Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

adamharkus.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 239 posts

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#21

Post by fhood »

marsrover wrote: post #18

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 h…

So I agree, except that I think starting out on an acoustic teaches a lot of bad habits, and can also be frustrating for beginners, because acoustics are simply more difficult to play.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#22

Post by 1337biz »

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 :-(

"pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now"

For example?

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#23

Post by lightedman »

squozzer wrote: post #2

I say do it for fun. There are plenty of hobbies available to the middle-aged, and let's face it, one can spend a lot of money being mediocre (i.e., not dominating) at any of them - e.g. racing cars. Those who have sore backs from time to time might want to avoid "traditional" Les Pauls.

Les Pauls are light. Here, hold my Steinberger Spirit headless 5-string bass. Let's see if you can even remain upright!

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#24

Post by StevePerkins »

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 :-(

If you're middle-aged, and still all that "motivated by popularity", then you're not doing middle-age right.

A 50-year old playing guitar is 1,000x cooler than a 50-year old mixing EDM tracks on Ableton, because he thinks it'll help him score 20-year old chicks or impress HN.

No matter what age you are, "adulthood" is pretty much another word for finally having enough self-confidence to do your own thing. It's pretty much always better than "childhood", which is the lack thereof.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#25

Post by cousin_it »

1337biz wrote: post #22
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 :-(

"pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now" For example?

The most obvious examples are becoming a star on youtube or instagram.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#26

Post by philbarr »

francisofascii wrote: post #10

I tried picking up a guitar this past week, and was overwhelmed. Just playing a basic chord was a struggle. How do you get your figure to press down just right on the string and not interfere with another. Amazed by people who can play effortlessly. The post encouraged me to try again. 15 min a day sounds like a reasonable practicing goal.

> How do you get your figure to press down just right on the string and not interfere with another

Place your thumb on the back of the neck in the middle, and have your fingers curl round to press down on the strings using just the tips of your fingers.

See how that hurts more? Well, once your fingers have developed callouses, and then healed over, you're well on your way to guitaring superstardom :)

This hurts alot more with acoustic guitars than it does with electric, but it can help a lot when you first start out to buy a lighter guage string.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#27

Post by philbarr »

FreekNortier wrote: post #15
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.

I second this. It gets me depressed sometimes.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#28

Post by wambotron »

marsrover wrote: post #18

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 h…

I completely disagree with the acoustic recommendation as well. They're harder to play, which means it's much easier to give up on. You can get a 1w belt-clip amp if you really need to plug in, or you could just get a semi-hollow and play it unplugged.

Learning to sing is unrelated to playing guitar. I'd argue most guitar players do not also sing whilst playing. If someone wants to sing AND play guitar, I'd actually argue that it's easier to learn one before the other, not both simultaneously. When you know how to play guitar (and a song), it becomes almost mechanical and singing on top is much easier.

Instead of just learning the pentatonic scale, try to learn basic music theory and learn the fretboard. If you know where notes are on the board, it's much easier to land somewhere that fits musically with what you're playing. Not to discourage people from experimenting, but if you're just noodling around randomly with no idea of how notes work together, it's going to take you much longer to figure things out than if you just took a few weeks to learn super basic music theory.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#29

Post by softawre »

fhood wrote: post #21
marsrover wrote: post #18

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 h…

So I agree, except that I think starting out on an acoustic teaches a lot of bad habits, and can also be frustrating for beginners, because acoustics are simply more difficult to play.

I think the trick is to start with a good acoustic. One with good action and one that stays in tune. Like a decent acoustic-electric from Ovation or something like that.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#30

Post by mattparlane »

If you are interested in learning /music/ and not just learning the /guitar/, I would strongly encourage you to start on the piano.

I started on the piano and moved to the guitar later, and I've now realised that the piano gives you such a good musical grounding, so much better than the guitar can. There's nothing quite like having it all laid out in front of you. It's the only way that things like sharps and flats make sense, it doesn't make much sense on a guitar and that makes musical theory difficult to learn.

Post reply on HN