Greetings from Indonesia, I just joined this awesome community. I started learning guitar 5 years ago when I was in high school, my motive to learn guitar was to impress pretty girls at my school
Soon enough 4 girls were crushing on me. Well, that was a funny story… I played some love songs on fingerstyle and it was pretty good. I haven’t played in a while because of my busy schedule.
I read some of your stories and most people here are old dogs over 50 years old, most of you have the same story; “started playing the guitar when they were a teenager and had to stop playing because of a busy schedule, and now start to learn again after retirement.”
What made you guys start playing guitar when you were a teenager and what made you guys pick up the guitar again after retirement? Who are you trying to impress?
Hi Reagan, Welcome to the community
Not and have never been trying to impress anybody
I started as I think I grew up with the some of the best rock guitar players of all time so I am blessed to have been able to see them play live. the likes of Gary Moor, Van Halen, Queen, Rainbow, Slash. and thats what inspired me to attempt to play.
A
I’m approaching 40 and I’ve come to realise that learning to play the guitar ticks most boxes as to why I play games, yet it is typically more therapeutic. The grind is also more rewarding (in the real world) and is the only instrument that has kept my attention this long (6mths). For example, I can’t really share the skills I’ve picked up in a game with loved ones but can do so with the guitar
Justin’s structured approach is a big reason why, but as a kid I never really liked most piano pieces but tended to like the rhythm (drums) and guitar aspects.
One thing about us old dogs (by and large) is that we are done trying to impress anyone.
I totally get where you are at as a young guy and if I had had the dedication to play guitar at that age, I would have leveraged the girl factor to the fullest. However, I barely dabble at that age and counted on my kindness and curly locks to attract them.
But now the curly locks are long gone (hopefully not the kindness) and I hope not to need to find another spouse anytime, ever, really.
So I picked up the guitar at 55 yo for several reasons.
First of course, I had always wanted to and made excuses and I finally got over that and decided that, yes, it is worth my time and effort. I was an “audiophile” listening to music and decided that to better be with music, actually playing it was best.
Also, I am a neurologist by profession and I see many patients with dementia. I also see many patients who feel that their memory is poor and it is often due to an unfulfilling life watching TV (and here in colorado, smoking a lot of pot). They and their family members are always asking what they can to to stay sharp and delay or avoid dementia.
Of course there is no simple answer to this, but sitting around watching TV and having nothing inspiring to do is probably harmful.
Learning a complex cognitive motor task like a musical instrument is probably very beneficial. It does keep you off the TV and out of the streets, but also is really excellent brain development task. These types of activities (especially music) have been shown to improve cognition and delay or reduce risk of cognitive decline.
I hope to impress anyone that thinks they can’t learn to play guitar and sing, and are maybe too shy/old/different or uncomfortable sharing their music. If I can do it (to a lesser or greater degree) so can you.
I also hope to push forward the concept of finding your own voice on the instrument (even if people grow tired of hearing it). That has been my goal from the outset, and hopefully others can embrace that approach. If you like to play the well known songs heard frequently on the radio, same key/rhythm/chords/timing:
You do you
Live your best life
Be cool with yourself
Originality and creativity ultimately is what moves the needle – that’s the sweet spot in learning to play guitar. In Justin’s courseware he mentions spending a fair amount of time with improvisational playing. That’s the gateway drug to finding your own voice.
Good stuff. Thanks for posting. I have made some nice progress due to Justin. Playing just for myself and I’m satisfied with that as it brings me great pleasure to finally bring something pleasant to the ear. The community here is a wonderful thing as well. Thinking of enrolling in Strum 1 though I certainly have other things to nail down .
Hmmmm… that was great news Joshua never been thinking about it in that way… it should help on the metal state. At least it makes me happy thanks for sharing youre wisdom Joshua. Much appreciated
I can understand that. At the beginning, being very close to the original would have been my biggest goal. The more I get into playing, the more I appreciate the opportunity to play around with maybe the tempo or a pattern or the sound of a song, or try to sing it in a different way. Being able to apply the own skills, to really use them, must be great. There is no need to create 1mio. identical clones of a song. I like it, if performers give it a twist or something individual.
Not trying to impress anybody. I’m doing it to give me something worthwhile to do every afternoon, and while I’m playing I don’t think about the problems of the world. In other words, I’m doing it for me.
Ive been trying without much success to play for a while now, I can play the minor pentatonic scale and noodle about with that a bit but really struggled with strumming and so never really progressed.
However the slight tremor in my left hand and a few other symptoms was a real kick up the backside.
So I decided to start Justins course and the improvement has been exceptional.
I would like to get to a point where I could play 1 or two tracks at an open mic night before I lose the physical ability.
Playing guitar or any musical instrument has actually been shown to improve symptoms as well so there is another reason.
…
never been thinking about it in that way… it should help on the metal state. At least it makes me happy 