Yet another newbie story!

Hello all,

57 years old, female, life long music lover (literally, my parents both professional musicians), but somehow playing an instrument myself escaped me (other than the requisite early childhood piano lessons and high school band clarinet).

Love music of all kinds but grew up on the diverse music of the 70's - from folk to classic rock and everything in between (disco, funk, soul, punk...the 70's really had it all!) :)

About 10 years ago was inspired by my admiration for John Mayer's playing to take up guitar myself - bought a new and relatively inexpensive Epiphone acoustic dreadnought, and was immediately discouraged by a) the size of my guitar in relation to the size of my hands, and b) a teacher who spent most of my lessons basically demonstrating to me what an *awesome* player he was. Long story short, I gave up quickly, and my Epiphone has made a lovely wall hanging for the past 10 years.

Fast forward to 2015 - again inspired by a favourite musician (Ed Sheeran), and an AMAZING trip to Nashville in September, I asked myself just how hard it could be to play guitar (at least semi-proficiently) - you only get out of it what you put into, right? Soooo, on a visit to a local music store with my boyfriend (who plays guitar) I fell in love with Ed Sheeran's X Signature Edition (little) Martin - and lucky me, the BF surprised me with it for Christmas! I love love LOVE it, it's the perfect size for me, and sounds fantastic (even got a little practice amp to play it with!)

THIS time, I am determined to learn this wonderful instrument!! With a few basic lessons from my BF and some YouTube videos of basic chords for favourite songs, I was already way farther ahead after about a day than I was with my efforts 10 years ago - and THEN (!) I saw an ad for GT on YouTube, and here I am!

I've been working my way through Lisa's beginner lessons and I have to say this site is FANTASTIC. Other than the lack of personal feedback (but even that isn't a major issue because she somehow magically addresses questions without you asking them), I've been thoroughly enjoying Ms. McCormick's clear, concise, and relatable style of teaching - my goal is to maybe someday play as effortlessly and beautifully as she does! I can hardly wait to leave work at the end of the day, plug in and sit down with my guitar and my GT lessons. Thanks for the wonderful site, guys - currently on free trial but I don't think there's any question that I'll be signing up for full access.

I even just bought a new set of strings for my old Epiphone and I'm actually going to start showing it some love too - it's not nearly as mystifying/frustrating to me as it used to be!

And that's my story! :)

And a great story it is! Welcome to GT.

Congrats on the new guitar...and that thoughtful boyfriend. ;)

john

Originally Posted by: beesquareHello all,

57 years old, female, life long music lover (literally, my parents both professional musicians), but somehow playing an instrument myself escaped me (other than the requisite early childhood piano lessons and high school band clarinet).

Love music of all kinds but grew up on the diverse music of the 70's - from folk to classic rock and everything in between (disco, funk, soul, punk...the 70's really had it all!) :)

About 10 years ago was inspired by my admiration for John Mayer's playing to take up guitar myself - bought a new and relatively inexpensive Epiphone acoustic dreadnought, and was immediately discouraged by a) the size of my guitar in relation to the size of my hands, and b) a teacher who spent most of my lessons basically demonstrating to me what an *awesome* player he was. Long story short, I gave up quickly, and my Epiphone has made a lovely wall hanging for the past 10 years.

Fast forward to 2015 - again inspired by a favourite musician (Ed Sheeran), and an AMAZING trip to Nashville in September, I asked myself just how hard it could be to play guitar (at least semi-proficiently) - you only get out of it what you put into, right? Soooo, on a visit to a local music store with my boyfriend (who plays guitar) I fell in love with Ed Sheeran's X Signature Edition (little) Martin - and lucky me, the BF surprised me with it for Christmas! I love love LOVE it, it's the perfect size for me, and sounds fantastic (even got a little practice amp to play it with!)

THIS time, I am determined to learn this wonderful instrument!! With a few basic lessons from my BF and some YouTube videos of basic chords for favourite songs, I was already way farther ahead after about a day than I was with my efforts 10 years ago - and THEN (!) I saw an ad for GT on YouTube, and here I am!

I've been working my way through Lisa's beginner lessons and I have to say this site is FANTASTIC. Other than the lack of personal feedback (but even that isn't a major issue because she somehow magically addresses questions without you asking them), I've been thoroughly enjoying Ms. McCormick's clear, concise, and relatable style of teaching - my goal is to maybe someday play as effortlessly and beautifully as she does! I can hardly wait to leave work at the end of the day, plug in and sit down with my guitar and my GT lessons. Thanks for the wonderful site, guys - currently on free trial but I don't think there's any question that I'll be signing up for full access.

I even just bought a new set of strings for my old Epiphone and I'm actually going to start showing it some love too - it's not nearly as mystifying/frustrating to me as it used to be!

And that's my story! :)

Fantastic! Mayer and Sheeran are indeed inspiring.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience and enthusiasm for Lisa's lessons. Her material has been really popular and a lot of people have benefited from it.

Let us know if you need anything!

Originally Posted by: john of MTAnd a great story it is! Welcome to GT.

Congrats on the new guitar...and that thoughtful boyfriend. ;)

john

Thanks for the welcome, John, and yes, must admit, I do feel a tad spoiled... :)

Originally Posted by: GT StaffFantastic! Mayer and Sheeran are indeed inspiring.

Thanks so much for sharing your experience and enthusiasm for Lisa's lessons. Her material has been really popular and a lot of people have benefited from it.

Let us know if you need anything!

Thanks GT! At the moment the only thing I need is more time to practice... ;)

Thanks again for the wonderful site!

I am new to the forum and welcome all that enjoy guitar tricks. So far I am enjoying the lessons and I believe I needed the structure that they have in the CORE learning system. My Story: Played garage band rock and roll back in the mid 60's so for most of you, you weren't around. To the old geezers, remember learning Little Black Egg and Gloria along with many other tunes. Stopped playing Rhythm guitar altogether in 1967 which was 48 years ago, and just bought a Keith Urban NightStar solid body. I am amazed that although I have been playing only 8 weeks, I have the callouses back, and can still play a barre chord. Looking forward to helping any beginners that need help, and hope to be playing some really good Blues by this summer. Would like to surprise my camping and fishin buddies and be almost intermediate level by summer. At least that's the goal. When I feel I have earned it, I will celebrate by buying an Epi Les Paul Standard Plus Pro, or if I have the money, the dream is a Gibson Les Paul. Not easy to do when you live on Social Security, but so far, I really like the lessons on Guitar Tricks.

Thanks Doug, 64 for me is coming up in March, might have to get back to learning the words again to when I'm 64. I remember being a teen when it came out. LOL...tough to be an old fart... Hehe