Courier hat geschrieben:
Ok, so here is my first essay. Maybe someone would like to take a few minutes and correct it? Thanks in advance
Guitar
When1 I was a child I never wanted to play an instrument. When I was in elementary school I had to play the recorder2 and I hated it. I can’t exactly remember why I hated it but I think I didn’t like how this was taught to me.
Later, as a young adult I saw lots of people playing instruments like guitars, pianos or drums. This fascinated me because I think it’s very hard to play an instrument in a way way that3 sounds good. It didn’t take long until I bought myself my first guitar and started practicing. Sadly, after a few weeks of playing I lost interest4 in it because I made only slow progress. This lends to buring my guitar for a long time5.
Instead of playing the guitar I focused on studying. At the time I went to university.7 I met my later wife. We have 3 beautiful kids which are all boys. Sometimes to her sorrow, like she says 
. And as you may suggest there wasn't much time to learn an instrument besides family activities and studying.
Today, life is a little more quiet8. I have a job with mostly fixed working hours and our kids are older now and they don't take as much attention as when they were younger. So, that’s the reason why I have started playing guitar again about a half year ago. I have already learned my first 8 chords (open chords) and some strumming patterns. I have also learned how to change the strings of my guitar. Sometimes when I practiced too long my fingers start to hurt. I think that’s because I play a Western Guitar with steel strings9.
Interesting. So, are you learning U.S. Western style guitar playing specifically or are you just using a a Western guitar?
You'll get used to the strings. It's only been half a year so far. I'm speaking from recent experience. I've been playing a couple of instruments since I was a child but I've never played a stringed instrument until about one and a half years ago. And although violin doesn't put as much stress on the fingertips, it still took a while to get used to the strings.
If you have problems with any of my explanations, don't hesitate to ask.
1 - You cannot use "as" here. As is something you use when you have a short event or an event that interrupts something else that is in progress or when you have two short consecutive events.
What you have here is a period of time "I was a child" that happens while some state "never wanted to play an instrument" persists, so both things are of equal length.
You could use "while" or "when" here. While would be preferred when the duration is important and when would be preferred otherwise. And since the duration of the childhood isn't really the focus here, "when" is probably the best choice.
2 - I'm going out on a limb here (= Ich stelle hier mal eine wilde Vermutung an), and suggest that the instrument you were forced to play was the recorder* (Blockflöte) and not the flute (Querflöte). Children aren't usually forced to learn the flute.
3 - So "the way it sounds good" doesn't really work. "The way" suggests that there is only one particular way it could be done and only one. That's not how playing instruments is perceived culturally. Rather you express this in a way that is equivalent to "
any way that sounds good".
Personally, I'd use "to play with a nice sound" or maybe just "to play musically".
4 - "lose interest" doesn't come with a possessive pronoun in between in English. It's not entirely wrong grammatically, but it wouldn't be perceived as idiomatic English.
This is particularly important because the perception of who is the actor and who the recipient of the action would change it would be understood as something along the lines of "ich nehme mir mein Interesse". And while you would now what's meant it is confusing.
5 - I do not know what you were trying to say here and how to correct this.
6 - Only one -s- and there is no "myself".
7 - I'm not sure if you were missing a word here to connect the sentences. Did you try to say that you met your wife at university?
8 - So, people would get what you are trying to say, but "still" is usually associated more with a lack of movement while what you describe is just a lack of unpredictability.
9 - "Strings of steel" is technically correct, but the technical terminology is "steel strings".
(*) The name of the recorder is confusing for many German speakers. But the word has a somewhat weird history.
It goes back all the way to the Middle Ages when England was ruled by the Norman French.
The name recorder goes back to a Norman French verb recorder which meant to remember, to commit to memory but also to play music.
Now, this is where things get slightly weird because the French only ever used the word for playing music, they never used it for any musical instruments. The name of the recorder in French is "flûte à bec" while the flute is called "flûte transversière".
So what did the English do? They named the recorder after the French verb, for no particular reason, and every other type of flute was called floute or whistle.
You're never too old to learn something stupid.
Mistake – Suggestion – You sure that's right?
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