Hello everyone.

I'm John from Maryland.  At 61, I retired from 35 years with the US Navy and federal government in late 2016, and the wife and I have spent some time travelling, fixing up the house for the next 25 years, enjoying grand kids, and I even took a part time job near home (no more 2 hour commutes!) for some extra cash.

Yet, retirement felt unfulfilled.  I sat down and looked back over my life, the good, the bad and even the very ugly, and thought hard: what do I love, what drives me inside?  What did I like and hate about my 35 very varied career.

It came down to just a few things.  Fitness, which is built into my life already.  Cars and racing, which I stopped doing in 2012 as I pretty much reached all my goals.  But in terms of being creative, in serving an audience, it came down to just two things.  Writing, which I loved as a child and student, and later, freelancing after hours.  And music.  I picked up a guitar at 12, and played in bands nearly all my life up until 2004 when the demands of the job became too overwhelming and my personal life disappeared until I retired.

Looking at those last items, I found that even there I was unfulfilled.  With writing, I missed writing fiction, which I last did in college, but later freelanced for scientific and technical publications.  It paid the bills.  For music, the bands went where the money was, variety, and ended up playing some music I enjoyed, and some I didn't care for too much.  I gave it my all, but wasn't quite where I wanted to be.

So now, I'm writing a science fiction novel, and I've picked up my guitar again and want to be a better blues guitar player.  I love blues and blues rock, and marvel at how playing over three chords allows an infinite range of expression.  But I was always the rhythm guitar player, and my rare fill in opportunities to play guitar lead got the band by, but I was never "good", at least in my mind.  I hear my playing and only cringe.  It's repetitive.  I need to find the magic.

It will be a hard journey.  I played scales for years, and they did nothing for me.  I took lesson after lesson, and they did nothing for me.  I've been stumped.  Last month, I even gave my son, a gigging musician himself, nearly all my accumulated guitars, amps, PA, pedals...I was done.  I just saved a PRS singlecut, two old strats and an Epiphone DOT I had rewired and added PUPs.  That with a modded Peavey Classic 30 amp and a Fender Pro Junior amp make up the remaining collection.

Recently, I came across several artists that give time online, like Robert, that provide breakdowns of approaches that are easy to understand.  I have a good ear, I think that's been my saving grace, and now can hear AND see how they turn the fretboard into blues magic.  I've selected this site and one other as my "tutors".  We'll see how it goes!

You all take care and I wish you well in your musical journeys.  One is never too old to play, and especially play the blues.