I’m Ricky, a 50-something y.o. who lives in NW Ohio.
I started guitar ~35 years ago on a fender acoustic with a Mel Bay chord book and a folk music fakebook. A lot of the time since then, I played acoustic folk/trad singing with friends in living rooms or at campfires - mostly either just strumming or travis picking chords in the first 4 frets.
During covid I had the time to get a little more methodical about learning guitar. I ended up getting a Squier CV60 strat to go with my acoustic, and started to go through Justin’s beginner course to fill in gaps in my playing - like power chords or playing melodies as well as playing more up the neck. I finished the old beginner version, and then went through and picked up more from the new parts in the current version when that came out. Now I’m continuing to refine fundamentals, and starting to work through a little more complicated fingerpicking and flatpicking for melodies and lead lines - working my way up slowly in difficulty. In November I finally upgraded my old acoustic to a Martin 000-18, which I am enjoying immensely.
I listen to all kinds of music, but some of what I enjoy is the guitar playing of Richard Thompson, John Renbourn and Mark Knopfler, among others.
Hi Ricky - Welcome! I was lucky enough to see Richard T playing a few years back, 1952 vincent black lightning is one of my favourite acoustic songs of all time
Good to have you here.
Welcome Ricky, sounds like you are on track with your plan. As a seasoned JG learner you’ll be well aware of the breadth and depth of the offering in here. Hope to see you perform one of your songs in an OM sometime soon.
Keep it fun …
Hi Ricky, welcome to the community forum. Your guitar journey sounds a lot like mine (Mel Bay chords, folk songs and cheap acoustic) but add an extra 18 years to my age. I also did the classic JG course and then the new course and I am still filling in the gaps, but enjoying the lessons. I saw and heard John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman in concert in a small venue in 1984/1985 and still have the double album that I got them to sign, but that music is still way beyond me. I look forward to hearing your guitar playing in the future. Enjoy your new Martin 000-18. That is a really nice guitar. I upgraded to a 000-MMV which is like a less expensive (half the price) version of the 000-28. They are guitars you can enjoy for a lifetime.
Hello geodoc! I also started out with Mel Bay years ago, but was constantly stuck on “Mel Bady Day 3”. I also just picked the guitar back up, but I’ll cover that in my re-introduction post here in a bit.
I also live in Ohio, but just North of Dayton.
!