Welcome to AM Joe. Enjoy the journey.

Welcome Joseph…. You are in the right place. Enjoy.

John from Pittsburgh…

Hello from (outside of) Nashville,
Clarksville to be more precise.
New to the site, but not to guitar and life. I’m 63 years old and have been playing, off and on, since I was 12. I’ve played mostly rhythm and fingerpicking in Rock and Country styles. I used to use my singing to cover my lack of ability on guitar, but a health issue did away with that. So now I am concentrating on guitar. Learning the theory behind what I learned to to do by ear and expanding that into the ability to improvise. Once I latch on to something, I’m like a dog on a bo.. oo! Squirrel > > >>

Hi Everyone,

My name is Steve I am just retired at 62 years of age and live in Cheshire United Kingdom.
Most of my adult life I have “Dabbled” with the guitar, never devoting enough time to it as I should, but out of everything I have ever been interested the guitar is what I keep coming back to.
I am interested in the Electric guitar, and Blues is something I think will be suitable for me to play.
I now have more time on my hands to learn this thing properly, discovered Active melody, watched a few Youtube videos by Brian and thought….Wow this guy can teach well. So here I am now part of this wonderful community.

Looking forward to interacting with you great guy’s and gals 🙂

JJ from Boaz Alabama. 54 and been trying to play for a while. I really like the way things are laid out here. Really enjoying it.

Hey Joseph. I was born in Port Jeff and my wife’s from West Islip. We are in FL now.
Welcome, it’s a great site with much to learn.

Hello good people of AM.

I’m a retired old bloke from London and just learning the guitar. I’m 12 months in and getting so much from Brian’s lessons; I love learning to play and be musical and not just be a jukebox… a badly working one at that!

I don’t know if there are many other over 60’s learners here but I’d welcome the chance to share experiences of learning in later life. Also, if there’s anyone here from the UK – hello! Anyone in the London area wanting to meet-up for guitar practice, I’d be keen to join you… if you don’t mind my struggles.

John

Hi John,
To one old bloke in London from another one in Oxford, I’m glad you’re enjoying your time with ActiveMelody. There are some class online guitar teachers around at the moment and I think Brian is certainly ranked highly among them. At just over 60 years of age, you could well be regarded as a mere youngster here, moreover all the best in your musical pursuits.

Richard

Thanks Richard

I am encouraged to think I might be a younger member of the older learners group!

Any tips for ged and aching neck, shoulders and wrists most welcome!

John

Only the simple things John, like:- Find a guitar that’s suits you physically and comfortable to play for at least a couple of hours practice etc. Use a decent chair with adjustable height and sufficient back support, also use a foot stool. Try and hold a good posture when playing and most important, try and relax while playing. Holding oneself tense for hours can result in all sorts of physical problems. Best of luck John…..

Richard

That’s much appreciated. I’ll look to all this things.

Cheers again!

hey all!
my names dave, i just hit the 60 yr young mark and decided to re pick up a guitar again. I reaaly enjoy this community and site ,alot of good info and lessons.
nice to meet you all

Hello Dave. Are you in the States?

I too am new here and also an over 60’s beginner.

I’ll look out for news of your progress, struggles and triumphs as you go.

Cheers!

John

Hey John, yes I’m in Arizona near the Nevada state line, where are you located

Hi Dave

I’m in London, an area south of the city near somewhere called Crystal Palace.

I may have been to your area. Me and two pals drove from Phoenix to Vegas some years ago for my 50th. We loved Arizona (but hated Vegas). Huge skies, drop dead gorgeous landscapes and great food. I envy you your location!

I imagine everyone in America has access to great guitars so has real stars to play with. What do you have and how did you choose it?

Hate Vegas? Lol, yea I can see why I don’t mind going there at times ,I would never live there tho! I own 2 guitars.
One is an Epiphone Les paul vintage edition..which I love the look and feel, I just think I need to upgrade some things like pick-ups,locking tuners ect.
My other is an Ibanez grx70, I seem to be playing it more.may be buying a stratocaster tho ,want to go play on to see how it feels,I have short fingers hands ect. What do you play?

Hi Dave

Yes, Im afraid we all found Vegas a bit of a shock and not being gamblers I thought it was a bit like an adult Disneyland but on drugs!

I started to learn guitar in my 20’s and was led to learn classical guitar but soon gave up as progress was too slow. However I kept the guitar in the hope of starting again. Then in the recent lockdown and with my guitar inaccessible in storage is bought a Vintage VS500 (ES 335 copy) to learn on. Then I “accidently” bought a Tokai LP on Ebay (don’t ask how) but with my classical still inaccessible I wanted an acoustic to play as I was travelling so I bought a Lag, T118asce electro-acoustic – which I love as its so comfortable to play and sounds gorgeous.

So Vegas may not have suited me but my ability to spend money without care hasn’t been diminished!

I enjoy Brian’s lessons as I want to understand and learn to play by ear. However even the basic lessons take e weeks the accomplish. I follow Brian’s way of using shapes and idea to ‘manualise the theory’ but my skills are poor and executing the takes me ages.

The advnbatge of having 4 guitars is I can stop learning to play one style Im struggling with and start something else, eg finger style on acoustic. This way I make slow progress on a number of fronts and don’t get unduly overwhelmed with frustration.