Hi, I am beginning my guitar journey somewhat later in life, I’m 58. I’ve always wanted to play but never had the time or money. I have a hard time sticking with things if I don’t understand why I’m doing it. So, my goal is to be able to play lead guitar, but just to myself and friends and want to know the theory behind it. Thank you
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I started playing for coming up to 5 years ago and with limited practice time available to me I just wanted to focus on learning to actually play the guitar and play songs rather than studying theory. I am now playing rhythm guitar in a band, something I thought had passed me by seeing as I was 55 years old when I started. I am at the stage now where I think it is time I started understanding music more and that is why I have now decided to subscribe to the PMT course. My next goal is to try and learn to play lead guitar. I am already playing a few basic lead lines with the band but learning new songs for the band is taking up most of my guitar playing time at the moment leaving little time to explore other areas of playing
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I am taking this course because I want to know what I am doing and why I am doing it. I have played some very sophisticated finger style tunes. My teacher had the idea that if I could play difficult pieces then everything else would come easy-- wrong! I spent hours and hours trying to get these pieces under my hand but once I did- I had no idea what I was actually doing or why I was doing it. Ended up playing everything by memorizing it. When I wanted to improvise or create something new, I ha d no idea what to do. Then I took a little theory course and learned a little bit- then tried teaching myself with online courses… then life got in the way. I need some structure and a direction. This will provide both and I enjoy bluse so much.
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@1 I wish to go beeboppin’ and scattin’ : ) with great theoretical and technical dexterity,
!@2 found it to be draining.
Q3 BHAG- To know what i am saying through my guitar , to get to know whatsoever
am playing or not playing makes sense.
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Like many others, I want to understand song structure more deeply in order to be able to remember chord changes more easily, jam with others - and my completely secret (up until now, ha!) BHG is to write some of my own songs, even if I only play them for myself - I have many partial songs recorded on my phone, and feel like I may be able to develop them further with greater musical knowledge (and if I find an interested fellow writing partner!)
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I first picked up a guitar at 10 years old. I’m 33 now and have played on average for at LEAST an hour a day. I always felt I had my little bag of tricks that could bail me out of situations in a jam/live setting (similar to your story), but that was it. A coworker (I’m a history teacher by trade) informed me about your site and just focusing on your lead blues videos/lessons made me at least five times the player that I was prior. I realized WHY my bag of tricks worked. I’m looking for more of those eureka moments, and noticed I have a deficit in regards to the Major Scale. Loving this so far. Thank you so much Justin for sharing your gift and empowering others!
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For me, my reason for learning music theory is to gain an overall understanding of guitar. I have started the guitar late 49 years old, and my work have a band that meets and playhs a few times a year. My goal is to play with them, or at least to attend rehearsals and jam. But I am years behind most of them so hoping music theory accelerates by understanding of guitar or my “musicallity”
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Apologies if any of the following appears in the 206 comments already given but I am so thrilled by what I am consolidating from 30 years of wandering semi-randomly in the wilderness.
Reasons for learning theory …
- Enables me to capture single lines (bass and melody), either from what I am listening to, or what I create/hear in my head.
- Finding chords in other places up the neck, other than the standard diagrams and understanding how they relate to playing in a particular position.
- Being able to note down and possibly name “exotic” chords that I find myself playing when I try out different fingering patterns. Better than drawing lots of chord boxes (though that helps, too)
- Understanding ‘altered’ chords, rather than, again, creating a whole load of diagrams for the different extensions. Understanding relationships.
- As for reasons 2. and 3. but for any kind of altered tuning - for which you might only be given a few example chord boxes. Understanding why certain fingerings that I would use in standard tuning give strange but very pleasant-sounding chords in alternate tunings (and why others don’t !).
- The sheer joy of finding some logic and understanding of music that links back all the way to Pythagoras and “rational” numbers. (Those physics lessons were not wasted ! : )
I’m sure that this is partly what @brianlarsen had in mind, above
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Exactly @Talia41414 . I have been resurrecting my schoolboy German for fun (and to visit friends in Germany), using Duo_Lingo. The approach there seems to be to learn by listening BUT with all the variations of nominative, accusative, dative and genitive forms of such simple words as “the” and “an”, it was hit or miss whether I would construct a sentence properly. I will be dropping Duo_Lingo soon and using the time for this course. If I want to improve my language further, I have a dictionary, grammar and phrase books and You_Tube for the pronunciation. Good luck with learning the “language” of music
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… you should just walk 50 yards down the road for ‘eine Tasse Kaffee’ and a chat at my place. Hell, we might even ‘jam’ 
I see you’ve found your way into the swamp of the general Community 
Be careful you don’t end up spending all your time grasping at threads and not honing those licks 
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Absolument, mon ami ! And I’ll be in touch tout suite to arrange a get-together.
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I want to learn to be a singer songwriter. I also want to learn music and the instrument in a complete way. I have a minor interest in classical pieces too and even flamenco style without necessarily wanting to be a full fledged flamenco artist. I also have a music theory book which is very accessible however without a teacher or Justin’s more practical approach I often get stuck. The book wants me to write the major scales knowing the whole and half steps in between. This is doable but it also wants me to practice to sing the major scales assuming with do-re-mi? I’ve new to singing but excited to learn ear training and singing because of my previously mentioned ultimate goal of singing my own songs while playing. Really looking forward to how it all fits together. I am someone who maybe because diagnosed autistic I really want to know the ins and outs, I don’t want to play a chord (I have been learning chords and strumming of course) without asking out loud, well what is a chord even? I enjoy learning the history and reasoning behind music. Thanks Justin!
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i wnat to understand music in general and be a God at impov ! thats my ultimate goal.
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I want to be able to jam with others and be able to adjust my key to blend in. I have no idea what that means but I plan on learning.
I’ve also started learning guitar several times—I guess it’s like quitting smoking, I’ve done it several times! And once when I was taking lessons it seemed like the songs followed some sort of underlying logic but I couldn’t figure it out. I want to know!
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My answer - During high school during the time we had to practice our instruments, I found it difficult to respond to the musical ideas that my peers were trying to communicate. Now I have finished and my wonder girlfriend is a songwriter and performer who has asked me to perform with her and I want to be able to proficiently do so, for her and for any musical endeavors I have with other musicians.
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Ok, I’m 68 years old, have never played well, just messed around with it. My only aspirations are to enjoy playing more and to get comfortable to play with others. What got me going with this is 3 years ago, I tuned into Bluesville on
SeriusXM and have never left it. Don’t know what the deep connection is, but I wanted to get better, from a low level, so that I could play the blues reasonably well. Anyway that’s my story. I really enjoyed watching your videos, 1 and 2 so far, with you telling your life story. It encouraged me that you were the right teacher for me.
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