To introduce myself, my name is Nate, I'm 22 years old and have been playing guitar for around 4 years. I grew up playing piano taught classically for 6 years. This helped develop my musical sense at a young age however I never really felt that I truly understood the piano. Sure I could play the music sitting in front of me and memorize difficult songs, however how does that separate me from anyone else in the world. Thinking about it, anyone could read that same music and produce the exact same song. There is no individual style or feeling put into it. Basically i was limiting myself to only what was on the page. Never having the capability or understanding to play outside the box.

Beginning guitar happened around the age of 18 and was exciting, since i had decent dexterity remaining from my piano years i was able to catch onto chords and finger picking quickly. Until recently my playing has been limited to learning a lot of chords to songs and some picking out parts. Since i spent nearly 3 years with this being my only focus I've become quite adept at chord changes, figuring out progressions, finger picking and coming up with cool rhythms. However once again its only so much fun to be able to play exactly what is written down so my progress and interest slowed quickly.

After about 2 years of playing on and off I took classical lessons from a friends wife for about 3 months. I learned quickly to read music again which was cool and shortly after we began working on some songs. Since my lessons only lasted about 3 months the furthest i got was learning a really in depth version of Classical Gas. Sounds awesome and is a really impressive song however once again I found myself with the same problem as before. I learned a couple cool songs but that was it. My dexterity increased a good bit but other than that my understanding of music was still the same. I couldn't produce anything on my own. I wasn't able to transfer any of what I had learned to be able to create something new.

What I've always wanted is to be able to listen to a chord progression, whether it be blues, rock or whatever and be able to make something up on the spot. Either a solo or some kind or a picked out melody that flows with the song. To be able to jam with friends and know how to add to a song with my own style or ideas rather than just being another guy on guitar playing the same chords as everyone else.

Until this past October the ability to do this literally seemed impossible to me. A skill reserved for those people who are naturally gifted with music from birth or professionals. However expanding the music i listened to quickly lead me to the blues and I was hooked. Its so amazing what those guys like SRV, Albert King, Magic Slim, Lightnin' Hopkins, etc... can do and the whole idea behind the blues is so cool to me. The fact that the blues really outlines exactly what I've always wanted to be able to do. After doing a lot of reading and messing around I finally discovered the importance of the pentatonic scale. Big duh right, however when learning scales in the past I was never really taught to think of them as a road map rather than an exercise to do in order to warm your fingers up... Just never seemed to click with me. Anyways, so over the past several months I've been intensely studying and practicing blues. My roommate and I have been playing everyday and constantly improving. I've already come a long way, honestly I would have to say I've made more progress in these past 3 or 4 months than in the previous 2 years. Just one of those things where stuff just begins to click. I've learned not to think too hard about the music. Its about listening to whats being played and understanding the more useful parts of the scale and how they can be placed into the song.

Right now I would say I'm pretty good at coming up with random stuff to play along with songs. Nothing crazy just melodies or whatever that work well with what ever song is being played. The best part though is that every time I play along with a song that I've played many times, I'm able to come up with something different. So in that regard I'm light years ahead of myself only a little while ago. Day by day I'm improving however even with this sudden burst of understanding I'm slowing hitting a wall again.

As of right now I feel some of the bigger things that are holding me back are:

Licks - I know these are the building block of blues however I'm having trouble finding some really key licks to put into songs. I know just a couple right now but I have a hard time incorporating them into a song. I guess my library of licks is too small. Since i don't know too many most of what I do is complete improvisation in songs. This turns out well most of the time however a lot of the time it sounds very elementary. It would just be nice to have a list of really impressive sounding licks to throw in when necessary.

Chords - I can play chords no problem. You teach me a chord or chord progression I'll get it in no time. What I notice I'm missing when playing blues is the ability to enhance my "solo" by adding blues type chords into the mix. You hear it all the time in blues, just some random chords that the soloist throws in either to add a little flavor, stress some notes or whatever I'm not even sure of the ideas behind when is a good time to add them. I wanted to learn some of the key chord patterns that people use in blues that are great to throw into a melody.

Turnarounds - Of course very important in the blues. I'm having trouble timing them properly or figuring out how to put them into the song without having it sound forced. Also being able to transfer the few turnarounds that I know in one key to another. It would also be cool to learn some of the more popular ones to resort to.

Soloing - this may sound very broad however what I mean specifically is that I'm beginning to understand how to play along with a song providing a melody of picked out notes however I'm having trouble grasping the concept behind an actual solo. Sounds weird and probably doesn't make sense but some of you may know what I mean.

So I figure with a couple key licks that I can resort to, some cool chords that help keep the beat or give more life to the song and finishing off with some great turnarounds that keep the song moving smoothly I believe I'll be on my way to greatness in no time haha.

Anyway I know this went on forever, so now you know a good bit about me and my journey to learn the guitar. If you've read anything in here and can offer some advise please do so. Any advise is better than none. I'm looking forward to learning as much from the Fret Players Community as possible.

Rock on - Nate