Hi and many thanks Colin, I’m delighted to meet another like-minded soul 
. And the riffs were honestly a revelation to me – I’m astounded at how much I enjoy playing them. I’m also just beginning to discover that I think it actually shows in my practice too as I would say one of my strengths at this early stage is having minimal difficulty picking on the right strings 
. This is proving helpful now that scales have been introduced - as well as for learning new riffs!
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That’s me to a T, Mark, and it’s reassuring to hear it from someone else – or I should say it would be me if my fingers lasted for a 2-hour stint and I had afternoons free 
. It’s lovely to meet you. I really look forward to my evenings playing and hope to increase the time spent with more practice.
Hi Jenny, welcome. You can record for yourself first and later share it. A cell phone video is all that it takes. Memorizing songs even if they are not to be performed in public helps with the skills development as when you are playing from memory you can concentrate in how it sounds and not what chord is next.
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I take your words on board and appreciate the wisdom and sharing of this advice from your own experience, Brendan - it’s true these seem really good reasons for giving it a go. I have every faith that Justin introduced the requirement either to perform directly in front of someone – or self-recording – as a step in passing Grade 1 because of the benefits it provides on the path to developing as a player. (And not just to torture those of us who treat playing as a private indulgence 
). It is continually in the back of my mind that I haven’t strictly ‘passed’ grade 1 until the songs are memorized and I’ve given self-recording a go. So I’m not saying never, it’s just ‘delayed’. Working on the songs themselves first, then perhaps I’ll build up to the rest as I work through grade 2.
Thanks Tony, yes I’m totally in sync with @Colberg69 here. I do feel a bit caught between pushing myself outside my comfort zone – which may well be beneficial – and doing things in the way that makes me happy – I’m more than content to not be a performer. I think the key here is making sure it’s my decision and that I’m happy with it. If I’m happy and enjoying what I do, I’m far more likely to keep playing - and that’s the all-important outcome for me.
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Haha - Hi Rogier, and thank you so much – I’m already blown away by the feedback and encouragement in this community of ours. Yes, small steps definitely, memorising some songs first and then I will just have to see where that takes me! It’s great to meet you, Jenny 
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Hi Andrés, lovely to meet you and thank you for the words of encouragement. I have the very convenient excuse of not having video functionality on my phone but I do have other means of recording at my disposal if pushed to it 
. I do take your point that just memorising songs in itself helps development as a player – this is definitely an area where I’m planning to put some time aside to work on it.
Yep, that’s it in a nutshell. When I first started doing open mics, it was an easy process for me, I’d done a lot of pubic speaking so being on stage in front of others was a familiar place. I felt nervous before a performance but not in a crippling or worrisome manner. As my skills progressed and I started playing more complicated songs (and started making bigger mistakes), the performance anxiety kicked in big time. And I worked on ways to get on top of it.
My wife found this interesting and asked me why I bother because I was fine in front of family and friends. I explained that for me, I was driven to perform. For many years I sat in the audience wishing I could be “that guy” up on stage performing. But alas I didn’t play guitar. Now that I could be “that guy”, wild horses wouldn’t keep me off stage. Hopefully you can see that I was compelled / driven.
As compared to my wife who has a much better singing voice than I do, and she just didn’t feel compelled at all. Go with what you are compelled / driven to do. :-).
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I agree with @tony Don’t let the community push you into doing something you don’t want to do.
I think there are some clever people in this community but they don’t seem to have the sense they were born with!
I’m sure they mean well, but they don’t seem to realise what they’re doing. You’ve only just arrived and already they’re pushing !!
Hi Jenny and welcome to the community.
Come in, take your coat off, I’ll put the kettle on. Have a look round, take your time, I’m sure you’ll find plenty to like. Most important of all - play your guitar and follow the lessons.
Enjoy your adventure
🎸 David
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Hi David,
I didn’t want to say anything so as not to pollute this introduction thread further, but I’m having a lot of trouble with this sentence… you put a few people away here in a way that I really don’t like. We try with to help many people a little further with playing the guitar and I assume that people will not post a video of themselves and be/become deeply unhappy about it.I am grateful to old/regular forum members for the light pressure (giving importance to) they have put on the importance of this for almost everyone,
under a lot of introductory post, all regular guests and moderators regularly refer to the importance of including yourself…
And Hi @Juniperus hopefully you’ll forgive me for this interruption and if you’re mad at me now (or worse disappointed) feel free to report if necessary via PM and you’ll get a bunch of flowers from me … (at least virtual 
)
Greetings,Rogier
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Welcome to the community Jenny.
Not at all. Some people may just want to pick up the guitar to relax and escape from everyday life with musical enjoyment.
Learning logs are a great way to see how far we have come and set goals as we progress.
I think you can put your mind to ease as I don’t recall recording or playing in front of someone as a requirement to pass grade 1 or grade 2. I think its more about being at a level where you could play the songs in a situation where you got asked to play for example at a party.
As for home recording I think this short video from Justin is worth a watch for the reasons to record and listen to yourself playing. This short video is another good one from Justin about using someone else’s ears (figuratively speaking) when your listening to yourself playing.
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Hi Jenny
Nice to meet you!
Hope you’re feeling better and having fun 
Jax
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Hi Tony, Now, that’s a fascinating insight – thank you. I had wondered if perhaps a desire to perform would suddenly ‘kick in’ as my skills developed and hadn’t even given consideration to the fact that the material I wanted to play would get correspondingly more difficult! And you had that compulsion before you could play. So perhaps I never will have it. But then that’s fine with me. I’ll just have to wait and see.
Ahh, thank you very much David for your welcome, enjoyment is definitely the plan and it’s great to meet you. Mine’s milk no sugar please 
. It has been clear to me from the off that there’s an abundance of enthusiasm in the community which is incredibly nice to see, and extremely welcoming – I’ve already found lots to like just in these first few days, and so I’m certain I will find lots more, and settle in and make it a home from home. And I value the variety of views and opinions, so all is well 
.
As I could probably get lost for days wandering around and exploring in here, I will be taking your wise advice to the letter: the lessons are always the priority – I’ll be following them carefully and making the most of the knowledge and experience that Justin has been so incredibly kind to share, Jenny.
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Hi Rogier, No not mad, not disappointed, and with offers of tea and flowers and so much freely given advice learned from others’ experiences I’m feeling like one super-pampered new member.
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Hi James, Thank you, it’s very good to be here.
That’s completely it, I know I could just relax by listening to music and leave it at that but I would say I’m of a slightly more participative mindset. While @tony wanted to be that guy on stage, I just want to be that person who can pick up my instrument of choice and play.
Re learning logs, yes it’s definitely the idea that I can look back and draw upon it as a source of encouragement, and be motivated by the small improvements, that has appeal – I haven’t given so much thought to goal setting as yet, but then I think I’ve had the luxury of goals being pretty much set by Justin so far. I’ll no doubt have to take an increasing amount of ownership for this as I progress.
I think recording (or performing before someone) was one of Justin’s suggested requirements in his grade 1 module 7 ‘How to Pass Grade 1’ video lesson but it is really reassuring to hear your viewpoint on the issue of recording. Thanks so much too for taking the time to look out those video links, I will certainly watch them, Jenny.
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Hi Jax, it’s lovely to meet you too! Yes, all better thank you and I’m very much enjoying getting back to playing. 
Jenny
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Besides my desire to perform, and even more so, every day I pick up the guitar to relax an escape. It’s a great boost for my mental health.
You also mentioned goal setting and leaning on Justin for that. Having my own goal certainly helped my motivation to learn and work through the challenges. Making that goal as specific as possible helped me.
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Exactly!
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Hi Jenny. A very warm welcome has already been afforded.
My mantra : learn songs, learn sings, learn songs.
There are so many layers and levels of goodness and benefit from doing so.
Songs are what we love, where we have our fun, and where we bring together our learning and skills and more.
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