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How to get better at guitar

jakeworth.com

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Re: How to get better at guitar

#251

Post by code_for_monkey »

adrianh wrote: post #152

I’ve transcribed hundreds of hours of guitar music over 25+ years, using the method described in this article. It was such a slog that I ended up creating tool to help streamline the process: Soundslice ( https://www.soundslice.com/ ). It combines audio playback directly with a tab editor, so that you can immediately write down what you’ve figured out and your transcription stays in sync with the original audio. This…

you created soundslice??? no way! Ive been using it for years. You rock, for real, huge respect.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#252

Post by code_for_monkey »

bsder wrote: post #80
jedimastert wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Probably almost any method is effective at learning guitar, as long as it includes the key factor - time spent practicing. There are a few pedagogical points here to keep in mind: first, there are local maxima in terms of learning something like guitar where you get bad habits and the only way to progress is to undo them. Also, different ways of learning have different values in terms of what goals you're aiming to…

> first, there are local maxima in terms of learning something like guitar where you get bad habits and the only way to progress is to undo them. I'm not convinced for guitar. Some of the fastest and most famous guitarists had shockingly bad technique. As long as you're not injuring yourself, practice and determination pretty much overcomes everything.

dont make fun of jimmy page like this he was trying very hard

Re: How to get better at guitar

#253

Post by euroderf »

senko wrote: post #29

Wow, Justin with his hair! Been plucking at the guitar (literally and figuratively - trying to learn) for a couple of years now and Justin's (free) course was the best I've found. His videos are compassionate, funny, explain things really well and easy to follow. He also dog-fed the instructions by learning to play left-handed (and posted those videos as well, hilarious to watch). Compared to that, some time earlier…

Is there a similar system out there for bass perhaps ?

Re: How to get better at guitar

#254

Post by analog31 »

Hunpeter wrote: post #145
analog31 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also one of those things that varies with the individual. When I was a kid taking cello lessons, I learned to play by ear. For classical students, theory doesn't really start until college. I know very little theory, but I've been playing jazz for almost 50 years, and I know hundreds of melodies along with enough of their harmonies to improvise and accompany other players. Many people pick up tunes from the r…

>For classical students, theory doesn't really start until college. Well, unless, you are studying here in Hungary, for example, where it starts pretty much right away... (though it is a separate class).

Maybe this is the reason behind the old saying: "All of the good composers were either deaf or Hungarian."

Re: How to get better at guitar

#255

Post by efsavage »

euroderf wrote: post #253
senko wrote: post #29

Wow, Justin with his hair! Been plucking at the guitar (literally and figuratively - trying to learn) for a couple of years now and Justin's (free) course was the best I've found. His videos are compassionate, funny, explain things really well and easy to follow. He also dog-fed the instructions by learning to play left-handed (and posted those videos as well, hilarious to watch). Compared to that, some time earlier…

Is there a similar system out there for bass perhaps ?

bassbuzz.com isn't free but it's really good. I've about halfway through the course and feel like I've already gotten more my money's worth out of it.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#256

Post by buildsjets »

imp0cat wrote: post #132
ozgrakkurt wrote: post #130

Personally prefer to search for guitar tabs of things I can barely play. And also sound terrible while playing them and tense my whole body while doing so. This is the point of playing the guitar, RIGHT?

Nope, the point is collecting as many guitars as possible. ;) I wish this was a joke. :D :(

I guess I am doing it wrong, I thought you become a guitar god by building the perfect pedalboard.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#257

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

emsixteen wrote: post #160
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the 10,000 hours, it's learning it very young. I am an ex-professional ballet dancer, and one of the things I always find interesting is that any experienced ballet dancer can instantly tell who trained as a child and who didn't solely by how they stand (literally not even moving) at the barre. But the thing is, children with only a few years of training under their belt will often show this good form,…

My partner's also a dance, and this is what's always come across from her, too - that you can tell a dancer from a glance in an instant, even on the street. I have a little bit of an eye for it but only by virtue of being around that environment. (also: ex-pro ballet to HN? Can't imagine there's much crossover in that Venn!)

> ex-pro ballet to HN? Can't imagine there's much crossover in that Venn!

It's perhaps not super common, but not as rare as you might think. Only a teeny tiny minority of ballet dancers have full careers, meaning they make it to the level of principal (the highest rank in a ballet company) and then retire in their 40s, usually to go on to another career in dance like teaching. Many more are like me, where we trained intensively as children, then made it into a company but saw that there'd be a ceiling on our advancement (meaning we'd only make it to corps de ballet or soloist level based on our ability), so left after a few years to do something else.

Then there are the fascinating outliers like Robert Wallace, who was a dancer with ABT and a principal at Boston Ballet (so the pinnacle of the career), then went to Yale at 32, graduated summa cum laude in economics, and now is CEO of Stanford Management Company where he runs Stanford's $50 billion endowment.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#258

Post by tzs »

This was quite a bit more convenient when we were getting our music on CDs, because many CD players included an A-B repeat function. This let you designate two points in a track ("A" and "B") and it would endlessly repeat the segment between those points.

I believe some MP3 players also had this.

As far as I know none of the top streaming music services support it in their official interfaces. I believe it can be added via third party tools, but it would be nice if the services would build it in.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#259

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

kQq9oHeAz6wLLS wrote: post #198
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the 10,000 hours, it's learning it very young. I am an ex-professional ballet dancer, and one of the things I always find interesting is that any experienced ballet dancer can instantly tell who trained as a child and who didn't solely by how they stand (literally not even moving) at the barre. But the thing is, children with only a few years of training under their belt will often show this good form,…

> Natalie Portman...you could easily tell she wasn't a dancer. Which is interesting, because from what I can tell she studied ballet from a young age, which potentially puts a hole in your theory. Unless you're only taking about professional dancers who started young versus professional dancers who started late, rather than any (i.e. non-professional) dancer.

Natalie Portman "took ballet as a kid", which is probably similar to like 50% of women in the US. From what I found online, it says "she took ballet from age 4 to 12", but there is a collosal difference between someone who engaged in "professional track" training and someone who engaged it as an after-school hobby.

The ballet world even has a name for small neighborhood dance schools, a "Dolly Dinkle" school (it's a little bit of a knock, but not much, as most professional dancers started at one of these places before moving on to professional training).

But for contrast, take a look at the 12 year olds at the Vaganova Ballet Academy. At that point they've only been at the academy 2 or 3 years, and while they have some "child mannerisms" in their dancing, they all hold and carry themselves like professional dancers.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#260

Post by bsder »

rimliu wrote: post #158
bsder wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> first, there are local maxima in terms of learning something like guitar where you get bad habits and the only way to progress is to undo them. I'm not convinced for guitar. Some of the fastest and most famous guitarists had shockingly bad technique. As long as you're not injuring yourself, practice and determination pretty much overcomes everything.

I see this "bad technique" angle expressed quite often when talking about self-learning. I tend to think it is overblown a bit. I started learning piano by myself during covid. Then I went to two teachers. Neither one had anything bad to say about my technique.

Teachers of beginners understand that keeping them motivated and practicing is the primary problem. Cleaning up your technique is simply not a goal. Doubly so if you are an adult learner.

Piano is also a lot harder to have very bad technique than other instruments since it is mostly a discrete, one-to-one mapping. If you want a chord with some particular notes, a lot of the time there is only a single fingering that will do. If you push the key hard enough, you will get the correct note, and it won't be wrong if you push harder.

By contrast, in guitar, if you push too hard, your note will be off even though you fretted in the correct place. Or, for example, everybody in guitar teaches barre chords up near the nut, when that's extremely difficult and likely to injure a beginner who has neither the strength nor control to get that right, instead of teaching barre chords near the body on fewer strings. etc.

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