Hello to everyone from Jim on Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada

Hello to all. Just want to introduce myself. I’m Jim, from beautiful Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

I’ve been studying the JustinGuitar Beginner’s course for a while now without significant interruptions, as well as the Practical Music Theory course, and must say I’m enjoying both tremendously. I believe Justin’s structured and thoughtful approach to teaching guitar, specifically, and music in general, is without parallel to anything else I have found, and I can’t commend his efforts highly enough. In the Beginner’s Course, I’ve worked my way up to the end of Grade 2, Module 9, and in the Practical Course I’m finishing Module 4.3.

For both of these courses, I am taking a rather leisurely approach. I’m in no hurry, and that’s just what feels right to me. I try to practice daily, and split my time between drills of one sort or another, and just playing through random songs that I have in my repertoire for the fun of it, while alternating between flat-picking and fingerstyle. My preferences in playing and listening gravitate toward folk, folk-rock, rock and blues, with a smattering of country thrown in for good measure.

I’ve been hanging around and reading a lot of posts in the Community in my areas of interest for a while now, and feel like I’m already quite familiar with a number of regular contributors. I’m impressed by the level of support and encouragement that is apparent here, and by how willing people are to try to help out with possible solutions to problems or difficulties that members may express. And I want to recognize and extend a big thanks to the moderators who give selflessly of their time to make this all work as well as it does. Because of all this, I am keen to be a participant in the Community, and look forward to being able to contribute to the process.

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Hi Jim!

BC sounds a great place to live!

Hello J.A, I’m Canadian too. :slightly_smiling_face: Have fun learning guitar.

Hi @J.A Jim. Great to have you contributing. And glad to hear you are making good progress. It’s such fun this guitar journey, keep playing and posting.

Welcome JA, and thanks for the intro. Great to see you are enjoying it all. You are right, this community is a special place, full of tremendous people all helping each other out.
The theory course is brilliant too eh. Has been a game changer for me.
Lookin forward to your progress.
All the best mate.
Cheers, Shane

Hello and welcome to the community Jim. :slight_smile:

I whole heartedly agree with you on the Mods.

Good to see you here Jim and what kind words for the folk here !

Great to see you are not in a rush and working at your own pace. Never any need for comparisons as we all learn at different speeds. Everyone is here to support you as many of us have been down the same road. We’re just all on different stages of the never ending journey. Anytime you need help or clarity just shout.

Cheers

Toby
:sunglasses:

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Good to meet you here, Jim. Love your approach and look forward to hearing you play at some point.

I want to thank everyone who posted welcoming greetings to me.

Yes indeed Rob @RobDickinson, B.C. is a great place to live, and I consider myself fortunate. But, from images I have seen and from what I have heard, your neck of the woods sounds pretty great also, so I guess we’re both fortunate.

The enjoyment of playing is, of course, what motivates me to continue on the journey. So, as both of you have urged, Mathieu @mynoud, and Tony @tony , I plan on continuing to have fun doing so. And it’s always good, Mathieu, to hear from another country(wo)man.

I agree with you, Shane @sclay , about the Community, and especially about the Theory course being excellent. For me, a big part of that course is how it gets my brain working and re-discovering the “aha” factor which was such a rush as a kid.

Thanks, David @DavidP , for your welcoming words. And a special thanks to you, and to Richard @Richard_close2u and Lieven @LievenDV also, for all that you guys do. This wouldn’t be possible without you. Stefan @SgtColon and I, and I am sure just about everyone here, are in agreement on that count.

And thank you, Toby @TheMadman_tobyjenner , for the offer of help. Part of the reason I’m not in a rush is that I think I’ve “grokked” that it is all just journey. There may be intermediate goals along the way, but there’s never an end, final goal, or final destination. That horizon just keeps receding as you progress. So you might as well enjoy the journey itself. Otherwise, what’s the point?

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Oh New Zealand is spectacular, I am here by design rather than luck!

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Indeed. I’ve lived in Australia for over 40 years now and always here the saying about how Australia is the “lucky country”. And indeed it is.

My wife is a Kiwi native and we’ve had the good fortune to travel all around New Zealand. We spent a month touring the south island 10 years ago and I was blown away by the natural beauty and by how unpopulated it is. I realized New Zealand is also very darn lucky.

If you have the chance to visit NZ, it’s so worth it.

Welcome Jim!

I have the same attitude towards the whole guitar thing my self.
Slowly and I dont rush myself. I might actually be too slow on the course progress from time to time…
i want too learn some theory as well. Do you reccomend the practical music theory course?

Yes, Trond, I would recommend it highly because I have found that it provides a depth of understanding of how and why things fit together as they do. It is by no means necessary, but for me at least it provides a context that I find helpful. And the first couple of grades in the course are free, so you can get a feel for it and then see if you think it is worth continuing.

Sounds great Jim. Would be interresting to know what i actually play and why i play up and down the neck…

I will take your word for it and «sign» up on it…

Thanks!

This is a no-brainer Trond.
No need to sign up. Just start working through the first couple of modules for free at your own pace. It’s a great course. I['m pretty sure by the time you hit the paywall your only question will be whether to buy the one-off life-time subscription or the continuous version.
I really need to get back to it one of these days

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