Hi Everyone. I'm Linda from Australia

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I have a habit of getting down on myself, so that attempt didn’t get far, and the guitar got given away pretty quick. But this nagging feeling inside me that I still wanted to learn to play has never gone away.

Welcome to the site Linda. We tend to be our own worst critics. Don’t let fear overtake your. Just sit back and try to enjoy the journey and the accomplishments, small as they may seem at the time. As others have mentioned, post up some of your playing and you will receive good words of encouragement.

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Linda a very warm welcome in. I’m a fellow lady in my 30s learning to play. Here’s my two cents for what it’s worth

  1. Nobody expects you to be Eddie Van Halen or Tommy Emmanuel. Please don’t try to compare yourself to the professionals or other people that you think are learning faster than you. This is about you and your journey, not them.
  2. Don’t be afraid to take it slow. Spend as much time as you need on chord change practice and rhythm practice, they pay dividends even if they seem boring or basic.
  3. Get a metronome, cappo, and one of Justin’s beginner song books so you’ll always have your practice tools easily available.

You absolutely can do this ! Even with only 20 minutes a day of practice I think you’ll be amazed at how far you come in just a month or two.

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Hello Linda and welcome to the community.
My advice is set yourself some small goals and have some fun playing the guitar.
The good thing about Justins method is that you start to play songs straight away and I recommend giving his song app a try. Its guitar karaoke, but it helps with the motivation.

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Hi Linda an welcome aboard!

Setting some smart goals is important but keeping the fun aspect alive is crucial to keep playing of course

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Hi, Linda, and welcome. I’ve only been learning guitar for less than two months so any advice I can give you is strictly limited. I guess realising that it’s going to be a long journey is a good start, as is celebrating each new thing learned.

Something that has kept me inspired is watching Justin’s series on him learning to play guitar left-handed, using his own beginners course. You know Justin is a really good guitar player, and expect him to master left-handed playing instantly. But no, he struggles just like every other new player, and seeing that he struggled with the same things I’m currently struggling with just made me feel better about it all. There will be struggles, but they definitely can be overcome.

Best of luck with your learning journey :slight_smile:

Steve.

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Welcome Linda :smiley:

I’m glad you’ve come out of hiding to join us here in this shiny new house.

Starting a Learning Log can be a good way of setting goals and noting achievements. It’s a good way of drawing a line in the sand. Learning Logs

There’s a special AVOYP section made just for you Beginner’s Safe Space

One other thing that may give you the nudge you need when this happens …

… ask yourself “If this were my last day on earth, would I play?”

What I’m saying is, live without regret, reach (literally) for your dreams every day.

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Hi Linda. Dee from Newcastle NSW here. Your story is similar to mine and many others here. I too have always wanted to learn, had the guitar but when I tried it never seemed to sound anything like a song. In March this year I decided it was time. I found that doing the practice with Nitsuj was good because I could see how hard he was finding it, so was less harsh on myself and my own failings. 10 months in I’ve posted some videos and am really enjoying it.
Give it a go, take your time and give yourself a break.

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I totally am. It was quite overwhelming to wake up to so much support and encouragement. Thanks!

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Yes, I’m not sure if Justin realised when he was testing his course out left handed, just how useful and reassuring those Nitsuj videos would be for us beginners.

Thanks @DavidP & @batwoman for the advice on the Learning Logs, that sounds like a great spot to keep track of my progress and follow other peoples journey. And I think I remember both of your Road Cases from the old site!

Thanks also to everyone else for your replies and encouragement. Sorry I havent replied or mentioned you all individually, but I’ve definitely read and taken in the advice. So much so that I’m off to start my first little practice session now!

Thanks again everyone.

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Congratulations on starting your journey, Linda. In a few weeks time following Justin’s lessons you’ll be elated at your progress. I, too, live in an apartment. What worked for me might work for you. I keep the guitar available on its stand next to my practice desk and laptop, so I pick it up whenever I can, even if just for a few minutes. I do the heavy strumming and playing songs during the day, before work, during my breaks, (I work from home), and weekends. Late at night, I practice and play using my thumb or picking gently (less noise), mostly to practice chord perfection and transitions.

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Welcome Linda! What guitar do you play? I noticed you have close neighbor/volume concerns. I play electric and can practice very quietly using headphones. If you play acoustic, well, grab an electric also, everyone needs more than one guitar :upside_down_face: !

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Oh that made me chuckle! I play an acoustic but I so cannot justify a second guitar… at least not yet :rofl:.

This is what I’m going with for now. And I’m pretty lucky that even though my neighbours are close it’d take a fair amount of noise to be a disruption (a busy road and train takes care of that!).

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Ha! Famous last words. Just wait…

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I am up to 4 guitars, and I can’t play any of them worth a damn yet!

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Welcome on board Linda, oh dear famous last words; so you don’t even have the slightest bit of a yearning for another one yet? Just wait and see when you get a few tunes under your belt and start gaining more enthusiasm! GAS (Guitar acquisition syndrome) is unavoidable, it’s part of the learning curve! Just go along with it and enjoy the walk down the road of becoming a musician, it’s just so rewarding!

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Hello and welcome Linda. :slight_smile:

Remember the soul purpose of an instrument is to be played, so pick it up and go for it. I wish I’d not left my guitar sitting around for 20+ years. :smiley:

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This is one of my worst regrets as well. Welcome to the forum @lindaF !!

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Hmmm, 8 months later and I’ve been studiously avoiding this place since I again didn’t stick with the guitar longer than a couple of weeks. Old bad habits are hard to break.

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Hi Linda! I missed your intro the first time around (and actually, I wasn’t even on the forum yet at that point :sweat_smile:). I am so empathetic to your struggles. I don’t think I really experienced your specific challenges regarding guitar, but I have with other things. I don’t know if this is part of what’s going on for you, but for me, the longer time goes on without doing a particular thing I want to do, the more I build it up in my mind, and the harder it is to actually start it. I think one aspect is that whenever I come close to wanting to start it, those feelings actually get more intense and more painful, because at that point it’s more visceral how long I’ve actually put it off. So it’s easy just to put it off even longer because if I’m not actively thinking about it, I don’t feel those feelings so much.

So in those situations, I have to a) forgive my past selves for not having started the activity, b) realize that this is where I am right now, and that I can’t change the past, and c) view starting it now as a gift to my future selves, so to speak. If I make the sacrifice now and “bite the bullet” of experiencing those painful startup feelings, then my future selves won’t have to experience that, because at that point I will have already started and the ball will already be rolling.

Anyway, it’s obviously been several months since you had last posted. I’m sure it required a tremendous amount of courage for you to post here again!

I’m not sure if you are still experiencing the same issues, as you did start guitar for a while, but didn’t stick with it. I do like this quote from you though:

One thing I’ve happened upon recently that has really helped me with things like this, is to set a timer for one minute each day. And do the activity just for that minute. At the end of the minute when the timer goes off, I then think, “do I want to continue?” If I feel like it, I will keep going, but if I don’t, I won’t make myself. I don’t think I’ve ever just stopped after one minute (since for me at least, the hardest part is just starting), but the key for me is to truly allow myself the freedom to stop after just that one minute if I don’t in any way want to keep going. I’ve used this method to success with a number of things recently.

I think it works for me because doing just one minute in something seems achievable no matter what task I’m doing, which reduces the startup friction (which is almost always what stops me from doing something). In the past I had had tasks that I tried to do 15 minutes a day, but I did them inconsistently, since depending on how I’m feeling in a particular day, even 15 minutes can feel overwhelming, so I just wouldn’t do them at all. But (so far, at least) no matter how I’m feeling, 1 minute has always felt doable. And 1 minute+, per day, adds up over time.

Anyway, I’ve found this to be such a supportive and welcoming community! And I certainly want to try to help you by giving any kind words of encouragement that I can. Please don’t hesitate to reach out for help!

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Hi Linda! I don’t know if you would like any of Jay Howie’s music but he lives in Australia and I love his song covers. He’s on YouTube so you might want to check him out. Love his “Purple Rain” Prince cover. As a newbie myself I understand it can be a little intimidating. Just take it easy and practice and you will learn a ton and have a good time too! :+1:I just try and learn one new thing a day or focus on at least one technique I need to grasp and that helps me feel satisfied. :smiley:

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