I’ve been on this journey for about 7 months. I’m a slightly older learned (50+) with a family and a full time job, so practice time is a little limited.
Up to now I’ve not had in-person lessons , just Justin’s Lessons & Songs App and Youtube. I’m quite technical, so I deep dived into music theory and feel I have a decent grasp of the basics.
I am loving learning about music and guitar, which has come as a bit of a surprise since, while I love listening to music (mostly 80s and 90s Rock) I never expected I’d be able to play or be interested in the theory.
My biggest challenges are having no guitarists to discuss things with and no teacher to spot and correct any flaws. I’m really hoping this community will help with the first part, and that some in-person lessons in 2025 will help with the second.
I have a acoustic guitar and don’t currently have any interest in getting an electric guitar.
I have just started with Grade 2 on the app, but I’m probably not as fast on my changes as I should be - I find focusing too much on chord change speed frustrates me and takes away some of the enjoyment of guitar.
I haven’t been very structured over the Christmas holidays (although I was a bit more before the holidays). I have a very structured job and want to do something I enjoy.
Current level
Started Grade 2 on the App
Riffs: I’m Pretty comfortable with the Riffs below, they could be faster, but they’re recognizable
Peter Gunn
Sunshine of your love
Intro to Come as You Are
Seven Nation Army Intro
Don’t Fear the Reaper - intro\main theme
Songs:
House of the Rising Sun - I love playing this and practice it most days
Here Comes the Sun - can play the intro
Goal
I really just want to play songs, for myself and (at the moment anyway) by myself. I’m not a singer and don’t want to be. If I were to set an almost impossible goal it would be to sound like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlGiOiRQNhI
My biggest challenge is the speed of my changes.
I’m looking forward to being part of the community!
I also just want to play songs but what I have found is that most of the easier songs to learn are the chord changes (campfire) songs but you kind of have to sing to add to the melody. Just the chords usually don’t provide enough melody to recognize the song. That then sent me down the fingerpick path but that is much harder to learn the songs. They have great melody lines typically but then if I can’t get them under my fingers, they are of little value.
Just coming up with the songs and memorizing them has become quite the challenge. I have spent time on Jamplay and Truefire and have found a few nuggets but am also hoping that I find good material with JustinGuitar. My impression to date is that it has strengths and weaknesses just like all other websites. Good luck
You’re doing great JP. You have some nice achievements with your riffs and songs. And you have a good goal of playing songs in 2025.
I’m confident that your chord changes will improve over time as you will continue to practice songs in the app. The feature to slow the speed of the song will be useful at first as you’ll get more benefits playing slow with a good rhythm than playing fast with a sloppy rhythm. And after that you can increase speed gradually.
And the most important thing is to keep it fun for you. So you are right in not focusing too much on what frustrates you.
That was my experience too - I really want to get to the point where I can pick songs, perhaps with the occasional chord thrown in. I’m currently learning “House of the rising Sun”, which as simple picking and (relatively) infrequent chord changes. Its a challenge (for me) but loving it.
Just like the two of you, I’m not interested in the singing part either. I have looked at fingerpicking where you can play both chords and melody (like your Metallica song). I remember that I started with House of the Rising sun too a few years ago
Brian, @rileyman I totally understand what you mean when you say that fingerstyle songs are more difficult to get under the fingers and memorize. Since you are an intermediate player, you may use the Moise website to make your campfire songs more interesting. It allows you to remove the guitar from your favorite song and build a backing track for it. So you keep the singer and the drummer from the original band, but you add your guitar. You can check 2 examples of the software in my AVYP : 1) Jingle Bell Rock 2) There She Goes .
In a way, Moises allow you to play with a band just like the JG app, but for intermediate songs. For beginners, JG app is much more user friendly.
Justin has a good lesson on playing melody. This might help you. Good luck rockin. You can do it. Time, practice and ears is probobly the most important things.
