Rock and Roll Girls

My two oldest daughters have declared a desire to learn to play the guitar. It had originally started with Emily, but now Nikki, after seeing her sister with Uncle Glen's red reproduction '56 Les Paul slung 'round her neck, wants to join up, too.

We had originally read about Emily's desire to learn guitar from the girls' online profile (the one we originally found out about them from). That was one of the most exciting elements for me, of course. In the books Katrina made for them about our lives here in Washington, she featured me with my guitar prominently.

All week long, Emily has been asking me to show her some things on the guitar, which built to a fever pitch today after she and I poked around a bit at Beacock Music and she discovered, to her surprise, a wide selection of guitars aimed at girls. After coming home from the open house at their new school, Em and I retired to the music room (aka Kayla's room) to see what I could teach her. I set her up with the aforementioned Les Paul (it's the only right-handed guitar in the house), and as I was going over the features of an electric guitar, Nikki joined us.

I worked with Emily for about a half an hour, utilizing the same first guitar lesson I was given by my teacher par excellance, Steve Edwards. It's just the basic opening riff from Nirvana's "Come As You Are," which works out really well for getting someone used to the whole idea of strings and notes and frets and such, as it is only played on two strings and three frets. What took me about a week to get down Emily got in about ten minutes. She'd never even held a guitar before, mind you. I was pretty blown away.

When she finished, it was Nikki's turn. I was worried a bit with Nikki - I thought she might want to be playing just because Emily was - in short, I wasn't entirely convinced of her seriousness. Boy, was I ever wrong. Little Blondie Bear (our new nickname for her) took to the guitar like a duck to the water. She seemed to lack some of Emily's natural acumen, but more than made up for it with her perseverance. Despite barely being able to hold the guitar (the strap was far too big, and the instrument kept sliding down her legs), she kept on until she had the entire riff down. I finally had to cut the practice - otherwise, I think she would have played all night.

So, it's still good times around here. But now, of course, I'm looking at buying two guitars and amps instead of just one of each. Ah, such is the burden of parenthood, isn't it? I wouldn't have it any other way.