Love This Site Already

[mbraasch]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I just found this website, and I have something to say. So here goes. I started playing guitar in 2003. I was 13 years old. I listened to punk rock mostly. I was starting to get into metal at the time. I discovered Waking the Fallen that same year. I Won't See You Tonight Part 2 has one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, guitar solos of all time. I remember going on ultimate-guitar and a couple other tab sites that I don't even think exist anymore to try and learn what I could. There were a lot of article, but not really any videos to go with them, so it was mostly me just reading it and hoping I was doing it the right way. YouTube was in it's early days. Not a ton of helpful videos. A few, though. Paul Gilbert had a DVD that I found a copy of online and downloaded. I lived in a rural area. Not a lot options for lessons; didn't really have the money for them anyway, so I ended up teaching myself for the most part. Oh, boy. Let me tell you, the bad habits that I still have almost twenty years later. Well, I'm not even sure I can fix em at this point (lol).

I wish this site existed when I started out. The amount of information on this site, all for free by the way, has almost no competition. Maybe JustinGuitar.com. I don't really think I have a point with all of this. More just speaking my mind. Good luck to everyone. And to anyone reading this that maybe thinks they're not good enough, or they wish they were as good as so-and-so, remember: it's not a competition. Just do your best, and practice things the right way. You'll be amazed. I had an art teacher in high school. He lived by two phrases. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) and practice makes PERMANENT!! Not perfect. If you practice wrong, you'll learn bad habits, and trust me, once they're cemented into your play style, they are hard habits to break. Keep on jammin!

 

[Ed Seith]

I hear ya, man. I started in 1984 and the closest thing I had to anything was guitar magazines and photocopied pages from "Metal Method" that you waited two months for in the mail. Even the few tab books you could get were terrible, and music video editors didn't care if the shot of the guitarist in the solo was from them actually playing that part of the solo.

Online lessons and slow-down tools changed the damn world for guitar.

BUT - I will say that it was all those guitar players' bad habits and wrongly learned parts and techniques that made so many players unique back then. I think now there are a lot more hugely accomplished players, but very few that really stand out distinctly with their own sound and style.

 

[idssdi]

That's great to hear you like it so much!

Welcome!

 

[ari.mac]

Welcome!!!

 

[Nocturne]

Yeah this is such an amazing place to learn. I also agree about how internet change the way of learning. It's just so convenient to have videos you can play again and again, that you can slow down, there are people that do close ups, A LOT of tabs and videos where you can hear only the instrument you want to hear from a song... Even metronomes cost nothing as there are website that does that. There are also programs that read tabs at the speed you want and you can replay the section you want. It became so easy to just isolate and practice everything you need to work by dividing in small sections without making everything hard and you can progress much faster.
And welcome! And about your bad habits, I don't know which ones you are talking about but as Ed said if it doesn't hinder you this isn't a bad habit but the way you play it. How you feel comfortable to play is much more important than the rules some people set up, because sometimes they even are quite weird and if you look at how your favourite guitarists play, they are far from all respecting it. If you really want to change them, I think if you relearn by small pieces (readjusting your hand first, or maybe change the way you old your pick I don't know) and do it everyday you will end up changing it.

 

[mbraasch]

It's awesome, really, the positivity I've seen on this site. Even more awesome is the lack of negativity. I've gone through some of the threads here, and everyone seems really down to earth and more than willing to help each other out. I've been on a lot of different social media over the years, if you'd even call this social media, and this seems to be by far the most positive one I've ever signed up for. Looking forward to seeing what all I can discover here. It's a really great community they've set up. I love it.

 

[Ed Seith]

It's awesome, really, the positivity I've seen on this site. Even more awesome is the lack of negativity. I've gone through some of the threads here, and everyone seems really down to earth and more than willing to help each other out. I've been on a lot of different social media over the years, if you'd even call this social media, and this seems to be by far the most positive one I've ever signed up for. Looking forward to seeing what all I can discover here. It's a really great community they've set up. I love it.

That was a conscious decision by Syn and Papa Gates when they started the site, and those of us who quickly became leaders here became so because of how strongly we live it and do our best to guide others in it. Thank you :syngates::syngates:

 

[Dominik Gräber]

It's awesome, really, the positivity I've seen on this site. Even more awesome is the lack of negativity. I've gone through some of the threads here, and everyone seems really down to earth and more than willing to help each other out. I've been on a lot of different social media over the years, if you'd even call this social media, and this seems to be by far the most positive one I've ever signed up for. Looking forward to seeing what all I can discover here. It's a really great community they've set up. I love it.

Welcome! Glad you enjoy the school already

I am not exactly coming from a time without Internet, Tutorial Videos or Tabs, but this Site is amazing nonetheless. It's the combination of incredible free Lessons, the ability to track your Progress and get Feedback on your Riffs together with, what you already found Out, an amazing Community.

This is seriously my favorite place of the Internet and I probably would already have given up on guitar if it wasn't for this Site.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I just found this website, and I have something to say. So here goes. I started playing guitar in 2003. I was 13 years old. I listened to punk rock mostly. I was starting to get into metal at the time. I discovered Waking the Fallen that same year. I Won't See You Tonight Part 2 has one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, guitar solos of all time. I remember going on ultimate-guitar and a couple other tab sites that I don't even think exist anymore to try and learn what I could. There were a lot of article, but not really any videos to go with them, so it was mostly me just reading it and hoping I was doing it the right way. YouTube was in it's early days. Not a ton of helpful videos. A few, though. Paul Gilbert had a DVD that I found a copy of online and downloaded. I lived in a rural area. Not a lot options for lessons; didn't really have the money for them anyway, so I ended up teaching myself for the most part. Oh, boy. Let me tell you, the bad habits that I still have almost twenty years later. Well, I'm not even sure I can fix em at this point (lol).

I wish this site existed when I started out. The amount of information on this site, all for free by the way, has almost no competition. Maybe JustinGuitar.com. I don't really think I have a point with all of this. More just speaking my mind. Good luck to everyone. And to anyone reading this that maybe thinks they're not good enough, or they wish they were as good as so-and-so, remember: it's not a competition. Just do your best, and practice things the right way. You'll be amazed. I had an art teacher in high school. He lived by two phrases. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) and practice makes PERMANENT!! Not perfect. If you practice wrong, you'll learn bad habits, and trust me, once they're cemented into your play style, they are hard habits to break. Keep on jammin!

Welcome man! You and I have a somewhat similar story. And this site made a huge difference. Glad to meet you!

 

[Chris Johnston]

Welcome man! Everyone here is here to help and learn at the same time - I've definitely learned a lot here already!

 

[Gabby Heafy]

Welcome!

 

[Brian Haner Sr.]

I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but I just found this website, and I have something to say. So here goes. I started playing guitar in 2003. I was 13 years old. I listened to punk rock mostly. I was starting to get into metal at the time. I discovered Waking the Fallen that same year. I Won't See You Tonight Part 2 has one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, guitar solos of all time. I remember going on ultimate-guitar and a couple other tab sites that I don't even think exist anymore to try and learn what I could. There were a lot of article, but not really any videos to go with them, so it was mostly me just reading it and hoping I was doing it the right way. YouTube was in it's early days. Not a ton of helpful videos. A few, though. Paul Gilbert had a DVD that I found a copy of online and downloaded. I lived in a rural area. Not a lot options for lessons; didn't really have the money for them anyway, so I ended up teaching myself for the most part. Oh, boy. Let me tell you, the bad habits that I still have almost twenty years later. Well, I'm not even sure I can fix em at this point (lol).

I wish this site existed when I started out. The amount of information on this site, all for free by the way, has almost no competition. Maybe JustinGuitar.com. I don't really think I have a point with all of this. More just speaking my mind. Good luck to everyone. And to anyone reading this that maybe thinks they're not good enough, or they wish they were as good as so-and-so, remember: it's not a competition. Just do your best, and practice things the right way. You'll be amazed. I had an art teacher in high school. He lived by two phrases. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid) and practice makes PERMANENT!! Not perfect. If you practice wrong, you'll learn bad habits, and trust me, once they're cemented into your play style, they are hard habits to break. Keep on jammin!

Thank you! Glad you are here!

 

[Ibiz123]

Hi! I'm gonna dig out this thread with some questions: how did you manage to learn anything? Were you trying to play songs by ear? How long did it take? Were you able to learn fast and shreddy solos? Cheers!