Hi.
I bought my first guitar in 1989 for my 22nd birthday from an advert in the hallowed pages of Kerrang! Magazine. Whilst it was awful quality and the tuition books that came with it similarly awful, it did nothing to put me off wanting to play.
I kept buying various books with some success so I learnt to be able to change chords and all about power chords, upgraded to a Squier Strat and was up and running
Eventually my playing interest settled on Rock and Blues, saw a teacher for about 6 months but he was trying to teach me to play like him which was way out of my league. I was more into Paul Kossoff than Nuno Bettencourt.
As my mostly self taught Kossoff licks improved I bought an Epiphone Les Paul which became my workhorse for many years. I joined a band and had a wonderful time mixing Free covers with our originals with me making 120 mile round trips every Tuesday for rehearsals. We played some major club gigs sometimes supporting major artists such as Magnum. Personal lives with some band members emigrating led to the demise of Heavy Load
A few other bands followed, most notable being Powderfinger which was a Neil Young tribute, until we heard mention of a band from Australia who were recieving worldwide recognition of the same name.
I then came into some money so bought a proper Gibson Les Paul, bigger Marshall stack and formed a band called Highway who gigged regularly, managed to recoup a bit more than what I was spending on travel so all was goodā¦ for a few years.
Again personal lives took over, especially mine. A mental breakdown and itās long term effects, my playing days were over. I thought buying another Les Paul (a beautiful white Custom with gold hardware) might bring the mojo back. I was wrong. I couldnāt even look at my guitars for 10 yearsā¦ Until I heard Justin on the radio for a short series heād been invited to do.
His style seemed innovative and achievable and have been following ever since. The new courses are so well planned out they are a joy to work on. Iām filling in lots of gaps that existed in my playing and enjoying every practice session
Thanks Justin, your team and this community for bringing the joy of making back into my life
Great write up and back story, After those years on the side lines, I hope you, your health and your playing are prospering. I understand fully what you say about Justinās style. When I restarted for the umpteenth time and knowing we were upping sticks to France, got a few of the Dummies guitar lessons books. Got me going again but not full steam. Then I dropped on Justin, googling āonline guitar lessonsā. Never looked back.
Be good to hear some of those originals and if youāve posted already soz, its been a bit manic here since the new kick off.
Thank you. My health is ok, not prospering too much these days
I would love to get another band together but canāt afford a car to transport my gear to rehearsals or gigs.
Unfortunately those songs have been lost. I was just the guitar player and was winging it basically, so donāt remember the lyrics or the melodies (not that I can sing anyway lol). I remember the odd riff but only to some. They do exist on VHS from gigs somewhere but I would never be able to track them down. Maybe one day
Thanks for sharing the story, Dave. You sure do have some playing experiences behind you. Glad that you are back, into music, and finding joy through it.
Powderfinger ā¦ thereās a song for my wishlist!
Oooh blime now youāre asking lol
G for a bar, C for a bar, G for 2 bars
Then C for 2 and G for 2.
2 more bars of C then a bar of Bm to C
Bm / C / Bm / C /Bm / C / D ā¦ then I canāt remember right now
Thanks Dave. I think I have the chords sourced from the 'net but the challenge is in the playing, rhythm, and then trying to sing it (even with a now (im)famous penchant for altering the melody and phrasing )
I have always struggled to sing let alone play and sing. Even doing backing vocals I tend to want to either play at the rhythm of my singing or vice versaā¦ Itās not pretty
Hey, very inspiring. Great to hear you are back on your guitar journey. My playing has helped me through some difficult times, itās great salve for the soul.
Dave, sounds like you are describing me. And if you were to go back and listen to my early recordings youād hear how not pretty it was in my case. I think I began to make progress on this in my fifth year. I attribute that to continued guitar playing plus the time I invested in focused learning and practice on singing, rather than just singing a little better because I was playing and singing, best effort through the first four years.
So all I can encourage is patience, persistence, and gentleness (with your self), that if you want to play and sing, it can be developed. I canāt deny I watch and listen to members here who seem to seem to achieve that ability to play and sing with natural sounding phrasing and independence with a little envy and wishfulness ā¦ then the feeling passes and the tortoise keeps on keeping on, enjoying myself and appreciating that I have come a long way in my own way, in my own time.
Hey Dave, thanks so much for sharing your personal story, it takes real courage to share things like that. This Community is an amazing place that allows us the freedom to share and trust that we will be accepted and appreciated and supported by our friends across the globe (and some right around the corner). Glad you have done some healing and seems like youāve got a bit of the old mojo back.
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