Fred from Portland , OR

Hello all, 67 Year old retired educator here. I’v been “playing with” a guitar all my life but never seriously. Now that I am retired, I have much more time to devote to study , practice and just having fun with the instrument. Battling arthritis and memory issues but I have made much progress in the last year. Playing chords, scales and some finger picking, I have learned a few songs but need chord diagrams to play most songs as I cannot remember them. Overall , having much fun learning and exploring. Justinguitar has been a great help.

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Hi Fred,
Welcome ,i wish you a lot of fun ,and a nice learning curve :sunglasses:
Greetings,Rogier

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Hey Fred, great to hear from you, I’m recently retired at the age of 64 and thoroughly enjoying the extra time retirement gives me to noodle away on the guitar. Look forward to hearing more from you.

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Welcome to the forum Fred

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Welcome! There are a lot of supportive people here with good advice.

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You’ve come to the right place! Welcome. I started 2 years ago in preparation for retirement.

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Welcome aboard :slight_smile:

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Hello Fred and welcome to our community. :slight_smile:

It’s all about having fun. Enjoy your guitar journey.

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Hello Fred! Welcome to the community.

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Fred, welcome to the community. I’m happy to see another 67 year old retiree, like me, having fun learning the guitar.

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Keep up the great work. With time, you’ll be able to remember the chords. I’ve found that my fingers know the chords even if my mind doesn’t remember the name right away.

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Welcome Fred! I live in Corvallis, and also recently retired from an educational institution. I was IT staff, not an educator, but still I like to think I had a hand in folks being educated. :slight_smile: Like you, I’m loving having time to devote to guitar. I used to squeeze in 30 minutes practice in the evening - not very relaxing! I’d never have stuck with it thought without Justin’s lessons. Maybe our paths will cross one day - ping me if you’re ever down my way!

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Judi
Thanks for all the warm welcomes.
I was an instructional tech in Photography, it was a very fun job. I worked with the students mostly and got to order and play with all the new equipment.
I’m still working on developing my callouses, so my fat fingertips are hard to play accurately. The internet is a great resource, there are so many different sites with a wide diversity of people, techniques and styles. JustinGuitar is one of the best.

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Hi Fred,
I’m located in Beaverton so I’m glad to see a fellow Oregonian on the site! I too am having a blast learning with the Justin Guitar site and can honestly say it’s been a highlight of my last couple years.

Great wishes and good luck on the journey,
Nick

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Hi Fred,
I’m also retired, and live in Portland (near Hillsboro). I started with JustinGuitar in 2020, the year I left work. Welcome and good luck!

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Hi Fred!
I’m also newly retired from IT, also living in Portland, and started play guitar thanks to Justin. I feel you about remembering songs, I just keep plugging away. Good luck, have fun, keep us posted about your journey!

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If you’re getting hard callouses you should take a look at the height of the strings on the neck. When you get a guitar, as a beginner, you should take your guitar to a music store that sells Lots of guitars. The staff there will “setup” your instrument to adjust to your fingers, hands and arms. New guitars just out of the box, are not usually setup, and even if they are, they are not usually setup to your body. If you have to push down hard to get the top strings to sound right, you need it tuned up. When I started, I did not know that and when I finally got it done, I was amazed how much easier the guitar was to play. Be sure to have FUN when practicing. It is most important.

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Hello Fred, welcome to the community and happy retirement … from a fellow educator. I did nearly 30 years in schools before stepping along a new path with teaching - Maths & Guitar.
It doesn’t get easier to learn as we get older, that’s for sure. Having the hours and the maturity to give things their due time and a perspective is something you do have.
Good luck and shout out if you need any help or support. :slight_smile:

Hello Fred from Portland OR. This is Greg from Portland, OR - well actually Oregon City