this morning). About a month ago when it became clear that I was going to reach 100K words I started debating with myself whether to do another 100,000 word goal next year or perhaps as much as double it to 200K words.
At this point another of the things I've wanted to do steps into the picture. For the last few years I've been saying that I'd like to learn to play guitar. Two obstacles have stood in the way: A lack of a (safe) place to keep a guitar in a way to messy home and a non-cooperative budget. Recent events have resulted in not merely cleaning up the place but also being able to improve how things are organized. This has given me a little computer nook with room to become a computer/guitar nook. Better than that I even already have from prior projects a USB audio interface with both an XLR microphone and 1/4" connectors. So this could easily become not merely a computer & guitar nook but a computer & guitar practice and home-recording nook. I've heard that recording practice is a Good Thing and I can picture using it to show to myself that I actually am making progress.
The second obstacle? One of my Christmas gifts was some guitar buying funds, enough to cover most of the cost of guitars I've seen reviewed as being cheap without being a throw-away piece of trash (something like a Yamaha C40 or Ibanez GA3 which are both about $130). Annoyingly in addition to the car payments brought about by my old car dying there have been probably close to a thousand dollars in unplanned expenses these last two months. So I still might not be going out to pick a guitar until around February or March. But it's now something that's actually on the todo list rather than the dream about it list.
The upshot of that is that I've pretty much decided the writing goal will be staying at 100K with the extra ambition going not to increased word count but towards guitar practice. In fact I'll allow myself to reduce the wordcount goal if, if it's going towards either guitar time or drawing time. Because yep, I intend in 2015 to do some more drawing which has been something I haven't done in a while.
Hey there readers, if you've read this far down and you have some guitar experience I'm more than open to both practice advice and buying advice. I like listening to Youtube videos of people playing all sorts of stuff on the nylon string classical guitar so I've decided I'll be buying one of those (and if I keep it up probably an electric later on). So far the models I've been looking at at the Yamaha C40, CG102, or CGX102; Ibanez GA3, GA6CE, or AEG10NII; and the Washburn C40. Which gives me a spread of prices for just the guitar of around $130 to $300. The closer to $300 guitars are probably out of my comfortable spending range unless I end up waiting longer than I want, after all there's all thetoys gear to get like a tuner, strings, a stand, etc. Likely be reading/listening to reviews and visiting stores to hear the sound in person.
As we all know we're rapidly approaching 2015 which means of course New Years Goals. The past few years I've set a goal of writing 100K words of fiction and this year I actually made it (crossing 100K late last night/early this morning). About a month ago when it became clear that I was going to reach 100K words I started debating with myself whether to do another 100,000 word goal next year or perhaps as much as double it to 200K words.
At this point another of the things I've wanted to do steps into the picture. For the last few years I've been saying that I'd like to learn to play guitar. Two obstacles have stood in the way: A lack of a (safe) place to keep a guitar in a way to messy home and a non-cooperative budget. Recent events have resulted in not merely cleaning up the place but also being able to improve how things are organized. This has given me a little computer nook with room to become a computer/guitar nook. Better than that I even already have from prior projects a USB audio interface with both an XLR microphone and 1/4" connectors. So this could easily become not merely a computer & guitar nook but a computer & guitar practice and home-recording nook. I've heard that recording practice is a Good Thing and I can picture using it to show to myself that I actually am making progress.
The second obstacle? One of my Christmas gifts was some guitar buying funds, enough to cover most of the cost of guitars I've seen reviewed as being cheap without being a throw-away piece of trash (something like a Yamaha C40 or Ibanez GA3 which are both about $130). Annoyingly in addition to the car payments brought about by my old car dying there have been probably close to a thousand dollars in unplanned expenses these last two months. So I still might not be going out to pick a guitar until around February or March. But it's now something that's actually on the todo list rather than the dream about it list.
The upshot of that is that I've pretty much decided the writing goal will be staying at 100K with the extra ambition going not to increased word count but towards guitar practice. In fact I'll allow myself to reduce the wordcount goal if, if it's going towards either guitar time or drawing time. Because yep, I intend in 2015 to do some more drawing which has been something I haven't done in a while.
Hey there readers, if you've read this far down and you have some guitar experience I'm more than open to both practice advice and buying advice. I like listening to Youtube videos of people playing all sorts of stuff on the nylon string classical guitar so I've decided I'll be buying one of those (and if I keep it up probably an electric later on). So far the models I've been looking at at the Yamaha C40, CG102, or CGX102; Ibanez GA3, GA6CE, or AEG10NII; and the Washburn C40. Which gives me a spread of prices for just the guitar of around $130 to $300. The closer to $300 guitars are probably out of my comfortable spending range unless I end up waiting longer than I want, after all there's all the
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Date: 2014-12-29 11:55 am (UTC)If I recall correctly, you live in AZ, right? If you are okay with a used instrument, you should check out a Bookmans if there are any near you. I never thought I would be able to afford my own viola, but...Bookmans to the rescue, and it's really quite a nice instrument. All the ones around me are loaded with guitars, and maybe you can actually find one of the varieties you're looking for, you never know. They also sell used amps and other equipment, too. In addition to my viola I also got a ukulele from Bookmans (for a grand total of $15!), and I've had absolutely no complaints with it either. So there's that.