I have been learning guitar for two weeks now. I sort of know five chords and I am pretty proficient on three of them, D, E and A. D is the only chord that I play with enough confidence that if you took my guitar away today and I never touched another one for 10 years, I could still play a D chord. I am s—l—o—w—l—y learning how to switch between chords, and very soon I will be learning an entire song with only those chords. I’m going to learn “Common People” by Pulp.
I think that it’s an excellent choice for a first song.
It’s a relatively simple song
It’s a song I know well
It’s a song that I truly love.
As soon as I have it up and running, I will post me playing the simple, beginner’s version.
I had been using Fender Play on it’s free trial, and was considering paying for it, but they move way too fast, and don’t give any idea what to practice. I got frustrated rather quickly. I was telling this to my therapist last Thursday, and she said that her husband was learning from some Australian guy online, and that he had gotten really good in about a year.
I googled ‘Australian guitar teacher online’ and I saw Justinguitar.com come up as the the top search and many videos from Justin, a guy who looks like Norm MacDonald wearing a flat cap. I watched his introductory video, and I thought to myself, he doesn’t sound Australian necessarily, British, maybe even Scottish, but I was sure I found the right guy. Justin, whose surname is Sandercoe, is an Australian from Tasmania, but he has lived for more than twenty-five years in England, hence the hard- -to-place accent.
I liked Justin instantly. He seems very kind. He is always upbeat, but not aggressively so. He’s funny and not afraid to tell you that something you’re about to work on is hard and going to suck for a bit, but that the reward is going to be so much fun. Within two lessons with Justin, I felt like I learned more than I did in twenty with Fender play. His lessons are so bloody practical. Things that were really frustrating me suddenly became clear when he showed how to put my fingers correctly.
He is rigorous and methodical, but he really keeps the focus on having fun. That’s good, because I am in the place where my hands are always hurting and nothing seems to feel or sound right, but I instinctively know that with his training, in just a couple of more weeks of daily practice, I will start to be able to play recognizable music.
Justinguitar.com is unbelievably rich in content, with literally thousands of songs and other lessons for free. He does all of this for voluntary donations, and I plan to donate what I would have spent on Fender Play, because I think that the content is that good.
This skill is the one that I feel like I am making the most progress in. I will check in with the other feats in the next few days.
On an unrelated note
I am thinking about changing the title of the blog from “Too Early Old, Too Late Smart” to just “Too Late Smart”. Not a desperately important problem, but I would like to know which title y’all like best. Also, please tell your friends about my project, if you don’t mind.
Drop me a line at my email: jeremydnichols@gmail.com
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