meet and greet (part II)

hey Limeylefty, welcome to the site. You'll learn alot here, and get lots of help. I think learning the guitar is hard enough the correct way. You seem to be putting a real obstacle in your path. But if you insist, it's your choice. Have fun and I'll see you on the boards.

Well I my name is Andy and I have been lurking here for the past couple of months.. I live in the wonderful state of Michigan and we just got dumped on with over 20 inches of snow so I will have some time to practice.. I have 2 guitars.. a 1964 Ventura Bruno V-10 that was given to me by my dad.. I recently bought a Washburn D-10 which sounds much better than the Ventura so that is my main guitar to play.
I picked up the guitar again after a 15 year hiatus because my daughter who is 4 and loves music ... even though I am not that great right now she is my biggest fan and loves to dance even to the simple tunes of Yankee Doodle.

Hi folks. :)

I'm Sara, I'm 32 and come from the North East of England.

I've been struggling to teach myself to play guitar for 2 years now, without much luck, I hasten to add. :lol:

I stumbled across this site by accident whilst searching for TAB and realised at once I'd found something a bit special.

What with the excellently written and easily explained lessons, I can honestly say I feel like I've progressed more in a week, than the last two years. I wish I'd found this sooner!

I've been lurking round the forum for the past week and it seems like everyone's really helpful and friendly...so much so, I found myself signing up. :D

Sara.

I've been exploring GN for a few weeks now, but just discovered this Meet and Greet. I'm 53, and live in Maine, US of A. Like others here, I got my first guitar before I was in high school, but didn't do much with it.

I spent eight years in the Air Force, and from 1974-78 was stationed at Griffiss AFB (Rome, NY). Being an EMT, I worked part-time for one of the local ambulance services when the USAF didn't have claims on my time. My regular partner on the ambulance crew had finished his active duty tour at "the Griff" and decided to stay in the area. We hung out at his house, just a couple of blocks away from the ambulance garage, while we waited for calls. He turned out to be a very accomplished guitarist.

To shorten this part of the saga a little, Mike inspired me to get back to learning the guitar. I found a good deal on a Yamaha 12-string acoustic, and that's what I've pretty much stuck with to date. (The Ibanez "Jumpstart" bass set I recently got is another story.)
After I left the Air force and returned to my home town in MA, I kind of "just noodled around with it" when the mood struck me. Every so often, I'd get together with some friends at "hoot night" at a local bar, but I did way more vocals than guitar work. (I've won some karaoke contests, but it'll be awhile before I win anything for my guitar playing.)

I don't fingerpick (yet), don't do barre chords (well, only two or maybe three strings' worth), and don't get much below the third fret (yet), but I have a GOOD TIME. On March 1st, I'll attend my first class through the local adult ed program, with maybe 11 other people. The instructor's credits include the Guitar Study Center, the UMA (UMaine Augusta) Jazz Studies program, and the Berklee College of Music. And I will quietly remind everyone there that the guy with the most duct tape on his guitar case (probably me) hasn't necessarily been practicing the longest. I want to go at this as though I don't know much more than "the side with the strings goes away from your body." :lol: (Thanks, whoever shared that one.)

I saw some mention of left-handed guitarists. My friend Casey, back in MA, always amazed me because he didn't restring his guitars "upside-down," he just did his chord fingering differently. It was kinda handy because the two of us could share a mic without much risk of our guitar necks colliding.

So, I'm toughening up my calluses, working on various songs from David's ESB (Beginners) and SFI (Intermediates) lessons, and looking forward to the class in March.

Play on, folks.

--
Doug C.

Hi, my name is Dave and I'm a Gemini....wait, wrong forum.

Ok, I've played guitar about 20 years or so and have played in a few cover bands. Nowadays I'm more into recording and also do some video work, which I score myself. I play some bass, some keyboards and will sing when physically threatened to do so.

Live in Sacramento CA area.

Well, that's about it for me.

next.....

Hello my name is Dave and I've been playing for a few years now. I took band in high school (played Saxophone) where I learned to read music. I always loved the guitar and had a tremendous amount of respect for those who could play well. After high school I gave up the sax, but I never lost the itch to learn to play the guitar. As the year went by I finally bought a cheap entry level acoustic and a copy of “Mel Bay's Guitar method grade 1” which I very slowly work through every exercise and then went on to the next 2 grades. One day I realized I can play most of the music in this book, but I couldn't even play a single song. I felt like I was making no progress at all that is until I found Guitar Noise. Now I can Play Pink Floyd's Whish You Were Here, Horse with No Name, and Now Neil Young's Harvest moon. Wow, Guitar Noise where have you been all my life?

I now intend to hire a guitar teacher and maybe, just maybe I will finally get good at playing the guitar. Thanks for the great site :D .

Wow, Guitar Noise where have you been all my life?

Hear hear! My name is Chet, and I've been teaching myself guitar for about 9 months now. I've always been a huge Dave Matthews fan, and after hearing Tim Reynolds and Dave's 'Live at Luther College', I decided I had to learn to play!

Welcome to the world of guitar chet. There are many great articles in this site that will help you grow as a guitar player. If you know any Dave Matthews's song maybe you can post them on this site. I bet there are a lot of Matthews fans here.

I'm sure Musenfreund won't mind too awfully much if I welcome you all to the madhouse! GuitarNoise is a WONDERFUL place to meet guitar players at ALL levels of learning. And these forums are full of people who are more than willing to offer great advice. I'm sure you all will fit in nicely! Again, welcome to GuitarNoise! You've found the BEST place on the net for guitarists to gather and exchange and teach and even collaborate on their songs, songwriting, guitar techniques, etc....... I could go on and on and on! :D

Thanks Dave (and Elecktrablue). I know a couple DMB songs. I'm not too sure I'm going to post them, because I found the tabs online at guitartabs.cc ....
:shock:
um...was that blasphemy?
am I allowed to mention another guitar site on this forum?
:D

Thanks Dave (and Elecktrablue). I know a couple DMB songs. I'm not too sure I'm going to post them, because I found the tabs online at guitartabs.cc ....
:shock:
um...was that blasphemy?
am I allowed to mention another guitar site on this forum?
:D

No, not blasphemy.......however we do have a specific forum especially for promoting other music sites........ you'll find it on the main forum page and the title is: "Unabashed site or product promotion"..... post away! :D

alright looking forward to trying out the DMB songs : :D

Hello everyone, I been lurking for ~ a month and decided I should introduce myself. I am 50 (today), played guitar in HS with a couple of different bands. I was the rhythm player, never bothering to learn to read music or scales. I just played and had fun. For you old timers, I had a Silvertone, remember them?? :) . Lost interest when I went in the service, guitar got damaged at home and folks sold the amp, I was oldest of 5 so money was a factor. I tried again in my 20, but did not do much except amuse myself, went through a divorce and amp and guitar got sold. Now that I am much older and have the urge to ply I bough another guitar, a beginners book on music, cords and scales and I am making a very concerted effort to actually learn the notes on the guitar and reading music. I have made good progress in the last 6 weeks and feel I know more about the guitar than I ever had in the past. I found this site while looking for some info on a song that David Hodges had done. I am now working on those lessons, some from my Hal Leonard book, Nick's articles on reading the fret board (thanks), and trying to understand what scales are. Scales still mystify me, but I figure in time more things will make sense. I have to really work hard now as my daughter wants a guitar for her 9th birthday and we bought her a mini strat. “The folk guitar was just not cool enough dad; I want an electric like you have.” LOL So I had better learn quick or she will leave me in the weeds. Thanks for having a great site.
John

Welcome All!!!

I found GN a few monthes ago and using the great lessons and theory excercises here I have accually learned more in 3 monthes than in the last 3 years! GN has given me a new love for my guitars and nowadays I play for at least a few hours a day! Hopefully everyone can gain the same kind of 'advantage' as I have! I guess a bit about myself now....

I'm 20, live in Saskatoon SK.
When I was 14 I always listened to my brother play around on his electric, he was always playing Metallica and I loved the sound of that guitar cranked with some massive overdrive! I received my first guitar at 15, a 'mini' acoustic that I played around with for about 4 monthes.... untill it got destroyed when the bassment of my house flooded. I bought my first Stage electric with my 16th britday money. Played with that for a few years on and off. It was about 2 and a half years ago I started to get my 'real' love for the guitar. I started playing non-stop and for christmas my family all pooled together and bought me a very nice Aria 12 string.... Have been playing on that and the ESP electric I recently bought up untill now. If anyone wants to know more, my msn, email, and icq adress are in my profile. Would love to hear from anyone who plays!

I am making a very concerted effort to actually learn the notes on the guitar and reading music. I have made good progress in the last 6 weeks and feel I know more about the guitar than I ever had in the past. I found this site while looking for some info on a song that David Hodges had done. I am now working on those lessons, some from my Hal Leonard book, Nick's articles on reading the fret board (thanks), and trying to understand what scales are.
Hay John,

I think leaning to actually read music is better then relying on only on tab. The problem with tab, as you know, is tab music only shows the notes and no rhythm or time signature. You have to have a recorded copy of the song you are trying to play or be very familiar with it so you know how the rhythm is suppose to go. I have seen some tab use standard type of notation on a tab chart for example using quarter notes, and half notes. It seems to me if one can follow this type of tablature then making the leap to actually reading standard notation shouldn't be that difficult.

Your right I also enjoy the articles by Nick. I especially liked the topic on how to practice properly as well as learning the fret board. Good luck on your music studies

Dave