New to the forum - Carlos aka jayc72

Introduce Yourself
#1

My name is Carlos but i go by JayC, I’ve only been playing for about 2 weeks now. I know I suck like totally bad, but the question i have for the teachers or anyone who has known someone like me who accomplished their goals. Well sorry for being so long,

On March 30, 2014 I was on my way to the airport to fly abroad, well 2 miles from where I’m typing this a semi truck was headed east bound driving at around 130MPH and we were on the west bound lane, as soon as passed each other up. the suspension called the equalizer beam bar that holds the leaf springs, broke off and came crashing into the windshield striking me directly in the face, and well I died at the scene of the accident, and well i was pronounce legally dead, lmao, but anyways, do any of you think that a person suffering with a Traumatic Brain Injury aka T B I for short can learn this instrument or should i just give up and walk away from it? I wish i could upgrade my membership, but when you live on a small disability check well money is super tight, but i just wanted to know if you think with my condition could i learn this instrument, or should i just give up and start selling my gear? thanks in advance and I apologize for the long thread, more and likely I’ll get banned, :frowning:

My name is Carlos I’ve only been playing for two weeks, before my accident i use to be able to play, but i never got around to learning lead. but my accident caused alot of short term and long term memory loss, so I guess i should just give up my dream on learning the guitar and becoming a song writer :frowning:

p.s. if you need an honest opinion on your original tunes or ideas, I love giving constructive criticism thanks in advance I wish you the best of luck on your guitar journey God knows i would have to live a thousand years to learn that instrument, lmao

2 Likes
#2

I wish you the best in learning guitar and suspect that you will do very well, here is a story from the Wikipedia to keep in mind:

More crucial to his music, the third finger (ring finger) and fourth finger (pinky) of Reinhardt’s left hand were badly burned. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again.[11]:43–44 [12]:10[14] Reinhardt applied himself intensely to relearning his craft, however, making use of a new guitar bought for him by his brother, Joseph Reinhardt, who was also an accomplished guitarist. While he never regained the use of those two fingers, Reinhardt regained his musical mastery by focusing on his left index and middle fingers, using the two injured fingers only for chord work.[11]:31–35

1 Like
#3

There is only one way to know for sure and that is practice.
Just practice man, nobody ever said you have to be a pro to find joy in playing the instrument.
Besides - brain is somewhat plastic. If one part is broken, then other part can take it’s responsibilities, to some extent. There are people with a whole hemisphere completely shut down/missing, and they are still alive, doing just fine.

  • Almost 9 years

  • Metal, mostly. Recently black metal, but I don’t shy away from other subgenres. I am also trying to learn some theory behind jazz and classical.

  • Sweep picking - not mastered it yet, but I get the hang of it, Tosin Abasi’s thumping is what seems absolutely otherworldly to me - in terms of technique anyways.

  • Self-taught. Took a couple of lessons, but it was quite recently and I was not a newbee by then

  • At the very beginning I was practicing like 8 hours a day, just techical stuff. Even today most of my playing is practicing some passages on repeat.

  • The youtube series… and a couple of other videos on the channel.

  • Does it really matter? Which scale, which guitar, which position… all that makes a difference. And should not really be important.

  • Transitioning to an 8 string - two additional strings mess with my head in terms of finding scales, so while on a 6 string it is not an issue as long as I stay within a certain key, on 8 string it all goes out the window. Also, I haven’t spent nearly enough time practicing any more advanced rythm stuff, like triplets and sextuplets etc.

1 Like
#4

CARLOS, sorry to hear about the accident, hope your recovering. Stick with it, play what you want how you want. If you hit a wall(as we all do) its up to you to work around it, over it, through it or whatever it takes. And you may realize the limits you have were only put in place by your own mind.

About 2 years ago i suffered from a TIA or Stroke. I had a period of months where i could not get out of bed except to eat or use the facilties. I could no longer speak clearly or articulate certain words, my tounge was basically partially paralyzed on the left side. And my motor functions were lagging about a few miliseconds after telling my left hand to move. I noticed it when i tried to play my guitar, it was off…i also had a noticeable latency with thinking, my mind was basically grasping for things id normally easily be able to think of. Kind of like a black hole of lost memories. My friend said do you know any metallica songs, i could not remember even though i played a few for years.

Fast foward a year or so…after playing my guitar again after about 4 months after my stroke, systematically i noticed as i played i began to see my hand latency begin to disappear, i began to speak clearly. The practicing began to repair my brain. After about six to seven months i was back to where i wanted to be and now have surpassed where i was by a long shot. While i feel my actual memory has gotten alot better i still feel sluggish sometimes but its getting better …Sometimes i need a reboot if i take a week off or something but the simple act of guitar playing set me back on course.

I hope you can get something from this post. I had results and i firmly believe you can too. Just take it slow and keep the goal in mind. Good luck on your journey.

2 Likes