segway to guitar...

So a little history I always wanted to play guitar. I had some acoustics I collected. Did lessons with a "shredder" (huge mistake) with my acoustic steel string. Hurt my fingers like all get out. Then later I got a cream strat with an amp hoping my girls would like to learn eventually but realized it weighed a lot and I had no real idea how to tune it. Sold all those and collected a few ukes after I decided I loved my daughters cheap $40 ukulele. I have a solid mahogany tenor (kala), a low G martin and a pono bari (my pseudo guitar). I am happy with them, have no real desire for another ukulele (unless it was an amazing upgrade, but really I am very happy with my 3) and then I started looking at guiltelele's.

I didn't like holding them. 5 and 6 string uke's kinda made me think eck too much squished in. I still liked guitars though they are a bit big, then I found out about nylon string "classical" guitars. Then I found out about half sized guitars. Hrmm this sounds cool. So I am once again going to attempt guitar. I feel really good about my ukulele progress and I see how everything I've learned will be killer useful if I decide I like this guitar stuff.

My teacher and local shop owner (same guy) ordered a nice solid top Cordoba smaller size classical guitar and it'll be in soon and my lessons is scheduled for the 19th, feels too far away but I love the anticipation. I wanted to have some time to get my kids back at school before settling into lessons again. Sometimes its nice to have something to look forward to vs instant gratification! Its $300-isn I believe, I trust his opinion on instruments so I'm didn't ask which model so I'll find out when I go to pick it up I've found if I spend about $300 on an instrument I've been very happy in that price range.

I am not sure which teaching approach he will take with it, we are pretty relaxed and change it up a lot. I can't seem to learn songs I get distracted and like to learn new strumming patterns or picking patterns and then sort of throw that stuff together myself. He has a degree in Classical Guitar actually which will be pretty neat to see if the lessons vary from the ukulele.

Any ideas for suggested reading/links/videos? I am super excited, I hope I enjoy it as much as ukulele, we'll see! VERY excited!!!!!

Anyone else do something similar, how did it go?

I have currently two 1/2 size, two 3/4 scales and a full size. All are steel string because that is the sound I really love. I used to have all nylons lying around for years and never had time to learn much. I just started messing around with this site but also have a Blues Guitar course on DVD I want to wade through for a while. That and UU+ should be plenty. I love the guitars; uke has made me understand more theory and so it makes more sense, and I figure struggling to stretch with longer scale guitars will make the ukes easier to fret. My nice 19" steel string is a Tacoma Papoose, it is solid 'hog with a cedar top and is a honey! My full size is just a bigger version called the Chief.

I started on guitar, and stuck with the steel strings. My fingertips look a bit of a mess, but I got through the pain.

I'm probably a bit the opposite. I hate learning strumming and picking patterns, etc. I just find out the chords and dive in to try to do the song. I get too impatient with videos these days, but Mahalo and Marty Schwartz were some of the more helpful tutorial videos I found for playing songs.

I started out with guitar when I was young but, didn't get very far. Then I picked it up again in my 20's. I had a steel string acoustic and it hurt my fingers. After getting married I sold my guitar but, a few years later, I won a guitar in a contest. I then started playing again. I played with some friends at work for a while. I didn't play for a few years until I bought my first ukulele and the uke really opened things up for me! I could play it all day long without hurting my fingers. Recently, I've been getting back into guitar and I prefer the classical because, of the nylon strings. I also have a tenor and electric which I play and the steel strings are light enough that they don't bother my fingers much.

This won't apply to you pixiepurls, if you're playing a classical guitar. But for those who like the steel string sound (like me), I've found lighter tention strings really help. I play a 24.something inch scale acoustic and use light Silk N Steel folk strings (Martin M130). There's some sacrifice of volume, but playing is so much easier.

In general I've found it's important to treat uke and guitar as different instruments. Yes, things carry over. But if you always try to play the same way, and/or same things on both, little progress is made. So treat them as a uke and a guitar, and you might get more out of both.