Hi everyone! I'm Simon, 40, from Brisbane, Australia.

I've been playing guitar since I was 12... it's been a bit of an on-again, off-again relationship over the years. I've been in close to 10 bands (a lot of them with my brothers, who play bass and drums), covering pretty much every role - lead guitar, rhythm guitar, lead vocals, and various combinations of all of that.

There were a few long phases where I put the guitar down to focus purely on singing, and then everything went on hold when I became a dad to twins. The kids are a bit older now though, and I've recently jumped back in as lead guitarist in a new band. They're pretty impressed with what I can do... but I know exactly what I need to work on.

What I'm decent at: Rhythm, improvising (to an extent), learning songs by ear, basic theory (circle of 5ths, some modal understanding), partial fretboard knowledge from years of power chords. My genres have been all over the place but mostly rock - with detours into metal, punk, blues and funk, and more recently bluegrass. I've also got a solo acoustic side gig so I know my chords and strumming fairly well.

Where I fall short: My improvising is almost entirely one shape of the minor pentatonic, with occasional blues scale additions. Speed picking, alternate picking, hybrid picking... as soon as things get fast, I struggle. I've been working on my pick grip after discovering Jazz III Max picks through a Bernth course, but old habits keep dragging me back to my old technique.

I've been meaning to get proper lessons for a while but options in my area are pretty limited, which is how I ended up here.

I'm currently on the 14-day trial and still finding my feet. The core learning system looks a bit basic for where I'm at (I'd love a version of that for intermediate players), and I'm eyeing off the custom lesson plan but hesitant to commit until I know the subscription is worth it for someone at my level.

Any advice on where to start would be really appreciated!

Simon