I am 32 years old from Gurgaon, India, .
I learnt piano/ keyboard for a year or two in school, grade 4,5 i think and my instructor pointed out that I was rhythmically challenged. He asked me to listen to music a lot.
I also learnt guitar in school, grade 9 for 3-4 months but quickly gave up due to lack of practice & life events. I suspect the acoustic guitar I bought was too big for my hands, and other kids in the music class had thinner, lighter guitars.
And so, I have been listening to a lot of music and I can sing (bathroom style) along with the music keeping the rhythm. However, if i try to sing with nothing in the background, even with the song vividly clear in my mind, I cannot keep the rhythm. I canât keep it even while clapping, without some external cue (like other people clapping). I still miss a beat or two here and there. This is an area I would definitely like to improve.
I want to learn guitar now to show off to my kid (and hopefully inspire) that me and my wife are now planning to have. So, I wish to get to a level where I can hopefully instill some music in my kid early on.
And so, I whipped out my old & now-not-so bulky axe, broke the 1st string while tuning, ordered a replacement and got to working. Tomorrow, I am taking it to a shop to get it cleaned & polished.
I am currently on Grade 1, learning D, A & Em. Loving it so far.
15 Likes
You start begins just like mine it sounds like. I also had a string break on me while trying to tune my guitar for the first time and promptly had to go to the guitar store the next day to replace the string I broke! Welcome to the forum!
1 Like
Hi,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun 
Greetings,Rogier
Hi, welcome to the community forum. I hope you get your guitar in good shape to play. Justinâs lesson will give you a lot of practice with rhythm. Have fun learning to play and show off to your kid 
1 Like
Welcome to the forum, it definitely helps getting the right size guitar!
Welcome to the forum! From my experience, you have good 7/8 years to instill some music to your kid, but be very prepared that your kidâs music interests will be driven by her/his peers from around age 8. My daughter was exposed from her crib to (curated) mostly British rock and some pop, but all she wants to listen now is Taylor Swift. However, I would bet that at one point in her young adult life she will hear some song and think âI remember this song, it is cool, let me listen thisâ 
We will see.
With my 3 year son, it is much harder. He was going through the house yesterday singing âWe are never, ever getting back togetherâ. My daughter already has greater influence to him. 
2 Likes
HI Kirincorleone
Welcome to the community 
Thanks for sharing your insight! I guess an interest in any form of music is great, right?
From what I have heard, its monkey see monkey do. So I wanna be the big monkey they see playing an instrument and hopefully they would wanna try.
Else, I would like to give them tools, so if they want to pick up an instrument at any point in their life, they donât find themselves rhythmically challenged.
Great to find fellow Indians in this community. Although Iâm so late to find you lol. I donât wander much in the community until recently.
With my 1 year of guitar learning experience, I think that maintaining rhythm while singing is difficult but maintaining singing pitch while playing guitar is easier than singing without anything playing in background. So your school teacher might went to the conclusion too soon as they have to see a lot of kids in class. I donât much experience so I might be totally wrong lol.
Anyways I was actually looking for fellow Indians to learn some song together and if life allows, we might play together in real time as I live in Faridabad.
Cheers.
1 Like
Hi kirincorleone,
Welcome to the community forum. 
Hello. 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