New guitar! and online resources
My guitar arrived today.
It's an Austin Guitars AU336N Classical. With a name like "Austin", you think they'd be steeped in Texas guitar tradition... but like all inexpensive guitars, it's made in China and imported by a place in St Louis. It's nice, though. Nothing fancy (you don't get "fancy" in a $175 guitar), but it seems well-built and sounds good. I bought it from FirstGuitar.com, which is primarily aimed at "students"... hey, I'm a student of the guitar. I bought from them because they give a full inspection, adjustment and setup, which is uncommon in beginner guitars. And they have a 100% money-back guarantee, so if it wasn't everything they said it was, I could return it. :)
I've been looking at various self-teaching resources and ran across Patrick Costello's Pik-Ware Publishing. Patrick has written a handful of books on folk banjo and guitar, which are carried in music and book stores.
Now here's what's cool... he's released his books and video under a Creative Commons license. In one blog post, he says he sells more books since he released them under CC than he did before. "See, I'm not just an idealist. I'm an idealist with health insurance." You have to search his blog, Tangier Sound, to find the free content, though... he doesn't link to it or mention it from the pik-ware.com site anywhere I can find.
On top of all that, on his blog he releases free content at an amazing pace... The Folksong of the Day is a short not-quite-daily vidcast teaching folksongs on guitar and banjo, with a little philosophy and wisdom mixed in. The Daily Frail is podcast teaching frailing (downward-strumming) banjo, and his new Subway Shuffle podcast teaches folk guitar.
Here's what's even more amazing... Patrick has released himself as an "open-source music resource". You pay travel, room and board, and he'll give a workshop for no fee. Because he believes that music is something you are supposed to share, and all the old-timers who taught him how to play never charged him for it. (Okay, so apparently he's getting some free trips to foreign countries out of the deal.)
He's just amazing. The folk guitar book is pretty good so far, and he's just plain inspiring.