I'm new here too; although not new to guitar playing. In fact, becoming part of Guitartricks.com is a season of life that I'm revisiting, one I hope will become more natural. You see, I put the guitar down years ago, and now she and I have become strangers again. I even find it hard to hold any of my 3 acoustic guitars with any particular comfort, despite making an effort to play one of them 4 to 5 times a week.
If I were younger I'd play with greater discipline, for longer periods of time (at least an hour a day). Playing everyday was something I used to do spontaneously, but I didn't have a website like this one to urge me forward then, and my playing by ear left me familiarizing with particular chord structures and following the same basic dynamic patterns to the place where I bored myself. All the songs I wrote began to sound the same to me (on the guitar anyway).
Now, although part of me wants this badly, I find it hard to spend time playing/practicing/familiarizing myself with those plastic and/or metal strings. My fingertips get sore. My patience runs thin. But, I've joined your family (for a year anyway), hoping that during this time something will change and my old friend and me will become intimate with each other again, comfortable, kindred.
I'm a singer/songwriter and these days someone else does the instrumentation for me, but how I wish I had never put that guitar down. Just being able to put chord progressions to a song was inspiring, and I should never have allowed myself to become lethargic when I began feeling forced to create lyrics and melodies that fit into my limited instrumental boundaries.
I'm truly hoping that despite my age, I'll be able to do things right this time. I want to LEARN to play, this time, so that the chord structures compliment my melodies and allow me to fully enjoy my vocal range. I am sometimes bothered by the fact that my voice is my 'best' instrument; especially because I never took voice lessons either. However, I am currently enjoying a season of performances in an Italian cultural community setting that has been allowing me to combine my love of writing with my love of singing. All I need now is to be able to go to the individuals who arrange the music for me with a base instrumentation that they can follow, compliment, enhance or critique, so that I'm not forced to pay as much for a finished recording as I have to pay now.
Sorry to ramble on... all I meant to say was:
Nice to meet you Adam. I wish you all the pleasure a guitar can bring~ and that's no small deal... ;)
Oh... my name is Victory (in Italian).
Thanks "Guitartricks" for giving me the desire to give this another try and the tools to help make this a slam bang effort!