Been with the site now for a month and want to take a moment to introduce myself. I’m 46 years old and live in Belgium.There is 1 thing that I especially want to tell about me. Anybody who looks at my video posts will notice that sometimes I use strange looking handpositions and movements. 30 years ago I fell out of a window 2nd floor and seriously broke my hand. As a result I can only bend my index finger (fretting hand, third joint, the one that connects to the palm) for 40 % and move it sideways for 70 %. Obviously this is a big handicap for playing the guitar. I have always been very much into music, was a drummer when I was a kid, went to music school and played a little keyboard. When I was 27, after seeing the Use Your Ilussion concert (GNR) in Paris, I bought my first guitar. I’m always very enthusiastic about things that I like and wanted to become like Slash, Vai, SRV ...Hendrix. But soon I discovered that not only the question of talent but primarily the injury would be a serious obstacle. I definitely have big problems with wide stretch runs and difficult bar chords (because it’s difficult to lay my index across all strings). Also, I don’t have the same control, power and feel as in my other index finger. After years of exercise this has become better and better but it was a disillusionment from the start and I threw the guitar away. Picked it back up, threw it away again. I wanted to learn to play so much that I went to rockschool in Antwerp and even went to a Big Hotshot surgeon. But he wouldn’t operate me because there was a big chance that it would be even worse afterwords. And yep,... down to the bin it was again. But the love for music in general and the outrageous desire to play that damn thing was a big draw that always brought me back to it. As I grew older,...and wiser, I found peace with it and said to myself :”Stop nagging about this, idiot! If you want to play guitar, start focussing on the things that you are personally, physically capable of. Forget the rest ! Stop being frustrated for not having a healthy hand and just try to become the best guitarplayer that you can be. And that’s it ! That’s my goal!
Joining GMC is probably the best move I did in all these years. What a great environment this is to be part of, between all these people, sharing the same love. The lessons are awesome and the REC concept is very challenging. I really feel confident that I will push my playing here to a higher level and actually, I’ve learned allready because after posting 3 videos it is very clear that I first need to work on vibrato and bendings. So that’s what I’m doing and I notice the difference. Man , I’m so curious how far this is gonna get me, but I realise that setting reachable goals in small steps are the key.
Congratulations and thanks to everybody at GMC who make this site possible and to my fellow students. I am very excited to be here !!
All the best and see(hear) you around !!!
Nico
