so on friday my wife bought a $30.00 kid's guitar at tj maxx. ostensibly, the guitar was for my son, but when she brought it home warned her that it could be a good long while before he got any use out of it, seeing as he's only 7 months old. maybe she pictured him picking it up quickly and becoming a little musical prodigy, but i explained that it's not that easy. it's really small, like maybe 24'' long, but fully functional, with 6 strings and all. at first look i thought it was too cheap to be worth a damn. but i took it out and tuned it up, and to my suprise, it sounded quite good. it rocks, actually. it's really funny and small, but it sounds good. so i sat down and played for my son for a while. as far as i can tell he likes to listen & watch me play. he's at that stage now where if something manages to capture his undevided attention for more than 5 seconds, he must trully be fascinated by it. he's also at the stage where he wants to reach out and touch everything. he wanted the guitar. it's as if he knew it was really for him. he was sitting up, so i just set it down in front of him, so that the neck of the guitar lay across his legs. at first, he just lightly touched the metal strings a little bit with the fingers on one hand, and seemed delighted that they made some noise when he plucked them. but then he enthusiasticly put both of his hands down on the strings, and ended up muting them so they did make any noise. he seemed perplexed, and dissappointed. so i took a couple of peices of his wooden peg puzzle and put them in his hands. at first he just held them down on the strings and moved them back and forth, so the strings made a nice grinding sound, which he enjoyed. but pretty soon he got the urge to bang the wood peices on the fret board- and that made lots of noise! he seemed extatic, and just sat there and pounded away at this little guitar. i was delighted, and i encouraged him: "good boy, good boy!" i was bursting with pride. he's already taking after daddy. i thought to myself, "i've got a little thurston moore here". i think it's high time to trot out the little precussion set we bought him for christmas. then the real fun begins.