Hi all, firstly, just want to mention that is such a cool space, the fact that we can all journal and share our progress / stories is such a cool concept, I can see how sharing this with people can bring you happiness! Given how supportive this community is, I will try and let my thoughts flow freely - (this might be a long post) citing my background, criticism for myself, strengths, goals, inspirations etc. Feel free to chime in!! TLDR at the bottom 
The start
I’m 30 years old and live in the United States and grew up in India for the first half of my life. I was first given a guitar when I was 13 or so by a friend. It was probably the cheapest guitar you could find, with rusty strings (which I didn’t know were a thing back then), high action and went out of tune if the wind blew too hard. I was never musically inclined (as you’ll see through my journey), but sure - why not give it a try. I’ll atleast look cool. My friend at school suggested justinguitar.com (wow that was a while ago). I was skeptical of learning an instrument online, but I tried. I got through grade 1 and could maintain a 4/4 single strum song in the form of Three Little Birds. My friend invited me to jam with him, and I only knew the three chords which I also struggled with, so needless to say, that jam session was a fail.
The Giving Up:
I practiced sporadically, whenever I could. I wanted to be the cool guy playing the guitar. I got through the C chord, the G chord and finally tackled the dreaded F. I remember it being very hard, and I’m sure we all remember doing Justin’s one-minute-changes trying to perfect our chord shapes. I volunteered to perform at a school open mic, I performed and sang my all time favorite song then and now, Imagine by John Lennon, (at the time, I had no idea how this would reappear in the most unexpected way). I struggled, I didn’t sing well and my guitar playing was choppy at best. I didn’t receive any good feedback which really discouraged me. I slowly and gradually lost motivation and gave up. I was most definitely a beginner at this point.
I played sporadically through my 20s, maybe for an hour once every 6 months, my fingers would hurt and I would stop. Maybe the muscle memory stayed, so at this point I’d call myself an advanced beginner, certainly not intermediate though.
Fast forward to now: About two years ago, my now wife encouraged me to start playing an old $50 guitar I had lying at home. I did. I hopped back on the justinguitar bandwagon, now mostly on YouTube, and started learning some songs. I started with ‘I will follow you into the dark’ by Death Cab for Cutie. I had dabbled with this a bit before; so it felt familiar to come back to. It didn’t sound good. My singing sucked.
But something in me had changed.
The revival:
I had this fire to get better, to be the best version of myself I could possibly be, maybe it was maturity, I don’t know. I knew I sounded terrible, but I wanted to get better. I wanted to be able to play guitar, like really play. I no longer wanted to say to someone ‘I play guitar’. I wanted to actually play the guitar.
I slowly toiled away, night after night. I’d come home from work and spend most of my time on the guitar. I was still terrible, but I was getting better. I could feel it. I still couldn’t play anything remotely well, but that sense of progress, it had me hooked.
I start researching guitars, topics, I’d look for new guitar channels on YouTube. I still didn’t know what I wanted to become, I didn’t know what style I’d want to be good at, but I knew I wanted to get better. I’d watch guitar videos on the bus to and from work, I’d fall asleep to justinguitar videos. I was slowly getting better. I could now transition from the C to G as fast as Justin could. I must be getting better. I can now play ‘I will follow you into the dark’, somewhat. People would recognize it as a song, sure I’d call it playing.
The blood, sweat and tears:
I practiced, and I practiced. About 3 months in, I bought a new guitar! Woohoo, a $150 dreadnought Yamaha. I still didn’t know what kind of a guitar player I wanted to be. I started learning about rhythm, basic theory. I started to become aware of how much I didn’t know. Major scales, minor scales, pentatonics, chord theory, the CAGED system - what the actual bleep. I was scared, I had my doubts but the fire didn’t stop burning.
Direction:
Through my thirst for wanting to satisfy my curious mind, I googled ‘What is toughest guitar song on acoustic guitar?’. The answer - there isn’t a single one… so many differences between different styles. Boy, can’t it just be easy for once? I settled on ‘Never Going Back Again’, since I always liked music with lyrics and enjoyed singing too. So I looked up videos, tutorials - I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Can a guitar and fingers create all these sounds? Fingerstyle seems really interesting. It makes all these different sounds all at once!!! Watched Justin’s folk fingerstyle course and practiced. I was getting better, but not good. Cue the endless covers of people playing fingerstyle and my jaw dropping to the floor. Wow, how cool would it be to one of them. They must have something that I don’t. I’ve been practicing for 5 months now, and I’ve put in several hours, surely I’m not talented enough.
The Turning Point
I’ve now been playing guitar again for about 6 or 7 months. One late night, I stumble upon a cover - ‘Never Going Back Again (Fleetwood Mac cover)’ by George Clements. A dude in a hoodie, sure fine, I’ve already watched a thousand covers of this song, another one can’t hurt. This moment, changed everything.
The buttery smooth chord transitions, not a single choppy note. Finger picking? Cleanest I’ve seen. The voice, velvet. All while he’s sitting in his kitchen and not even looking at his guitar. What in the rhino on Jupiter have I stumbled into? I watched all his covers, flawless, every single one (I don’t say this lightly). I follow his Instagram, he’s a professional musician, the best I’ve ever seen. His music touches my soul. I muster up the courage to message him one day ‘Hey George, stumbled on your YouTube channel, thank you for what you do! PS: a lesson on your YouTube channel on how you play ‘Carolina In My Mind’ would be so great to see, been struggling to understand what you’re doing.’ He responds ‘thank you so much for the feedback, I’m working on one!’.
Two months later, I see a post from him about guitar lessons. He’s taking people! I see the post a day late and am I’m worried I’m too late. He responds, I’m in. Pinch me, is this real? A professional musician is going to be teaching me.
The first lesson, I’m basically awestruck to even talk. I just keep telling how amazing his music and covers are and I wish to be able to play atleast a tenth of how he does. He assures me that with time, it’ll be possible. Oh, and apparently he’s a gem of a guy, sees the beauty in life, music and the world all around us. That’s who I want to be learning from.
Fire and rain by James Taylor. That’s the first song I learned from him.
The actually getting better (the blood sweat and tears Part 2)
I practiced, again, but harder this time. I think my wife wanted to leave the house at this point, playing fire and rain on loop all day, everyday, choppily is a sure shot way to get someone to hate the song. I practiced in the guest room, I practiced softly, I practiced when she wasn’t around, my cats would be my audience. I could tell I was getting better, but I still struggled. Why do I sound so out of rhythm? Wait, I’m singing the words way before the beat, what am I missing?! What even is a beat anymore?!!!
But I kept going, learning other songs, ‘Tomorrow is a Long Time’ by Bob Dylan, a simple fingerstyle arrangement of ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran. It took me months. But I was getting there. I could start playing, it sounded like music. I could strum along to most songs. I still can’t tell if I’m in the right key, but sure I can do this. ‘Kathy’s Song’ by Paul Simon. ‘You’ve got a friend - James Taylor’. It wasn’t great but it was music. I didn’t realize it, but all the songs I chose to learn had a lot of finger picking.
The feeling like a guitarist
I began watching more videos, Tommy Emmanuel, Brandon Acker, Richard Smith. Yes! This is how I want to be. I could now play a few songs well. It sounded good. I got a new guitar; my dear sweet Martin OM28. I couldn’t believe the difference. Notes sounded like they should. I can hear the difference if I play 3 fingered G versus a 2 fingered G. Now I had no reason to slow down. I practiced even more, I did Travis Picking exercises, learned weird riffs just for heck of it. I then found Tommy Emmanuel’s version of Imagine. (I told you Imagine would make a return). I was awestruck. This is as perfect as it gets, a song about love and peace, just the melody and bass, coming together like they always wanted to be together. I looked up a tutorial online. 50 min tutorial, can’t be that bad. The chord shapes look easy enough.
Oh poor, sweet, innocent past me. 5 months. I spent day and night of my life on this. Every single note. Rhythm didn’t sit right, this finger position it too difficult, can I get away with another method? Ok - two sections of bass G followed by two sections of E. Ok, index finger after thumb, put that in your muscle memory. Christmas, new year, insert day. I’d sneak in practice whenever I could. It stared to sound like I’d imagined (pun intended). Sometimes, I’d give myself goosebumps when I’d play it and think about how far I’d come in a year, from not knowing the difference between an open and a barre chord. But it wasn’t perfect. I wanted perfect. I continued practicing, day in and day out, I learned other songs. My technique improved, my finger flexibility improved, I could suddenly make movements that I couldn’t. And one night, one late night, by the Christmas tree that should’ve been in the garage already because it’s now March, nearly one year since I started practicing with George, I played the first section (all in all 30 seconds) the way I wanted it to sound. Every note rang out, the bass notes were all perfect, dynamics were on point. I felt it. It was magical, I sounded good, and I knew it. My hard work paid off. I was getting better. But I had work to do… I still need to learn the rest of the 4 minute piece? And besides, doing it once doesn’t mean I got it down. I need to be able to do this consistently.
The On Fire
I continued toiling away, I learned the rest of the song, note by note. I can now play the song end to end, not perfectly. But I can. It sounds like music. It sounds pleasant to listen to. I still have a lot of work to do, but I could play it to someone and have them go ‘wow, he plays guitar’.
But it’s not enough, I continue practicing. I want to be able to sing and play. I want someone to tell me I sound good when I sing and play. I want to be able to pick up the guitar in the park, on the beach, in my toilet, and still sound good. And sing well. I start learning more songs, some fingerstyle arrangements, mostly songs with vocals. I’m still terrible at singing, although my guitar playing is coming around quite well, still not where I want it to be, but isn’t that all of us?
I start singing, more… I’m not necessarily getting better at it, but there’s something there. I’m noticing where I sound bad and where I sound terrible, that’s progress, right? I start experimenting, singing high, singing low, singing off key as I usually do, but it’s helping. I can now, with certainty, even more confidently call out the rubbish bits from the bad.
I join a band, I want to play more. I want to be involved in music as much as I can. It’s a small band, we’re all average musicians. But it’s a band and we get asked to perform. We do, it’s my first ever gig. We practiced a lot. It paid off. We weren’t perfect but the crowd had a great time, singing along and we’ve been invited back to play. This is amazing, my confidence grows. I start telling people I play the guitar, with confidence. I know I can back up the talk, and walk the walk.
I now start practicing with intent. I am progressing faster than I ever have.
The Current Day - to be further continued!
Nearly two years into this journey, I’m now part of a band, I spend my days and nights obsessing about guitar and musicianship. I’m still practicing, I played for about 6 hours today and uploaded two videos of me playing and singing (one with my own improvised solo). People will now say - ‘yeah man, he definitely plays guitar, want him in your band?’. I’m nowhere near perfect, and I don’t want to be perfect any longer. I know where I want to be, and that’s to be able to play music, period.
I want to be able to share music with people, and show them its beauty - that it’s possible, to do it yourself. The guy next door might be a better guitarist and musician than me for all I know, but it doesn’t matter. Earlier today - I was playing ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by the Beatles. I didn’t have to think too much about the fingerpicking, it flowed. What would have taken me 5 months a year ago, now takes me a few days. And that’s rewarding. I would sing a note and then realize I’m playing a different note. That’s rewarding. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of songs I can still only dream of playing, but given enough time, I know it is possible.
Well, if you read this far. Thank you. I still consider myself an intermediate guitarist at best and I’m still working on perfecting imagine (the single note melody line at the end isn’t as crisp and clean as I want it to be), and I’ve got a ways to go with singing, and I want to understand music theory a lot better than I currently do. But that’s the point of this post I’ve created - to document myself improving, to be able to share it with you, and to be able to all work together in this journey, of guitar, music and life. I’ve got a 9am meeting at the office tomorrow (real life, am I right?), but until next time, thank you.
Oh and guess what?
I can now play ‘Never Going Back Again’.
TLDR: Learned the A, D and E chords - gave up - failed at a school open mic - gave up - fast forward to adulthood and supportive wife convinced me to play again - adulthood gave me a fire to become something more - cried - cried some more because I couldn’t play anything - found George, my mentor - learned how hard guitar can be - learned a little about life - got better - can’t put the guitar down.
Don’t give up, folks.
Cheers,
Abhi
Younger me first learning the guitar, how to play barre chords: here’s me trying to pluck each string to see which one’s muted
Younger trying to learn a song
Younger me trying to record a song
Fastforward a decade:
George posting he has guitar lessons available, me screenshotting to seek my wife’s approval
Me taking a picture of my headstock because I dont wan’t to forget how the neck looked while restringing
Slowly falling in love with the instrument and the process
Meeting George and watching him perform live for the first time
Wife surprising me on my birthday with tickets to a Joe Robinson concert
My Martin OM28, the day I purchased it
Practicing Imagine
My first gig
