Post #1954071

@AmyZenunim Strongly agree! I started learning guitar last year, despite having a bad history at sticking with habits and learning new things and not having touched a musical instrument since I was a kid. I didn't look up any theory, common chord progressions, or the same beginner songs seen in tutorials everywhere - I spent the 5 minutes required to understand that a guitar tab shows you where you need to place your fingers, then found music I liked that seemed vaguely plausible to play and started playing And slowly but surely, I got better, more confident, able to go from having to constantly keep watch on my hands and struggling to shift more than 2 frets or one string up or down at a time without fumbling to now...okay, I'm still not good, but I can play at a faster pace than "continental drift", and actually use most of the fretboard. Because yeah: playing songs I knew and cared about and slowly seeing them morph from a halting screeching mess to something that actually sounds recognisable (if a little simplified) got me to keep playing and meant that every once in a blue moon I'd actually try something a little further out of comfort zone And I feel very confident that if I'd done things "right" and "proper" then sure, I wouldn't have a lot of bad habits, I'd actually recognise what notes I'm playing and have theoretically made more progress with chords...but in practice I probably wouldn't have kept at it for more than a few months, then half-heartedly and guilty dusted the guitar off like twice a year and been discouraged to continue when I did try Better to go at a slow, casual pace, have fun doing it and gradually chip at all the less fun parts while still being able to do the fun bits when tired, then to give up before ever reaching the fun to begin with!