I was chatting with Adam Clark the other day when he brought up his new instrument, the dulcimer. I’ve been giving him crap over such a lame instrument for some time now and admonish him for not taking up guitar. Dulcimer? Cheess. Who the heck plays dulcimer?
So during this particular conversation Adam mentioned that Kai, his 5 year old kid, wants to play guitar. Oh blessed sanity! At least someone in the family has some sense. So Adam asks me about guitars and I recommend that he go ahead and get Kai a 3/4 size axe for to start with so as to fit his size better. And I also recommend that he get him a steel string guitar, though more difficult to play in some regards, more painful for the tender fingertips, why defer the pain? Funny idea that, having to face pain at some point and choosing to defer it by selecting a nylon string guitar, or gut string as we say in reference to the pre-petroleum cat gut strings, on which to learn.
So as an expansion of the old saying we now have, no pain, no pain.
But then again, its inevitable.