Scooter here (51 yrs., former frustrated college acoustic strummer with no formal training). I just watched the last video in Tutorial 7 of Fundamentals 1 and I could not be happier or more thankful to Lisa McCormick and the GuitarTricks school, seriously. I am posting this on the Open Forum because if you are just perusing around the internet and trying to figure out whether to enroll in the GuitarTricks school and whether to embark on this journey, I want to encourage you as a fellow former "wanna' be" guitar player.
I will try to keep this as short (LOL :-), I just finished typing and came back to the top to see this - it is not short), but hopefully answer the questions that may be going through your mind (as they were going through mine a couple of months ago).
Where I started in February, 2019:
Many many years ago, I could sort of strum a G, C, D, Em, E, Am, A, G7, Dm, D7 and learned how to play a few songs from friends on a borrowed Sears & Roebuck nylon stringed acoustic; you know the songs I'm talking about - "Wish you were here", "Stairway to Heaven", "Dee" (okay, no a lot of college strummers try to learn the Rhodes classic, but they should). I could strum along with some John Cougar Mellencamp and Eagles tunes. But I never committed to lessons and a program and while I could acquire a new song and sloppily strum along, there was no structure to my learning and I could not see a path to becoming a real 'guitarist' rather than someone that could read tab and figure out some songs. I also became really frustrated by songs with F and B chords and barre chords. I had purchased an introductory Yamaha FG410 acoustic, but never took it in to be "set up" (didn't know that was a thing) and the action was SOOO High that there was no way that I was going to learn to make barre chords that sounded decent. Of course, I didn't know that the action was too high or that my neck was out of alignment and could be easily fixed with the twist of a truss key, this was before the age of internet and youtube.
False Starts as an Adult:
After college, over the ensuing 30 years before now, I have picked up my old Yamaha FG410 a few times and strummed out some memories or picked a riff from a long-forgotten song. At one point, I went to a guitar store and ended up purchasing a Tacoma DM18 and signing up for lessons. I'm not going to pick on the instructor or the guitar store here online, but there was no structured course and looking back, I realize that the instructor did not have a path for me to follow; he could see that I could play a few chords and we basically spent 2 mos. learning a few songs that I never really practiced enough. In the end (of that course), the memories of my frustration and failings with barre chords and knowing how to progress came flooding back, filled my mind with doubt that I would be able to learn and advance and kept me from making a commitment to a program (frankly, the instructor never gave me any reason to believe that there was a "program" or a "path" to get somewhere). That was about 20 years ago.
Finding GuitarTricks:
Skip to December 2018, my son is now 13 and asked if I would teach him to play guitar after seeing my 2 dust-covered guitar cases in my closet (the Yamaha FG410 and the Tacoma DM18). I figured that I knew enough to teach him the basics and, if he stuck with it for a few months, I would spend the money on lessons at the local music school/guitar shop. Off we went to the guitar store, bought a 'Learn To Play Guitar' beginners book, a handful of picks, a couple of cheap guitar stands and some new guitar strings. We started that book together with the low E string and learning to read music (this was an old-school beginner book, it doesn't teach tablature). I figured that I would "start from the beginning" with him and maybe I could really learn this time.
We both committed ourselves to it those first two weeks. Getting together, playing When the Saints Come Marching In, Mary's Little Lamb and other songs that one can play note by note on 2 or 3 strings. I didn't share it with my son, but my feelings of doubt and frustration (and a little boredom) quickly creeped back into my head. But we soldiered through.
THEN, I got on the internet and started exploring for sites that talked about learning to play guitar. I stumbled across GuitarTricks and it looked much more exciting than the dull beginner book that we were trying to follow. Importantly, I could see that there was a program that was actually going somewhere that I wanted to go. I had already looked at the end of the book and saw that I would eventually be able to pick my way through all 6 strings and play some never heard of songs with quarter notes and maybe an eighth-note thrown in, a few simple chords G and C, but I couldn't see anything beyond the end of that book and learning the basic songs that I would never play for anyone in public (not being 8 years old - 'hey mommy look at me'). Could you see me, a 51 year old man, or my son, a 13-year old boy yearning to be cool, playing a very basic note-picking version of O'Tannenbaum and telling our friends "hey, we're learning to play guitar" - Please.
GuitarTricks Fundamentals 1 - Getting To Graduation:
This morning, I finished watching the final video in the Fundamentals 1 course. I am really really happy (thank you LISA!!, thank you!!). The old finger dexterity and muscle memory from prior playing definitely allowed me to progress through the course at a fairly fast-pace (about 6-8 weeks), though I have a lot of work to do on rhythm and chord progression and I will be using all of Lisa's songs to practice new strumming patterns and mastering chord shapes, chord changes and rhythm. My son is in Tutorial 3 and 4, but he's not practicing as much as he should - though he sees my progress and excitement and it motivates him. It will take him longer because he doesn't have the background and years of experience, but he is 13 and has a heck of a lot more free time!!
The course GOES somewhere and it is a fantastic balance of introduction to the guitar, music theory, right hand and left hand practice and lessons. I am incredibly impatient and want to get to a place where I can play anything and everything and make sounds like Chet Atkins, but GuitarTricks has helped to keep me on track and feel challenged at every turn. Being able to watch and listen to Lisa M and to get a sense that I was progressing in the right way, at the right pace, and that there weren't basics that I was skipping over, was critical in keeping me motivated when a new skill was difficult. I had a ton of "A-HA!" moments both in terms of overcoming physical finger dexterity issues (with LOTS of practice) and in unlocking SO MUCH with some straightforward lessons on music theory (LISA - thank you SOOO MUCH for being such a thoughtful and awesome teacher - you made the scary - simple). If someone told me 2 months ago that in a few very easy bite-size pieces, I would understand what it meant to play 1-4-5 in the key of G, or C, or D, or E, or A, or B (or, yes....F), or to play 1-4-3-1-4-5 in ANY key, I would have told them that I didn't have that kind of time to study and memorize. BUT, it's not that hard, just listen and take it in time.
During my adventures in Fundamentals 1, I wandered off and tried a few of the recommended Songs from the Song library. Wow - Carren, thank you too !! Songs come in multiple lessons that cover interesting music theory stuff that comes up in the song, as well as strumming structure, chord progressions, key, etc... and then there are slow run-throughs for each part and then "play with the band". Brilliant ! I am amazed at, and extremely grateful for, the patience of the instructors.
Lisa, would it be too forward to say that I love you? Onward to Fundamentals 2 (but still going back through 1 to master the basics) !!
