From Clarinet Kid to Jazz Chaser: My Guitar Journey

I've wanted to play electric guitar for as long as I can remember. There's something about the instrument that just gets me—the way it can scream, cry, whisper, or groove depending on who's holding it. But for most of my life, that dream sat on a shelf collecting dust.

The False Starts

I picked up guitar as a kid. Didn't stick. Life got in the way, as it does. In school, I played clarinet—which, let's be honest, is about as far from electric guitar as you can get while still technically being a musician. But I learned to read music, understood rhythm, and developed an ear for melody. Then high school ended, and so did the clarinet.

For years, the guitar sat in the corner of various apartments and houses I lived in. I'd pick it up occasionally, noodle around for fifteen minutes, get frustrated, and put it back. The dream never died, but it definitely went into hibernation.

The Pandemic Plot Twist

Then 2020 happened. Suddenly I had nowhere to go and nothing but time. I looked at that guitar in the corner and thought, "Alright, let's actually do this."

I stumbled onto JustinGuitar, and everything changed. Justin Sandercoe's approach clicked with me in a way nothing else had. Structured, patient, and genuinely encouraging without being condescending. I worked through all the beginner modules, then all the intermediate ones. For the first time in my life, I was actually progressing on guitar.

Around the same time, I discovered MartyMusic on YouTube. Marty's song tutorials became my reward system—finish a JustinGuitar module, learn a new song. AC/DC. Led Zeppelin. Jimi Hendrix. BB King. Stevie Ray Vaughan. Eric Clapton. I was finally playing the music I'd been listening to my whole life.

Going Deep on Blues

Once I had the fundamentals down, I wanted to really understand what I was playing, not just mimic it. I enrolled in the JustinGuitar Blues Immersion course—a six-month deep dive into blues guitar. Scales, theory, phrasing, the whole thing.

That course rewired my brain. I started hearing music differently. I understood why certain notes sounded good over certain chords. I learned to actually improvise instead of just playing memorized licks. Blues became the foundation for everything else I wanted to do.

After finishing Blues Immersion, I knew I needed to play with other humans. YouTube is great, but music is a conversation, and I'd been talking to myself for two years. I started taking in-person lessons and found opportunities to jam with other musicians. Terrifying at first. Then exhilarating.

The Jazz Bug

Blues naturally led me to jazz. The two are cousins, after all—jazz just has more extended family members showing up at Thanksgiving. I started diving into jazz guitar, and now I'm completely obsessed.

I'm currently working through Jens Larsen's jazz course. Jens breaks down complex concepts in a way that actually makes sense, and his playing is ridiculous. I'm also taking jazz lessons locally and slowly working my way through The Real Book, learning standards and—for the first time since middle school—reading music again.

It's humbling. Jazz makes you feel like a beginner no matter how long you've been playing. But that's also what makes it exciting. There's always another chord voicing to learn, another scale to internalize, another way to approach a melody.

The Goal

Where am I headed with all this? Honestly, I just want to be able to play. Not perform professionally or anything—just sit down with other musicians and improvise freely over jazz, blues, rock, funk, whatever the moment calls for. To speak the language fluently enough that I can have a real musical conversation.

I'm not there yet. But I'm closer than I've ever been.

The Songs That Got Me Here

If you want to understand my taste, here are the songs I keep coming back to:

• Little Wing - Jimi Hendrix — The song that made me want to play guitar in the first place.
• Pride and Joy - Stevie Ray Vaughan — Pure Texas blues swagger.
• Soul Lament - Kenny Burrell — Jazz guitar doesn't get more soulful than this.
• A Go Go - John Scofield — Funk, jazz, and attitude all in one.
• The Thrill is Gone - BB King — The king of feel. Every note matters.
• Hells Bells - AC/DC — Sometimes you just need to rock.

Gear Corner

I love Strats. I love Les Pauls. I love Jazzmasters and ES-335s. Each one does something different, and I'm not loyal to any single brand or style.

What I am loyal to is tube amps. There's a warmth and responsiveness to a good tube amp that solid-state just can't replicate. My current amp is an Amplified Nation Wonderland Overdrive, and it's the best piece of gear I own. The way it breaks up when you dig in, the way it cleans up when you roll back the volume—it's like the amp is breathing with you.

Dream guitar? The Novo Serus J. Offset body, P90s, and that vintage-modern aesthetic that just speaks to me. Someday.

The Journey Continues

I spent decades thinking I'd missed my window to learn guitar. Turns out there was no window—just a door I hadn't walked through yet. The pandemic gave me the push, but the resources were always there. JustinGuitar, MartyMusic, Jens Larsen, and countless other teachers have made it possible for anyone to learn this instrument at their own pace.

If you're sitting there with a guitar collecting dust in the corner, pick it up. Start with one chord. Then another. The dream doesn't expire.