Hi everyone! My name is Emily and I've always loved guitar music, particularly hard rock, but I never picked up a guitar until a couple years when I was 44, newly single, and thought why not? (Had to shush that little voice in my head that said I was too old, which I know now is ridiculous.) Plus I was getting really into Iron Maiden, and it was that awesome intro to Phantom of the Opera that made me finally buy my Squier Strat.

I worked from YouTube on some cool riffs for awhile. Then I finally decided to go about this the right way, signed up with Guitar Tricks, and am now doing Lisa's fundamentals course. I love it! She has you not only learning chords, but also playing along to some great songs in what feels like no time.

I've been thinking about what was holding me back all those years. Of course, life and work have a habit of getting in the way. A friend asked if I thought it was because of a relative lack of female role models for rock guitar. I don't think so though. In my 20s and 30s, two of my guitar heroes were Carrie Brownstein and Mary Timony. And even when I was little, there were the Go-Go's, the Bangles, Ann and Nancy Wilson...So it's not like that was ever much of a factor.

I think the main thing holding me back was thinking that in order to really be a musician, you had to write your own music. And I have no idea if, when, and how I'll ever do that. But now I know that you don't have to do that. Going back to YouTube, I've seen a lot of great tribute and cover bands. Never say never as far as writing my own stuff, it may happen eventually. But for now, my main ambition is to play in a bar band and melt people's faces off with some Maiden covers!