2023 Goals/Welcome New Patrons!
Added 2023-01-06 00:27:34 +0000 UTCThis month's New Patron Welcome thread is open to ALL existing Patrons!
If you’re new here, tell us a little about yourself: What brought you here? Where are you in your guitar journey, and what do you hope to accomplish while you’re here?
If you’re a seasoned Patron, please give our new members a warm welcome and share your guitar/music goals for 2023! Reply to new Patrons below if you share the same goals, or can relate to their journey. This community is made up of students of different skill levels from all around the world and interaction between students is an excellent way of learning and staying motivated.
More helpful info for new patrons can be found on my Where To Start page.
Comments
David! Welcome! Thanks for being here. And wow. First time since Katrina? I hope you enjoy your time here! And if you struggle to play with fluidity you might also appreciate Practice Thoughts https://www.scottpauljohnson.com/practice-thoughts
Scott Paul Johnson
2023-01-11 03:22:04 +0000 UTCJames! Has it been a year already? Wow. I'd say just dive into the community challenges. You really don't need to do much. Try starting with a chord progression or a pentatonic riff or something. Nothing fancy. Next week I've got "Write something in A Minor" coming out. I'm certain you can handle that! See you there?
Scott Paul Johnson
2023-01-11 03:20:08 +0000 UTCHi Tim! Good to see you here. You've been playing guitar for a few years more than I have! Two, I think? Did you do that jam yet? How did it go? Just remember that communication is a HUGE part of playing with people and you can always just state your preference like "Oh I'd just prefer to play along with you" or "I don't need to take a solo" or "Oh I'm not so good in that key." But I've heard what you write and I have a hunch you could probably hang in any jam band. You've got skillz
Scott Paul Johnson
2023-01-11 03:16:16 +0000 UTCHi Taylor from the place where everything is bigger! Welcome! If you started about 4 weeks ago, I highly recommend also finding a decent private teacher who can help you get through the gauntlet of technique and what to expect. Not many people get 4 weeks in and keep playing. My tips:? Make sure your goals are clear Make sure you're separating hard practice from fun practice and LEAN into both. If it's hard practice, really focus in on whats hard to get to know your fingers - especially finger placement close to frets. When you wanna have fun, practice just letting go and not thinking. I think you'd appreciate my Practice Thoughts series - I've been distilling all the concepts that have helped me improve. Also, of course, follow the Scott's Recommended Lesson Plan linked on every post around here. /
Scott Paul Johnson
2023-01-11 03:13:12 +0000 UTCHi Jason/Kylir Nice to see you posting here! That sounds like an awesome goal! I'd also recommend ear training, specifically Spotify Roulette. This is where you play about 10 to 30 seconds of a song and try to figure out what key it's in. Even if you don't nail it, move on to the next. If thats easy for you, try figuring out the bassline, then the melody, then the chord progression by ear. I've got an ear training course that will at least get you started if there are not confident skills for you.
Scott Paul Johnson
2023-01-11 03:09:15 +0000 UTCHi David from Barcelona. Welcome! I am SO happy to hear that you've been expressing yourself musically since joining. That is so exciting! Feel free to share what you've been writing in the community forum.
Scott Paul Johnson
2023-01-11 02:58:22 +0000 UTCArcha! Welcome! Once you get through Music Theory for Guitar and the first lesson of Music Theory Monday, you've probably learned enough to try out some Community Challenges! Those are biweekly writing challenges, designed to meet you where you're at and have fun writing things and sharing with the community. Check those out. Also, you can always ask questions on the weekly Office Hours Q&A
Scott Paul Johnson
2023-01-11 02:55:17 +0000 UTCHi Harsh - Welcome! I think you'll enjoy the Music Theory for Guitar section for now. I strongly recommend finding beginner technique resources from outside my Patreon for learning songs and whatnot, but I think even at a beginner level if you went from Music Theory for Guitar to CAGED Basics you'd be really prepared to learn a lot of things! Don't forget you can always ask questions on the weekly office hours post live Q&A
Scott Paul Johnson
2023-01-11 02:52:43 +0000 UTCHello from New Orleans! Picked up my guitar for the first time since Katrina. Restrung it and started piddling around, then found Scott on Youtube. Really looking forward to getting involved with the guitar community here and being able to play with fluidity for the first time.
David Gross
2023-01-08 13:34:50 +0000 UTCI've been a member here for a year now. Still making my way through all the lessons, currently on CAGED basics 2 lesson 2 or 3. Goals for me is play with others and also be able to hold my own while doing so. Really want to start getting involved in the community challenges and start to push myself by doing them. I'm an Englishman living in Brisbane, Australia. Started playing guitar about 20 years ago and gave up. Put the guitar away but got it out again when Covid came along and now the kids are older I have more time for me to learn guitar. Been playing for 2 and half years now. James
James Simmo
2023-01-08 12:53:59 +0000 UTCBeen a member here for a couple of years now, playing on and off for some 27(!) years. Scott's lessons have been a bit of a revelation for me, and one of my resolutions is to get stuck into some of the more recent lessons and keep that up as a routine as if fallen a bit behind with these. I've also got the opportunity to have a jam with a friend and some of his buddies this coming week which makes me super nervous but I'm going to do. Playing with other musicians is definitely a source of anxiety for me as I've never really done it, but it's another resolution to do this whenever the opportunity arises.
Tim Rowley
2023-01-07 16:43:19 +0000 UTCI also started during the pandemic! Guess it wasn’t all bad after all 🙌🎸
Niko
2023-01-06 18:25:17 +0000 UTCHowdy from TEXAS! I just started learning guitar about 4 weeks ago. Recently found Scott, the guitar/musical guru. Watch the first lesson on Major scales and learned more than the few days I spent on YT trying to learn. I really want to get where I can solo to anything, blues, rock, lofi, groovy beats, edm(Two feet style), R&B, etc... My old man grew me up on blues, rock & Pink Floyd (Pulse Album) to be exact lol. So, I've always had the bug in me to play. So I made a decision to dive in. I gravitate wanting to play the blues, specifically "slow blues" - I love it. But I'm here to learn all that I can about guitar and I feel like I'm in the right community.
Taylor Jones
2023-01-06 15:03:40 +0000 UTCHello everyone! I've been a patron for a year or so. Very happy with Scott's teaching and the community. But lately I've been playing less - getting frustrated by not making progress... So I decided to change that and I want to make more music and have more fun with my instrument. My dream goal is to be able to improvise on the guitar and "let out" the melodies I have in my head. To progress towards that goal I'm going to focus on Scott's CAGED series and the community challenges! I'm saying it out loud. I'm committed now! :)
Kylir
2023-01-06 10:28:07 +0000 UTCBienvenu Niko ! Meme chose pour moi il y a un an et quelque. Les vidéos Youtube de Scott m'ont bluffé et j'ai rejoins la communauté :)
Kylir
2023-01-06 10:20:07 +0000 UTCHello from Barcelona, Spain. I've been playing guitar for 13 years, but only learning songs. Have wanted to learn guitar theory and improvisational skills for years, having found Scott's videos via YouTube, the style of teaching just seems to work for me. Have gone from nothing to writing my own songs in the past couple months since I joined, and finding using the guitar to express creativity so much fun. My goal for this year is to be able to be able to improvise in a wider range of styles.
David Bloomer
2023-01-06 09:38:42 +0000 UTCHi everyone, and greetings from Paris, France! 🇫🇷🥐 I’ve been playing finger style guitar for a few years now and decided it was time to get more serious about learning how my instrument works. SPJs videos on YouTube blew my mind, so I took the plunge and signed up!
Niko
2023-01-06 06:59:12 +0000 UTCHi Everyone! I grew up listening to music genres like shoegaze, classic alternative, new wave, and still do with all the new bands that are influenced by them! I don't know what clicked when I turned 40 something, but I just wanted to really play the songs that l love to listen to. I've been learning how to play for about 3 years now and I felt that something was missing in my overall understanding of learning guitar. I found SPJ through his pentatonic lesson on Youtube and thought he was the best at explaining it and how to implement it over a jam track. I just started and I'm on the music theory portion of the lesson plan and it's been a great experience understanding how scales work. I'm hoping that one day I can create or play something that is at least half as good as the bands that I listen to. :) Nice to meet everyone!
Archa Sung
2023-01-06 03:40:14 +0000 UTCHi ! I am Harsh from US. I have been playing guitar seriously for past two months. I am able to move up and down the fretboard but slow. I am looking to up my agility but while being able to play scales and I really liked Scott's approach to this so decided to join. I hope that I will be able to play a wider range of music while understanding and improvising. Looking forward to learn and progress !
harsh ghesani
2023-01-06 03:16:51 +0000 UTCHi Moisés:-) I think you are going to love being part of this patreon! It’s fantastic!!
Tasha McManus
2023-01-06 02:41:47 +0000 UTCHello! I'm from Costa Rica (apologies in advance for my English). I started on the guitar at the start of the pandemic and have spent time steadily learning from different sources mainly online until I've reached a point where learning songs is not my main goal (not that I'm good at it) but to understand more about music and guitar theory. I found your YouTube videos about the CAGED system and it seemed the easiest and best explained, so here I am, with the intention of learning a lot. Regards!!
Moisés Fallas Wahrmann
2023-01-06 02:16:44 +0000 UTC
