Hi all! I’m excited to join this community. (LONG POST)
Currently living in the UK but moving countries soon (“on hold” due to Covid… yikes).
By sheer chance, I came across the “cracking the code” series and binged on it for a while thinking it was all fun and because of the great production value. Along the way I realised there were a thousand nuggets of knowledge I could immediately benefit from, it was a bright spot in a murk of knowledge, technique, etc. you can find on the internet (the interweb, as my grandma called it).
A bit about my journey, I started playing guitar around 14 years ago when I was 16, both classical and electric soon after. I went to a community music school for two years and learnt the basics from good teachers and some musical theory that, in retrospect, has stood me in good stead. All this was classical guitar, I never had any education on electric guitar but was able to transfer a lot of skills and lessons.
Went to uni, went through different bands, played gigs, had a lot of fun and became a decent player considering the time I’d been playing (did rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, metal, etc.).
Unfortunately, this doesn’t end well.
After a very acrimonious break-up with a band I’d invested a lot of time and energy in, which I can consider scarring from a personal standpoint, I stopped playing as much and guitar playing drifted into the background of my life. I was 22ish and stopped playing in bands and practice became a one-every-two-weeks thing… until it didn’t. I was busy doing other things and got caught up in social life in my latter years in uni, plus, I moved countries and… well, no excuses but it just happened.
Today, 8 years later, I’ve picked it up again (3 months ago).
I’ve made peace with the break and can’t go back on it. It is what it is. I’m easing myself back into guitar playing and want to do it right to enjoy the music and experience.
To be frank, I’m having a tough time, though. While I was far from a virtuoso I learnt to play decent lead guitar songs for rock and metal standards (i.e. Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Led Zepp, etc.). Hardest or “fastest song” I ever learnt was far beyond the sun. It took me a good few weeks to learn to play at home (never performed it, I wouldn’t dare). This was quite a stretch for me and I can’t say I mastered the dynamics in it. I was just keeping up with the tempo! I stopped playing soon after, so it’s all in the past now.
In sum, I was average but okay. I could perform in public with confidence and could learn many songs, I had a decent repertoire and helped compose nice tunes in the bands I played in.
I’m far from that level today.
Why join this community? Busy adults are time-poor and it’s absolutely key to make sure practice is efficient and to the point. I think I can benefit from this budding community and I reckon I might even contribute.
I like classical, rock, blues, jazz and -weirdo- videogame music. Having good technique is essential to play these genres properly! I’m not into or against shredding, but the odd bit of shredding can compliment a nice tune with some flair.
Plus, in classical and other genres, melodic patterns and that sort of ideas are absolutely gorgeous to my ears, so this might be a good place to explore that area, too.
I’ll poke around but I’m considering signing up to the master in mechanics content. However, I fear that being a beginner for a second time I should put this off for some months (thoughts on this?).
Also, any advice for someone coming back after a long break would be more than welcome.
Areas I need to work on in general:
- Rythm (something I neglected a bit back in the day).
- Learning songs by ear (I did some of this back in the day, but not enough).
- Chord voicings - beautiful ideas emerge from these.
- Muting unwanted noise from adjacent strings. The hardest part of coming back to the instrument. I used to do a lot of this back in the day and have simply lost the touch. Will work hard on this as it is essential.
- Fast-playing. Last but not least. Need to get back to my speed and get a bit better.
Happy to be here and looking forward to doing my best to keep up.
Be safe!
JLL