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How to get better at guitar

jakeworth.com

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Re: How to get better at guitar

#271

Post by ksaj »

analog31 wrote: post #48
freetime2 wrote: post #32

This brought to mind a quote from Ira Glass: > Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your…

I'm a jazz musician, and my kids are both professional classical players. I've asked them why they don't learn to play jazz. My daughter described pretty much what Glass is saying here. She calls it "fear of sucking." She knows what good jazz improvisation sounds like, and trying to make herself do it is pretty discouraging. Not that there's anything wrong with loving and playing classical music, which is a factor to…

There's a YouTube channel named Sor Hands, and what you've said here is something he has occasionally brought up. He also mentions how he nearly never improvises or plays something that he himself wrote as a result. The comments like this are always in passing, but it does expose his fears to those who notice.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#272

Post by ksaj »

gritspants wrote: post #66
analog31 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a jazz musician, and my kids are both professional classical players. I've asked them why they don't learn to play jazz. My daughter described pretty much what Glass is saying here. She calls it "fear of sucking." She knows what good jazz improvisation sounds like, and trying to make herself do it is pretty discouraging. Not that there's anything wrong with loving and playing classical music, which is a factor to…

I picked up Violin as an adult, have done recitals, and I suck. Being able to suck and find joy in something anyway even if you're not top nth percentile is a valuable life skill.

Yes, the number of amazingly talented people on YouTube has a way of making it feel like it isn't worth pursuing. But that is a combination of the sheer number of people, and "the algorithm" that allows you to find so many of them at that skill level. It creates a pressure that you feel like you must be equally amazing, or just give up.

The reality is, you're probably better than at least half of their followers. If that actually matters in the grand scheme anyway.

Re: How to get better at guitar

#274

Post by jedimastert »

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.

I will say that I'm also speaking from personal experience, where I was self taught for about 12 years before taking my first lessons for my piano minor in uni. A single lesson resetting some habits I'd gotten into about hand posture and fingering reasoning and it was like a 50% increase in speed in a way that meant that songs that were near the top of ability almost felt effortless. It was wild

Re: How to get better at guitar

#275

Post by iainctduncan »

aanet wrote: post #268
iainctduncan wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, University of Victoria in Canada.

Fantastic. That's on the island, yes? Do they have a Music + CS program, or is yours self-designed interdisciplinary?

Hi, yup on Vancouver Island. They have a combined music + CS undergrad, a Masters in Music Technology (which is an MMus), and a roll-your-own interdisciplinary Masters and PhD. The INTD is the grad ticket for people who want to do CS heavy stuff, though you can do it in the MTech if you want the MMus. I did MTech and now INTD PhD with CS as the primary. I'm the author of Scheme for Max, which puts an s7 scheme interpreter in Max and PD, and work on that platform is my research area, including creation of algorithmic music works.

UVic has some great profs in the combination. My supervisor George Tzanetakis is internationally respected in music information retrieval, and Sarah Belle Reid just got my retired music supervisor's job too (Andy Schloss). Feel free to email my user name @ gmail.com if you want to know more.

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