Today has been Sunday. I am Christian; it was my sabbath, or day of rest. I didn’t rest from everything. I still cooked and cleaned up the kitchen and even did Church service.

Yes, we also attended church, where my wife and I teach Sunday School to 4 year olds. Ours included.

But as the children giggled off to bed, I figured it was time to start figuring out this guitar thing. You see, I’ve always wanted to be able to express myself with music. The written word gets it mostly done, but there are times…

So since we own a small thrift shop guitar, I figured the guitar would a good one to learn. Problem: it hurts the fingers. Big deal. I’m turning 37 in two months and if I’m going to learn to play an instrument well enough to say something with it, it’s time.

I spent my first 30 minutes with a guitar learning to tune it. I got a reference low-E note from this website. I watched a video on YouTube that taught me the fourth fret method.

It took me thirty minutes and much finger wagging, along with some fun new grooves in some fingertips, but all of a sudden, the strings all sounded right. So much that Her Highness and I looked at each other and said, “Hey, wow. That sounded good!”

Lesson 1 done. Next time I will learn some scales. That will be either tomorrow or Tuesday.

It feels good to have finally gotten this guitar sounding good. A bit of a confidence builder. That ought to help carry me on to my next session.

How about you? What have you tried that was new and difficult lately? What’s working to keep you on track with a difficult goal?