Shawn's Learning Log. Let's see if I can go from dreadful to not bad

Community Hub Learning Logs
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Hey all, I’m Shawn, 38 & fresh to the guitar.

Yesterday was my very first day at getting stuck in (probably spent a little too long at it - finger tips feel like I burned them on a stove!).

I spent my first hour awkwardly & awfully strumming between D & A chords, but hey, I’m excited for the months ahead. Obviously, I’ll be following the tried, tested & trusted Justin Guitar beginner lessons to see if I can get myself going.

Looking back on this first video I can already see the importance of reallyyyyyy slowing every thing right down & it reinforces the need to let things naturally develop in its own time.

Oh, and I need to get to grips with holding the pick properly.

After just one hour I can highly recommend recording yourself practicing if you don’t already!

I noticed there’s not a great deal of content around showcasing absolute beginners & it’s clear to see why - seasoned amateurs & pros tend to sound a lot better!

So, I decided to start this channel to not only periodically document my own progress from the very first day, but also because I thought it may be useful & intriguing for other beginners to watch both now & further down the line.

A sort of way to truly realise that we’re not alone all frustrated & wondering if things could ever possibly get better.

Well, I’m going to find out if they do, anyway!

If you fancy offering motivation, encouragement, tips, a chat etc. do feel free to follow along!

https://youtu.be/zT9ij0RV4M4

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Hi Shawn,
Welcome here and I wish you a lot of fun :sunglasses:
and perseverance :smiley:
Greetings,Rogier

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Welcome to the community, Shawn! :slight_smile:

Glad you found your way here - you sound like a man with a plan! To give your fingertips some rest, try splitting up your practice in smaller chunks, like 10-15 min in the morning and another session in the evening, it this is possible and please, don’t overdo it in the beginning. You don’t want to hurt yourself and provoke a force break for fingertip recovery. :slight_smile:

It’s great you want to document and share your journey! This might as well be inspiring for others and helps your progress at the same time. :smiley:

All the best and lots of fun while learning the guitar - it will be rewarding! :smiley:

Cheers - Lisa

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Thanks Roger! I appreciate it!

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Thanks a lot Lisa!

Yeah I can see that smaller 10-15 min chunks definitely makes sense! That’s what I’ll take on board & will look to do just that for a while - a little in the morning & a little in the evening.

I appreciate the kind words & helpful sore finger advice!

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Welcome to the forum Shawn

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Welcome to the Community, Shawn.

You are in the right place to learn, following the lessons from the start.

Excellent idea to record progress and many people enjoy a guitar learning VLOG, showing progress from the outset.

In the Community you can create a Learning Log here: #community-hub:learning-logs You can create a Topic there and update regularly including links to your YT videos.

And you’ll pick up the focus on learning songs soon and then you can post your first song recordings here: Beginner's safe space and later your own recording topics in #community-recordings:audio-video-of-you-playing

And you are already on a good path doing OMCs in your first hour.

And everybody here as been through it and will be encouraging you every step of the way.

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Welcome to the community, Shawn :slightly_smiling_face: Just like @DavidP I also think that the Learning Log section is a good place for documenting your progress and linking your YouTube videos.

It’s surely a worthwhile idea documenting your learning journey right from the start with videos… And I seem to recall that @Medusaurio is doing something.similar in Spanish with English subtitles , :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks a lot!

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Brill, thanks David… will check out the Learning Log for sure… appreciate that heads up! Really looking forward to getting stuck in. :raised_hands:

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Thanks so much! It’s good to hear that others on here are also documenting their progress! YouTube seems fairly sparse of actual true beginners, or at least easily coming across them (can’t blame people for hiding away until they become more proficient :sweat_smile:) but didn’t even think to check around here! Think it can be super helpful visually seeing people hit the same roadblocks but overcome them eventually.

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Shawn, Welcome to the Community!

Watch Nitsuj (Justin backwards) learning how to play lefty… he hits the same issues as the rest of us!

Good luck!!!

Tod

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Hi Shawn,

Greetings from the other side of the world. I think your you tube video was really quite brilliant. The advice I give everyone new is to record yourself and your progress and here you are doing it. The best advice for day 1 and the early days is to work on timing and basic strumming. Play as slowly as you need to like batteries are dying on your Walkman slow. Don’t have tunnel vision either. Compare and compete with the you from last week, not what everyone else is doing. There is only one you and you will be great .

If you want a laugh at how awful I used to be, I made a comment in my guitar journey post that I sounded so bad my landlord threatened to evict me for it. Now that same guy probably subscribed to my you tube channel. Justin guitar is the best decision I made and helped me make leaps and bounds in progress. Ask lots of questions. You will be surprised how much we all will help.

Also check out our record yourself and progress section. I just added a couple videos there. I think Ruby Soho was popular in the UK? I will also be one of many participants in the open mic next Saturday here. This will be my first go at it. Maybe ask for an audience seat if you can? We would love to have you. Best of luck and looking forward to following your progress.

Jeff

San Diego CA

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Welcome to the community, your approach and attitude is superb. Your comment about burning fingertips and changing between A & D chords took me back well over 10 years to when I started. Exact same thing. Now I can play and sing dozens of songs and have performed at many open mics and jams. The. reward is awesome, keep at it, you won’t regret it.

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Welcome, Shawn. I watched your video, ah the good old days. :rofl: I was where you are 6 months ago. Now I’m fumbling around with the F chord in Grade 2. (I am sure you’ll get there faster in 6 months as you’re a bit younger than me.) Not to worry, those first few chords will be pretty good in a couple of weeks as will your finger callouses. I enjoyed watching.

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Welcome on board! My audience when I learned a D chord was a pile of boxes in he back bedroom😂 Even that made me nervous! Just keep at it, and enjoy the journey.

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Thanks Tod! Haha yeah that’s right, think it’s important for me to remember that nobody escapes these issues!

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Ah thanks a lot Jeff, really appreciate that! Yeah I can already see that you’re definitely right with regards to playing as slow as needed! That’s exactly what I did today on day 2 & though it’ll obviously still sound like multiple cats screeching for a long while yet, it was definitely overall a minor improvement on yesterday… so a very small win already by my reckoning!

If i get chance I’ll take a look at sitting in on one of those open mics to watch - if not next weekend, I’ll keep tabs in the future!

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Haha it’s awesome to hear from people like yourself who recall being in my exact position but it’s even better to learn about how far it has taken you since then… playing and singing dozens of songs within the next 10 years or so is definitely a goal I’ll have one eye on!

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Ah thanks so much… I’m glad you can at least refer to them as the good old days in humour… gives me some hope that I’ll remember them fondly as well haha! I’ve heard a horror story or two about that F chord so I don’t mind if it’s more like 12 months before I ever have to visit it :joy: Amazing to hear you’ve progressed so much though!

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