On a Mission

Hi Everyone,
My friends call me Mac.
Since I was 16 I always wanted to play guitar. I had a Yamaha F-60 and a Crown guitar. I could play all the Open Chord Hits of the Day; i.e. Maggie May - Rod Stewart/Faces, Old Man/GoldRush - Neil Young; then the Electric Guitar took off. I could no longer play the songs I heard; Cream, 10 Years After; Lynerd Skynerd, all went to wild fast leads etc. The Guitar moved to the closet. I joined the Marines, went to Vietnam where "We got to get out of this place" by the Animals was the top song played, spent some time at the Philadelphia Veterans Hospital where I heard one of the guys near my bed listening to Loan Me A Dime by Boz Scaggs which turned my attention to the Blues and Classic Rock and went home. Time moved on; I loved Southern Rock Marshall Tucker; The Outlaws and Lynerd Skynerd they would often tour together and I went to every Concert in my area; Over the next several decades, I am 63 now, the Guitar would come out now and then but soon went back into the closet. I must have bought every instructional CD, DVD, Book every printed but soon they would require me to do stretches or Barre Chords I just couldn't play, so back the guitars went, does this sound familiar to anyone?.

Thanks for sticking with me to this point! OK where's my Mission. Well, when I turned 57, I had Cancer, It took my ability to eat, talk, even sip water. I wished that I would just pass in the night. Then I searching the web I found out that many other of my fellow Marines in my Unit had died from effects of exposure to Agent Orange. I got mad, fought the Government for benefits, lost, then won only 50%, still to this day I am fighting them for the other 50%. That didn't lead to the Mission but got me out of bed and moving in the right direction. Then my Daughter gave me a Grand daughter KK, she is the joy of my life. I connect with her by snapping my fingers or using a laptop Text to Speech program. She is now 1; lives with me 24/7 and I now am determined to live and raise this little treasure.
Finally, Now the Mission! I need the Guitar to be my Voice. It can not go back to the closet, it has to sing joy when I'm happy, Blues when I'm sad; Gospel when I'm grateful. Here's the rub. I joined Jamplay for the year, it was the only Christmas present that I asked for. Being on a fixed income I will ask for Guitar Tricks for my Birthday in June. Why leave Jamplay, a couple of reasons. They have about 40 different or more teachers all teaching either Beginner lessons, a type of music etc. They do not have a set road. I am not a true beginner, I now play Barre chords etc but I have not been able to connect with anyone teacher there and I have been spending too much time jumping from one teacher to the other instead of focusing on playing. Almost all their teachers are from some other Planet, none seem to be regular Joe's or Mac's like me. I like Hawk Hawkins style of teaching the Blues but the stretches etc are tough; also a big point is I can't slow down the video's to see what exactly is being played, does Guitar Tricks allow the slowing down, looping, etc. I am Tabbed out!
So my mission impossible that I have accepted is to learn how to make the Guitar be my voice, I have all the time in the world. I WANT TO BE HEARD! I am hoping that Guitar Tricks is the one stop place that I can finally call home, be satisfied and grateful to.
Thanks for sticking out my story and if you could give me more insight about what Guitar Tricks offers I would appreciate it.
Mac

Hi Mac -

Thank you for sharing your story! I think it's amazing that you've chosen the guitar to become your voice. That's great!

I think you'll find the community here (instructors AND members) very supportive. There are a number of instructor here that do the instructional stuff, but it's pretty coherent. Anders does the blues and rock stuff. Chris S. handles the beginner and theory stuff. Ask them questions any time and they will do everything they can to give you an answer and point you to what you need.

The song lesson library here is awesome. Like you, I don't like learning from tab. I've learned so many songs here it's incredible.

I look forward to hearing how your journey continues. Please let us know how it goes for you!

Cheers!
Rich

Hi Mac..
Welcome to Guitar Tricks
You can do a month at a time. Maybe that would be within your budget. This would give you a chance to dig around the site. The site is constantly improving.
USN myself, 1965-1969.
Good luck with your guitar adventure..
Thanks for your service and sacrifice...

Good point...I forgot about the month to month option.

I had a short term free subscription to GT. Gave me a chance to evaluate the site before joining full time. The instructors are terrific here. As a Vietnam-era vet, I thank you for your service and wish you all the best.

That is an amazing story you have and really brings to light how much one person can have to look forward to in life. I can tell how much you love KK and how you have a special relationship with her. Your story gave me goosebumps while reading it and I look forward to hearing about your journey with the guitar and all the accomplishment you achieve.

As members have said this is a great place to ask questions.

I to am a member of Jamplay and i as well do not like there lesson structure. as well they don't incorporate new content often. I have been on Jamplay for about 6 months now and have not seen one new video added. The only reason i stay with them is there live webcam lessons that happen every day I thing i have watched two this morning!

P.S. - GT should look at incorporating a Chat on the site for member to chat live and possibly look into getting live webcam sessions going, hosted by the instructors!!

Welcome to GT and just remember that if your learning a new song or scale it may seem impossible now but you will find that at some point everything just clicks and POW you got it and it is the easiest thing you are playing!!!

Hope to hear from you again.... Happy playing!!!

Welcome to the gang from another newbie here. I too have been a member of Jamplay (still am actually) for the past 2-1/2 years. I did learn a lot of stuff there, and like any site, I had to dig around to find the lessons that meant the most to me. I split my time between acoustic and electric, but I did find that Eric Madis on Jamplay has some decent electric blues lessons and I still am doing those. The "live" instructor sessions are hit and miss. Some are good for learning songs or techniques, but they are the exception to the rule. Eric Madis and Nick Kellie do a good job in that department.

I've only scratched the surface here in the past couple of weeks, but I'm finding some great material by Tom Finch and I like a lot of the songs he has in his section. I have yet to dig into some of the electric blues theory courses, but have plenty of time to do that, since I'm retired and enjoy playing a few hours each day.

I too am hoping that GT can eventually see their way to an open mic type session with other members and possibly instructors. Good suggestion there by JustinAskin!

Best of luck too you rogermack.....
Ur in good company here @gt...we all look out for one another,no egos.just plain fun playing guitar.

Hey Mac, fellow survivor here, stage four throat. Good luck with your mission and let your voice be heard.

Jeff