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It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

adamharkus.com

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Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#11

Post by telekid »

I decided to start teaching myself guitar about three years ago, at the age of 24. I had always wanted to learn to play an instrument, but before guitar, nothing ever really stuck.

When I picked up the guitar, I approached it from a different angle. The key for me was realizing that I could treat this like a 20 year project. I bought myself a guitar book[0] and started working through it page by page. I stopped worrying about whether I was good good or not – instead, I began to find great satisfaction in simply getting better.

Three years later, I've made a ton of progress. Practicing has become a kind of meditation for me; it helps clear my head, and keeps me from getting burnt out with work.

[0] William Leavitt's "A Modern Method for Guitar." This book is a pedagogical tour-de-force, though it helps to have a little bit of music theory under your belt if you are going to learn from it without an instructor.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#13

Post by mullr »

mrkgnao wrote: post #5
dylanfw wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Justin Guitar[1] is a great place to start! 1: https://www.justinguitar.com/

Edit: ignore this, it's false. Proof: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/1cgrdq/ama_this_is_... I don't know how this stuck with me for so long, I've practically known it to be true for as long as I've been playing. Huh. --- Interesting bit of trivia I learned long after I stopped using his resources: Tommy Emmanuel is his father.

I can find no reference to this; it appears he may have three daughters but they all share his surname. Source?

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#14

Post by monster_group »

davidreiss wrote: post #9

If I ever win the lottery, I'd love to learn to play the guitar, learn a few foreign languages, contribute to open source software, make a bonsai tree, read all the books I have in my apartment that are collecting dust, [a long list of other stuff I'd like to do]. I don't want a big house or an expensive car or "bling". I just wish I had the money to buy time.

You don't need to win a lottery to have the time to learn to play guitar (multiple foreign languages - yes you do). It is actually quite difficult to practice more than 15 minutes every day because of sore fingers and frustration. Lottery or no lottery - if you really want to do it you will be able to find 15 minutes in a day.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#15

Post by FreekNortier »

davidreiss wrote: post #9

If I ever win the lottery, I'd love to learn to play the guitar, learn a few foreign languages, contribute to open source software, make a bonsai tree, read all the books I have in my apartment that are collecting dust, [a long list of other stuff I'd like to do]. I don't want a big house or an expensive car or "bling". I just wish I had the money to buy time.

I'm in the same boat as you. Playing guitar was all I did in school. These days my guitar hangs on the wall like an ornament. I think I play it maybe once a year. Just to busy with live and no time.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#16

Post by croon »

cousin_it wrote: post #6

Warning! If you're middle-aged and thinking of picking up the guitar, you should realize that the public image of guitarists has shifted from "sexy gods" to "annoying hobos" sometime in the last two decades. If you are at least partly motivated by popularity (and who isn't), maybe pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now, not in your imagined past. So in a sense, yes, it is sometimes too late :-(

Great! Now I can feel less guilty about not having picked up any guitar in the last 10+ years after playing for 15 years as a youth. Although it was never about external adoration as much as one possible tool for music creation.

Much like programming, or any form of writing, it's not as much what language or style you choose, but enabling you to express or create something in a space.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#18

Post by marsrover »

I'm 29 and have been playing guitar for at least half my life at this point. It's a great stress reliever and just fun in general. I'm not good by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying myself.

These are some of my personal recommendations for starting out:

- Use an acoustic, you don't want to have to carry an amp around with you.

- Learn to sing while you play early on. I think it's harder if you try to learn later.

- If you learn a song, make it your own. Throw notes and rhythms in that don't necessarily belong. It's no fun being a robot.

- Learn the pentatonic scale.

- Don't be afraid to just try things. You're in the middle of a solo and don't know where to go? Jump up the neck and hope you land on something that sounds good.

- Try to learn songs by ear. Even if you end up looking up the tabs, at least try to play by ear first.

- Most of all, don't try to be perfect. Just try to have fun.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#19

Post by lightedman »

cjjuice wrote: post #7

As someone who learned guitar recently in my late 20s, I can say don't overlook basic theory and the value of soloing/coming up with melodies. For me, the creation aspect helped keep me interested. A lot of the beauty of programming is creating new stuff. If that's what you love about programming, try to create your own music as soon as possible. You may want to start on ukulele first (4 strings/requires less pressur…

I'd have to argue against starting with a ukulele. You miss out on the unusual tuning quirk present 6-stringed instruments tuned to thirds, where every string but one can match the tuning of the string above it by phrasing at the 5th fret, that string being the 3rd string (G) and the one above it (B,) you have to phrase at the 4th fret of the 3rd string to get the matching B of the string above instead of at the 5th fret.

I'd also say go with 6 strings because the typical chords can have more than 4 notes.

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