I’ve been on and off guitar for decades and started dusting down my electric bass about a year ago, and have now taken my guitar out of its bag and started playing it again, at 62, 4 months ago. I alway played about on guitar and was in a few bands as a bass player, did some demos, in my 30 then slowly stopped.
I decided to start from basics and unlearn bad habits and find a way to play with an ulnar nerve problem. Been doing good so far but have now got to the stage where I need a structured approach as partially learning songs is not what I want to do. Knew about Justin Guitar when it first started and dipped in and liked it, so I’ve returned! Looking forward to this although it will be challenging.
Hi Gordon @Gothomson, welcome to the community! It must feel good to return to something you love, if frustrating to have a new speed bump. I hope that shedding some bad habits (funny how long we go through life carrying those before that remind us that they exist!) helps alleviate your nerve issue. Do keep us posted on your progress…and I’m sure you have some wisdom to share with those of us who only started playing guitar in our 60s!
Hi Gordon, welcome to the community forum. You are doing the right thing going back to basics and cleaning up any bad habits. If you learn complete songs from the beginning and use the song lessons on the website, Justin provides ways to add challenging strumming and chord variations to the beginning songs. Have fun rekindling your love of playing guitar.
Hi Gordon and welcome to the Community! You did well to start from basics, it’ll pay off. Sure it’ll be challenging, but fun enough to face the challenges I guess…and you already have a background as a bass player in bands, even if it was decades ago: this surely plays at your favor and will make things a bit easier in some respect. See you around here
Hello Gordon.
Enjoy your time in England.
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 ‘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.
Thanks Richard, I’ll read those links appreciate you posting them. I have to admit I’m at a loss about visiting England as I’m not from there although I do have relatives in Blackpool and will not be be visiting them for a few months.
As a fellow 62 year old guitar student, I say to you “It CAN be done”!!! It’s good to start from the beginning & attempt to un-learn bad habits… stick with Justin’s program & you’ll be playing entire songs in no time! Additionally, Justin’s App is a pretty good tool to use for practicing playing songs - it’s got a “guitar karaoke” function that allows you to play along at different tempos until you’re familiar enough with the song to play at full speed - while showing you the upcoming chords… it’s loads of fun! Which reminds me, Keep it FUN!! If you’re having a good time, you’re going to want to pick up that guitar & PLAY!!! The more you play, the better you’ll get!
Good Luck!!!
In any case, I wish you loads of fun on your guitar journey!
