Hello from Reno, NV

[Kurt-Reno]

Hello.

Greetings from Reno!  I'm 56 and retired, and have to say Breakthrough Guitar (Guitar Grid 101 in particular) kept my sanity during quarantine.  I've played in the bedroom since about age 17, and I'm blessed with a good ear (but no voice at all :-)), so have picked up various songs over the years, but never understood why things that sound good actually work.

Jonathan's course, focusing on tonal feelings rather than rote memorization of note names (also important, but tackling that as a secondary goal) clicked for me.  I practiced those diatonic scale patterns backwards and forwards for hours and hours...and I can now confidently flesh out a melody or solo over almost any backing track (except maybe jazz).  Dipping a toe into modes and CAGED now too.

Also got introduced to learning blues and its long tradition and styles over the 5 pentatonic boxes.  Having a ton of fun and enjoying more creative freedom while also learning why it all works on the fretboard.  Starting to "see" the overlapping patterns between major and minor, plus how pentatonic fits into diatonic and how modes work.  It's like seeing a map that was in invisible ink before.  Some days better than others, but overall having a ton of fun and learning a lot.

My magic wand items: I have a tendency to have "happy" fingers that fly around more than necessary and constantly have to work on keeping them lower to the strings and economizing the fingering motions.  That and bent string vibrato...getting there but not consistent.

When covid lets up, I'd like to find some other folks in my area to jam with maybe weekly.  Only so much you can do by yourself without getting the creative juices and feedback going from other like-minded people.

That's all for now.

Kurt

[Daisy]

Hi Kurt! 

Great to have you here, and all the way from Reno?! That's neat. 

You should checkout some support pages in your area, maybe search Reno Guitarists, Im sure you can find other guitarist that looking for some other players as well. 

Have a great weekend! Thanks for joining us 😁

[mesqimo]

Michael from Buda, Tx. here. Am 77 and have been playing for 6 years. Love the blues and 60's, 70's rock n roll but my genre is pretty eclectic. The guitar is my form of meditation. I love the process as much as the finished product. Just looking to continue to get better. Wife and I just recently relocated to the Buda area so would like to find some new meditative partners to jam with from time to time.

Happy to be a part of this group!  Blessings to all!