I’m Al - a Software Developer living in South East London and I kick-started my musical playing journey Spring of '20 like many others I am sure…
I found Justin’s website and courses just as he was re-vamping it and followed along and made good progress for a while through to the end of the open chords section and beginner stages. I also took a broader interest in music and production and composition and writing etc.
I somewhat stalled on guitar in '21 but did find my way towards the end but made good progress on piano (another ambition alongside guitar to learn). I found the various online communities around the piano course and a number of amazingly talented musicians streaming on twitch really helpful and supportive and finally made the jump to join this community! It looks like good timing to discover given the new site!
Longer term - I don’t have any professional or academic goals but having always been around people who can pick up an instrument and play - I would love for that to be a skill I have and enjoy and can share music with others… Very much like the typical campfire or bbq scenario!
Hello Al! Those casual goals you have to be able to pick up and play with friends campfire style are enough…if one can join in and enjoy making music, then those moments are all the more enjoyable and memorable.
I wish for you that you can realize the other goal to compose and make music of your own, that’s another equally valuable quality of life!
Keep on and enjoy!!!
I have to admit I was too intimidated to join the original forum when I started learning initially but I’m glad I joined and already looking around I can see its a great community to be part of - thanks in advance!
I really like the breadth and different perspectives it gives me and I know might be ambitious but as I’m kinda taking a long view of the road - I’m happy if I get somewhere in 10-20 years - then I’ll see how I balance them… At the moment - I’m not sure if I could pick one to drop… but I can guess what the preference here would be
I don’t have a lot of time (any more than anyone else… ) but I’m thinking about it up front to see how to get the best out of both journeys… I’ve been learning daily for 25 mins+ in a structured and timed way for the last 3 months on Piano so I think if I spend some time in the practice assistant to set similar daily 5 min activities then I can at least work productively on both. It might be I alternate progression on one and consolidation on the other.
One other thing I want to bring over from my current piano routine is to have a weekly goal and share my thoughts in a regular journal and to produce a recording to share at the end of each week so one of my next steps will be to head over to the Learning Logs area to start a journal entry - probably this weekend. I’m not sure for recordings what to aim for - either a 45-60s ‘progress’ recording each week more for my own progression than for feedback or to build up over a few weeks to a more ‘performance’ standard. I’ll have a look at what others are doing - maybe mix with a short regular snippet on the Learning Log to keep momentum and build to a ‘proper’ song in the Performance’ area?
One thing that I fell down on with guitar was moving away from the structure and knowing ‘when to move on’ so I’m hoping to fix that. I also think I went too quickly through the lessons in pursuit of ‘acquiring knowledge’ rather than slowly building technique. I also skipped some sections that were just beyond me at the time (eg the lead melody lines, 7th chords, metronome playing etc) so I intend to go back on that. I also didn’t consolidate songs and build a repertoire or song book so that’s also something I’ll work on - recording and sharing will help on that.
I’m still finding my way round but already learning lots from everything people have been sharing and hope to contribute where I can!
Thanks so much for the encouragement - I don’t really know why I feel the need for it this as a dream but it really does seem to be for me at the moment!
) but I’m thinking about it up front to see how to get the best out of both journeys… I’ve been learning daily for 25 mins+ in a structured and timed way for the last 3 months on Piano so I think if I spend some time in the practice assistant to set similar daily 5 min activities then I can at least work productively on both. It might be I alternate progression on one and consolidation on the other.
