Happy newyear everyone,
My name is Hans, 53 from the east of the Netherlands. I am a beginner guitar player and struggling to find the right & fastest path to learn. So joining justinguitar and taking private lessons might prove to be useful. Would be great to make new friends, eventually jam and learn to play along the way.
Hello Hans,
Welcome to this community and greetings from another 50+ beginner. Unfortunately, we are over 100 km apart, a little too far for relaxed jam sessions. You will surely find jamming partners or a guitar meet-up in your area. In Germany, there are courses at the VHS (your Volksuniversiteit I guess) that are great for networking, maybe in NL too? You could also submit a request at š¤ Community Map, Meetups & Online Collabs - JustinGuitar Community.
No matter how you set your goals and plan your path, enjoy the journey. Wish you lots of fun and good vibes.
Cheers Withold
Danke schƶn Withold!
I am truly jealous when I take a look around and notice the skills and courage of the users here. You inspired me to check out āBad Moon Risingā and learn the lyrics. Who knows, perhaps Iāll record it some day 
Go ahead! Perhaps here or in your learning log? We are a supportive community here and kind to each other 
Youāll soon see that and you are sure to receive valuable feedback.
Thanks man! I really appreciate your help and it sure motivates to be in a safe environment.
Iāll get crackinā on some songs. Currently I am working on blackbird and tequila sunrise, real challenges for me though 
Welcome to the community Hans!
Welcome to the community. I have a brother named Hans so itās great to come across another one.
I encourage you to focus on songs. Getting to where you can play your first (simple) song all the way through is an important breakthrough.
One trap with private tutors is, in my experience, they all too often focus on things that arenāt important in the beginning, like scales and anything more than beginner level music theory.
Justin has a good lesson on when itās important to learn scales and when it isnāt. You need to have a good reason for learning scales. Because it will make you a better player in the long run is a really lousy reason. They can suck the fun out of what is a challenge when you first start.
A new guitar playing friend dropped by the other day, heās been getting lessons from a private tutor. One thing heās being taught is scales. I asked him why heās learning scales and he couldnāt give an answer.
Good luck and hang in there, itās so very worth the reward.
Hi Hans,
I think you found the right place to improve well.
It just needs motivation and keeoping it fun for yourself.
Looking forward to your audio/video one day!
Hi Hans, and welcome to the community. I joined not to long ago, and it is a fantastic place to learn.
Just so you know, my name is also Hans. Most people follow exactly what Justin says. If you feel like you can finish a module faster than he recommends, then do that. If you feel like taking more time, then do that. He should say what you have to know in order to pass the module. Once you meet that, you should be ready to move on.
Hope this helps! Hans
Hoi Hans ,
Welkom hier en I wish you a lot of fun 
Donāt hesitate, you will never find a better online teacher with such a great outlined free program and also a great amount of extra courses with attractive prices for a super extra experience and learning curveā¦, and if you can also have this course supervised by a face-to-face teacher to immediately improve or explain a number of things, you have the best of both worlds (I have not had a face-to-face teacher in the past 5 years) ā¦ But by occasionally posting a video of yourself and asking for honest feedback you can go a long way in playing songs well ā¦ just start at the beginning and continue with great pleasure,
You can progress here for years and become as good as the time you put inā¦
Groeten ,Rogier ā¦uit het midden van het land 
Hi Hans, welcome to the Community, enjoy the ride
Welkom Hans!
53 is a fine after to start playing guitar. Donāt ask how I know 
. I learnt most from Justin, together with some occasional song tutorials from other online teachers. Still having fun and learning new things. And best of all, I did some playing in front of friends. Ooh, talking about being nervous the first time!
From your username I read that you dream of building your own guitar?
Good luck and lots of fun playing your guitar!
Hello Hans!! Or, howdy neighbour! (Belgium here).
Right out the gate: imho, that doesnāt exist. Not that iām aware of.
What youāre probably going to find is the right path (you came here, so thatās a huge start), but the fastest?
Itās not a sprint, itās a marathon. There are so many factors to this thing that āfastā is probably the least of your concerns.
Donāt beat yourself up if you canāt play like Clapton or others, just a few months in.
Start with the beginners course, on your own tempo and have fun playing.
Thatās the most important thing. Having fun. The rest will come. You can be sure of that.
Oh, and never quit ofcourseā¦ 
Hoi Hans! Welcome here. How did you get your username? Did you build your own guitar? Anyway, have fun here and enjoy learning!
Groetjes (Cheers)!
It is very nice to meet you, Hans, in a very good community. You will definitely make good friends and enjoy your time here, cheers Hec
Thank you Tony!
I started reading your log and itās quite an adventure I must say.
Although I havenāt read it all yet and didnāt sign up for soundcloud, I will definitely go back to read it all. It seems you have a lot under your belt already, things that I aspire as well.
Being able to play and sing, perhaps busking someday.
Who knows where this adventure will lead to, but one thingās for sure: I have come to the right place to find motivation and people alike.
Hi there Stijn!
Glad to be here, thank you for the warm welcome. The username has to do with the company I work for. It has the word ābuildā in the company name and some of my colleagues were joking about starting a company band called 12build-band. If thatās ever going to happen: Iām in!
So I took my username from that inside-joke: wannabuild (12build) on the guitar.
Although it would be nice to be able to build my own semi-accoustic-hollow-body guitar.
Whenever I am at home playing to bandjamtrax, itās hard to hear the track because the accoustic I play is so loud. Especially with tracks like āBad Moon Risingā which I am learning now with the D-DāUDUDUDUDUDU strumming: I canāt help to play loud haha.
Perhps with a hollow-body guitar it will still sound acccoustic but with less resonance.
Keep on rocking Stijn, who knows weāll be able to hook up someday and play some tunes together!
Hello Hans.
Welcome to JustinGuitar and this fantastic community. There a whole host of golden oldies over in the dog house.
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 ācommunityā. 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.
We also host regular (virtual) JustinGuitar Community Open Mic events for community members.
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 / Moderator |
Hey there GrytPipe!
Thank you for the encouraging words, highly appreciate it.
Did you manage to get the P90 installed in your Pacifica? Thatās something that I will keep in the back of my head, in case I get bored of the tone of my own Pacifica.
For now I am still completely satisfied with the tones that come out of it through the Boss Katana, but who knows in the future. I do like the warm tone of the P90 
Dank je Ruud!
I read somewhere that you are a fingerstyle person, would love to hear you play some.
Before getting active in this community I had my first private lessons and tried some tabsheets here and there. I always thought that playing fingerstyle would be too difficult for me, however my teacher started me on āDust in the Windā and I got hooked!
Currently I am trying to get the basics down on āBlackbirdā but I also try to get better at strumming with Lyinā Eyes, Tequila Sunrise and Bad Moon Rising.
So many beautiful songs to learn and so little time 