Well, there's not much to me and my playing. I've been lurking the forums for a while now (since my interest in ERG's sprung up), and thought I should introduce myself. 
I guess I've been playing almost two years now, though I still suck! My goal this summer is to do structured practice, rather than goofing off the whole time I'm playing though. I've already seen an improvement It's just hard without ever having had a teacher.
My story is a simple one: As a kid, I always wanted to play guitar. Didn't know why, I was just always drawn to it. In middle school, I joined band, hoping that I could learn to play the guitar. Turned out they don't have that position in band, so I played trumpet for two years. I quit after I got braces, but I sucked anyway. I never really loved the instrument. A year or two later I was really missing music, despite having never clicked with trumpet. At my birthday (I believe it was my fourteenth) I went in to a local music shop with my dad to buy a guitar. My parents made me get an acoustic because the guy at the store said that it's best to start on acoustic; it helps you develop better technique. I'm really glad that I started on acoustic.
Before I go on, there's something everyone should know about me: I jump from hobby to hobby like madman. I'm not so bad about it these days, but even a year ago I was a maniac about trying new things, and not really ever getting into anything really deeply. I had myself convinced that, "I'm not really good at anything specific, I'm just kinda good at a lot of things," which made me flakey when it came to sticking with things. I've since remedied that false belief in myself, but you get the point.
Anyway, on with the story:
The novelty of having a brand new (though cheap) guitar and a little learning book wore off after about two weeks of playing. Sure, I'd pick up my guitar and play the few ditties I'd learned about once or twice a week for the next month or two, occasionally trying to learn something new, but I wasn't into it. I just didn't have that drive to learn and progress like I do now. That, and I played WAY too many videogames
Anyway, about a year to a year and a half passed, and stumbled upon some electric guitars online. I didn't know a thing about them back then, but I was suddenly struck with that desire to play again, if only to be good enough to convince my parents to let me get an electric guitar.
I started playing again, often and with good curriculum (justinguitar.com, best place on the web for new guitarists for sure). that was around January 2008, I think. I ended up saving up enough for my Ibanez, which I got what I thought was a great deal. Back then, all I knew about what I was buying was, "It's got a whammy bar, and it's made by Ibanez, which I think is a top brand!" I wasn't completely ignorant, but I was definitely a n00b. Still am, just not so much
Turns out the guitar was plagued by unusually high action, and a horrible fret buzz when lowered to a decent height. Even the local tech couldn't fix it (he's not very good anyway, but still). Oh, and did I mention I bought it online? Not always the best idea, that's for sure. I ended up having to send it in to Ibanez, who replaced the nut and gave it a fret job, which helped a little. It still buzzed too much though. To this day it's still buzzy if you aren't careful while playing, but I've learned to cope with it quite well.
Crap! I got off track again. Anyway, I continued learning, playing my guitar through a crappy 1/4" to USB cable running into GarageBand on my Mac. Eventually I got my amp, and just a few months ago I got my tele-knockoff (dirt cheap, but sounds great!). Over the past few months I've really been trying to actually learn to play with theory, rather than dink around all the time. I'm not a huge fan of learning songs (I'm working on it though!), so I've wasted a ton of time I could have used for more intelligent study, but I think it's helped me develop a more unique, personal style this way.
Again, my main goal is to improve exponentially this summer. Another goal I have is to get a custom 7-string explorer style guitar built for me, but that's gonna cost some major mulah.
If you wanna check out my idea, I've posted a topic asking for some help:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/pickups-electronics-and-general-tech/123237-just-another-suggestions-thread.html
If you've made it this far, I congratulate you. That was much longer-winded than I thought it would be. Was a good personal reflection though And it must be my mom's writer's blood in me keeping me typing! Haha Anyway, thanks for reading this (if you did), and I hope to be a good contributor to the forum! I'm not one to post much, but if I've got the knowledge, or a suggestion I think is good, I'll definitely try to help!
Keep on shredding!
-Todd
I guess I've been playing almost two years now, though I still suck! My goal this summer is to do structured practice, rather than goofing off the whole time I'm playing though. I've already seen an improvement
It's just hard without ever having had a teacher.My story is a simple one: As a kid, I always wanted to play guitar. Didn't know why, I was just always drawn to it. In middle school, I joined band, hoping that I could learn to play the guitar. Turned out they don't have that position in band, so I played trumpet for two years. I quit after I got braces, but I sucked anyway. I never really loved the instrument. A year or two later I was really missing music, despite having never clicked with trumpet. At my birthday (I believe it was my fourteenth) I went in to a local music shop with my dad to buy a guitar. My parents made me get an acoustic because the guy at the store said that it's best to start on acoustic; it helps you develop better technique. I'm really glad that I started on acoustic.
Before I go on, there's something everyone should know about me: I jump from hobby to hobby like madman. I'm not so bad about it these days, but even a year ago I was a maniac about trying new things, and not really ever getting into anything really deeply. I had myself convinced that, "I'm not really good at anything specific, I'm just kinda good at a lot of things," which made me flakey when it came to sticking with things. I've since remedied that false belief in myself, but you get the point.
Anyway, on with the story:
The novelty of having a brand new (though cheap) guitar and a little learning book wore off after about two weeks of playing. Sure, I'd pick up my guitar and play the few ditties I'd learned about once or twice a week for the next month or two, occasionally trying to learn something new, but I wasn't into it. I just didn't have that drive to learn and progress like I do now. That, and I played WAY too many videogames
Anyway, about a year to a year and a half passed, and stumbled upon some electric guitars online. I didn't know a thing about them back then, but I was suddenly struck with that desire to play again, if only to be good enough to convince my parents to let me get an electric guitar.
I started playing again, often and with good curriculum (justinguitar.com, best place on the web for new guitarists for sure). that was around January 2008, I think. I ended up saving up enough for my Ibanez, which I got what I thought was a great deal. Back then, all I knew about what I was buying was, "It's got a whammy bar, and it's made by Ibanez, which I think is a top brand!" I wasn't completely ignorant, but I was definitely a n00b. Still am, just not so much
Turns out the guitar was plagued by unusually high action, and a horrible fret buzz when lowered to a decent height. Even the local tech couldn't fix it (he's not very good anyway, but still). Oh, and did I mention I bought it online? Not always the best idea, that's for sure. I ended up having to send it in to Ibanez, who replaced the nut and gave it a fret job, which helped a little. It still buzzed too much though. To this day it's still buzzy if you aren't careful while playing, but I've learned to cope with it quite well.
Crap! I got off track again. Anyway, I continued learning, playing my guitar through a crappy 1/4" to USB cable running into GarageBand on my Mac. Eventually I got my amp, and just a few months ago I got my tele-knockoff (dirt cheap, but sounds great!). Over the past few months I've really been trying to actually learn to play with theory, rather than dink around all the time. I'm not a huge fan of learning songs (I'm working on it though!), so I've wasted a ton of time I could have used for more intelligent study, but I think it's helped me develop a more unique, personal style this way.
Again, my main goal is to improve exponentially this summer. Another goal I have is to get a custom 7-string explorer style guitar built for me, but that's gonna cost some major mulah.
If you wanna check out my idea, I've posted a topic asking for some help:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/pickups-electronics-and-general-tech/123237-just-another-suggestions-thread.html
If you've made it this far, I congratulate you. That was much longer-winded than I thought it would be. Was a good personal reflection though
And it must be my mom's writer's blood in me keeping me typing! Haha Anyway, thanks for reading this (if you did), and I hope to be a good contributor to the forum! I'm not one to post much, but if I've got the knowledge, or a suggestion I think is good, I'll definitely try to help!Keep on shredding!
-Todd
welcome to the forum!
