Hi all!
Beau here. I’m 36, living in southern New Hampshire in the USA, and I’ve finally decided to pick up the guitar. I have a mixed background of half-measures when it comes to music. I played Alto Sax in the middle school band, but never really enjoyed it. Played drums for a bit at the end of high school, but never carried on with it after taking lessons for a few months, and eventually sold my cheap drumkit. Then I was gifted a bass guitar, but aside from trying to play a few tunes by ear (Feel Good by the Gorillaz, anyone?) I never really took lessons and eventually sold that as well.
About 6 years ago I bought a digital piano and took lessons for somewhere between six months and a year, I think? My teacher was excellent, and for the first time I was having a great time learning. She pushed me to take the ABRSM Grade 2 exam and I managed to pass with distinction. I learned a few songs outside of her curriculum on my own as well and had a great time with it.
No long after the exam, a really neat opportunity came up and I made the decision to move across the world to Japan. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take much with me, so I left the piano behind, and sort of fell off the wagon again. I didn’t want to buy another piano in Japan only to have to sell it off when I moved home at some point, and by the time I finally came home at during the whole Covid thing I had lost my momentum there.
Well, this time I’m hoping I can build and maintain the momentum on the guitar. I’ve always wanted to play but (somewhat foolishly) thought it would be way too difficult. Of course, I thought the same thing about piano before I started, and that turned out alright before I moved to Japan.
I’ve been at it about a month now, and I’ve been playing a LOT ever since my fingers started to adjust. I made my way through Grade 1 without too many hiccups, and I’m probably about halfway to feeling comfortable enough to move onto the third module of Grade 2 now. I’ve been a bit worried that I’m moving too quickly, through the material, but I’ve been watching the Nitsuj videos for each module and only moving on when I’m confident that I’ve absorbed everything. I’ve also completed the Ear Training and Theory courses for Grade 1. I’ve done my best to be critical of myself before moving on from each module, and I’ve definitely added some ongoing practice items from past routines to keep them relevant while I move forward, like the Em Pentatonic Scale which I practice alongside Cmaj currently.
My father has been playing guitar for many many years, so I’ve been bouncing things off of him as well to double-check my progress. For now, I’ve been moving on once I can pretty confidently play a few of the songs from each module, feel good about my PFCs and can perform the exercises without error most of the time.
Anyway, sorry for rambling. I’m really excited about joining this community, and I hope I can work up the courage to post an AVOYP at some point as well. Playing and singing at the same time has been…difficult, but I’m sure with some more practice on the songs I’ve been working on I could get it there.
So nice to see this thriving community, and I’m so glad I found Justin’s website and videos. I’m not sure I remember exactly where I came across it, but I’m sure it was someone on YouTube that mentioned Justin as being the place to go. Look forward to contributing to the discussion!
Best regards,
Beau
it will be a great experience embrace it 