Wow. Is that enough to say? I’m a new member here, returning to the guitar after not having any abilities to speak of. I REALLY enjoyed your writing style and think I’d enjoy reading your writings about a pebble laying there in the sun. I felt so relaxed following along. I also felt encouraged reading about your ups and downs and so on.
Thanks for typing all that in various stages. I am going to go through all the replies and see what I can find.
Hello Tony, thanks so much for sharing your story. It’s definitely much more than a learning log - you’re giving us a look into your life and thoughts as well 
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I read through the complete story and enjoyed it very much. Your goal - being able to play and sing for others at camp fires - is exactly the same as mine. I’m also preferring playing finger style (although, strumming is also lots of fun 
). I’m just at the beginning of my guitar journey, but your story inspires me, and shows what is possible 
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If I’ll ever come to Australia, I’d love to jam with you at a camp fire 
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Am late to the party here Tony but that was a fascinating read about your life and your guitar journey. I backpacked around Australia for a year in 1998-99 and have some wonderful memories from that time. I must have spent 6 months camping and how great would it have been had I played guitar then.
@NicoleKKB and @Eddie_09
Thanks for your very kind words, much appreciated. Would be cool to jam with you. Last night at the campground (We are traveling around Australia in our RV caravan / camping trailer, aka “the big lap”) I was playing and another camper came up and sang along on a bunch of songs, great fun.
Sounds like fun Tony. I remember the big lap well ( got most of the way around up to PortDouglas from Sydney, across the top of QLD to Darwin then down to Adelaide, Melbourne and back up the middle to Darwin and along the coast back to Fremantle. Didn’t get to the Nullarbor (yet 
). Have a fantastic trip and enjoy those camp fire evenings in a beautiful country!
Thanks, it’s been a dream for many years. And it’s even better than the dream actually doing it. We are along the southern coast of West Australia between Albany and Esperance. Here’s a shot from Cape Riche Cape Riche - Reverse Asteroid - YouTube
Up to Kalgoorlie next and then along the Nullarbor back towards Adelaide.
Bump - this is a really enjoyable read. What a journey - both with the guitar and the “big lap”.
This forum is a gold mine in being able to look back at where folks have started from and how they have managed to achieve so much following the course.
Thanks, we are finally back home after living in our caravan for just under 3 years. It was the trip of a lifetime and we put over 60,000km on our vehicle in that time. Now that I have more time and opportunities to play my guitar, like early in the morning while my wife sleeps in, I’m expanding my playing style into a genre that’s long been a goal of mine, will post more here when I have more progress to report.
3 years and 60,000km - that was a very big lap!! Truly epic. Looking forward to the next instalment once you’re at a good point for the progress report.
Hi Tony. Congratulations in having successfully completed and enjoyed the “Big Lap”. Good a completed project leads to new projects to work on.
4th installment. Thought I could edit the subject but haven’t worked out how or if that’s possible.
To give you some context, we’ve spent the last 2 years, 11 months and 4 days living in our RV caravan and traveling around Australia doing what 's called the “Big lap”. And a big lap it was, during that time we traveled well over 65,000 kilometres and had many a wonderful experience.
Due to covid, we didn’t go to many open mics along the way but in 2023 have gotten back into that and really enjoying it.
While traveling I learned the thumb and finger technique from one of Justin’s lessons which opened up for me a whole bunch of new songs, especially those with a strong back beat, like a lot of Credence Clearwater songs. I’ve easily added a dozen songs to my repertoire with that technique alone.
Getting back into the open mic scene has opened up for me a new learning experience which is playing without ever looking at the fret board. Previously I was fairly good at mostly not looking but when I started playing the open mics again after not doing so, it was clear to me I wanted to up the ante.
It’s sure made a difference to my open mic playing and I’m happy to report that this week I performed at our music club doing my 89th ever open mic. Afterwards my wife even commented that she’d noticed the difference,
I also noticed a higher level of mental confidence during my performance. I felt like I was at home sitting there on the stage. Here’s a picture.
Hi Tony,
Wow That must have been a great feeling, I’m celebrating with you here, really great 
Greetings…
Thanks, it was a great feeling. As I practiced one of the songs today, from the sets on the weekend, I realized I still tend to check my fret board only for the barre Bm, thankfully today I didn’t look at the fret board at all. It’s a challenge to trust your own self.
Wow Tony another inspirational instalment from your Log, thanks for sharing! You are getting closer to OM 100, any special Anniversary performance in plans yet? 
all the best!
Thanks, not sure about the 100 milestone. I had hoped to reach it in my 9th year of playing just before the 10 year anniversary but covid and all the cancelled open mic opportunities put paid to that. I know a cool bar that has a great open mic, it might be a good spot to do it, or at the music club where I’ve done so many before.
After battling performance anxiety for some time, it’s nice to be able to jump on stage without nerves. I still get them before some performances, but not the crippling, painful levels of times past.
How fantastic to arrive at really feeing so at home on stage. It really comes across in your body language above, sat on the stool.
(Btw - the title can be edited once you’re scrolled to the very top of the page. A small pencil will arrive to the right of the title sentence which can be clicked on.)
Thanks for your comments. After fighting performance anxiety big time, it was a great feeling.
I did scroll up after reading your comment, the edit pencil arrived but not to the right of the title and it wouldn’t let me edit it. This is using firefox on mac, will try it with chrome.
Not editable with chrome either. It lets me edit the original posting, but the title section can’t be changed.
Figured I’d add a link to the thread on the repair I carried out to my guitar as it was a significant learning process. I debate whether it should have just been an addition to my learning log but since it was a different topic on it’s own, I posted it separately.
