I’m Max, a 19 year old from France.
Looking back, I’ve always wanted to be a creative person, I just didn’t know how, where to start, or even believe I could truly learn. I’ve explored all sorts of creative outlets to express myself and share something personal with others, from drawing to writing to coding a full visual novel but nothing ever held my interest long enough for me to really bring my ideas to life.
I eventually became fully bilingual around the age of 16, during high school, not sure how exactly, it just kind of happened. That opened the door to a ton of great (and free) tutorials on YouTube and believe it or not, truly effective tutorials in French are kind of rare.
My story with guitar began last year when I got into Alex G’s songs and some of the soundtrack from a visual novel called Password. There was something about the sound, the mood, the vibe that made guitar feel really special to me.
My sister’s ex gave me a guitar for my 18th birthday, but… I didn’t really play it. Let’s be honest: social media, video games, books or any kind of distraction feels easier for the brain than actually learning something new.
But now, thanks to some strong app and website blockers (and a bit more discipline) I decided to finally give it a proper try. With help from kind people on forums, I found my way to this site. And in just one week, I can already play a basic song and switch between two chords! It’s just a beginning, but I truly hope and feel that this will last longer than any other activity I’ve tried before ^^
Welcome Max! We are lucky to have a true French patissier in our town, so I’ll visit and will buy some croissants. Kudos to you for becoming bilingual. We Americans don’t value that skill enough. And I can tell you from experience that languages become more difficult to acquire after the age of about 20 years. Finally, good for you for starting guitar now, while your brain is nice and flexible! Please continue to share your progress.
Speaking English comes pretty naturally to me, thanks to watching tons of English cartoons and listening to English music. But I won’t lie, learning any other language (like Spanish) has been anything but easy. I was never truly able to learn more than a few basic words.
I hope learning guitar will be at least a bit easier, hehe.
19 is the perfect age to start learning guitar!!! Love your story & your obvious sense of humor! I hope your guitar journey lasts much longer that a croissant or pain au chocolate!!!
If you don’t already have one, I’d suggest you go purchase a stand for your guitar (or a wall hanger) … if your guitar is easy to pick up & play at a moment’s notice, you will find that it gets played more often! The more you play, the faster you’ll see improvement in your playing!
I wish you lots of enjoyment with guitar & also lots of croissants … gosh I’m hungry!!!
By the way, this thread has reminded me of when I was about 19 & had a part time job working at a patisserie here in Albuquerque New Mexico. I was waiting tables & an older gentleman with a strong French accent came in & ordered a croissant with an espresso .
I served him & after the first bite, he angrily demanded to speak to the baker. When the baker came out, the French guest proceeded to ask why we had the nerve to call such disgusting, atrocious, nauseating lumps of dough a “croissant”! Then he let loose with a rant in French… got very animated & ripped our baker with what I found out later was a string of French profanities, proceeded to throw his cup of espresso against the wall & stomped out!
Tuns out, croissants baked at an altitude of over 5,000 feet above sea level don’t have “pouf”!!!
To me, as the waiter, no pouf=no tip!!!
Merde!!!
Tod
I’m so excited for you! You’ve got an edge on us older folks since you’re under 25. Please go watch the first few minutes of this video. Especially at the 3 minute 50 second mark. Justin literally begs you to learn as much as you can before the age of 25 because there’s scientific proof that we learn faster before 25 (neuroplasticity) Here’s the title of the video (no idea how to link it- (old ppl problems ) “Older learner? Here’s how to learn faster!”
Seriously, learn as much as you can now (good idea to mute the social media, etc…)! Your older self will be so thankful. I’m 47 and I just started too, and I wish someone had told me this when I was your age.
YOU’VE GOT THIS!!!
I don’t know you, but I am so proud of you (can’t help it- mom instincts)!!!
That’s a great start. I’ve been playing guitar for well over a decade now and the wonderful thing about it is that it’s a great reward for the effort it requires. Socially it’s also a great instrument. Look forward to hearing more from you.
You truly can be creative on guitar, start learning chords and scales, and build some musical knowledge, develop your ear by listening/playing triads, arpeggios it’s endless,
My advice would be explore as you go, experiment make up sons from chords or variations you find that sound good. If you can hold a tune vocally try and compose a melody, even if you hum it then play it in the guitar. If you like prose then try writing a song that means something to you.
Thanks for the awesome introduction. Less screen time and more guitar time is definitely a good thing IMO and I think you have made a great decision.
I was interested by your comment that there aren’t as many good instructional videos in French. That was my impression too and recently I was also trying to find good you tube videos in Spanish for some popular Latin American rock songs and they were mostly really bad too. I guess the demand for videos in English and the competition among people making them tends to push up the quality.
Greetings from Lausanne where croissant are not as good as in France - but at least we have better chocolate for the pain au choc!
Best, Ian
P.s. don’t eat croissant and play guitar together. It gets messy.
Kudos to you for becoming bilingual. We Americans don’t value that skill enough. And I can tell you from experience that languages become more difficult to acquire after the age of about 20 years. Finally, good for you for starting guitar now, while your brain is nice and flexible! Please continue to share your progress. 
.
) “Older learner? Here’s how to learn faster!”