I’ve just completed Beginner Grade 3, having started Grade 1 eleven months ago. It’s been a really good course, has taught me a lot in an enjoyable way and set me up well for improving further as a guitarist.
I’m not exactly a beginner, though. Back in the 70s I got motivated by punk, bought a Ned Callan Custom bass guitar, which I converted to left-hand and played in a couple of Liverpool art-school bands: The Names and A Formal Sigh. I bought an Eko Ranger VI acoustic with the intention of busking in Paris with a female saxophonist, though that never happened. A few years later I bought an Ensoniq ESQ-1 synthesiser and recorded an album of my own, ‘Half English’ which is, sadly, no longer available. For the last few years I’ve been composing again with that old synth, using Cakewalk.
Then, in September 2024, my two brothers bought me a Fender Player Plus Stratocaster, which I immediately fell in love with. That triggered my desire to learn guitar properly for the first time, and that was why I started looking around for an online course. So here I am, retired, back in Sydney, slowly practicing Justin’s arrangement of Greensleeves.
I know music theory and am comfortable playing barre chords, so in some ways I am far ahead of the lessons. On the other hand, I fail terribly at transcription, so there is a balance. I don’t know why my ear is so bad, but it is.
My overarching goal is to play songs, not to become a virtuoso, and my punk background means I am happy to sacrifice technique in order to play along with my favourite songs at their original tempo. However, I do see that I must slow down when practicing and not reinforce sloppy play. This is one of the big take-away lessons of the course.
I find that Justin’s lessons are quite useful in learning how to play specific songs… I also like that he encourages us to make the song “your own” - sounding exactly like the original artist isn’t going to happen for most guitarists - so find your own groove & keep it fun! That’s definitely the ticket! Keep learning, keep improving and have a blast!!!
Good luck with your guitar Journey!!!
Hello Mark.
Thanks for sharing a great back story.
Welcome to JustinGuitar and this fantastic community. Please take your time to look around and get to know the wider space. View by 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 ‘community’. 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.
If you want to record yourself to show your progress and / or seek feedback there is our ever popular Community Recordings section.
Behind the scenes there is a small and dedicated team who work to make the JustinGuitar experience as good as it can be. Check out the Onboarding sessions provided by Fanny. Justin also has a small group of Approved Teachers he recommends for people wanting 1-to-1 lessons to supplement his courses - of which I am privileged to be one.
That is plenty to be going on with. It is a vast community space so if you need help as you find your way around just ask.
Cheers. Richard
| Approved Teacher, Official Guide & Community Moderator |
The other day I made what in retrospect turned out to be a shocking mistake - I recorded myself playing guitar! It was astonishingly bad and I resolved there and then to practice a lot more before committing the same atrocity again. So please don’t hold your breath while waiting for the expose.
Seriously, what I learnt from the experience was the importance of muting strings which are not meant to be sounding. I realise this must seem blindingly obvious to all guitarists, but it was not something I’d ever really had to deal with before. On bass, you quickly learn that the end of a note is just as important as its beginning; on acoustic, I never really got further than busker style; and on the synth (using midi), everything can be fixed up afterwards.
So I’m focusing on getting my fretting fingers down cleanly on the right strings, while not touching others, and picking or strumming just those 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 strings, as required. There are many, many other observations I have on this, but maybe the introduction section is not the place for them. I’m toying with the idea of starting a learning log, which would be the right forum.
Thanks for taking the trouble to point the way. As it happens, I had already stumbled across the learning log area and even went so far as to write the first instalment of the awkwardly titled Mark's Log of Learning. Why the forum algorithm objected that Mark’s Learning Log, as I originally tried to call it, was too similar to other log names, I do not know. Actually, on second thoughts, it wouldn’t surprise me if that title had already been used by another Mark.
Maybe I am not sure myself, I don’t use a learning log, and I am only about two years or a little more into the community myself, so I tend to get lost, Mark
Hi Mark, welcome to the community forum.I found that recording myself during consolidation is a great way to be honest about my playing, since I don’t have a teacher to give me feedback. Most of my WIP recordings go into the learning log for me to look at later. I also get some feedback from the community for what I have posted,
Agreed. I am very much in favour of making a song one’s own. In any case, it is quite rare for any song to exist in one form and one form only. People in bands regularly change how they play their own songs anyway, from one performance to the next. I remember listening to the Edge in a live performance when he played every verse differently, and none of them were like the recording.
I treat every song I learn as a starting point rather than an end-goal. Coming up with variations is part of the fun.
Thank you, gentlemen. As some of you have seen already, I’ve started a learning log where you may (or may not) hear me playing one day. I’m honestly in two minds about how the log itself or recording might eat into time I could otherwise spend practicing. I will be giving some thought to what my real goals are.
The other night I sat down and plugged in at the computer to practice for an hour. Ninety minutes later I was still twiddling knobs on effects ‘pedals’ in Cakewalk. It’s this sort of displacement activity that concerns me.
Anyway, once again, thanks for the warm welcome, and I will no doubt be seeing you around.
, it would be 
