Currently living in Thames Valley, west of London in England, I picked up a my first acoustic guitar in Spring 2020; looking for an interest during the newly imposed C-19 Lockdown. I pulled down a 40yr classical nylon string that came from somewhere in the family and first job was to re-string it, courtesy of Amazon and YT. After a month of trying to play it, a friend’s observation over Zoom one day was it was basically kindling. I already had the “bug” and looked around and took a punt on a “ex demo” Faith Earth . Sorting out the wheat from the chaff on Youtube and finding a few gems, like Justin Guitar, I’m pretty much self-taught.
You’ll note I said “first acoustic guitar”; and a I now own a preloved 12-fret Taylor 415 CE, and an Auden Dreadnought.
I joined The Community last month have been requested to upload a few recordings. I’m not a fan per se, but here are three that I made during 2022. (Warning - they are not up to tempo - as yet, I am not very DAW literate either)
I will be “3 guitar years old” in May and having been in the audience last week for OM XIV, I reckon it’s time to try my hand to perform “live to strangers”; although I have had a go among a few friends.
Anyhoo, I can drone on like the best of them, 'nuff said:
Billy in The Lowground - Trad
Freight Train - Elizabeth Cotton
Siciliano - Carulli Edited Title - same content
The Bach piece is nicely played. Freight Train nice and clear and good to hear some pickin
But that’s one to challenge Nitsuj as this is played upside down left handed on a right handed strung guitar.
You can’t beat the old blues masters
Peter’s right you can’t beat the old Blues and EC is great to follow and emulate. Three nice recordings CJ. Your 3 years has been well spent ! 
Very nice 
Nicely played on all 3. Very pleasing to the ears!
Very good job 
That sounded like a good start to me, keep practicing at your own pace and I am sure sooner or later you will play it in normal speed. All the best
Hi,
Nice first uploads 
Good job ,and can’t wait for a video…that’s also the best way to get feedback and address any bad habits as early as possible…if you want that of course 
Greetings,Rogier
Some good clean fingerpickin’ there CJ. Much better to play at a reduced tempo and get the notes right. Well done, I look forward to more from you.
If you want more feedback from others a video is always better.
Interesting avatar. What is it? Weird bagpipes?
Thank you all for your supportive comments. Addressing a couple of points raised:
- Avatar : a product of bag-pipe in-breeding perhaps ? Dunno, tbh, it was on my forever cluttered PC Desktop when I joined this forum and needed something at hand to upload. A bit like my Mountain Hare photo I used creating a SoundCloud presence last night.
- Video recording: yes, I do see why that would be more engaging for the audience … although I am not exactly a bit of eye-candy
… but the guitars do look much better. On a general note, the recording process is something I need to spend time on; I have barely scratched the surface of Reaper … one of those ‘round-2-its’. - Accuracy over speed: indeed, from other activities I have learned that by doing it right from the outset the pace will come over time. I found a pre-loved Beat Buddy in Jan and it has been a real bonus.
- Practise : I try to play most days. I recorded these last year, and tbh, would need to spend a few hours practising them again to re-record. However, not having listened to them for some while it was good to revisit where I was then and where I am now … quite remarkable, tbh, … (he said, blowing his own bag-pipe chanter). I am thinking finger-picking for my JGC debut, songs in mind and tbd. I am off-grid for 12 days very soon; no guitar, but a chance to get some lyrics down.
Sounding good on all 3 recordings there @Elixir1253 , that’s certainly evidence of some good time invested in your learning already! That’ll be great to hear more from you as you continue to progress
Three nice sounding tracks there with some nice fingerpicking. Good job.
Lovely recordings, Elixir. Look forward to you joining the Community OM brigade.
Kind words, David, and yes I am looking forward to the JGC OM in April.
I was in the audience last week and enjoyed the variety of styles and music genre.
Thank you Stefan, I think like many fingerpicking is my favourite; sadly to the detriment of my strumming !
Thank you Mark, yeah, thanks to C-19 restrictions I had plenty of practise time to focus right in on learning to play.
However, like many of us, other ‘life commitments’ started creeping back in forcing a need to throttle back on all this. Not complaining though; having the bandwidth at the outset has given me a great platform upon which to build.
Hello CJ, these are 3 really nice pieces of music. I love your fingerpicking 
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@Silvia80, I thought particularly the Bach-piece might interest you 
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All three pieces sound terrific my favourite is Freight Train it’s such a great tune. You have a lovely tone to your playing you must be well pleased with these 
Thank you Nicole
Of the three, Siciliano is the most recent recording, and nearer the tempo too.
You are most kind, Nancy. This version of Freight Train is a “beginners” arrangement, and I hope to play it up nearer tempo one day.
However, as always in my case, time is at a premium … and there are so many great songs I want to learn, and skills I want to develop, as an acoustic guitar player.