During the first Covid lockdown in Sydney a couple of years ago, I decided to have a proper attempt at learning the guitar.
As someone starting out in his early-mid 30’s I wasn’t too hopeful. But with the guidance of awesome Youtube videos mainly from Justin (and Marty) I slowly got the hang of some basic music theory and the main chords, which meant I could actually strum along with some songs, rather than just hit single notes.
At the start I would try to learn and practice as much as I could, and even do audio recordings of my crappy playing (to see if I could notice any progress after a few months or so)
For the first year and a half I just recorded audio, and only after my playing became a bit more bearable for the listener I made a handful of video recordings.
But as things returned to relatively normal living, I found that the time and effort that I put in drastically reduced and I also stopped keeping track of any further progress.
Listening back to those very first phone recordings is a motivator for myself to get back into practicing regularly and hopefully improve some more along the way.
So that’s why I’ve decided to join up to this friendly community - to remind myself to keep at it and try to break out of the beginner stage. I’ve never uploaded any of my guitar stuff on the internet before… But I might see if I can add some of my old audio and vids to soundcloud/youtube and then link them in the progress section, just so that I have something to look back on here in the future.
See you around.
-Sandro
P.S. all of the high production quality videos I’ve seen so far on this site might make me invest in a better recording setup one day - but until then, I’ll just use my trusty phone camera when I get back into it
Welcome to the community, great to have another Aussie, there are a few of us around here. Look forward to more contributions from you. Jamming with others in person is also a great help. I joined a music club on the Gold Coast when I was first learning and it made quite a difference.
Thanks Tony. I would never have been brave enough to join a club when I first started learning. How was your experience with the club as a beginner? Were there people at all different levels (advanced/newbies/etc.) just bouncing off each other or was it a structured learning club?
The thought did cross my mind a couple of times to try to look for social groups to jam/learn with, now that I’m not as reluctant to share. So maybe I’ll see if I can find some around my area. Cheers
Thanks for welcoming me Dave. I just created a soundcloud account last night to maybe force myself to upload/share some of my old progress audio files → so that I can look back on and compare with any new stuff that I learn and post. Cheers mate
Keep at it and then you’ll not be like me. I’m now 51 and I wish I’d had started practicing my guitar when I bought it back in 1998 and not last year. So many years missed.
Your phone will do fine; don’t mind the Spielbergs, Jacksons and Scorseses on this board
(I mention Scorsese because my video’s are just of criminal ly low quality ;p)
Let us know where you get stuck and we’ll help you over the bump; hope you learn a lot and explore what’s in for you!
Thanks Stefan. If you only started learning last year then you are killing it mate!
Just saw a couple of your vids and enjoyed your Little Lion Man cover. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of you singer players on these boards, so that might be an added bit of motivation for myself to maybe learn how to sing one day .
My experience was very good as a beginner. This club very much had / has an ethos of everyone gets to have a go, regardless of whether they are rank beginner or been playing for a long time.
I remember the first time I lead a song at a jam, it was the Beatles Let It Be. I got about 3 bars into the song and screwed up, had to start over, next time I made it 4 bars before I screwed up and started all over again. All I got from everyone there was smiles and encouragement.
It was not a structured learning club, got together for weekly jams that went in a circle, when it came to you, you could lead a song or pass.
There is a group on fb ‘Jamming Campers’ run by Roger Sherack, they have regular camping / jamming weekends in the hunter valley area. I’ve been to several of their camping weekends and had a great time.
Welcome to the community Sandro. Thirty is not so old to start learning-some of us are a lot older and still doing it. It is never too late to start fulfilling your dreams of being a guitarist and sharing your artistic ability. We are all here to learn and offer support to one another as we progress. I recommend taking things one day at a time or even one lesson at a time. Justin guitar does not mind if we hang around. I would love to visit Australia someday and see how the beaches look out there compared to here. One of my patients years ago had a make a wish foundation dream to go there and it happened. He had an immune deficiency disorder (similar to the story about the boy in the bubble) and I was able to work with Australian customs to get the medicine he needs and go to college there. It was such a great group of people to work with. I imagine there is so much to see over there. I can set my boat adrift from the Pacific and maybe get there someday. Anyways, wishing you the best of luck, Believe in yourself and trust in your abilities.
Thanks Jeff for the extra motivation to get myself back into learning guitar, and for sharing that nice story of yours too.
P.S. some of the beaches here are pretty good, but I’d imagine that Cali has us covered
Cheers JK. I was definitely putting in the time at the start when I decided to have a real crack during lockdown - but sort of stopped when other things came up after that
Enjoy playing, would love to see some vids sometime.
I uploaded some old audio recordings to soundcloud yesterday, and I’ll put up the old vids that I’ve got of myself playing guitar sometime later today on youtube (only have about 10 or so of them) - those will be my first ever uploads there by the way.
Since I’m new to these community boards and not quite sure how frequently members tend to create new topic threads, I wouldn’t want to spam create them all at once in case it is frowned upon. So I’ll probably only pick a few to post in the boards here to start off with. Catch you around
Hi Sandro, welcome. The only things you need to learn how to play a guitar are: access to a guitar, being physically able to play it, good lessons and practice time. If you have more time for practice, you progress faster; if you have less time, you progress slower. You can split your practice as much as it is needed to fit your available time. About the videos or audios we only need to hear you playing and if possible see you so the community can provide feedback. No fancy production required, but if someone is going that way is welcome too.
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