My wife bought me a guitar and lessons! (CAN an old dog learn new tricks?)

Cafe Society
21

[QUOTE=Jonathan Chance]
You utterly and completely can do this. I know, I did it. I’m not great and don’t have much time for it anymore. But I did it.

It’s trite, I know, but you get out of it what you put into it. Practice and you’ll be astonished at how quickly you advance. Don’t and, while you’ll likely still gain ground, it’ll be slower.

The biggest problem I found, as others have told, is that adults have more demands on their time than teens do. For me with business and kids and house and such finding time to practice/play was the biggest challenge.

Good luck! And enjoy!
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[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
Unplug your TV cable and you’ll be surprised at how much free time you actually have.
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Just a quick note - all the other posters are doing fine. I agree with Jonathan Chance you absolutely can do this!

As a long-time, semi-pro player, I will say these things are by far the most important things to focus on:

  • Make sure your guitar is set up correctly - if it is not, it won’t sound good AND will be harder to play - and those are factors are incredibly de-motivating. Take it some place - or have a friend who REALLY knows guitars look at it - and have them check the: a) neck relief - does it have a bow in it that is problematic?; b) the action - are the strings the right distance from the neck; and c) the intonation - does it play in tune up and down the neck for most of the chords you will be practicing? Have each set-up element checked - in that order - and you will be much better off.

  • **Maximize what YOU think is cool ** - whatever it takes to make you want to play - if you have always dreamed of playing a red guitar, then play a freakin’ red guitar! Don’t listen to anyone else - the fewer compromises on the guitar you pick and the more you will want to play it. And the fewer compromises on playing what YOU want to play is key, too - because THAT is the only thing that matters - wanting to play. If all you want to do is play cool metal riffs - then play cool metal riffs. If you want to strum Ani DeFranco or fingerpick Celtic folk - do that!

  • **Practice a bit, but play a lot more ** - When I was starting out, if I had 30 minutes, I would spend 15 minutes on chords and scales and 15 minutes playing Smoke on the Water on 1 string, imagining I was in front of 10,000 people. All my friends who just worked on scales? None of them play anymore - it wasn’t fun for them. Keeping it fun is the ONLY thing that will keep you with it…

My $.02 - best of luck!!

22

As usual, Wordman has great advice. Here are my suggestions for learnng.

#1. Your fingers are going to hurt for a while. Not sure how to fix that except to play until you get calluses built up but you can buy one of those finger strengthener thingies (yes, that is the technical term) to build up finger strength. You don’t have to have huge amounts of finger strength but it takes a bit to get them into shape.

#2. Have your teacher teach you the modes. I assume that you know something about theory from your previous experience with the piano. If you don’t, have him teach you basic theory (keys/chord sructure/modes) as you go. This part of learning to play is quite boring but it helps immensely a little down the road. The modes allow you to pick a key and play in it anywhere on the neck with out much thinking. It also makes learning other peoples stuff much easier. When I used to teach I’d teach the student one scale and have them practice that scale until they had it down well then move on to the next scale.

#3. Scales, arpeggios and alternate picking. Alternate picking is picking down then up. Many people have a problem with alternate picking. The reason many people have a problem is that they learn by just down picking and then try to learn alternate picking later. It is way harder to do it that way. It takes a bit longer to learn alternate picking when you start but it is easier than trying to pick it up later. Once you get scales down and can play them using alternate picking have your teacher show you an arpeggio or two and alternate pick those as well. Pretty soon alternate picking will become automatic.

#4. The metronome is your friend, contrary to what most guitarists think. Start playing with a metronome. You will probably absolutely hate it at first, I know I did, but it is another one of those things that is easier to learn when you start then to try and pick it up later. Once you can do scales with out much effort then bring in a metronome and play the scales on time and start slow.

#5. Have Fun! This is supposed to be fun so take time just to make some noise. Also, when you practice, start with scales/chords or whatever and end with just playing. If you walk away from the guitar frustrated because you couldn’t play a scale you are less likely to pick it back up. If you walk away from the guitar happy because you just made tons of noise and had a blast you’ll want to pick it up again.

Note, 2, 3, and 4 are going to take a reasonable amount of time to learn well. Don’t rush. Too many people want instant results and it doesn’t work that way. It takes practice and patience.

Slee

23

I picked up the guitar for the first time in my 30s. Still not very good, but it is a lot of fun. The Hal Leonard guitar instruction books helped me get started. They had me playing songs (extremely simple songs, but songs) by page 3, and then gradually increased the complexity in a way that wasn’t overwhelming.

Do you have nylon or steel strings? Until you build up calluses on your fingers, you may want to start with nylon strings. It will hurt less.

24

Yowza! Heaps of way good suggestions here. I too have been torturing the guitar for a while and i can honestly say that i’ll never be better than mediocre. I learned by picking up a copy of Neil Young Complete Music Volume 1 and strumming the chords as represented by the diagrams. It seemed to take forever to learn the first song, but after i got that down, it seemed like i learned 20 songs in a week. From there i picked up more Neil Young and some Dylan books and before i knew it, i had about 50 songs that i could play by memory. Problem was, all i could basically do was strum the tunes and screech out the lyrics which, as anybody can tell you, is fine for Dylan and Young, but wasn’t really advancing my musicianship. It’s like i hit a plateau; learned a heap of songs quickly, but never got any better.

What helped me by that first plateau was finding someone else to play with. One of the guys i worked with also played (again, not well) and we’d just get together and play. I learned some things from him, he learned some things from me and we figured out some things together. Just having someone else to play along side allowed us to learn to pick a bit as the other would keep the tune going. Started with some hammer-ons and gradually progressed to some flat-picking. Finding someone else to play with will help once you get the basics down as you’ll learn to recover and play the song to the end. It never has to be perfect, but, damn, it sure can be fun.

I think you’re off to a good start, you have the desire and a decent guitar. Too many people give up on learning the guitar because they buy some cheap hollow wooden box thinking that if it doesn’t work out that they’re not out too much. The reality is that the damn thing sounds so bad, is constantly out of tune, buzzes because it can’t be set up right that it’s no longer worth messing with. My first guitar was a Martin Herringbone D-28 (bought in '83) and this guitar is better than i will ever be. But i do have something of real value to hand down to my son and i continue to enjoy playing.

Good on ya’, now go set the cats to screaming!

25

[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.]
Since then I’ve looked up songs on the Internet when I wanted to play them. No way am I any good, but I enjoy playing and singing in the privacy of my home. It’s a pleasant way to spend an hour.
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Absolutely. I’m pretty bad, but I enjoy it greatly. As long as no one’s home to hear…

26

*The biggest problem I found, as others have told, is that adults have more demands on their time than teens do. For me with business and kids and house and such finding time to practice/play was the biggest challenge.

           Unplug your TV cable and you'll be surprised at how much free time you actually have.*

                          ...and close down the browser window. :(  Honestly, I could have painted the house, written a book, learned the violin, and read all the Great Works of Literature, if I'd been strong enough to unplug myself from the damned web.
27

[QUOTE=The Unkempt One]
I have always wanted to learn how to play the guitar, but for some reason or another I simply never started. My wife knows this, and for my birthday, she bought me an Alvarez acoustic guitar and a year of guitar lessons! She also bought me a tuner, a new set of strings (not that I would know how to change them), and what seems like a metric ton of picks.

As excited as I am to start taking lessons next Tuesday, I am also a little bit intimidated. I took piano lessons for eight years, but my last piano lesson was almost twelve years ago! I have heard that it can be hard to learn an instrument as an adult, and I am afraid that I may not be able to pick it up very well.

So, have any of you tried to learn to play the guitar as an adult? How did it go? Any pointers or helpful words of advice that you would like to impart to me?
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In playing musical instruments, there are certain things one can learn up to about age 13 or 14, after which the “brain/dexterity window” closes. So if you start as an adult, you’ll never be as proficient as if you had started as a child. But that certainly doesn’t mean you can’t learn, have fun, and get quite good at it. Furthermore, you may have gotten much of the benefit of “youthful learning” from your piano experience.

I started guitar when I was about 28. My motivation was to accompany my singing, so I learned chords, teaching myself from books. I decided to devote my energy to learning chords and chord sequences rather than to single-note picking. So I can play chords to lots of songs, and I’m reasonably good at it. If you have basic musical sense and the motivation to learn, I’m sure you’ll do fine.

Learn how to tune the guitar. Besides knowing what note each string should be, you’ll want to get familiar with how the tuning knobs function, always make the final adjustment going up in pitch, and check harmonics between strings 1 & 5 and strings 2 & 6.

Learn how to change strings. How long they last is a function of playing time, the vigor applied to them, and your body chemistry (acids/oils from your skin). When they sound dead or start to buzz it’s time for a new set. Always have at least one spare set handy.

The best bet on strings is to use the general type (i.e. steel or nylon) and same size that came with the guitar. It’s true that nylon strings are easier on tender fingers than steel ones, but if it’s a steel-string guitar the nylon ones won’t sound very good. As for size, too-heavy (thick) strings can damage the guitar, and too light ones will buzz badly. Plus the guitar’s set-up (basic adjustment) is related to string size - if you want to use lighter or heavier strings it should be readjusted for them to play optimally. If it’s a nylon-string (classical) guitar, steel strings will damage the instrument.

Flat picks come in various thicknesses, chosen to accomodate playing style and personal preference. Depending on what/how you play, you might want a set of finger picks.

Soon, you’ll probably want/need a capo. Make sure it matches the fretboard’s curvature along the line of a fret. Steel string fretboards are curved, classical fretboards are flat.

My thought is that the path your lessons take should jibe with what you want to do with the guitar. Strum chords? Pick lead solos? Play classical? Jazz? While everything you learn will have some benefit, I don’t think it’s productive to have a year of, say, classical lessons if you really want to play bluegrass.

Lessons can teach you things you won’t get in jam sessions, and playing with others can teach you things you won’t get in lessons. Keep an eye out for others to play with, both for the fun (social) aspect and the help in growing your skills.

I’m also in K.C., and familiar with some of the music circles in the area. If there’s something I can help you with, or you want to touch base/get together, let me know.

28

[QUOTE=PunditLisa]
Be patient. You won’t be playing “Stairway to Heaven” anytime soon.
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And hopefully you never will.

Be prepared for sore fingers as you build up your calluses. It’s all about perseverance.

29

I’m curious if you have a cite for that. I hear that all the time, but I’ve never seen any actual evidence that it’s true. I think it’s more likely that adult learning is more difficult simply because we don’t have the time. Bruce Hornsby didn’t start piano until he was around 20, and he’s pretty darned proficient.

I’m only average/intermediate on the guitar - I started playing when I was around 22, and followed a typical curve for a lot of adults - Learned to play A, E, C, D, G, Am, Em, F. Then I strummed away at a couple of dozen songs until I got a bit bored with it. Started to learn finger picking, then I got involved in other things and stopped playing regularly. I lost my calluses, and so I’d pick up the guitar once every month or two and play a bit until my fingers got sore, and put it down.

A few years passed where I never got any better, and then I got a little more interested again. This time I learned a little picking, and started on some simple fingerstyle and some more complex strum patterns. Improved a bit, then got busy with other things and reverted to my old pattern.

That’s where I am today, 20 years later. I can fingerpick songs like “House of the Rising Sun” or “Stairway to Heaven”, and I can Travis pick a couple of songs like “Dust in the Wind”, but I still suck at most songs. I have a hard time singing and strumming/picking at the same time, and there’s a whole bunch of songs I’d like to play but just can’t master the more complex chords or fingerpicking parts. Barre chords are expecially difficult for me.

Now, in contrast, my daughter is learning Violin. She’s 9, and has been at it for 3 years. She’s already better on the violin than I am on guitar. However, she takes formal lessons, she practices a minimum of 15 minutes every day, and she is forced to play in recitals and christmas concerts, so she had to go through periods of extreme focus to clean up any ragged edges in her skills.

I’ll bet if I did that I could have improved as quickly on guitar as she has on violin. Maybe quicker. I got a game called ‘Guitar Hero’ a few months ago, and got into it to the point where I was playing an hour a day almost every day. I started out barely being able to hit the simple notes in easy mode, but now my fingers are just flying through difficult songs on expert. Had I approached it like my real guitar and played it for half an hour once a month, I imagine I’d be complaining that it’s impossible to learn for a guy my age.

30

Regarding “you can learn more/better as a kid” - there is the example of kids picking up languages and math concepts more easily, so I am sure there is some basic truth to the statement.

Personally, although I have played guitar consistently since I was 15 and been pretty good within a few years of that, I am amazed at the level of improvement I have experienced in the past 2-3 years, now I am in my 40’s. Being in the band, with professional musicians, and being the guy who picks and arranges most songs - both factors have demanded that I raise my game. I guess what I am finding surprising is that there is room in my game to raise it - if that makes sense. I have never thought of myself as a great guitarist - and have always had friends who were much better than me. I think that put mental limits on what I thought I could achieve. Now that I am “where the buck stops” and the band either sounds good or doesn’t in part due to my playing - I have to deliver. So stuff I couldn’t play - and certainly couldn’t sell onstage - is now automatic for me.

What’s that line? “An amateur practices until he gets it right; a professional practices until he can’t get it wrong.” I am no pro, but I appreciate this concept and its truth more than I ever thought possible…

Bottom line is that old dogs can most certainly learn new tricks…

31

[QUOTE=Sam Stone]
I’m curious if you have a cite for that. I hear that all the time, but I’ve never seen any actual evidence that it’s true. I think it’s more likely that adult learning is more difficult simply because we don’t have the time. Bruce Hornsby didn’t start piano until he was around 20, and he’s pretty darned proficient.
I don’t have a cite handy, but I’ll look. Nevertheless, I think you’re overlooking a huge body of evidence that children learn better than adults, and it’s not just about time.

It’s been documented that babies that don’t hear certain sounds by age of 6 months or so don’t develop the ability to distinguish them. Examples are “L & R” (heard as identical to those raised hearing only Oriental languages) and certain gutturals used in Scandanavian tongues. This has been discussed on the boards here. The “closing of a window of opportunity” is well established in this area.

Countless numbers of people are facilely multilingual from having used different languages while growing up, without spending particular time and effort actually studying them. Conversely, many adults find learning a new langauge extremely daunting, even with concentrated study.

Examples like Hornsby don’t really address the matter. The fact that he’s better than scads of other people has to do with his personal talent potential. The contention is that he would be better yet if he had started as a child.