Less proficient than I thought

[Dale]

I am 69 year old and have been playing guitar since I was 16. There have been many times when the playing suffered due to family and work. It is hard to practice when you work 80 hours a week. That is one of the disadvantages of being self -employed. Now I have lots of time to practice and play.

I ran into Griff at the IGPA Summit and I was impressed so I ordered BGU2 . Let me say that I like Steve Stine a lot but his focus is very much heavy metal and that is just not where I am.

Now, I have been playing but due to schedules, I have not been playing with anyone else. I have on occasion done solo 2 hour sets at a local coffee house and things like that but always solo. I looked at the lessons and thought I would breeze through the first half of the book. With lesson 1, I discovered my timing is terrible. I have spent several days on lesson 1. It seems I have it down pretty well now and have moved on to lessons 2 and three but I keep coming back to 1.

This is a lot of fun.

 

[mountain man]

Great to get to know you from you discussion Dale! It sounds like you are on the right track to improve your playing skills and have even more fun!!!

 

[HotLks]

Sounds good Dale. Take your time. It's not a race. Especially regarding timing. Very important.

Carry on!

See you down the road!

 

[david moon]

If you recognize that your timing is "terrible", try playing along with a metronome, counting out loud (1&2& or 1&u 2&u)

Record yourself and post here and you wlil get feedback. (Might not always be what you want to hear, but will be honest.

 

[Dale]

Thanks david .I have used a metronome in the past. I focused on this for a while and found that using Griff's recordings helped me to get back on track pretty quickly. I am working on counting out loud. After a long time of not doing it, it is a little difficult but I will get there. I still need to work on learning how to record..

 

[Mike Vickers]

Keep at it Dale. I'm 67 and also find it hard but as you say it's great fun and at least we are having fun playing the Blues! Take it easy and keep spanking that plank.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Dale]

Thanks for the input Mike> I have a history of starting things and then getting distracted by something else. i don't know how many courses I have started and then found something else that seemed attractive and moved on. One of Griff's blog postings from a couple of weeks ago talked about trying to play things we are not ready for. That has been an issue for me. Then I get discouraged and go to something else that I am not ready for.

I am trying to go through BGU2 without getting distracted by other courses but if there is a sale, I might be tempted to buy. I am learning more from this course already than I have from anything else at this stage. Also the forum helps a lot. I already feel at ease here. I have posted several times and that is very unusual for me.