Hi!

I tried to learn guitar when I was 14 and now it's about 30 years later that I'm trying again.

I had a really tough time as the guys in my local music store weren't supportive of a woman (or girl back then) learning to play guitar and they also had really strong opinions - like that a guitar should always have the aboslute heaviest guage strings possible and that guitar picks that were less than extra heavy guage were pure garbage.

A couple years later a friend who was really good at guitar tried to play my guitar he said it was pretty much unplayable. He restrung it for me but said it was still exceptionally hard to play. I couldn't afford a different guitar.

I also tried having a guitar teacher but he'd keep saying 'That's good, for a girl' - when I tried to press him on what that meant - like was that bad, but because I was a girl it was ok? Or was I doing well despite being a girl?' He'd just laugh. I was literally discouraged for decades based on my experiences.

So now I've started the lessons with Lisa McCormick and she's so amazing and inspiring! I love how she breaks down the fundamentals. It feels so great when I know something - I cheer and say 'yay I know a little more than nothing!' and then she's filling in all these critical fundamental gaps of knowledge I never knew but I know will help me learn how to play guitar! And she writes songs especially for us to get exactly the practice we need in such a fun way! That's so sweet and awesome!

I'm really happy to be here and to have this great opportunity to learn without judgement at my own pace and to have an amazing woman role model.