G’day folks, lovely to meet you.
A Little about Me
I’m in my 40s and having a ball learning to play an instrument. I work in a pretty cerebral job, so music has been an incredible way to connect motion/feeling/intellect/and all-round-good-vibes in a way that takes me out of my own head - it’s like no other hobby I’ve ever found. I spend a lot of time talking to people and working with technology in my day job, so in my spare time I’m usually hiking in the great outdoors around Sydney, or increasingly, playing my guitar and learning about the magic of music. The world of music is infinitely complex and beautiful, and I had no idea it was so accessible. I really feel blessed to have stumbled across Justin’s tutorials that have unlocked that for me, and the community that has grown up around it.
A Little about My Musical Experience/Background
Not much music background. I learned piano as a 10 year old kid for about 6 months, and was basically told to give up as I was always trying to play by ear rather than read music 
My brother is the muso in the family (plays piano, guitar and sax), and during COVID lockdowns in our fine country (Australia was pretty strict), I asked him if he thought I could ever learn guitar. He replied with “Of course you can, here’s my spare Cort acoustic. Go and learn how to play”. It started with strumming and learning some chords then going through Justin’s beginner course online, and then realising that the Cort needed to be restrung, which my brother showed me how to do.
It was about that time that I realised I loved the sound of classical guitar - and some of the repertoire too, so I threatened to buy a classical nylon string guitar for about 3 months until I finally stopped talking about it and ordered a Cordoba C7 online. Again, learned how to string a nylon guitar and off I went to learn some more classical guitar-oriented pieces. I love both steel and nylon, and am now threatening to buy an electric guitar. It never ends does it? 
A Little about My Experience with the Guitar
Really not much to be honest - I’ve been playing for about 14 months. I went through Justin’s beginner material for the first 9 months or so. That ended up taking me into Rick Beato, and more music theory, and then when I purchased the Cordoba C7 I started learning some basic classical guitar etudes. This resulted in an escursion into learning to read music and memorising the fretboard. I know it isn’t essential, but I can read music now and can find my way around the fretboard pretty well now - and I’ve already used my basic music reading skills to teach myself how to play some more complex tunes like Classical Gas. I haven’t done much ear training or transcribing, and those two seem related, so I’m going to spend the next few months on that and consolidating what I’ve been learning in the few intermediate songs I’ve been learning and the techniques that go along with that.
My Main (Learning) Guitar
I spend most of my time playing my Cordoba C7, but I also still play the steel string Cort acoustic as well. Some tunes just sound better on one vs the other. I’d like to buy myself my own acoustic at some point, and I’m already “researching” electric guitars. The right number of guitars is n+1 right? 
Goals
I’ve just learned a song that was one of my stretch songs (Classical Gas), so now I’d like to do some simpler songs, and I’m learning Four Seasons in One Day by Crowed House, and Comptine d’un autre été from Amélie.
I’d like to spend more time improvising and maybe writing some of my own simple tunes, probably starting with melodies and simple riffs - I feel like going through that process would teach more more about how or why music works. But I’d also like to start building more or an intuition for the way chords in a key work together, and then learn how changing keys works musically, and play around with those ideas.
I’d like to be able to play as cleanly as this (nothing like shooting high eh?) - Yann Tiersen - Comptine d'un autre été (from Amélie) - Fingerstyle Guitar - YouTube
Two youtube guitarists that really inspire me at the moment are:
- Alan Mearns - Chaconne - BWV 1004 - Bach/Mearns, Alan Mearns - Guitar, Guitar luthier - Enrico Bottelli - YouTube (this blows my mind)
- 2SICH - Acoustic Metal: 15 Amazing Songs! - YouTube (I’ve always loved metal, and these acoustic versions are what inspired me to pick up a guitar in the first place).
Conclusion
Really happy to have found this corner of the internet full of supportive, passionate guitarists. I have learned just enough to know I know virtually nothing. That’s super exciting to me - I can’t wait to explore the magic that is music more and more. There’s so many genres to learn about and explore. It’s going to be fun to build a path through some of that and see what I can create on my own too!
Looking forward to being a small part of the community here too. Thanks in advance for all the support and I hope to return the favour as I learn and grow as a guitarist.
Cheers!
