Haha I had completely forgotten I had started a RC on the old forum 
Brian Larsen’s Road Case, May 16, 2019:
Yay- A whole year (+2 days) on the forum! 
When my son asked for guitar lessons last spring, I decided it was ‘now or never’ if I was ever going to learn, so I bought him an entry level Yamaha C40 classical guitar, with the intention of listening in on his lessons and practicing when the house was empty.
He soon migrated to bass and I came across this website…
Double-Yay! 
I’m enough of a realist to know I will never be a virtuoso, but good enough is good enough and that means enjoying yourself (I haven’t quite decided whether improvement is even a necessary factor!)
I’ve had a whale of a time on my journey so far.
I am not nearly as disciplined as I should be if I want to technically progress quickly but can’t help my butterfly-behavior and trying lots of different things along the way.
I have successfully avoided going down the GAS route (I’m a stingy ol’ git). Who knows, I may well succumb like so many before me, but in the meanwhile, I have grown extremely fond of the Yamaha and have decided to personalise it by getting all my local guitarist friends to sign it (as well as any of the great and good I might persuade). Watch this space…
Some highlights along the way:
Writing and sharing my first ‘song’ after six weeks of starting.
Collaborating with Neil (FourTwo) and some good friends at a personally difficult time,
Serenading Justin (on Skype) and Tommy Emmanuel (in person) with self-penned songs- Tengo cojones grandes 
It felt fitting to round off my first year by managing to incorporate the F barre chord into a song (see AVOYP)
I have a feeling barre chords will open up a whole new horizon on the song front, (although am possibly a bit sad that the rate of progress will seem slower as time progresses).
This site is a treasure trove of information for anyone wanting to learn how to play guitar, but the forum members and moderators are the fuel that drive us on in my opinion.
Thank you all.
Yours… in rock 
The following is a list of all the ‘pearls’ I’ve shared on the forum in chronological order, starting from 6 weeks after picking up the guitar. It’s mostly an aide-memoir for me and there are a fair few ‘howlers’ amongst it. Some of the regulars might remember the odd contribution with a smile.
I’m a musical magpie (like all the greats) and have a penchant for stealing wholesale tunes and/or lyrics, making slight alterations and passing them off as originals. (I do try to credit the original artists where possible)
I’ve marked these originals or modifieds with an asterisk *
I’ve joined in all the open mics to date bar one. The desparate can find them in that category, but I’ll include two of them here, as I have no versions of these songs myself.
*DEAD DEAD - YouTube
*Sunufatarungo - YouTube
*Beelzebub’s Bells - YouTube
*Just a Minute, Justin Just a Minute, Justin - YouTube
Wish you were here - YouTube
Chocolate Jesus - YouTube
Mad World - YouTube
*Killing You Softly Killing You Softly - YouTube
Church of Level Track - YouTube
*The Forum Stream The Forum by User 562765097 | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
*Beelzebub’s Bells revisited Beelzebub's Bells 2 - YouTube
The Sound of Silence Stream The Sound Of Silence (cover) by User 562765097 | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
The River - YouTube
*Summer Song Summer Song (original) - YouTube
You are my Sunshine - YouTube
*Genesis 18-19 (original) Genesis 18-19 (original) - YouTube
Self Esteem Self esteem (cover) - YouTube
*19 Things 19 Things - YouTube
5 Years 5 Years - Bowie cover - YouTube
*Rien ne va plus Rien ne va plus- (original) - YouTube
Weightless Again Weightless Again (cover) - YouTube
Hotel California (removed by legal eagles)
Church of Level Track (revisited) Church of Level Track (revisited) - YouTube
*Dead Flag Blues (improv) The Dead Flag Blues (improv) - YouTube
Challenge 0013 - Jam Stream Smooth Underground Chill (improv) by User 562765097 | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
*The Covid 19 Blues The Covid 19 Blues - YouTube
*Covid 19 Blues (Judas Mix) Covid 19 Blues (Judas Mix) - YouTube
*Guitar Challenge 0020 – Jam Vincent Blues - YouTube
Your Ghost Your Ghost (cover) - YouTube
*Brian’s Brown Bread (the Soda Mix) Brian's Brown Bread (the soda mix) - YouTube
Space Oddity Space Oddity (cover) - YouTube
The Vanishing Mind The Vanishing Mind- Calexico (cover) - YouTube
Stop That train Stop That train - Clint Eastwood & General Saint (cover) - YouTube
All the Madmen All The Madmen- Bowie (cover) - YouTube
Lonely Won’t Leave Me Alone Lonely Won't Leave Me Alone- The Arlenes (cover) - YouTube
Electric City- Firewater Electric City- Firewater cover - YouTube
*Homeless Homeless - YouTube
Electric Electric City (electric) Electric City - Firewater (cover) - YouTube
Clandestino Clandestino- Manu Chao (cover) - YouTube
Pillar of Davidson Pillar of Davidson- Live (cover) - YouTube
*Homeless (Lipstick-on-a-pig-mix) Stream Homeless (original) by User 562765097 | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
Acts of Man Acts Of Man- Midlake (cover) - YouTube
Get Myself Arrested Get Myself Arrested- Gomez (cover) - YouTube
Overpass Overpass- The Lonelyhearts (cover) - YouTube
Gold Nuggets Gold Nuggets- Pavlov's Dog (cover) - YouTube
Who Built the Road Who Built the Road- Mark Lanegan & Isobel Campbell (cover) - YouTube
Blackjack County Chains Blackjack County Chain (cover) - YouTube
My Ghost My Ghost - YouTube
The January Man (In memory of Hilts17) The January Man- Dave Goulder (cover) - YouTube
*Happy Birthday, Grampa John https://youtu.be/zYBtuckGONs
*Watt https://youtu.be/qsD8pkE3n-0
My Pillow Is The Threshold https://youtu.be/mnIskEqiowQ
Spirits In The Night https://youtu.be/AK0Y8R14rYA
The River revisited https://youtu.be/1ekKgb9x4Gs
*Watt (delayed) https://youtu.be/_dMRpaXoO-Y
Happy Birthday, David! https://youtu.be/uXyh5dngKj0
*Goodbye Emily Lang https://youtu.be/oFjVHPrea4c
*Adult TV https://youtu.be/Vu2R-33f7_I
The Vanishing Mind (revisited) https://youtu.be/fIykseoIMLk
Suffice To Say https://youtu.be/qXul1mCzJ7s
Messes of Men https://youtu.be/bYEH6A7qGr8
*Fool’s Gold (improv) https://youtu.be/nv_KCy2jlDI
*Ukelele Anthem https://youtu.be/gtRUBoz2k_c
*19 Things https://youtu.be/fkAeEledSWM
Vision Thing https://youtu.be/l9DSf0wQ5fA
*Strange Love https://youtu.be/yBw6QMboHXE
Open mics
*The Forum
Nothing Really Ends https://youtu.be/PMXqtzorBNI
Messes of Men
Fuck The Government, I Love You https://youtu.be/mGlSA5IhwL4
Collaborations
Christmas competition 2018:
*The Last Snowflake (Neil Clemens/FourTwo, Chris Goldring)
Friends & family:
New Virginia
Lars Jännes-Larsen, Chris Goldring, Niels Larsen, Hans Larsen, Tor Larsen,
Summer Wine
Ann Larsen, Lars Jännes-Larsen, Chris Goldring, Niels Larsen, Hans Larsen, Tor Larsen,
*Beelzebub’s Bells (Styx-mix)
Lars Jännes-Larsen, Chris Goldring, Niels Larsen, Eithne Costello
Forum:
*Thank You Very Much, Justin! (Giant forum crew) https://youtu.be/7c8AvXTVRjI
*The Circus is in Town (Brianlarsen/Close2u) https://youtu.be/7p4WL_Fjp28
*The Circus is in Town ( Roman Mix) https://youtu.be/F6Gr2kg6t5o
Song after the funeral of a friend
The January Man
https://soundcloud.com/user-562765097/the-january-man-marys-version
1-to-1 with Justin
The following is my account of a lesson I won with Justin as a prize for taking part in a Christmas competition in my first year. It captures the enthusiasm for my new-found hobby quite well and, as I re-read it two years later, I find not much has changed:
When I was a nine-year-old boy in Beirut, I recall being transported to another world, reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I loved chocolate (still my favourite food) and Roald Dahl tells a riveting yarn. At about the same time I received the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper which opened a wormhole to yet another universe for me.
When I came across Justin’s website nearly a year ago, I felt like I had discovered a secret doorway into the chocolate factory of how music is made. I’ve been running around the factory ever since, flitting from room to room, sniffing different chords, having a taste of this strumming or that picking, as well as leafing through some of the recipe books of music theory.
I even had a go at making some chocolatey music inventions myself, which some of you have kindly tasted.
You can imagine my surprise and excitement when one of the chief Oompa Loompas (sorry Richard :P) informed me that I had received a Christmas present of a GOLDEN TICKET to meet Willy Wonka himself- a Skype session!
What would I like to ask the great man?
Only having commenced my journey, I am painfully aware of what I need to work on; and between the excellent lessons and helpful forum, I had serious difficulty thinking of what I wanted to ask Justin that I didn’t know already, or at least know where to find it.
For me, the answer to most questions lies behind that door named ‘Practice’.
Out of respect for him as a teacher, I did prepare some questions/areas to go over. But as in the above book, it’s all about the relationships. I wanted to meet this man, thank him for the enjoyment he has brought me and if I’m honest, feel like he got to know me. (Self-centred yes, but there you go)
The lesson began by me serenading him with a slight re-write of one of my previous competition entries, ‘Just a minute Justin’ (now ‘just an hour’), to give him a general idea of my playing abilities.
We then had a longish session of general chit-chat about his recent ski-holiday and I gave him a bit of my background, explaining how I ended up learning late in life. Lots of fan-boy praise from my side.
I think he was a bit taken aback when I told him about my brother having a heart attack just as I was launching into the Christmas competition and how helpful I found having an enjoyable distraction at an emotional time. He was half-expecting a funny punchline- not a personal story ending in death, so maybe I over-shared there…
We moved on to discussing how to go about writing simple fingerpicking style for songs. He noticed I had drifted off the alternate base plucking, which he stressed was of utmost importance. I hadn’t realised the thumb takes care of all three lower strings so the other fingers don’t have to shift.
We talked about the minor pentatonic scale and how it relates to major scales. He talked about using notes like words and putting them together in licks to make sense to others.
He suggested it was time for me to move on to barre chords (which I have just recently started practicing).
He seemed happy enough with what I was doing. I find my index finger often protrudes way beyond the fretboard, but he was less concerned with what it looked like as long as the sound was clean.
I wasn’t sure the A-shape barre chord was for acoustic guitar, but he assured me again- just more practice.
We finished up talking about two Aussie gigs I’m going to in the coming months: Nick Cave in Liverpool in June and Tommy Emmanuel in Manchester at the end of March. I told him I’m thinking of bringing my guitar with me to see if I can get it signed by Tommy. If I’m not going down the GAS route yet, I might just pimp my current 6-string.
Are you still here?
Well, in summary: Believe the hype. Justin is a really engaging, sound and chilled dude.
Even if he thinks I’m a plonker- mission accomplished:
Mr. Wonka is aware of this plonker now!
Thank you all
(p.s. In playing terms, I had already benefited immensely before the lesson, as I had been practicing much more to reduce embarrassment levels. See- practice! ;))
…potjandorie is like …oh… beware ,or thinking, or many more…it can also be a very nice way to say “damn”
