I have been posting a few times so far at this point, but never said hello and I might as well do that as I am getting invaluable help and feedback to this point.
I am 30 years old and from North Carolina USA. Been at this for 5 months. Been wanting to learn guitar since I was a kid and got a cheaper acoustic from Walmart when I was like 12 years old, but never could afford a teacher and YouTube wasn’t what it is now back then, so I am officially picking it up for the 1st time at 30 years old now.
I have a wide range of interest that is too vast to name, but I love acoustic guitar and want to become as good as possible with it as I can, but I also like lead blues guitar and blues type of soloing, the slower good feeling/good sounding type of music as opposed to more of a shredding type.
I heard about Justin through a mutual friend who was using him to learn the same point in life as me and said it was invaluable information and he was indeed right. I have learned a ton in 5 months and everyone around me is surprised just by how good I have gotten in a short time, but boy do I have a ton of things still to figure out, and keep growing in, along this journey.
Glad to be here and look forward to conversating even further and thanks to all that have given me the great help and feedback so far!
Great stuff, once the bug bites, it bites hard. The initial effort is so very worth it and the rewards of being one of those who can play tunes on a guitar are awesome. Look forward to hearing more. Welcome to the community
It is indeed. Unfortunately, I just don’t think this is for me. I cannot play this guitar if my life depended on it. Going to give it a few more goes and then I think I am going to call it a wrap, but it was nice meeting and interacting with all of you!
Josh, you said in your first post you’ve learned a lot in 6 months. Don’t give up. I started a year ago at the age of 63. I’d never held a guitar before. I’m amazed at what I can do now. I don’t have enough years left to be super at it, but dang, at 30, you could do a lot!
Hi Josh,
Welcome her and I wish you a lot of wisdom because this is a little …well
If you decide this in 4 hours, I don’t know what else to say,
Good luck with your further decisions,
Greetings Rogier
Edit:I just looked up your previous threads…you hope to become a very good guitar player within a few months, but like previous advice from the good people here, you (and no one) will succeed in that, and in that case you will be disappointed. continue to fall into disappointment, because learning to play the guitar or any instrument is hard learning/work and you will have to find a completely different attitude, which does not work the way it is now.
Josh, it’s great to have you here I have read your latest posts this morning before my practice time and you have been on my mind ever since.
I have several ideas, but they will turn into a long text and my break time at work is limited. I will send you a DM (today, no promises as to when).
Hang in there. It’s great to have you here with us and we are here to help
EDIT: @roger_holland gave you some tough love there. Essentially, he is right though. I know handling expectations - your own and external ones - can be hard. At the moment, you seem to be setting yourself up for failure. Don’t be so hard on yourself DM to follow.
I appreciate the tough love. I know we are all virtual here, but no I am a person that has had to survive with persistence through most of my life. Put me through university and into and up the corporate ladder in my career. It is partly getting it written out so that I can wake up the next day and reflect on the way I was feeling and kick the feeling and go back to it again the next day. The thoughts are for sure there. The real reason this was posted was because I don’t want to quit it. I have wanted this since I was little and could never afford to go for it. Now it is something I am trying to power through.
Hi Josh, I have commented on your other thread about power chords.
Interesting that you’ve been playing for 5 months and on Power chords already, you’re doing pretty well to get there so soon!
I’ve been playing for more or less 60 years now (on and off), I’ve been on here for about 8/9 years now and have learned more in that time than the rest of my life! The course is very well structured, it’s designed to get you playing songs (which is what it’s all about really) so gives a good gratification for diligence! There are no shortcuts, if you try going down that route and start cherrypicking bits that look more interesting you can easily make bad decisions and hold yourself back because you’ve missed important things out.
If you follow the course diligently and learn at least 3-4 songs from each section it will work for you. The other important thing is to post recordings of yourself playing and if you can singing (preferably video format) for constructive critique, you will not get anything but encouragement and feedback. Also doing this will give you a record that you can go back to and see your progress yourself as well as us.
Take your time, it’s not a race - to learn guitar is a lifelong commitment if you’re serious about it; at my age (72) I still have a lot to learn that I’ve not learned as yet. Have fun, don’t make it a chore, if you start feeling it becoming a chore cut yourself some slack and do something else, maybe learn a song you thought was too hard, you might be surprised!
I think right now the hardest part is the song learning piece. I have learned a few simplified versions of things, but there still isn’t a ton of good resources I have found for learning songs or learning the ones that I have a realistic shot of playing right now. There are some out there that will teach you some things about songs, but it is never like how the original was actually played or is way to simplified to where it doesn’t even sound like the original anymore. Got to put in even more work to get to that level where I can play songs realistically like they are supposed to be played.
Hi Josh, welcome to the community forum. Justin Guitar has just what you need based on your interest above. Those are my interests also and I have found al lot of lessons on both acoustic guitar and blues . Also look at JG website song lessons and you’ll find a lot of songs to play with lots of acoustic guitar skills to lean and blues songs. Have fun.
That’s ok, you need to learn the easy ways to play them even though they don’t sound the same - the reason being to get your timing right without making it too complicated. When you have learned more you can go back and apply your new knowledge. I still go back to 3 little birds occasionally to try new ideas out - like I said, it’s not a race to learn fast it’s about being thorough and learning properly be patient and diligent and you will be rewarded!
Oh yeah, I think the app has done me tremendously when it comes to timing and strumming and all that good stuff and just about everything on there is the simplest versions of the songs you can find. I am just still not the best at memorizing songs and that is where I think I struggle the most currently.
Right so I guess you’re playing them all of the way through then. The best way is to break the song up in easy to remember chunks and when you can remember the chunk move on to the next but play it after the first chunk, rinse and repeat until you can play a verse in one go, then do the chorus and after the bridge (if there is one), once you’ve learned a verse and a chorus it’s repetitive, the only other part is the intro; it doesn’t really matter what order you learn them in but every time you learn a new bit make sure that you play what you already know with it.
Great advice and what I am looking for. When you memorize songs are you getting the tabs off a website and learning them, or another way? I find one chord per bar is common and easier, but let’s say there are 3 chord changes in one bar on weird, offbeat strums, do you approach that way of remembering any differently?
I have read your latest posts this morning before my practice time and you have been on my mind ever since.