Hello everybody. I am around the Community for some time now but now I figured I should also do an introduction post as it is a habit here.
Since I was a little kid, I had a wish I would know how to play guitar, but somehow, I never came to it. I also don’t remember why, because as much as I loved music, I didn’t know the first thing about instruments. For a sad example, I only learned the difference between classic and acoustic guitar when I started my journey about good year ago, but I know all the rock stars since forever and quite a lot of lyrics by heart.
My kid wanted to play a guitar; he saw a guitar player in some cartoon and I guess he found it pretty cool and of course he got immediately support from us and now he is learning with private tutor and he is doing all right. I went to accompany him at the first few sessions and I guess this was the trigger for me too… First, I started with his lesion book, then I started with random YouTube videos and after six months of good progress I found out Justin Guitar videos and app.
Since then, I could already play and change open cords with relatively good speed without any issues, I also knew the Old Faithful strumming pattern (although the name of it I learned from JG). I even managed to play with some YouTube backing tracks… but JG app was a life changer for me. Suddenly I could play easy variation of many songs I listen daily. I also used lesions videos inside an app and I quickly finished Grade 1, and a bit later also Grade 2.
So having a regular job, being a family man with kids and also a house owner, with some other hobby’s as well (including JG’s obligatory martial arts 
), I don’t get to do as much practice time as I would like to. I guess I get to do 6-10hrs of total guitar time per week. Usually, I play on an acoustic during the workweek, and electric during weekends. I use practice routines on the JG webpage and for songs I sometimes use JG app, and sometimes also Ultimate Guitar Tabs webpage. They have tabs/chords for the songs in my language which I really like. They are also great for “campfire” songs all thought I only performed twice and only to my extended family. And sometimes I just jam random stuff accompanied by an online drum metronome from musicca webpage. I use this metronome a lot for practice routines as well.
I am currently somewhere in the middle of Grade 3, but also doing Strumming Dynamics course and Fingerstyle course in between. I sometimes join JG Clubs if I manage and if the topic is on my-level and interest to me.
For now, I manage to seamlessly shift open cords, also full F chord shape F-G-A, to about 130bmp. I am getting quite good with Bm, until apx. 100bmp. The B7 is not there yet, and I still suck at power chords. My main break through was that I started to recognize the strumming pattern in songs, so if I know chords, I am able to somehow follow along with the easy songs using different strumming patterns for different parts in the song. I also try to play and sing and I guess it works, but there is definitely room for improvement. I don’t think I actually sing, I would say talk with the singing voice, if that makes sense.
I enjoy most at fingerpicking and I am also playing most times without a pick. So important part of my practice is doing chord changes but picking individual string in different patterns (is this called arpeggios?). I can do this quite well for my known chords until 110-120bmp (depend on the pattern). There was a Club recently on triads and I also had triads in some lesion in Grade 3, so I am now doing the same with triads as well. Actually, today is a live Club on Fingerpicking with Mr. Richard Coles which I plan to attend. I really like his method of presentation and all the material that is there before and after the class.
My medium-term game plan is to finish the Strumming Dynamics and upgrade to Finger Strumming course and also to finish the Fingerstyle course. I also have some stuff to improve from previous lesions (power chords, palm muting, some SUS and slash chords to improve, …), before moving on with Grade 3 lesions. But mostly to just have fun playing good enough. I also plan to visit a private tutor to show him where I am at with playing and singing to get a little live feedback from a professional.
A little longer introduction as I initially wanted, but thanks to everyone who reads it and also big thanks to all that help answering my questions on this community pages. Cheers & keep on rockin’
