quickly wanted to say hello between a learning session and introduce myself: I am Kunmar, now in my mid 40s living in Germany and started my guitar journey about 20 years ago.
Back at that days, a friend of mine showed me a few chords on his guitar and the song book “Das Ding Kultlieder” which contained about 400 evergreens stripped down to some very basic chords. Basic, but still good enough to grasp the essence of it. I was so thrilled about the quick successes that I immediately bought myself an acoustic guitar and started practicing the basics. I love singing along and for the next 2 years got some routine but never got further than those basic chords and campfire songs.
To get past that beginners stage I decided to take some guitar lessons but got a very ambitious music student as a teacher who clearly knew a lot but also clearly overestimated my skills. He suggested me to switch to an electric guitar, asked me to name a song I would like to learn and did not stop me when I asked for Metallica (“Master of puppet”, I belief).
It was clearly far off my league (I was not even able to use a pick or palm muting properly) nevertheless he did not hesitate to push me (awfully slow and bad) through the song. In between, he tried to “help” me with some music theory (different scales, harmonies…) that just made me feel more lost… I quit about 6 month later without any noticeable progress
Fortunately, I kept loving my acoustic guitar and continued playing the camp fire songs at least from time to time even when time got precious (job, wife, kids…). About 2 years ago, I noticed that my kids are now in an age where they don’t require 24/7 attention any more and I found the time again to look for some new songs to learn. By accident I stumbled over Justins song lessons and picked a few that seemed to be in my range. And then a few more a bit out of my range… and then some that I felt pretty much out of my league but maybe because I got more patience over the years (and clearly because of the great hints from Justin in the videos) I was actually able to master them quite well.
Now I feel like it’s time to tackle the music theory again to get eventually out of the “parrot” mode and instead of just repeating something without much understanding, actually get to the essence behind it to maybe even improvise a bit.
Looking forward to this new journey and maybe get in touch with one or the other in a similar situation here
Great stuff Kunmar, welcome to the community. I had a similar experience with a music teacher pushing theory far too early in the process. Look forward to hearing more from you.
Hello Kunmar, and a warm welcome to the community .
That‘s a wonderful goal, you‘ve set for your guitar journey. Nevertheless, being able to play camp fire songs properly, is also a fantastic skill (I have to point this out, as this is my goal .)
I wish you lots of fun with your guitar .
Absolutely and I wouldn’t want to miss it . It definitely helped me a lot to feel the music as you don’t have to focus so much on technical details. And repeating the same easy songs often also helped me to start playing around with different loudness, varying the speed in the song to better reflect my mood when singing along…
Welcome Kunmar! Interesting story, especially with your experience with your teacher previously, ambition is good but there’ll be songs that are possibly too ambitious!**
Great you’ve got more time and the happiness through the song lessons so far, wishing you all the best for your learning
Hello Kunmar. Welcome to the co.munity. thank yoh for sharing your brief musical backgrou d with us. I am sure it will resonate with many people. I kniw from my own experience how a teacher mus-match can be a major obstacle to progress and have heard too many stories of people giving up because of it.
From what you say yoh seem to beivi g my mantra: learn songs, learn songs, learn songs.
Building on the basics, learning some songs, stretching your techniques sufficiently and having fun. All good. Pmus some theory too. I could not have suggested a better recipe!
Cheers
Richard
Welcome to the Community, Ulrich. Thanks for sharing your story and I am sure, slow and steady, you can achieve all your dreams.
You mentioned Justin’s song lessons but not the lessons. If you’ve not looked at those, it may be worth scanning through grades to help refine your foundations. Not sure how much you may pickup doing that given your AVOYP debut recordings but may be worthwhile. No harm in scanning to find the appropriate entry point.
And I am sure you will make progress with the theory following Justin’s Practical Music Theory programme. It is one of the few programmes that requires a subscription once you get beyond the first couple of levels but an understatement (I think) to say it is good value for money.
@DavidP: Thanks for the hints David. I am currently scanning through the courses to check what I know already and what I’ve missed. My feeling is, that I am somewhere between grade 3 and 5 with some bigger gaps here and there and other topics that work already well. Mainly focussing on the theory part now (with subscription) to close the gaps there.
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(I have to point this out, as this is my goal 
.)