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It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

adamharkus.com

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Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#81

Post by maelito »

pinpeliponni wrote: post #8
Jasonbe wrote: post #3

ok, so i have guitar but never use the thing, what are some resources to learn?

Yousician ( https://yousician.com/ ). It's like an interactive guitar teacher, offering backround tracks, and evaluating how you play. The really surpsising thing is how well it works.

For me it's like guitar hero (lessons are games) + duolingo (for lesson progression).

It identifies correctly the notes you play, even 1 meter from your laptop's crappy mic.

The free 30 minutes a day roughly corresponds to your fingers' daily tolerance as a beginner.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#82

Post by beat »

Tycho wrote: post #35

Here's something I wish I'd realized when I first started playing. If you know the right set of chords you can play them in basically any order and they'll sound nice. If you take scale like C major, there's a chord that goes with every note of the scale. On a piano this would be mean playing three note chords on the white keys only, all the way up. So for the key of C that gives you C_major D_minor E_minor F_major G…

People looking at this should also look at the Circle of Fifths (google away). It shows intervallic relationships between notes and chords, from the most consonant to the most dissonant. Most folk and rock music is built on the Circle of Fifths.

For example, for a G, the adjacent notes on the circle are C and D. If you're playing in the key of G, you will probably have C and D chords as well. Millions of songs consist of just G, C, and D. Likewise, A/D/E, C/F/G, etc. So the basic 15 "cowboy chords" are enough to play countless songs in several different keys.

More importantly, once you get the sound of Circle of Fifths changes, you'll find that you can easily play most songs entirely by ear, in any key!

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#83

Post by bluGill »

omtose wrote: post #40
monster_group wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need to win a lottery to have the time to learn to play guitar (multiple foreign languages - yes you do). It is actually quite difficult to practice more than 15 minutes every day because of sore fingers and frustration. Lottery or no lottery - if you really want to do it you will be able to find 15 minutes in a day.

>because of sore fingers Maybe in the beginning, but after having developed calluses you can basically practice for an undefinite period of time.

You need some skill as well, and that takes longer to develop than calluses. 8 hours of "twinkle twinkle little star" will drive anyone insane.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#84

Post by bluGill »

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.

Even if you had a billion dollars you couldn't do all of that. You can do a few of them, but each of the above takes enough time that you cannot do them all at once.

My todo list will take me to my 3000 birthday.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#85

Post by telekid »

sp821543 wrote: post #47
telekid wrote: post #11

I decided to start teaching myself guitar about three years ago, at the age of 24. I had always wanted to learn to play an instrument, but before guitar, nothing ever really stuck. When I picked up the guitar, I approached it from a different angle. The key for me was realizing that I could treat this like a 20 year project. I bought myself a guitar book[0] and started working through it page by page. I stopped worry…

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

Thanks! I'll be sure to look for these.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#86

Post by fastbeef »

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…

+1 on getting good gear from day 1. Being a "guitar guy" people always ask me to recommend a starting kit when their kids are starting to play. I always tell them, look, spend twice as much as a crappy beginner set on a decent used Fender + decent amp. This will make playing much more fun and the chance that they will continue to play is much higher and if they don't catch the bug? No biggie, sell it for the same amount as you bought it for. They ALWAYS go "yeeeeeah I wasn't looking to spend that much" and lo and behold the kid gets bored of it in three months and the parents are stuck with an usellable guitar.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#87

Post by fhood »

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.

Honestly, it is worth it to have a professional set it up for you. Last time I had mt fender dialed in it only cost about 50 bucks.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#88

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#89

Post by verandaguys_alt »

cousin_it wrote: post #25
1337biz wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

That's not a hobby -- that's a job that requires you to shill out to brands while being as loud and obnoxious as possible...

A hobby isn't usually about being popular, it's just something you like doing on your spare time. I'm fairly sure nobody on here who codes in their spare time does it to get laid, but because it's just an interesting way to fill out spare time to them.

Re: It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar

#90

Post by criddell »

ibn_ibid wrote: post #69
DanHulton wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I took mine to a guy that has a Plek machine which is basically a CNC machine for fixing neck issues. It made a huge difference on my (cheap Korean) guitar.

I always thought my string buzz issues were due to my inexperience but since getting the guitar back, I haven't had anywhere near the problems with fret buzz.

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