Hello from Dorset England

Andy · October 26, 2021

Hi Everyone hello from Dorset on the south coast of England. My name is Andy and I have just turned fifty. My guitar journey started when I was 18 with my best mate. We were at his house and we picked up this battered 2 string acoustic which was miles out of tune (we didn’t know how to tune it) also there was a guitar for beginners book so we learnt together. The first song we played was ‘go and tell Aunt Rudy her grey goose is dead’ I think haha! We decided to get new guitars which was about £120 and had a small amp with it. I caught the bug and not looked back since. I started a band with my brother and a couple of mates we thought we were great as everyone does at that age it’s all part of growing I guess! The singer and I joined up with a rhythm section and called ourselves Giraffe we played alternative rock at the end of the nineties we played around the local town and having lots of friends all of us we used to get about 400 people at a gig in the pubs around the town and I found it absolutely terrifying. I have a good memory so I used to remember all the chords and lead line by memory rather than actually learn theory. This led me to have to leave the band as I was afraid I was going to freeze and totally forget everything. I used to practice 2 hours a day just to keep it in my memory. This led me to fall out of love with the guitar due to this. I have picked it up a few times since even a few one off gigs. When COVID and the lock down hit I decided to try again. Learning theory I found the same barriers and I thought why can’t I grab the idea of this I just couldn’t get my head around a few things ie modes. Then I stumbled across Jonathan and it all became clear, I was so happy then extremely Angry as I feel I have lost 25 years of progress. Although I’m making up for it now though. The lessons are so clear and easy to grasp. I feel some teachers make it so difficult and hard when it actually a lot simpler than you would think. I hope other people in the same boat as me realize this and don’t lose time like I did. Keep strumming and playing everyone.All the best!