I’ve been learning the guitar (acoustic) for 3 yrs now, and I also joined a choir in Belgium to learn to sing better. As for the guitar part, I cannot thank Justin enough for showing me/us how to learn to enjoy the instrument.
Yesterday evening we were jamming with 4 people someplace in the Belgian countryside. Total of participants so far is 6 people, but because of holidays etc. not everybody could make it. We know each other from the choir (Paramour, in the east of Flanders, Belgium), and we decided to try making a small group of people who want to sing and play some instruments together. We practiced 3 songs (Sloop John B., California Dreaming and Shallow) of which you’ll find California Dreaming below. It’s our first audio ever with me playing the guitar, and I wanted to share. Comments are of course welcome, we have a lot to improve, but we are quite enthusiastic and plan to do much more, our goal is to perform in some pubs once we think we are ready … .
No idea if this is the way I have to post this, but I just give it a try …, if there is a smarter way, I still need to find out ;-D, corrections and suggestions are welcome!
Best regards
Hi wannabeme, thanks for your nice words. In retrospect, it’s a story of not shrinking back from, but accepting new challenges each time a new opportunity arises. I couldn’t play the guitar at all and I couldn’t sing (I sing now, but not in this clip, or I would have lost my way on the fretboard ), so I wrote down my goals and I’m gradually working towards them. But it’s always a real decision to go another step forward again and not holding back. A main problem each time is the fear of doing something ridiculous in front of other people. Trying to make music with some fellow choir members was a big step, but we now have fun, and we accept each other as we realize we all have to improve with one thing or another. On the horizon looms another big challenge as our conductor asked me to look into and eventually start preparing a medley accompanying the choir (we have around 40 choir members … and 1 guitar …)
Hi Silvia
Thank you for your reaction, it’s fortunate the people you hear know each other from the pop choir we are a member of, so we know (a little bit) about our strengths and weaknesses (to say it politely ). So this is really a first, and although we try to rehearse on a regular basis, our voices (and the guitar of course) still need to be streamlined. But it’s a start, and I hope we can improve and grow
Thanks Tony, hope we’ll sing and make music long and happily. Way to improve too, and that’s of course the whole fun, it wouldn’t be so nice if it was already perfect from the start!
Thank you SandyMusic. Actually I hesitated to post it on the forum, on the other hand it’s a good way to take things another step forward for improving the guitar, so I just did it. The ‘backup’ are my fellow choir members (we have around 40 persons in total of which 6 participate in this new venture). Our goal is one day to be able to perform in the local pubs with our small group. Still need to practice a lot of touching and hitting those strings, and maybe one day I’ll be ready to play the guitar and sing simultaneously too … wish, wish, …
It will come. I didn’t expect to sing and play when I started on the guitar. So my wife sang the first song I learned. After she’d sung it about 50 or 60 times I quite by accident started singing along in the chorus and the light bulb when off for me.
Justin does have a lesson on singing and playing at the same time. Singing is such fun.
Most enjoyable and it sounds very much like you were all having fun - that’s the most important thing covered; also it sounds good, nothing to be concerned about with the performance.
Thanks Tony for the encouragement, I will try to show some patience with myself . I watched Justin’s lesson and it gave me a good perspective of how to practice this . One day …
Thanks, DarrellW, it’s good to hear. Of course we hear a lot of ‘noise’ or strange sounds when re-listening, but yes, all in all (and for our first few recordings) I think we can be confident for the future
His lesson on singing and playing was quite good, I found it much easier to do than his lesson made it sound. I think the key is knowing the song really well first. And starting with a simple song where the words fall in place with the chord changes.
Thanks David, good to hear from you too. We’ll continue, and maybe now and then I can share things here. Our small group is still in the phase of confirming ourselves that we are able to do this, now we started with some simple recording sessions, I guess we’ll have a nice road in front of us . See you around!
Thanks LBro,
True, our ‘backing section’ is really not that bad, hope when we can rehearse more frequently we can also sing (and play) more fluently too, … we are working on that part
), so I wrote down my goals and I’m gradually working towards them. But it’s always a real decision to go another step forward again and not holding back. A main problem each time is the fear of doing something ridiculous in front of other people. Trying to make music with some fellow choir members was a big step, but we now have fun, and we accept each other as we realize we all have to improve with one thing or another. On the horizon looms another big challenge as our conductor asked me to look into and eventually start preparing a medley accompanying the choir (we have around 40 choir members … and 1 guitar …)
). So this is really a first, and although we try to rehearse on a regular basis, our voices (and the guitar of course) still need to be streamlined. But it’s a start, and I hope we can improve and grow 
I didn’t expect to sing and play when I started on the guitar. So my wife sang the first song I learned. After she’d sung it about 50 or 60 times I quite by accident started singing along in the chorus and the light bulb when off for me.
. I watched Justin’s lesson and it gave me a good perspective of how to practice this 
. One day …