meet and greet (part II)

Hello everyone, my name is Gene and I live in Orlando, Florida. I have been retired for a year and decided I wanted to try the guitar. Started learning from a friend years ago but didn't accomplish much. I have only been playing a few months but Davids lessons are so good, I feel I'm moving along fairly fast. Being retired you would think I could put in alot of practice, but throw 3 Jack Russell terriers in the mix, and see what's left. They are demanding little dogs. I feel like I am starting so late at 56. Anyone else out there starting that late?

Hi Gene

Welcome to the site and a personal thanks for your kinds words.

There are quite a few "oldies," if you will (you're less than ten years older than me), and on some of the other Forum pages, particularly the Beginners' page, you'll find some threads about that.

Looking forward to hearing more from you!

Peace

Hi Gene,

Gene wrote:
I feel like I am starting so late at 56. Anyone else out there starting that late?

Welcome to the club. I'm 51 and started at playing at 50, so your in good company here Gene. Wish I was lucky enough to be retired though!

Best regards

Chris

Welcome to the musical madhouse, Gene.
I started three years ago at 45. You'll find it's a magnificent obsession!
Tim

Hey Gene! And, welcome! Even though I technically started playing at 13, I only played for 10 or 11 years before I put it away for more than 20 years. I'm like Musenfreund, I'm 48 and re-started about 3 years ago! There are LOTS of us "older" persons picking up guitars! You're in good company and GuitarNoise and David's lessons are a wonderful place to start your guitar adventures! Good luck! :D

Hi,

I'm a newbie and thought I'd say hello.

I'm 26 and have been playing a few years but recently made a solid decision to get good.

IMHO this site is way better in terms of learning on the forums than pretty much anything else I've seen.

To continue the theme, I feel like I started late at 22! Personally I don't think it matters when you start and I suspect that starting olders means you might have a little more self discpline.

(I tried when I was 17 and gave up because I couldn't do it after 2 minutes.)

Well, Hey, Full Fathom Five.... and welcome to GuitarNoise! I'm sure you'll find all sorts of useful, helpful, well prepared material here. This is without a doubt the best guitar instruction site on the web!

I picked it up again about 3 weeks ago, bought a method book, and am learning the fret board now. Barre chords frustrate me!!! I'm also learning some strumming patterns from the Easy Songs for Beginners on this site. I have learned so much from GuitarNoise.
Laurie

Hi Laurie!

First of all, welcome to GuitarNoise! You've found the best resource on the web for learning guitar. And this forum is FULL of wonderful, talented people who are more than willing to help a beginner progress.

Second of all! I want to cut down on your frustration right here at the beginning of the learning process! Personally, and some people might not agree with me, but, IMHO, I really think that you ought to leave barre chords completely alone until you get a handle on standard chords. Learn your scales, basic chords & basic chord progressions FIRST and get to where you can comfortably change from one chord to another without losing tempo (learn some songs and riffs using just basic chords, and there are LOTS of them that don't require barres!). THEN, start looking at alternate fingerings and barres. By that time you ought to be more comfortable with the guitar and fretboard in general. Barres are difficult in the beginning. I've been playing for several years and I STILL find them difficult (especially on an acoustic - they're easier on an electric because you don't have to apply as much pressure to the neck). When I first started back playing I tried to learn barres right off the bat, too, and got so frustrated I seriously considered putting the guitar away. Then someone told me what I just told you and I'm still playing (which is the important part!). I started seeing (and feeling) progress. My chord changes became cleaner, I just generally became more comfortable with the guitar. THAT'S when I started in with barres, and it was probably a good year after I started back before I was comfortable enough to attempt to tackle barres again.

I guess what I'm saying is, if you find it frustrating, move on to something else, then come back to the frustrating part later. Even if it's a year later! It'll still be there. And, if you're not so frustrated, chances are you'll still be learning a year from now (or even two or five years!), instead of having given up because it's driving you up the freakin' wall! I hope this is making sense!

Elecktrablue -

Thanks for the tip on not worrying about barre chords for now. I know it was bugging me - and I know that's part of why I stopped playing last year.

Laurie

FYI, Laurie, there's one guy in our guitar choir who I've never seen play a barre chord. We have 'em in our somgs- mainly Em and Bm forms, but he uses fingerings where he doesn't barre all the strings, and he gets by quite well.

Me, I never heard Elektrablue's advice when I started out, so two monyhs into it (at the beginning if this past summer) I told myself I was determined to learn barre chords and was going to spend all summer working on them if necessary. Well, I did work at it all summer and can now play passible E, Em, and Bm forms as well as some variations on these (like Amaj7, Amin7, and Fmin7), but I'm still not as comfortable with them as I am with open chords, but like I say, I do get by.

Still, given how I see my friend dale play, you can certainly get by for quite a while without them.

Good luck.

Hello, my name is Chris, I'm 31, and I live amidst the cornfields in Indiana. I just discovered this site (don't know how I missed it the past few years!).

I've been playing guitar for about 16 years, and I've become an author; over the past year, I've completed 5 books for guitarists, with more in the early stages. Music (especially classical) is my passion, teaching is my trade, and writing is my 'gift' (well, according to all my old professors :lol: ), so I've started to combine those three things into one.

I truly enjoy sharing info on message boards like this, and this one in particular seems to be very well-kept and more serious-minded than many of the others, so I should be right at home here. :)

Welcome to the musical madhouse!
Good to have you here.

Hello, my name is Chris, I'm 31, and I live amidst the cornfields in Indiana. I just discovered this site (don't know how I missed it the past few years!).

I've been playing guitar for about 16 years, and I've become an author; over the past year, I've completed 5 books for guitarists, with more in the early stages. Music (especially classical) is my passion, teaching is my trade, and writing is my 'gift' (well, according to all my old professors :lol: ), so I've started to combine those three things into one.

I truly enjoy sharing info on message boards like this, and this one in particular seems to be very well-kept and more serious-minded than many of the others, so I should be right at home here. :)

Well, hey, Chris! I'll second Musenfreund's "Welcome"! GuitarNoise is, IMHO, the BEST guitar site on the web! (I don't know how you've missed it all these years, either!!!) :D Personally, I hung around here "lurking" for about a year and a half before I ever participated in the forums (boy! was I an idiot!!!) There are a few others from Indiana here (and from everywhere else around the globe!)

I do believe that you will find wonderful outlets here for your passion, your trade, and your gift!

Hola! I'm Vantango. I was just listening to some Franz Ferdinand when I came up with that one. Anyways, Just wanted to introduce myself, I'm 14, student, and play guitar everyday. I have been playing for 2 years, but 1 year solidly because I went on and off.

I like almost all genres of music, except rap or hiphop (no depth). Most influential people (some odd ones) : Jack White, Julias Capranos (Strokes), Franz Ferdinand, George Harrison, and Eric Clapton, and many others. Right now I really would like to learn some basic slide blues, but I need to learn how to read music guitar wise (used to play piano, I don't think it will be that hard) and to learn all basic chords, with majors and 7's. I know most of them, and I got plenty of time. I have a little Yamaha guitar with a little brown amp, and most of the time I can't disturb my parents so I don't have the chance to even play with the amp! (I just practice cords.

Wow! This is getting longer than I thought. Just to tell you guys, I'm a bit more mature than most 14 year olds. Don't go easy on me :wink: .

Adios

Welcome to the musical madhouse!

Just a quick hello. My real name's Keith, I'm 53 and live in the UK (near Norwich at the moment). Like many people I started playing around with the guitar when I was at school (I must've been about 14-15) and a few friends and I started a band (we never got anywhere but we had a lot of fun in the process).

Being left handed and having to borrow a guitar I started out playing 'upside down' but as I liked playing rhythm or bass this wasn't problem. When I was 18 my then girlfriend (now my wife - today's our 32nd wedding anniversary :) ) bought me an acoustic nylon guitar (right handed) which I've had ever since.

My main musical preference is blues music and I've always preferred the acoustic sound of the early blues musicians to the later electric sound.

I don't know if it's because I'm left handed but I've never really progressed much beyond strumming chords and the odd very simple finger pick. I've a large collection of music tuition books gathered over the years but they haven't helped me much because many of the techniques shown are designed for someone playing the guitar the right way up. This has also meant I've had several 'dry' periods during my life when I didn't pick up the guitar for a couple of years or so because I'd become discouraged.

However, last Christmas my wife bought me a keyboard (I've always wanted to play keyboards) and I've started learning them (and not doing too bad, don't have to worry too much about being left/right handed :) ). Incidentally I've found a really good site called http://www.playpianotoday.com , if you are thinking of learning keyboards check it out. The smattering of musical theory I'd picked up while trying to learn the guitar really helps me with learning keyboards

But the funny thing is that while looking for keyboard learning resources I found this site and, combined with my new found musical enthusiasm from the keyboard, I've started seriously learning the guitar again (glutton for punishment me). I've learned so much from the site over the past few weeks (like what a turnaround is) and it's made me look much more carefully about how I go about playing the guitar.

I'm trying to work out some ideas about the best ways to approach playing the guitar if you're an awkward cuss like me and insist on playing upside down. I hope that at some time in the future I can contribute something back to this site by submitting the odd article on the success (and failures) of various approaches.

(Upside-down guitar lefty hint #1 - the string side goes AWAY from you.) :lol: