Hello all! I always imagined myself playing music, in the music I listened to and enjoyed the idea of doing so. For some reason it never really occurred to me that I could simply just… do that. I’ve been through a lot in my 32 years and I feel like I have a message that can resonate with people in my eventual goal of songwriting. I’ve been playing now for two months. I bought my first guitar, a Yamaha FG800J acoustic on Jan 12th, 2025. I fell in love immediately and ended up buying an Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro IV a month later along with a Boss Katana Gen 3 amp. I’ve been using Justin Guitar from the beginning, along with Yousician and Scotty West’s Absolutely Understand Guitar series to learn. I’ve been making a ton of progress really quickly and I’m excited every day to play again.
I practice about 3-5 hours a day, mostly once the kids are in bed. I tend to “go big or go home”, and guitar really feels to me like something I can go big on. My typical nightly playing routine involves a Justin Guitar lesson, practicing scales / chord changes to a drum track on my keyboard, playing 3-6 songs I know, coming up with Riffs on one of the scales I know, and trying to learn a new song. I then play Yousician for an hour or so to try some new chords in songs, develop specific types of skills, and get immediate feedback on my playing. I hope this doesn’t come off as some advertisement for that program, it really doesn’t teach you a whole lot but it does get me developing some unique skills pretty early and helps a lot with learning strumming patterns. I’m currently in Grade 2, Module 9 with Justin Guitar.
My favorite songs to play are…
*Californication
*California Dreamin’
*House of the Rising Sun
*Have you ever seen the rain
*Friday I’m in Love
*Just like Heaven
*Wish you were Here
*Wonderwall
*Heart of Gold
*Good Riddance
I was excited to find out that Justin Guitar also has a lively and supportive community so I’m happy to be here.
On a personal level, I work from home as a cybersecurity engineer and have two young children that keep me busy. I’m also a bodybuilder - a lot of people assume this takes a lot of work but really an hour in the gym 5/7 days a week is not that much. Guitar takes much more skill and time! Diet is the hard part. One thing bodybuilding has taught me that I can relate to the guitar is the value of hard work and dedication. It helped me develop the mindset that I can achieve anything (within reason) if I just put in the time and effort, and “train” intelligently. I also feel like it helped me get barre chords down pretty quickly.
A fun fact about me is that I write code and type at 150 words per minute. I would like to believe this gives me some kind of experience with hand-eye coordination and finger speed that will prove useful. lol
Hello Ryan & Welcome!
Enjoy your time learning & I’d also add that to avoid any “burnout” issues, KEEP IT FUN!!! As long as you’re enjoying the Journey, you’ll be more inclined to keep going!!!
Hi Ryan. You really do have an ‘achieve’ mindset and habit. Good on you.
Welcome to JustinGuitar and this fantastic community. Please take your time to look around and get to know the wider space. View by Categories.
We are a supportive and encouraging group of students and guitarists from across the world. Essentially, we are all here for music and to improve as players. We truly are a ‘community’. Members help and support one another and a friendly, positive attitude underpins this. We hope that all - young or old, experienced or new players - adopt and foster the pay-it-forward ethos that Justin personifies and embedded all those years ago when he started the website and forum.
Also, please make sure to read the Community Etiquette announcement for some important information and guidance.
If you want to record yourself to show your progress and / or seek feedback there is our ever popular Community Recordings section.
Behind the scenes there is a small and dedicated team who work to make the JustinGuitar experience as good as it can be. Check out the Onboarding sessions provided by Fanny. Justin also has a small group of Approved Teachers he recommends for people wanting 1-to-1 lessons to supplement his courses.
That is plenty to be going on with. It is a vast community space so if you need help as you find your way around just ask.
Cheers. Richard
| Approved Teacher, Official Guide & Community Moderator |
Welcome to the community. Great to read about your passion. The guitar can be all consuming in the nicest way. I’ve got two brothers who live in Florida and can code at quite a few words per minute but haven’t counted my typing speed in many years. What language do you code in? Look forward to hearing more from you
In my specific role, I write a lot of automation code using PowerShell and .Net. As a side project, I’m working on a couple of Android apps in Kotlin but that has fallen to the side a bit.
Hi Ryan, welcome to the community forum. It sounds like you have a passion for learning guitar. Your 3 to 5 hours of practice means that I’ll be waving to you as you pass me by in Grade 4 some day :slight_smile , since I put in 30 minutes per day of practice, but everyone has their own pace for progress.
