It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

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.

Something that throws a lot of beginners is that we fret with our "weak" hand and pick with our "strong" hand, which seems backwards. That's only because they're beginners. Picking is much harder than fretting. It doesn't seem that way when you're struggling with cramped hands for your first few chords, but good picking technique is the key to actually being good, and it's very challenging.

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. Virtually any guitar that costs over $200-300 new these days is good. You don't need to spend a fortune. And get it "set up" at a good guitar shop. It makes a huge difference in tone and playability.

If you're playing rock guitar, there's a real temptation to use way too much distortion to get what you think is the sound on records. Most great rock guitar tones are much cleaner than they sound. When in doubt, use less gain.

And finally, the guitar is an incredibly deep instrument. After 35 years, I feel I know less now than I knew after three years. Approach with humility.

>If you are at least partly motivated by popularity (and who isn't), maybe pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now

There's a hell of a lot of people doing a hell of a lot of things for hobbies that aren't motivated by popularity at all.

For example, reading for fun wasn't a way to be popular growing up - your peers expected you to be involved in sports, or be doing the garage band thing. Being a bookworm was like hanging a "bully me" sign on your back. But I'd wager that many on HN did (and still do) read for fun.

I've learned to play a few instruments, although I was never successful with the guitar (no one wants to teach what I want to learn - they all assume I want to play rock or gospel and are incapable of teaching anything else, and I want to learn flamenco guitar). The only people who have ever heard me play anything are my teachers, and my immediate family.

I suppose, if I decide to give the bagpipes a try, that the neighbors might have to hear me as well. I expect that won't improve my popularity, but I don't, and never have cared about that.

> C_major D_minor E_minor F_major G_major A_minor B_diminished C_major

A good way to see where this comes from is to note that the major scale with C as the tonic ("root") note is

    C D E F G A B

(the white keys on a piano), and starting at any note in the sequence and taking every other note (for a total of three) gives you three-note chords called "triads":

    C    = C E G (skip D, take E, skip F, take G)
    Dm   = D F A
    Em   = E G B
    F    = F A C
    G    = G B D
    Am   = A C E
    Bdim = B D F

The intervals between successive notes are (major or minor) thirds, hence these chords are constructed by ascending (moving up the scale) in thirds. The Wikipedia page does a good job of explaining how you can construct chords like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triad_(music)

You can take four notes at a time instead of three to get seventh chords.

I've been playing for quite some time, and have also known bits and pieces of theory for about the same amount of time, but I've never really applied the latter to my playing until recently. I'm getting into playing Bach and so on and find that I'd really like to understand, e.g. Roman numeral analyses, and being fluent in basic theory and how it "looks" on your instrument is key to this.

Great job! Here are some other great books for you: J.S. Bach - Six Cello Suites (transcribed for guitar) Jim Hall - Exploring Jazz Guitar Joe Pass - Virtuoso (find transcription(s) or do it yourself) Gene Bertoncini - Approaching the Guitar

May I suggest concentrating on playing scales first, your fingers have to get used to putting enough pressure on the strings that the notes are not muted and you can slowly build that strength by playing individual notes first :)

Also the perspective that helps me learn an instrument is that it's like you are developing a friendship with your instrument. One day you will be so comfortable that playing an instrument would feel like talking to a friend but making a friend takes time :) You have to have some awkward conversations first, feel like this is going nowhere and someday it won't feel awkward anymore and you would pick up your instrument and it would understand you like a friend does :)

I used to play a guitar and now often spend my time playing the mandolin so this perspective has definitely helped me, maybe it would be of some help to you too :)