Hi Christina. Welcome to the community. Cheese for a guitar is a sweet deal- love it. I’ve been here with Justin’s lessons since 2020. I had the same idea play music instead of feel bad being locked down. My advice is take it one day at a time and record yourself as you progress to see how much progress you make. Give yourself credit for the small victories when you master something new. Please check out our record yourself and progress section here. Lots of talented people sharing their work. I posted an Aerosmith song yesterday that I hadn’t even heard in many years until it popped in my head to try it. Everyone here is kind and supportive and I’m glad you’re here.
Oh wow, thanks for the practice list! Those are absolutely the best tips I have ever heard. You sound very disciplined!
You may cringe when I mention this, but I have yet to develop a practice schedule - I typically determine a song I would like to play, find the official tab for it if possible, and then practice it until I can play it. Lately I haven’t been practicing a song enough to play it completely, though! (ie. I learn most of it, but then sort of fluff the most complicated parts of the solo.)
I started into Justin’s lessons a few years ago, but need to continue to follow them.
I am on vacation this week, so I will re-read your tips and develop goals and a schedule!
Thanks again!
Hi Christina! I love Ontario, have family near Kitchener/Waterloo and I’m from Michigan. I think the support of the Justin Guitar community will be a huge help for us all with our guitar playing!
Hi Christina, I think a combination of short and longer term goals is important to keep motivation. The other thing is that if you do not work on your technique those hard to play parts of the songs you’ve learnt will stay as hard to play parts for a very long time, maybe forever. It can be different for other person and not work so well, but working in parallel in a few guitar projects helps me to keep the motivation. It can take longer to advance on every project than if dedicating all the available time to a single one, but in addition to the motivation, working on one project can influence positively another. Maybe you can combine working on the lessons again (going back a little bit back from you were to refresh knowledge could be good), learning a new song from the official tab and going back to a song you’ve learnt to develop it. When trying to develop the song, look at it with new eyes analyzing what impedes you to play it better and thinking what you need to learn or practice to improve your playing of it. In brief you need to have something that keeps you yearning for your next practice session.
Hey TGFNM14,
I went to university in Waterloo, and love that area of Ontario! I’m really grateful for the Justin Guitar community. I have connected with a few people in my daily life through discussing guitar, but it’s so nice to have a whole virtual community of people to bounce ideas off of and gain inspiration from! It has helped me get back into playing more regularly.
Hey tRONd,
Have you explored John Frusciante’s solo work? I hope to one day be able to play his song “Wayne” well - which, if I have the story straight, is dedicated to his close friend/RHCP tour chef who passed away from cancer. John wrote it for him, but tragically finished it one day too late for Wayne to have heard the song.
Hey dobleA,
Thanks so much for the advice. I have joined an acoustic jam group that starts in July, so I will have short-term goals to brush up on things for that, and a longer-term goal to play a song (Road Trippin by Red Hot Chili Peppers) for a co-worker when she retires in November as it’s her favourite song, so those should keep me on the right track! I admittedly don’t work on technique on a daily basis, so I will add that into my practice. I do like the idea of having a few guitar projects on the go at one time, but also appreciate the value of really focusing on putting the time into learning a difficult part.
Finding the motivation to practice is difficult on most days, but having deadlines help a lot!
Hi christina.
No. I have not attempted any of his work. And to be honest. I dont see my self playing his stuff any time soon I grew up with RHCP and Pearl jam and i absolutly love the music. But his sound and style is far far above my level of playing i dont play electrical guitar either. Im addicted to acoustics but…. You never know… maybe i rip some cool Fruciante solos when im 80 years old in the elderly home
and “Omission,” which is a compilation between him and Josh Klinghoffer:
I was really surprised to see such varying sounds and instruments when exploring John’s solo work. He creates a lot of electronic music too, but admittedly I’m not as into that as his guitar work!
Cool about the Kitchener/Waterloo connection! Getting involved in the Justin community is definitely beneficial, I’ve already received some great advice and it’s inspiring and motivating to see my struggles are similar to what other people are encountering.
That is great information, much like Cina I’ve been struggling with creating an effective practice routine even with Justin’s practice routine creator.
Yay! I’m glad if it helps. (I’m so sorry I’m getting back to you so late, I keep trying to respond and things keep getting in the way. (T__T))
I’m actually one of the least disciplined people haha. I just know so much about how to be disciplined because of my own failures at being such. (‘v’,) It’s why the re-evaluation part of my list is so important. And the being able to see things to do them part as well. (Because of life I still don’t have another actual practise plan in place right now, so I’m just being happy when I do pick up my guitar to practise.)
Not gonna lie, I can’t play any song I’ve tried to learn in full yet―there’ve been too many hiccups and jumps in life to have let me focus on one that long (and I thought I was close with “Wherever You Will Go” by The Calling back in the spring, too!). Clearly I’m not meant to have been doing things the way I’ve been doing things when it comes to life in general. But the best thing I’ve learnt from falling a lot in life is that you just need to get back up again―if the door you’re trying’s not working, find a window. So I’m gonna keep trying. I hope you do, too!
i dont play electrical guitar either. Im addicted to acoustics 
