Hi, All. I’m Bob. I live in Olympia, the capital of Washington State in the US.
I’m 60 years old, and this year I “retired” - or, as I prefer to say, “Quit my job and bought a guitar.”
I experimented with guitar in my early teens and went nowhere with it. My teachers weren’t great, and my discipline was non-existent. I found that the desire was still within me, but I’m a different person today, so I gave it another go.
In late September, I bought a PRS SE DGT and a practice amp. I’d begun studying music theory, the fretboard, and anything else I could find online. By the time my guitar arrived, I was raring to go. I’d identified a handful of pathways and instructional methods that I thought suited me, and I hit the ground running. Now, 2.5 months later, I’m in Justin’ Module 9 - the infamous F chord.
I may be an extremist. I practice about 2 hours every day, though I break it up into 2 or 3 sessions. I also study another hour or two most days. It’s the rainy season here.
When I entered into this, I thought I’d be pretty happy if I could, in a paint-by-numbers kind of way, squeeze out a riff or two of songs that I love. Long before I got there, I found myself enthralled with every aspect of this process - the theory, the instrument, the physical and mental challenges, all of it. Unless I encounter an insurmountable limitation, I feel like there are limitless opportunities in front of me. My biggest problem is choosing how to spend my practice time.
Hi Bob - welcome to the group, great to have you here. Sounds like you’re having lots of fun which is what it’s all about!
In terms of how to spend your practice time, having a structured approach is a good idea for most people, as you’ve noticed there’s so much you can learn that it can be a bit overwhelming if you try and do everything all at once. I’d strongly suggest you aim to learn some complete songs - simplify as much as you need to, but be able to play through the whole thing. Then carve out some of your practice time developing the skills you need to get those to where you want them to be.
Hi Bob
Very nice to meet you
Welcome! Your enthusiasm really shines through, love it! Sounds like you have a great retirement plan too. JG has a t-shirt just for this
I struggle a bit with deciding how to spend practice time too (there’s so much I’d like to do but limited time) I write down a practice plan for the week and then mark off how long I spend on each in a day in 5 minute chunks. I don’t get around to everything on my plan every day, but it helps me with a bit of structure. There’s also the practice assistant on the JG dashboard that might help too
Welcome Bob,
Small world, I was round your way in WA in Sep.
Plenty opportunity in here to structure your learning.
You’re also in good company as a PRS player.
Keep it fun.
Justin’s lesson gives a great overview. . . I particularly stick to the part of devoting 50% of my practise to very specific time bound sessions of 5 minutes and 50% of fun: song lessons, exploring chord shapes, “noodling” and generally trying to make new (to me, at least) noises come out of the guitar.
Can’t think of a better lesson to recommend at the moment but there are those in the community with far more experience at showing the way around here than I. I’m confident that if there are additional/better options they’ll chime in and let you know.
Great stuff, welcome to the community. For me it’s about songs. Once I could play my first song all the way through I was hooked! And it’s just great to be able to grab a guitar and play a tune when I feel like it. Last night went to a great xmas gathering, got home late, still wound up, so I grabbed a guitar, sat on the sofa and played a handful of tunes while I unwound myself. Wonderful therapy.
I should have been clearer than I was about my practice time being a problem. I didn’t mean that I needed to fix it, only that I have to make choices - and that’s hard when there are so many options. It’s the kid in a candy store problem, pretty much exactly as @theoldman66 said.
Hi Bob, welcome to the community. It sounds like you are really immersing yourself in guitar. As long as you are having fun, I say keep doing what you are doing. As you go through the grade 2 and 3 beginner and advancing beginner lessons, as others have said, you will get a lot of advice and suggestions from Justin on organizing practice as the amount that you know grows so much. I don’t see it as a problem, but just an opportunity to have more types of fun playing guitar.
Hello Bob. Welcome to JustinGuitar and the Community. The Community is large, as is the website. That is quite the tasty guitar to be enjoying and learning on.
If you need any help with a lesson specific question or with any general guitar learning question then do not hesitate to ask. There are many good folk here who will happily offer help and encouragement to those coming up behind them on Justin’s Beginner Courses. They embody and carry the pay-it-forward ethos we have nurtured for many years in our community. There are many old hands too who have years and (hopefully) a bit of wisdom they can bring as they give their support to those hitting the road blocks - which we all do.
Just ask if you need anything.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Community Moderator.
