Speaker: Alan L.
Tell us about your Guitar journey before you discovered Steve Stine and GuitarZoom.
Alan L.: Well, let's see, I started playing trying to play guitar when I was a teenager and did not know then that you could actually adjust the action on the guitar. And so it was too hard for me to press the strings down. So I kind of lost my enthusiasm I guess over time I you know played some when I was a teenager but not a whole lot. Probably when I got into my either late 40s or 50s, I discovered a luthier who I brought my old 1980 something guitar too, and he actually did a lot of work on it, actually had to rehydrate the wood because it was all warped and out of shape and adjust the neck and anyway got it to where, you know, I could play it fairly well, so I played and played for years and hardly ever set it down. I kind of go through phases like that. How long did you want this? Anyway, I mostly learn, you know, to play like three chord songs on the acoustic you know, I could still play some of those. Then a few years ago I think two or three, I decided to buy a Gibson Les Paul studio because I had always wanted one, so I got one. And I signed up for GuitarZoom, probably about that time and started on your course about the fretboard But then it probably took me a year or so to get those scale patterns down the major scale patterns. I know the pentatonic fairly well, but just playing, you know, the major scale, using the spread fingers format took a while. So anyway.
How would you describe the results you’ve seen in your personal playing and learning of the guitar?
Alan L.: I think I can put on a backing track and play the major scale or pentatonic whatever and sound fairly decent. You know knowing what he the song is is kind of helpful but you know usually I can figure it out after a few seconds. But yeah it's just you know I can kind of work up and down the fretboard and I don't know that I can I definitely am not the fastest in the world but I can make sounds that sound fairly decent. So I'm kind of happy with that. I don't anticipate becoming a rock star at my age.
What was something you didn't expect from GuitarZoom that really surprised you?
Alan L.: What did I expect? I guess one thing I did not expect was the that there are there's so many different courses that it's sort of overwhelming and not really knowing where to start. I took the path quiz whatever today and it said that I should learn the fretboard. I had actually started on that path probably about a year ago. But I've jumped around from different courses and so there's so many of them it's kind of hard sometimes to know okay, which is the one that I have started on and and some of them even have similar names so sometimes I think I'm going to one that I've already started on and it's not the same but I don't guess that's a problem. It's just there's so much content it's kind of hard to know what to be working on or that sort of thing.
If you have to compare GuitarZoom to any other alternative, what would you say?
Alan L.: I have tried a few other alternatives. I think I started out with I think it's Griff Hamlin and you know I learned to play some blues I guess and stuff like that. And I did learn the caged system but that's about as far as I ever got on guitar tricks, I've learn to play a few songs off of there. I guess a few other things on here. You know I would I guess you know with guitar tricks there are numerous different teachers and so I don't know if it's better to stick with one or what but there I mean I guess Steve you're the main teacher so you know everything you teach is kind of from your heart and experience. I think you're a really good guitar player so I definitely think your skill level is as good as any. So you know I just put some confidence in that. The fact that I invested a lot of money in this also I don't know how many different courses and things I've purchased and I just bought that gold ticket or whatever. I'm not sure what that's gonna do for me but I guess I will learn.
What would you say to someone who's thinking of signing up for a GuitarZoom Course?
Alan L.: Well, I would think it would be better for somebody who already has some guitar experience and it's more kind of into blues and rock and roll and things like that. You know, and not necessarily recommend it to somebody who might want to learn to play in a church praise band, although I'm guessing the same skills would apply. But I still would think that they would need to have some level of experience, unless I just haven't really seen any really basic courses, maybe I just haven't used those, but anyway, I think skill level have some skill.
