Welcome Angelique! Youâre in the right place. How lucky you are to have a brass section to jam with! Looking forward to hearing from you as you advance in your journey. 
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Welcome to the forum Angelique
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Atlantic or Gulf coast?
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Hi Angelique, welcome to the community forum.
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Welcome, Angelique. This is a great place to learn. I started as a complete newbie 2 years ago and I think Iâm doing great. Nice hubby you have there, too.
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Welcome to the community!
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Thatâs awesome. The great thing about the guitar is if you stick past the initial finger pain, and get a song or two working, then you are on your way.
I remember many many years ago being in awe of a guy who was able to pull out his guitar at a bbq and keep us entertained for quite some time. Now Iâm that guy and youâll be able to sooner than you think.
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Welcome to the forum 
Iâm new here myself and I really like it here
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Welcome!
Excellent goals to go for and JG/this community is an excellent place to do so 
Finger pain? it will pass.
Meanwhile, make sure not pressing the fretboard with all your might but just enough of a touch to make the chords ring out nicely. Donât obesess of it though, most of it is just physical conditioning.
Enjoy your journey and ask help when needed!
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Welcome Angelique,
Great that you have such good support to help you along your journey and what great goals.
Enjoy
A
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Welcome Angelique, have a good time with Justinâs Programm (you will!) and here on the community platform!
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Hi Angelique,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun 
Because everyone assumes that this is logical 
âŠthin, hard strings and pressing them in your fingers for a long timeâŠeveryone, well, 
every six months or so, my wife is always surprised that it hurts her fingers so quickly and then she quickly goes back to the piano⊠
You have nice goals
Greetings,Rogier
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Hi Angelique,
welcome aboard!
Enjoy your journey and donât be discouraged when thereâll be a harder time.
Learning the guitar pays back big time!
Sounds great! Would be my dream as well, but we donât have these things around here 
Looking forward to your first family band video!
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Welcome Angelique!
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Hello Angelique & Welcome!!!
THIS 
Keeping the Journey FUN is the key! The more youâre enjoying playing & learning, the more you want to pick up your six-stringed buddy & play. The more you play, the better you get & the more enjoyment it brings!!!
Learning brings lots of peaks, valleys & plateaus - but just keep going & before you know it, youâll be playing simplified versions of those âcampfireâ songs thatâll sound great out on the beach!!! Enjoy!!!
Tod from (beachless 
) New Mexico
P.S. Pics of your new guitar are always welcome!
We love to see gear pics here in the Community!
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Welcome Angelique!
As Lieven mentioned, try to train yourself to use the least finger pressure required to fret the string, as squeezing too hard will make your fingertips hurt more than they should, and will prevent you from quickly changing from one chord to the next.
If the fingertip pain doesnât subside within a couple of months, I suggest you consider changing your acoustic guitar strings to the thinnest available, which is usually an âextra-lightâ 0.010" - 0.047" Phosphor Bronze string set. If you have the means, have a guitar tech change them for you and also adjust the âactionâ (which is the straightness of the neck and the height of the strings) to accomodate the thinner strings. You can always switch back to thicker strings later if you want to.
Enjoy the journey!
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Iâm over on the Atlantic side 
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I hear beachless New Mexico has amazing hot air balloonsâŠ
This is my Betty - a âla You Can Call Me Al
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Yes! We have an Amazing Balloon Fiesta! It starts on the first weekend of October for 9 days⊠hundreds of hot air balloons flying at the same time! Iâm in Albuquerque - the Hot Air Balloon Capital of the World! If you can make it here at that time of year you wonât be disappointed! 
Tod
BTW - Nice Fender acoustic! Good to learn/start out with! Sounds like your husbandâs a keeper!!!
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Hi Angelique.
Strumming on the beach sounds wonderful.
Welcome to JustinGuitar and this fantastic community. Please take your time to look around and get to know the wider space.
https://community.justinguitar.com/categories
We are a supportive and encouraging group of students and guitarists from across the world. Essentially, we are all here for music and to improve as players. We truly are a âcommunityâ. Members help and support one another and a friendly, positive attitude underpins this. We hope that all - young or old, experienced or new players - adopt and foster the pay-it-forward ethos that Justin personifies and embedded all those years ago when he started the website and forum.
Also, please make sure to read the community etiquette announcement for some important information and guidance.
Richard | JustinGuitar Approved Teacher & Moderator & Official Guide |
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