Hello there! I’m Anika. I’ve played the viola for a long time, but just recently (a few days ago), I decided to start learning the guitar, too. I was inspired by one of my friends; she’s also a longtime string player who started the guitar relatively recently, and she really enjoys it. I have a pretty bad track record when it comes to sticking with hobbies, so hopefully this is an exception to that, because the guitar seems like a really cool instrument and I’d love to keep learning.
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Welcome to the forum Anika
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Thank you!
Welcome Anika! One great thing about Justin’s approach (for me anyway) is that he keeps you interested, always excited for the next skill. Word of warning though: it’s best (at least for grades 1 and 2) to stick with the lessons in order. If something doesn’t interest you, it’s OK, give it a go and move on. But don’t skip ahead too much. Justins lessons often build on previous lessons! Keep us posted with your progress. 
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Oh good deal. Im glad you found the community. Your prior music knowledge will help out a fair amount. And ypu already know what it takes as far as practice for a musical instrument. There are tons of helpful and supportive people here. Dont be shy about posting videos either, you get a lot of good constructive feedback from them.
Have fun
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Welcome to the forum. Playing guitar, when you stick to it, gives incredible rewards to the player. Hang in there and you won’t be disappointed! Never ever have I heard a guitar player say they regret learning to play.
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Welcome Anika,
wishing you all the best on your journey. 
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Welcome, have fun, Justin’s lesson are very good and the structure through grade 1 to 3 is very helpful to making progress and keeping you on track. Have fun.
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Hey Anika – return greetings from the northeast corner of the US
You’ve got all the theory, and finger dexterity from playing the viola (what a beautiful sound!) so you’ll progress quickly, I feel sure.
As you wrote, it can be tough to stick to something new. The random guitar is more common than the random viola, so you’ll have more opportunities to “pick one up” and play at a friend’s house, the beach, at a party, plus you’re more likely to get others to sing along with a pop/rock/folk guitar accompanied song than with a Bach cantata.
If you find your determination to continue waning, this Justin Community is a great resource to help fortify your resolve and keep moving forward–there is a vast resource here that really wants to help you succeed.
One refrain you’ll hear repeatedly is to “have fun”. Mix the lessons, with learning your favorite song. Justin has a lot of song tutorials, the Justin app has the lessons too (not as rich as the web) AND a karaoke option of about 1,600 songs that you can play along with, slowed down (and pitch corrected) if you need to get the tough transitions smoothed out before playing full speed.
Cheers,
Bruce
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welcome
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Welcome to the community Anika!
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Thank you for the advice Judi! And I will. I think that might help me with accountability. I did some looking around at the different topics, and there’s a Learning Log one that I might start posting in. I need to figure out how to set one up, though.
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Hi Jason! Thank you so much for your kind words. I am actually somewhat nervous about posting videos- particularly because my guitar is more of the type for young kids (it’s the only one we have)-, but I guess I’ll just have to get over it. And yeah, I’m pleasantly surprised at how nice everyone here is. 
@tony @Carreta @AJSki2fly @GrumpyMac @TheCluelessLuthier
Thank you all so much!
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Hi Anika, welcome to the community forum. I hope guitar will be a fun diversion from the viola. There are a lot of people in the community that play multiple instruments, so I know that you should be able to have fun with the guitar.
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Hello Anika & Welcome!!!
As an established musician, I’m pretty sure you have a good handle on learning to play a new instrument! That being said, my advice would be to make sure to keep “Fun” one of your primary goals! If practice starts to feel tedious or techniques become problematic, do something else guitar related to keep the fun element alive!
Also, don’t feel any embarrassment or shame because of your skill level, issues learning or even your gear! We all started out at square one with the Journey ahead of us, so you should feel comfortable sharing with this Community! We’re a pretty easy group & really want to help newbies succeed!!!
My first guitar was a big box store (Costco) special that was really cheap… doesn’t matter, if you can play it then you can learn with it!!!
Good luck! 
Tod from New Mexico
P.S. Where in the US is your home?
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Nice to meet you, Anika, cheer,s HEC UK
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Welcome Anika!
Yes, the guitar is awesome!
Hope you’ll stay with the guitar even if there will be harder times and it will reward you big time! But you probably have had bad times with the viola already… (being bored, not feelling like improving for some time or something like that)
And don’t be ashamed for a kid’s guitar, I have two shorter scale guitars too and like them!
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Hi Anika,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun 
Greetings,Rogier
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Hello Bruce! Thank you so much for everything you’ve said. It’s very encouraging.
Oh, that’s great to hear!
Do you have any resources in particular that you would recommend? (Not just for sticking to practicing, but in general.)
I plan on it! And I didn’t know the app has all of that. I’ll have to check it out.
PS: Not a lot of people say the viola has a beautiful sound. Thank you for that.