Ex-Calif
Well-known member
Like many kids I picked up a guitar in the early 70's and tried to learn from my buddies. I learned some chords and played some riffs but never got any good. I bought a Martin acoustic a "bit" later and took lessons. I took one hour face to face each week where you learn a chord and are told to go home and practice that chord, maybe some finger picking and do scales. It took months and I hadn't even learned a song (that I cared about).
I'd pick up a guitar off and on for years and never made any progress. I've never owned a "decent" electric guitar but i have a really crappy one with a missing high E string... Years ago I bought a gadget that plugs into the iPad and plays the guitar via headphones. But it was early days for the "apps" and I didn't make a lot of progress.
During lock down I told myself I would learn Spanish and get back into guitar. Hey! Guess what? 50+ hours of work at home is that same as 50+ hours in a cube - LOL... There wasn't a ton of free time.
Well - I the spring I bought an RV, In the summer I bought a little fishing boat, in the fall I bought a shotgun and hunted turkey and shot trap. For winter I decided to buy a guitar and a new iRig device (my old one only works with like iPad Gen 1.
Holy Moley!!!!!!!!!! The world has come a long damn way... These apps are awesome. Each one had plusses and minuses but I settled on JustinGuitar. He as been at it for years and by paying attention found that he is classically trained at England's equivalent of Julliard eventually being an instructor there. However his style is like learning from a mate. In fact he is rebuilding his beginners system and to get a feel how it works for beginner's he is learning to play left handed! This gives him a feel about what's hard and what's within the doable. I downloaded Fender's app but for a big corporation they are pretty much mailing it in. Gotta have an app so they have one. It's not bad but it's corporate if you get what I mean. Justin OTOH has built his website learning over years out of passion and it's still 100% free - He does donations and his Ipad app you have to pay for because of development costs and fees.
I bought a Fender Squire Bullet Strat a few weeks ago and then downloaded like 6 iPad learning apps after doing some research. The absolute coolest thing is that most apps now have a songbooks with backing tracks to play with. The Justin Guitar one is very cool and after only like a week back into it I had a impromptu sing along with my 23 year old kid - A, E and D chords and these really cool backing tracks & 37 songs in the playbook.
Anyway, can you tell I'm chuffed? I plan to focus on my life long goal of Blues, 50's and 60's R&R and 70's rock. Of course I also want to add in a good selection of "campfire" tunes and a future life is gonna be on a boat in the Caribbean so might have to chuck in some Marley and Parrot Head stuff - so much to do and so little time - LOL...
Anyhoo - I've watched some of the music threads and look forward to following along and letting ya'll know how I'm doing as I progress. this week officially added back in Em, Am and Dm so life's really good! Here I come C, F & G!
I'd pick up a guitar off and on for years and never made any progress. I've never owned a "decent" electric guitar but i have a really crappy one with a missing high E string... Years ago I bought a gadget that plugs into the iPad and plays the guitar via headphones. But it was early days for the "apps" and I didn't make a lot of progress.
During lock down I told myself I would learn Spanish and get back into guitar. Hey! Guess what? 50+ hours of work at home is that same as 50+ hours in a cube - LOL... There wasn't a ton of free time.
Well - I the spring I bought an RV, In the summer I bought a little fishing boat, in the fall I bought a shotgun and hunted turkey and shot trap. For winter I decided to buy a guitar and a new iRig device (my old one only works with like iPad Gen 1.
Holy Moley!!!!!!!!!! The world has come a long damn way... These apps are awesome. Each one had plusses and minuses but I settled on JustinGuitar. He as been at it for years and by paying attention found that he is classically trained at England's equivalent of Julliard eventually being an instructor there. However his style is like learning from a mate. In fact he is rebuilding his beginners system and to get a feel how it works for beginner's he is learning to play left handed! This gives him a feel about what's hard and what's within the doable. I downloaded Fender's app but for a big corporation they are pretty much mailing it in. Gotta have an app so they have one. It's not bad but it's corporate if you get what I mean. Justin OTOH has built his website learning over years out of passion and it's still 100% free - He does donations and his Ipad app you have to pay for because of development costs and fees.
I bought a Fender Squire Bullet Strat a few weeks ago and then downloaded like 6 iPad learning apps after doing some research. The absolute coolest thing is that most apps now have a songbooks with backing tracks to play with. The Justin Guitar one is very cool and after only like a week back into it I had a impromptu sing along with my 23 year old kid - A, E and D chords and these really cool backing tracks & 37 songs in the playbook.
Anyway, can you tell I'm chuffed? I plan to focus on my life long goal of Blues, 50's and 60's R&R and 70's rock. Of course I also want to add in a good selection of "campfire" tunes and a future life is gonna be on a boat in the Caribbean so might have to chuck in some Marley and Parrot Head stuff - so much to do and so little time - LOL...
Anyhoo - I've watched some of the music threads and look forward to following along and letting ya'll know how I'm doing as I progress. this week officially added back in Em, Am and Dm so life's really good! Here I come C, F & G!
