Week 1: Starting guitar and kalimba simultaneously
First impressions of learning both instruments at the same time. Why this is probably a bad idea.
I decided to start learning guitar and kalimba at the same time. People tell me this is a bad idea. They're probably right.
Guitar
First week observations:
The fingertip pain is real. My left hand fingers aren't callused at all, so anything beyond 15–20 minutes of fretting becomes uncomfortable. I've read this gets better after a few weeks.
I started with open chords — Em, Am, E, A, D. Switching between them cleanly is the actual challenge. I can hold each chord fine in isolation. Moving between them in time is a different skill entirely.
What I'm working on: Em → Am transitions, slow and deliberate. Not trying to play songs yet. Just making clean chord shapes a reflex.
Kalimba
This is the easier instrument to start with, at least in terms of making it sound good immediately. You press the tines and it produces a clean note. There's no technique barrier to entry in the way there is with guitar.
The challenge is different: reading which tine is which note. The layout is non-linear — higher notes alternate left-right from the center. Getting that internalized takes time.
Currently playing simple melodies by ear. Working through "Twinkle Twinkle" not because it's interesting but because it forces me to learn the layout.
Why both at once
Mostly because I'm impatient. We'll see if this was smart in a few months.