Hello...is there anybody in there?

[Barre Fly]

Hi. I'm not sure how to start...my name is Lisa, I have two guitars and I'm absolutely dreadful at playing them. Well, that was honest if nothing else :D

I've had my guitars, a Squier and just a bog standard Encore for my accoustic, for an embarassingly long time - meaning that by now, I ought to be at least passable at playing. I was given the accoustic first and basically looked up some chords and contented myself with strumming away to songs I liked for the next few years. My husband then bought me the Squier and a small amp (yes, I was quite surprised by that too!) and I felt that I ought to get my arse in gear and commit to improving/learning properly.

Brief interval in which children arrive and I generally don't get round to improving on my playing at all.

However, last week I went to the funeral of a very good friend and at the wake afterwards we really saw him off in style. Most people had bought guitars along with them, as Tony had been in bands most of his life - playing his beloved Les Paul and bringing Frank Zappa, The Ramones, Jimi Hendrix and other bands from his ecclectic repertoire to pubs and clubs all over Britain. And basically we sang and drank the night away and it really couldn't have been anymore in the spirit of who he was.

Tony was always trying to encourage me to improve and used to invite me to jam, with him and a few other friends of ours, at their regular Thursday night session. But, I never went because...well, because I suck! :rolleyes: So basically it's given me the motivation to sort it out. I will improve, I will practise with no excuses...and I will eventually attend the Thursday night jam! :beer:

[oldguy]

Welcome to TheFret, Lisa!
Thanks for the nice introduction, that's a great way to start, letting us know a little about you. You can find some really good instructional videos on Robert's Dolphinstreet site that will help you improve.
Glad you joined us here.:)

[just strum]

Welcome Lisa. Well, you are joining a group of people at various stages of their playing journey, so you have those that can help you, those that share your challenges, and those that you can pass along what little you know.

Enjoy yourself and contribute to the fun.

[tot_Ou_tard]

Welcome Lisa.

Do whatever you can to improve, otherwise the desire to do so will keep haunting you.

Love your handle.

[Barre Fly]

Thanks guys, you're a very welcoming group :AOK:

[evenkeel]

Welcome to the group. Terrific intro and love the moniker. :beer:

[Robert]

Welcome! You'll get lots of help from this group.

What type of music do you like? Any certain style you are most interested in learning how to play?

[Auriemma]

Welcome.

I have been playing for 38 years, and to my own ears, I still suck. But others think differently.

I suggest you pick up the guitar (either one) and just start playing. Learn songs you enjoy and move on from there. You said your friends gather once a week to jam. Take advantage of it and join them. Friends have a way of bringing the best out in your playing. Trust me, you won't find a better situation, you can have fun and learn from them and get comfortable playing in front of others at the same time.

The rest is up to you.

[luvmyshiner]

Welcome aboard Lisa.

[R_of_G]

hi lisa :D

it's so good to have you here.

:dude:

[SuperSwede]

Welcome welcome!

[Monkus]

Welcome...as the others...love the handle. Plenty of help here...have fun !!!

[MichaelE]

Hi Lisa. Welcome.

There are many good (and not so good) videos on You Tube for instruction at various levels as well as a lot of song instruction.

[sunvalleylaw]

Welcome Lisa! I am a relative newb, starting with a cheap acoustic like you, a few years back but not really doing anything, then with some lessons about 3 years back. I still suck too, at least at some stuff, but am slowly getting better. I have a lot of fun and learn a lot here. I hope you have fun here!

[ibanezjunkie]

head on over to dolphinstreet, you can trust what Robert tells you, but you cant always trust youtube eh?

welcome :beer:

[Barre Fly]

Welcome! You'll get lots of help from this group.

What type of music do you like? Any certain style you are most interested in learning how to play?
I have a very wide range of taste in music, but rock is the most predominant genre - mainly 60's and 70's groups. Led Zeppelin are my ultimate favourites, so I'd like to master some of their songs - stuff like Ramble On for example. I'd also like to learn some basic blues chords, I love blues and I think that would be fun to play around with.
Generally though I go for the sorts of songs (to learn) that you hear most local rock bands cover when they start out, I'm not really aiming to be in a band, I just want to be able to have a jam and hold imaginary gigs in my bedroom :D

Thanks again for all the welcomes!

And Jayson :beer:

[ibanezjunkie]

hey barre fly...where abouts on our humble island are ye?

what squier you have? affinity i guess, its the most common of them.

might get me an affinity tele sooner or later, been meaning to for a while now.

[R_of_G]

And Jayson :beer:

you've no idea how happy it makes me to see you here lisa. and i think with your renewed interest in learning guitar, you have come to the right place. you will not find a better group of people who are all about sharing the knowledge they have. there are a lot of great players here and even more great all around people. it's great to have you with us. :D

[Tig]

Welcome to TheFret. I'm new here myself, and everyone is really helpful. I'm playing guitar again after many years off, so I'm really a noob.

One quick suggestion: You may want to replace your strings, even if they haven't been played all that much. Old strings sound nasty. Old strings that came with Squiers are beyond nasty! If you don't know how to change strings, try youtube (click here) (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+change+guitar+strings&search_type=&aq=f).

Also, a few here have mentioned DolphineStreet for lessons. The URL is http://www.dolphinstreet.com/. Maybe start with a few cords: http://www.dolphinstreet.com/guitar_lessons/chords/
His youtube channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/rotren

"Your Guitar Sage" has plenty of teaching videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/yourguitarsage

Cheers!

[Mr Grumpy]

Welcome to another UK Fretter!

[Spudman]

Hi and welcome Lisa.

Let us know if we can help you with anything.

[MAXIFUNK]

Hello and Welcome from Newbie to the Next.
I have these guys are rather cool on this site.
As one of the guys told me its never to late to restart or start playing.

which is now my new mantra to live by.

[Brian Krashpad]

My condolences on the loss of your friend, but welcome.

It's wonderful that you have a guitar goal to shoot for. Have fun.