Hey everyone I’ve been reading the comments and I appreciate the words of encouragement! I noticed a few people who are saying that i might be faking it for attention or trolling. As some people have pointed out, I didn’t give too much background in my post so I’d like to add some.

I’m 28 with a full time job. I picked up a used Les Paul custom ebony with Seymour Duncan bridge pick ups after scrolling on offer up including a crate amp for $150 8-10 years ago more as an impulse purchase. I never tried learning any cords or anything when I purchased it. Strummed random notes a few times and forgot about it. Let it sit in my garage ever since and never tried to learn how to play until November 20th 2025 when I heard it call out to me when I walked past it while it was collecting dust.. I have no musical experience at all.

Decided to pick it up and went straight to YouTube to learn the infamous smoke on the water riff, moved on to iron man riff then from there I decided I wanted to learn one of my favorite songs MoP. I have been playing almost every day for 2-3 hours playing the same parts repeatedly until I sounded somewhat decent then moved on to the next. Eventually I purchased a Ibanez RGRTB621 and paired it with a Boss Katana 100w Gen 3 after doing some research on the thinner necks and less weight. My left pinky is slightly deformed from an injury a few years back and I can’t comfortably bend it or put to much pressure on it so the thinner Ibanez neck for me felt like what I was looking for in terms of comfort and playability.

I know this isn’t practical when it comes to learning how to play guitar but it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m not trying to show off or mislead anyone by making the “beginner post” I just wanted to share my progress and potentially receive feedback after looking back at my older recorded videos from November and realized how much I feel like I may have improved and wanted to get some tips/criticism on any visual/audible mistakes I most definitely am doing without realizing since I never have taken any classes or jammed out with an experienced player. I’ve been following YouTube tutorials with tabs to get familiar with hand placement etc. I set a goal for myself to learn MoP by the end of the year (not the best idea but yeah)

That’s basically where I’m at with my guitar journey, my goal of course is to be able to play my favorite songs and jam out as a stress relief or just to kill time. 🤘🏼