Restringing

I kind of ruined the tuning pegs on my previous guitar by not taking them out properly. I didn't realise that you could push the string into the hole a little to loosen them up before pulling the peg out, and often resorted to pliers which totally warped the heads. I've avoided restringing my current guitar, bought by my wife as a wedding present, because I was afraid of causing similar damage (even if the pegs are easily and cheaply replaced).

It's been losing tune recently though, so I knew I'd have to replace the strings at some point; I've had a fresh set in a drawer since Christmas, so I finally took the plunge this afternoon - and apart from one, the pegs all came out pretty easily. I'd also never thought of putting my hand into the body to push them out from the inside on the old guitar, so that also helped avoid damage.

The only downside is that I'm terrible at tuning guitars. I can't do it by ear at all, and my tuner is oddly sensitive on some strings and seems to be unable to "hear" others. I eventually managed to get it sounding more or less okay, at which point I went right back to boring everyone to death by practicing Spirit First for the rest of the evening.

Spirit First

I'm not a very good guitar player. I won't even try to call myself a "guitarist", because that implies a level of competence that I simply do not possess. I'm good enough to pick up stuff I like, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of it, but I'm not going to be impressing anybody with my abilities.

The problem with picking stuff up on my own, however, is that it makes it almost impossible to unlearn all the stuff I'm doing wrong. Case in point: tonight, I was watching a live stream by Levi Weaver wherein he asked for requests. I've been playing Spirit First for months, but I've always known I had it slightly wrong, and I asked if he'd be able to play it so I could see the fretboard.

I was playing it completely wrong.

I'd shifted the chords down from a Bm to an Am because I found it easier to play what I heard, but that meant that I could never have played it the right way. It actually has a lot more open strings than I thought, but shifting it down two frets means I can't play those notes without some really awkward finger positions.

So the rest of the evening has been spent practising the right way. I can just about make it through a verse by now, but still hit a couple of wrong notes along the way.