I just had my first lesson with a guitar teacher and I can already tell it’s going to be a massive help to me. Within the first five minutes he helped me understand that my picking technique was not quite right and helped me see that I was placing my thumb wrong on the back of my neck. I’ve spent the last seven days trying to focus on just fixing those things and I’ve already noticed an improvement.

My biggest struggle now is slowing down the songs I’m trying to learn into small chunks and learning to play those perfectly. Like, I know in my head what the song is supposed to sound like and I am having a hard time stopping my brain from telling my fingers and my hand to pick/strum it at the speed my ears hear it at…it feels so slow to learn it with a metronome and it is really discouraging me.

I’m really upset about this. I really enjoyed it over there.

Recently got a bottle of Black and White scotch while in Mexico. It was cheap and it goes down smooth. Tastes excellent with a cigar. Probably going to enjoy that tonight.

Babel has been on my list for a while! Need to give it a bump to the top soon.

Have you read Yellowface? Or her other series, The Poppy War?

Hey I dig it. Some Grisham hits the spot for me.

However, I’m a lawyer myself so sometimes it’s hard for me to read legal thrillers because I want to escape real life….

For sure, I’ll check in with you after I get around to finishing it!

Oh interesting. Good to know! I dug The Stormlight Archives (still need to read the latest one…), but couldn’t get into Mistborn at all. Maybe I’ll give Skyward a go. If it’s YA it should be a fast read and I’ve heard good things!

Ah, got it. Thanks for linking that information!

I’ve never been a PC gamer (mainly cause I have always been in the Apple ecosystem), but have always wanted to get into it. Have felt like I’ve been missing out a lot.

I’ve considered a Steam Deck, because I’ve heard so many great things, including that it’s helped reignite passions for gaming in many people! But my concern is that I already am so busy and struggle to find time to sit down and game with my Switch or Xbox…I don’t know if getting a Steam Deck would even really make much of a difference in helping me play more at this point. Could be a pretty costly investment for myself if I don’t end up using it a ton.

Anyway, that’s my two cents. If you are gaming regularly and want to be able to do more “mobile” PC gaming, it’s probably a good option!

For me, I’ve been listening to In The Shadows by Mercyful Fate and have been enjoying it a lot. Wasn’t super familiar with MF before so I’m exploring their discography.

Last week, another user shared Endless Battle by Wytch Hazel with me and it’s been my favorite song I’ve heard in a long time.

Finally, discovered Crown Lands today…they’re like a modern day Rush revival…I am quickly getting addicted to this. Their recent album, Fearless, has extreme 2112 vibes.

Still trying to “find my place” here but I am enjoying the whole thing. Lots of awesome discussions popping up and great conversation here.

I’m going to miss r/guitar and r/guitar lessons. As someone who just started getting back into playing guitar, those two subreddits were ESSENTIAL treasure troves of tips, information, and guides to learning, practicing and enjoying guitar. Hoping to find / develop something similar on Lemmy…

Yes, it is. And I literally have no idea what I’m doing or what the fediverse is or how to best utilize it and I have a mastodon account but don’t use it because all of this fediverse/instance stuff stresses me out and I just want a cool community to feel like I’m a part of, not a bunch of stuff I don’t understand and I hope I can feel comfortable here with Lemmy. Oof.