He Plays Guitar {Akron, OH Child Photographer}

My youngest boy plays guitar.  Two birthdays ago, he begged for guitar.  He was going to be 8 that year, and I thought that I had better not invest a whole lot to begin with just in case he changed his mind.  I found a half-sized guitar on Amazon, and he was beyond thrilled when he opened his present.  My bigger investment for that birthday was guitar lessons.  (We are big on music lessons around here.)

I’m going to be honest here and say that the first six months (oh, let’s be really honest–that whole first year) of lessons was a struggle.  He wanted to quit multiple times saying it was “too hard” and “not fun.”  But I made him stick with it, because his teacher said he had an ear for music.  And then he finally learned a “real” song – Ode to Joy.  And then came “Amazing Grace.”  And then?

He started trying to pick out songs by ear.  One day, he decided to show his teacher that he had figured out the first section of the “Mission Impossible” theme song.   His teacher fanned that spark and brought him the tabulation the following week.  Ethan is loving this!  He chooses a song he wants to learn, his teacher writes out the notation for him, and Ethan is really excited about practicing.  Well, I still have to remind him to do the exercises, sometimes.

A few weeks ago, his teacher came out after the lesson and told me there was a problem with Ethan’s guitar.  The neck was coming loose from the box.  He told me I could try to fix it, or he’d be happy to show us some used ones in his shop.  I did repair the guitar with a drywall screw, but it wasn’t a great fix, and we had trouble keeping it tuned.  For two weeks straight, Ethan asked at least twice a day every day if we could go to Dig’s shop and get an electric guitar.  (Easier to play, easier to tune, sounds super cool when you play Mission Impossible, etc…) Then he cinched it by saying he would pay for half of it with his own money.

Sold.

Here he is playing his “new” guitar:

Not the greatest shot in terms of composition.  I’m using the 100 mm lens here because my 50mm is in for repairs, and there just isn’t enough room to back up far enough sometimes. And actually, my favorite shot of this series doesn’t even show his face.  You can view that over at my Facebook page if you are so inclined. 🙂   But since this is for an I Heart Faces photo challenge, the photo needed to have a face.

You can participate, too!  Just head over to the I Heart Faces page and submit your photo.  The theme this month is “Play,” and the challenge is open until Saturday evening.