Tonedef
Hi everybody!
I'm 33 years old, currently live in Alberton and I work as a software developer (C#, anybody?). I have been playing air guitar for nigh on forever. It sounds like nothing on Earth! ?
I'm glad to have found this forum! On Monday, while waiting for my better half to come out of the op theatre (torn ankle ligaments), I was strolling around a shopping centre, and lo and behold, there was a Cash Crusaders.
Fifteen minutes later, I walked out with a new Sanchez solid body electric, replete with small amp and stand, for the princely sum of R1400. I've tried to google this brand, with no luck whatsoever. I suspect it's of Asian manufacture, since it looks 100% identical to some entry-level Aria guitars I've seen pictures of (The amp sez "Made in China", but that may be a red herring).
To that end, I've dubbed it "The noodlecaster"! ? It's a pretty thing, though, with its glossy metalling turquoise paint and white inlay. It's got a built in digital tuner (which is perfect for a beginner like me). The quality seems to be good, and it's got a nice sound to it, at least, according to my novice ear.
Oh yes! Me. Well, I've never played guitar before. No experience whatsoever. It has, however, been a long dream of mine to be at least proficient at it. I've got no illusions about ever reaching the stratospheric hights of brilliance of the John Fives and Satrianis of this world, and I reckon I'm a little bit too old and a little bit too married to entertain thoughts of nubile groupies throwing their underwear at me. ?
Anyhow, I hope I haven't plukked the proverbial lat-vir-my-gat, so to speak. I realise that there is a long row to hoe for me where the Noodle is concerned. I spent the better part of yesterday simply familiarising myself with it. I can at least boast sore fingertips, and I can coax a simple fretless melody tune out of it. It's more than I could ever manage for 33 years! I guess it's a start, right?
Right? ?
I honestly can't say what my long-term goals for my guitar-playing are. I simply want to be able to play, and play well. I trust that I won't become another Cash Crusader statistic, like so many others before me. I dream of yanking gorgeous solos out of thin air, like ferinstance the ones in Homeworld (Yes) or Lipgloss and black (Atreyu). Perhaps it's just as well that it didn't boil down to taking a pill to learn, otherwise these wonderful pieces would be commonplace.
My favourite bands are The Tea Party, The Mission UK and Live.
Hoping to learn a lot on here, but most importantly, I hope you guys will manage to help keep me motivated.
Cheers vir eers!
Riaan
singemonkey
Cool beans. Remember, the people who are really great guitar players were known to be great after they'd only played 4 or 5 years. Of course that's 4 or 5 years of doing almost nothing but playing guitar.
Point is, the more you practise, the more proficient you'll get. And you can hope to get really good at this late start simply by putting the hours in somewhere.
Here's a first shortcut:
www.justinguitar.com
Once you've gone through his entire beginner's course, you'll already be a little ahead of the pack.
If you get a chance, get someone who knows guitar well to take a look at yours to tell you if it's playable or it needs a setup. This is important. Beginners often don't know that the guitar is badly set up and put failure to progress down to their lack of capacity - when actually the guitar is almost impossible to play and just needs a tweak.
domhatch
Yowser. Cool site. I really like the way it's broken down into logical, easy to follow steps. One could do a lot worse! Think I'll be popping over there every so often meself...
ActionArnie
Hey welcome ?
Tonedef wrote:
(C#, anybody?)
C++, maybe we're related ?
+1 about having your guitar checked out ... I've been playing for some time and recently I had the opportunity of playing a guitar I found lying around at my folks place. It was absolutely horrific and I'm not surprised at all when beginners give up if they're trying to learn on a poorly setup (or sometimes just plain bad) guitar.
Anyways, have fun and practise!
Brad
Sean
Welcome, nice introduction btw ?
Riaan-Combrink
Welcome! And don't be shy to ask questions ?
The forum also has a good search function that is a good point of departure for most queries.
Have fun!
Tonedef
Thanks for the welcome, folks!
And thanks for the link to JustinGuitar - I have to agree that it's a very good site. I'm currently working through the BC101 and I've actually figured out the fretboard works. I've got a book called "How to play the quitar" that I picked up at CNA, which frankly sucks at getting the point across (or most likely I'm just particularly thick).
I practised till the wee hours of the morning, and it's pretty amazing how quickly you pick the basics up. I'm definitely going to get a good tutor soon, but I'd like to be able to display some basic proficiency first so the time isn't wasted. I'm being very careful to do everything as perfectly as possible, but I figure any bad habits I pick up now should be easily sortable if I get to a tutor soon enough.
One thing I don't have yet is a metronome, so I quickly bashed one up on the computer last night, and it really helps. Although I struggled a bit to fall asleep wot with my head going tick tick tick. ?
Cheers!
Riaan
singemonkey
Great stuff Riaan.
Keep us informed about your progress. Look in on the forum and see what else you can pick up. And like I said, make sure you get a player to tell you whether the guitar's poorly set up in a way that could impede your progress. It's cheap to sort out if it is.
