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It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

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Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#61

Post by H1Supreme »

s_kilk wrote: post #56
beat wrote: post #41

As someone who has been playing for 35 years or so, here are some observations... First and foremost, guitar is a pretty straightforward instrument for beginners. There's a reason it's the most popular instrument in the world. If you put in the effort, you can be playing something musical in a few months, and proficient in basic folk/rock music in a couple of years. It doesn't take "talent". It just takes effort. Som…

> Don't try to learn on a crap guitar! If it has high action and truly hurts to play, or if it has bad tone, it'll drive you away. Learn on a good instrument. This x1000 Far too often I've seen people try to learn on a ghastly cheap acoustic because they were "building up to" an electric, the thing they wanted to play in the first place. There's a weird kind of asceticism around the notion of paying-ones-dues on an a…

Totally. I ran into this just recently. A friend of mine's girlfriend is starting to learn. Someone gave her an acoustic to learn with. It had: mile high action, old strings, shitty tuners, and the fretwork was awful. There is no way she's going to learn or stick with it. Not with that piece of crap.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#62

Post by grimmdude »

beat wrote: post #41

As someone who has been playing for 35 years or so, here are some observations... First and foremost, guitar is a pretty straightforward instrument for beginners. There's a reason it's the most popular instrument in the world. If you put in the effort, you can be playing something musical in a few months, and proficient in basic folk/rock music in a couple of years. It doesn't take "talent". It just takes effort. Som…

Cool to see a guitar post on the front page of HN, I suppose it makes sense since many of the programmers I know are also musicians.

I'm a guitar player as well, been playing for about 20 years. Completely agree with all your points, especially that it's a "deep instrument". Many people think there's a progress bar for learning it which maxes out, but that progress bar's max is ever increasing (or it should be if you're doing it right).

Shameless plug for my guitar videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFFBlI__po2CBLrtynTNbIA

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#63

Post by DanHulton »

beat wrote: post #41

As someone who has been playing for 35 years or so, here are some observations... First and foremost, guitar is a pretty straightforward instrument for beginners. There's a reason it's the most popular instrument in the world. If you put in the effort, you can be playing something musical in a few months, and proficient in basic folk/rock music in a couple of years. It doesn't take "talent". It just takes effort. Som…

What is involved in getting your guitar "set up" anyway? I'm looking to get back into learning the guitar I bought a few years ago, and I mean it sounded fine to me when I brought it out to check on it, after a tuning, of course.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#64

Post by beat »

s_kilk wrote: post #56
beat wrote: post #41

As someone who has been playing for 35 years or so, here are some observations... First and foremost, guitar is a pretty straightforward instrument for beginners. There's a reason it's the most popular instrument in the world. If you put in the effort, you can be playing something musical in a few months, and proficient in basic folk/rock music in a couple of years. It doesn't take "talent". It just takes effort. Som…

> Don't try to learn on a crap guitar! If it has high action and truly hurts to play, or if it has bad tone, it'll drive you away. Learn on a good instrument. This x1000 Far too often I've seen people try to learn on a ghastly cheap acoustic because they were "building up to" an electric, the thing they wanted to play in the first place. There's a weird kind of asceticism around the notion of paying-ones-dues on an a…

There's often an unwillingness to make the financial commitment to a good instrument when "I don't know if I'll stick with it" (or much worse, parents saying that about the child getting their first guitar!). So you're supposed to learn on a "beginner guitar" (i.e. a shitty guitar). It's so much easier to learn on a good instrument.

And good instruments don't have to cost a fortune, either. If someone wanted to learn electric, I'd say just buy a new Squier (by Fender). They're crazy good guitars. And at the $500 or so mark, modern Chinese-made acoustics start getting really, really good.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#65

Post by ntumlin »

StevePerkins wrote: post #24
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…

>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 chicks.

Corollary: A 50 year old mixing EDM tracks on Ableton because he likes it is just as cool as the first guy.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#66

Post by acomjean »

baby wrote: post #51

Can't you ditch all of that and use one of these cool new programs where they show you where to play on the guitar, you play in there, and the mic detects if you played correctly then proceeding with the next note? I think RockSmith is one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaHsqGSetVo I think there are others that might look more pedagogical.

Rocksmith works with Bass and Guitar and is a lot of fun. Its basically rock band with real instruments.

It has some basic video lessons too.

The guitar usb cable works with other programs too, though the reverse is not true (you needed to use the rocksmith adapter cable with the program).

melodics is the software to learn finger drumming (though they're adding real drums to the software).

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#67

Post by perpetualcrayon »

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 don't think the amp is an issue these days. I've got a mini amp I plug straight in to the guitar (gives about 8-10 hours of playing time between recharges), and has headphone jack for when I'm playing but don't want to disturb anyone else (for example when playing late at night).

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#68

Post by devwastaken »

beat wrote: post #41

As someone who has been playing for 35 years or so, here are some observations... First and foremost, guitar is a pretty straightforward instrument for beginners. There's a reason it's the most popular instrument in the world. If you put in the effort, you can be playing something musical in a few months, and proficient in basic folk/rock music in a couple of years. It doesn't take "talent". It just takes effort. Som…

The big thing that's been driving me away from learning is the necessary hardware/Software to create the tones I want. Rather than folk/rock, I'd like something like the ghostly effect of https://youtu.be/mP194XwD2Wc . But audio hardware is expensive and isn't something I can directly research. I made a little jump a month ago and got a condensor mic and a Scarlett Solo mixer, which can do both XLR mic and 1/4 Jack for guitars. So far I've gotten it to play-back in realtime with effects in Ableton lite, but no idea on the guitar or other hardware needed to make that sound good.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#69

Post by ibn_ibid »

DanHulton wrote: post #63
beat wrote: post #41

As someone who has been playing for 35 years or so, here are some observations... First and foremost, guitar is a pretty straightforward instrument for beginners. There's a reason it's the most popular instrument in the world. If you put in the effort, you can be playing something musical in a few months, and proficient in basic folk/rock music in a couple of years. It doesn't take "talent". It just takes effort. Som…

What is involved in getting your guitar "set up" anyway? I'm looking to get back into learning the guitar I bought a few years ago, and I mean it sounded fine to me when I brought it out to check on it, after a tuning, of course.

Setting it up involves fixing the action (height of strings over the fret), tightening up the neck, making sure the electronics are all still connected

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#70

Post by bluGill »

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.

I've been playing mandolin for 12 years. I still like to look down and watch my fingers move in awe that it is possible for them to move that way that fast. It doesn't seem real that my fingers can move that fast even while they are doing it.

15 minutes a day is a good goal when you start. When you first start that is all the longer you can stand listening to a bad rendition of trivial tunes. When you get better you can stand listening to yourself play longer and longer, and your practice time can increase. Don't push too fast.

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