Great question! Iām enjoying reading everyoneās answers.
For me, I think Iāve gone the opposite direction. I started with rock and Iāve now doubled down on it Itās just what I love to play.
Where I am seeing some change is my stance on writing original material. When I first started learning guitar, I only had interest in doing covers. I just wanted to learn to play the songs that I really loved. My husband is always writing music- he always says that he has song ideas floating around in his head at all times, but that was never me. I just wanted to cover songs I enjoyed. Very recently, that has started to change and I began to get the itch to write my own stuff. Itās still very new to me and nothing Iām working on is groundbreaking But Iām really enjoying it so far. Crazy how that happens!
Same story for me. I was and am still only interested in playing acoustic guitar and never had any real aspirations to write my own material, however after getting my first one down i found that itās been the most rewarding guitar/music related thing I have done. I look back at some of the earlier stuff I wrote and cringe as most of it was complete rubbish but I have about 5 in my current locker that I am really happy with. I suppose we are all different but in the end just do what makes you happy!
I originally got into Guitar because I loved hearing my bother play all the great into riffs from Led Zepplin and Black Sabbath etc on the electric.
I soon discovered riffs alone are quite boring for an audience after youāve been playing them for 10min I quickly discovered to entertain people and to keep the instrument interesting you needed to learn songs.
I play the acoustic Guitar 90% of the time at home, for jam sessions and for local gigs and play what Aussies call Pub Rock.
I donāt know man. Iāve seen megadeth in concert and other than speed Mustaine plays lots of simple power chords. You never know - you might surprise yourself. Just start more simple and fundamental in your music. I did try sweating bullets before and that was a big nope for me lol. Someday who knows though. For now Iāll keep putting music out there and keep trying to improve myself. Who knows, anything is possible to achieve with hard work and practice.
I agree that songs are the way forward. Pub rock sounds interesting and I am guessing it must be a blend of rock and punk music, whatever is pleasing the crowd. There is a bar in the USA called pub rock where I used to live and performers play anything from Green Day to Alice In Chains to POD. Glad you get out there and jam out.
What a fascinating thread. When do yāall have time to practice? Iāve only been playing sixteen months, starting as a life-long lover of classic rock and blues with no particular goal other than to grow my mind by playing the guitar. Iām a decent singer and more into melody than metal, so Iām gravitating toward finger style. Even developing an interest in country music, which wasnāt my thing, but there is some amazing picking going on there!
Wellā¦ my only goal ever was to play metal but must admit thanks to this (amazing ) community, Iām developing an itch for blues now tooā¦ havenāt quite dusted off the acoustic yet, but you never know
Most of my guitar journey has been one big change of direction, from just learning what I could through to trying a bunch of stuff and now trying to focus a bit on what I enjoy playing.
One of the good things about Justinās beginner courses is they expose you to a variety of music.
Trying to learn everything is pretty much doomed to failure for most people with only so much time & energy to put into learning guitar. I think the variety in the course exposes you to different things and itās up to us to find our path. Just because you put something aside today doesnāt mean you canāt revisit it at a later date when time / energy / motivation etc all align
When I first started all I wanted to do was the ability to play and sing songs on my acoustic but now and itās something I never wanted or aspired to do, is to learn the blues.
It maybe just a phase but Iām going along with it.
My version of this might be finger-picking, although having started wanting to learn all things electric, then becoming focused on acoustic, this might be a diversion within a diversion! At the moment itās just something Iām playing around with, literally been barely a couple of weeks so could easily be a phase, we shall see
Great thread with really interesting comments. When I first got my guitar I expected to just play heavy rock. Going through the beginner course, I learned different type of songs. That lead to me getting my acoustic, and focusing on that. I am now trying some fingerstyle, but the urge to do some hard rock is coming back. I sit here with my rock songbook beside me working on getting backing tracks.
It hasnāt just changed my music listening, my lovely wife who hears me practicing in different parts of the house, used to have most of our radios on dance and electronica stations, now has them tuned to acoustic channels. She used to complain that all my favorite artists were dead.
This weekend, I ādraggedā her to go watch an open mic locally, and after the jam they had at the end. She is telling people how brilliant it was.
As I progress on my guitar journey I have managed to play both my electric guitars and my acoustics. I generally practice in the morning using my electric guitars (different one each day because I like them all) and my acoustics for song practice in the afternoon. When I play for others, it is usually at a party or campfire, and I play acoustically.
I derive as much joy playing a chord melody, such as Yesterday, as I do a distortion heavy tune such as Cortez the Killer.
I do find myself gravitating to a more finger style approach on both electric and acoustic more and more.
Why not? I like beer wine and whisky as well as water!
Started off dying to learn electric blues. Spent about a year fiddling around with that. Then bought a starter acoustic, and got really interested in finger picking, so much so that I never learned a single strumming song (probably a huge mistake). Played songs like Wish You were Here, Time In A Bottle, Old Man, Dust In the Wind, Tears in Heaven, Wonderful Tonight (both from Justinās lessonās), basically songs I liked that were within my skill level. Then, I discovered Andrew York and fell in love with both his music and the sound of a classical guitar. First bought a decent traditional cutaway nylon-stringed guitar, then after a year bought a pretty nice classical guitar. Took a year of classical guitar lessons.
My wifeās sister recently gave me her late sonās steel-string, which has a much nicer sound than mine, as well as an emotional attachment, so Iāve been now bouncing back and forth between acoustic finger-picking and classical. But Iād say classical has won out for me.
Itās just what I love to play.
I quickly discovered to entertain people and to keep the instrument interesting you needed to learn songs.
but must admit thanks to this (amazing 
) community, Iām developing an itch for blues now tooā¦ havenāt quite dusted off the acoustic yet, but you never know 
