Hello! My name is Rob. I'm 45yrs old and live in Denver, Colorado. I played guitar back in high school but learned everything from either a friend or tab books. I grew up in the 80's hair band era and loved listening to Dokken, Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Ratt, Poison, White Snake, Skid Row, etc. I focused on learning these classic songs, but never understood why I was playing the notes. I didn't understand chord structure, why certain notes can be played together but not others, how to play within a certain key, modes, etc. I stopped playing the guitar after high school. Well..... fast forward 20 + years and I got the desire to actually LEARN to play the guitar. This time around I'm focusing on learning more about the music structure rather than simply being able to play a Bon Jovi song. I want to know why the notes being played fit together...I want to understand why certain chord progressions work while others don't. I want to eventually begin writing my own music and not just playing other people's songs. I've been playing now for a little over a year and love learning what I should have learned 20 years ago.

I found GMC while scouring the internet and thought I'd give it a try.....so I'm here.....saying hello to everyone. What I've seen so far has gotten me super excited about the guitar. I keep bookmarking different lessons that I want to work on....My list keeps growing and growing every time I visit the site.

I can't wait to finish my first lesson and post a video. Hope to hear from the rest of the GMC community....I love talking about music and meeting fellow musicians.....so don't hesitate to stop by and say "hello".

Thanks again GMC for everything!!

Rob from Denver

Hello Robbie - awesome to have you here!



Thanks for sharing this specific goal of yours!

I wouldn't say this is one of my strongest sides, but when learning new material I usually try to see what scale it 'fits' in (most rock/pop music does not change key often, if at all). I also try to see if I can identify a specific chord movement, ie from the V chord to the I chord.

I would advise you to do the same when learning new lessons: for every new lesson that you learn and 'dissect', you will get closer to identifying theory patterns that occur throughout several, different, songs. Eventually, you can forget about the example song/lessons, and just keep the theory tools for your own pleasure!

Let us know if any of this was unclear to you - and we can go into more detailed explanations.

Hi Rob and welcome to GMC!
You will love this place. I'm glad to hear that you already have bookmark some lessons. I also have a very big "to do" list with my favorite lessons which keeps growing and growing.....
See you around the forum

Hello Rob - welcome to the community!

I think your goals are achievable and I think you have a good advantage of having a strong basis from playing all those songs so learning "why behind them" will come more easily. I personally don't think theory is essential for being a good musician but I completely understand what you mean by actually LEARNING how to play the guitar. This is where theory essentials help a lot and usually come into play when you want to start improvising or composing as it gives you confidence. My suggestion would be to just learn lessons on the site which you find cool sounding and inspiring as this is most important. You could make a list of things in the lesson(s) you don't understand or want to know more about, it can be anything really (chord progression, how to come up with fills, why certain phrase works, what are intervals etc) and post here in the forum so that we can all chime in and help (or just post in the lesson feedback section).

See you around the forum!

WELCOME TO GMC!!! I"m Todd and I teach our weekend video chats. I'm a HUGE fan of 80's Metal and we cover a lot of ground in chat that leans toward SHREDDAGE Do stop by!!!!

Hi Robbie! Welcome to GMC!

Let me say that you already have a great background and I'm sure that you have a well trained ear thanks to all those years of learning and playing along with songs. Learning the theory behind those songs won't be a tricky work, and be sure that with some well organized practice you will be able to understand what's happening and start applying it in your own music.

I recommend you to have a look at this Theory Guide: LINK. Start reading those concepts and try to apply them to real music. Always play the examples and relate them to songs and music. And off course, let me know every time you need some help or assistance.

Enjoy GMC!