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Right before I decided to get carpal tunnel release surgery for both of my hands, I decided I wanted to learn how to play a few musical instruments. I love all kinds of music and wanted to write and play my own songs. And I wanted to be a rocker and rock out.

In junior high school, I played the alto saxophone. Well, I didn’t really play that well. I mostly just blew into the instrument and figured it didn’t matter what it sounded like. I was young and kind of bored with the sax and just didn’t take it seriously.

I wish I had because I regret not taking up music much younger. After junior high, I didn’t play another instrument for many years and lost a lot of my knowledge of notes and music reading.

Nevertheless, I have now decided that I want to play multiple musical instruments. In the last few years, I’ve bought used instruments like a tiny drum kit, a violin, and a clarinet at garage and estate sales. But I didn’t take those very seriously either.

Just a few weeks ago, however, I decided to get serious about playing the guitar. I started with a used acoustic guitar, but that was hopelessly always out of tune. Then I bought a cheap electric guitar and have had lots of fun with it. Finally, I feel like a rocker!

So I haven’t taken any formal classes, I’m just playing around and teaching myself. Although I have used the intro DVD that came with my guitar, it’s only taking me so far into beginning guitar playing. So I’ve been using YouTube to learn.

The good thing about using YouTube as your teacher is that it’s video and I’m a visual person so this helps me look at notes, strumming and chord placements. Plus I can play along with the video and practice, practice, practice. The downside is that many people on YouTube are amateurs themselves in many ways and they don’t know how to be a good instructor. In other words, the quality of your guitar tutorials can vary greatly.

So what I do, is go to YouTube and type in things like “beginning guitar” or “how to play”. Now that I’ve been playing a few weeks, I also tend to search for songs that I’d like to play like “Smells Like Teen Spirit“, “Whole Lotta Love” or “Hey There Delilah”. Fortunately, many people post their instructional videos, so if one person doesn’t explain it well (or goes too fast for me), I can try someone else.

Now, I’m no expert, but these tutorial sure help me along my way. Once I learn the basic chords or notes, I’m on my way and practice on my own.

Excuse me while I go practice now!