Hi everyone,
It has been a while since I've been active on here or, worse yet, since I have had any time for the guitar. I have had an interesting year.
I had started taking some lessons from a small local music shop but the shop closed and my teacher took off without telling me they were leaving or reimbursing me for the lessons I had pre-paid for. :? Then I got pregnant and pretty much felt too sick to do anything the first three months, so I put off finding a new teacher. I worked all the way through my pregnancy so by the time I got home at night I was too tired to really do anything that required any thought or work. After Janie was born things got even crazier trying to learn all this parenting stuff. I am a total noob. :wink: My husband gets frequent severe migraines so most times he really can't be much help to me with the housework or watching the baby.
I now work full time, am taking night classes from the university two nights a week and, of course, am taking care of my new daughter but I really miss my guitar time. I find it very relaxing working through a song or even just practicing chords or scales and it's a great feeling to learn a song and actually be able to play it. Janie is sleeping through the night now and going to bed early enough that I can start setting some time aside to practice again. I feel like I have taken a giant slide backwards and have to start over.
So my questions to all you players and teachers are these:
I need structure or I get sidetracked and don't accomplish much. What would be a good practice schedule for say a half hour to an hour a day? chords? scales? learning a song by tab? Or maybe alternate each thing? All I can do is read tabs but I would eventually like to be able to read music as well. Right now I would just like to feel like I am making some sort of progress.
Also, do you think taking lessons from a big chain store is ok or would just an independent private teacher be better or does it matter? I just don't want to get burned again. I wasn't real impressed with the teacher I had before and then he took off with my money.
Thanks in advance. Everyone here is always so helpful. It's nice to be back. :)
All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now I see I should have been more specific.
First of all welcome back.
Secondly, i am in the same boat sort of, not with your interesting year but with the time i get to practice and only beaing able to read tabs and chord letters. What i do is first of all play through the song i am learning and see if there is any specifics that need ironing out, and if there is, say im muting a string when i shouldnt be and it sounds naff, i will work on eliminating it, and then i feel good about myself for bettering myself. After that and practacing that song for a while i will work through a fingering exercise, its in one of the threads in the beginners section and i stole it, and i will also work on hammers and pull offs, but thats the style i like to play.
Hope i was a bit of help for you :wink:
David
David Watts
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I'll leave the matter of scheduling to those more qualified, but...
Don't limit yourself to only practicing while the little one is asleep or with hubby, do it with her here and there as play too - I have two girls, I played often while I was spending time with them and they both loved it. They were both completely mesmerised, and it held their attention much longer than anything else we did together. If I tried to practice a whole song, they'd get bored, so I was just drilling scales etc., and they loved it. I was concentrating more on them than the guitar, of course, but it was enough to stop me getting rusty in between the few times I could practice properly. They still like to listen, only now I can get away with playing a whole song and they'll sing, dance, play their toy instruments or come and grab a pick 'help' me strum... so I have to use my old beater to practice when they're around :)
Also, having perfect-pitch is not, as is often said, something that we're either born with or not. Everyone is born with a basic version of it and everything in place for it to develop, but by the time you're 4 or 5, if you haven't used it enough it'll go. Giving them lots of music to listen too early on will give them far more musical ability than they would otherwise have - not just a head-start but also a greater ability to learn it, what people call being 'a natural'. My eldest (5) was singing "wheels on the bus" the other day, so I started playing the chords to back her and got the key wrong. Before I'd even managed to think what other key to change to in order to fit in with her, she'd already adjusted and was singing it spot on, rhythm and all. Brought a tear to my eye ;)
I'd never dream of pushing them into anything specific, but I'll happily surround them with music and watch closely for signs of interest :mrgreen: If they end up with perfect pitch but have no use for it, it'll do them no harm. If they do take up music, I'll be glad to have been able to give them something I'd love to have myself...)
Wow congrats on the new baby and welcome back.
as a SaHD i can relate with the not having time for yourself syndrome.
like was said above , try to find a little time here and there. you will do fine and the little one will love it.
also, a guitar hanger is a good way to have quick access.
#4491....
Welcome back, OCG. Congrats on being a mommy. Sorry to hear about hubby's migraines. I hope they find the cause like they did with me.
I'm not much of an expert on structure and learning guitar. Imagining your schedule with very limited time, I think I'd gear most of what precious little time you do have towards making it as much non-work as possible. In other words, some way for your time to improve AND allow it to be a release.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Congratulations, but I have to ask - what's more difficult, learning guitar or learning parenting? :roll:
As for a schedule - I think the best thing is to listen to your own preferences. There's no way I can cope with just drilling scales and finger exercises all day, so I use that and basic sight-reading on classical as a warm up. As you have limited time, you could choose songs to learn which utilise the techniques/theory you want to learn. But if you're not one to get irritated by drilling scales, go ahead and do that.
For all-roundedness as a player, I'd say alternate theory, scales (and other theory-in-practise), and learning/rehearsing songs.
But I'd also say that for all-roundedness as a player, you need to play regularly - its better to just focus on one in the short term if it means you keep playing 2-3 years down the line than it would be to attempt to cram everything in and give up out of frustration/exhaustion and then not play guitar for a decade.
:wink:
Welcome back! I'm amazed you can do all that stuff. Now that my kids are grown, seems it was all a blurr. Guess you do what you have to do. What ever you do for guitar practice, have fun. Sounds like you need it for the stress relief. My kids always loved it when I played guitar. They were some rocking little babies. That was a long time ago though. :lol: I would agree with Misanthrope ......... your daughter will love it.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
Welcome back, and welcome to the wonderful world of parenthood. I think your daughter will love having you play for her. My kids tell me that they have great childhood memories of the guitar. As long as you keep in mind that she comes first, everything else will fall into place. Congratulations.
Denny
UCG has a nice new avatar. :D
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
UCG has a nice new avatar. :D
Yeah I got tired of looking at the other one.
Well I took Misanthrope's advice and did a little bit of playing around with the baby there. Her favorite part was the tuning. :roll:
All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now I see I should have been more specific.
Well I took Misanthrope's advice and did a little bit of playing around with the baby there. Her favorite part was the tuning.
I had horrible visions there of you twisting little Jane's ear to try and get her in tune......... :oops:
LOL, it's like every baby's first real Xmas - you spend loads of money of toys, rattles, things that squeak or ring or bang, and they spend most of the time chewing the cardboard boxes they came in.....
Keep playing to her - it'll bond you both even closer through music. When my youngest daughter was tiny, I used to play Marillion's "Kayleigh" to her all the time (even named her after the song!) and she still likes the song over 20 years later!
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
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Keep playing to her - it'll bond you both even closer through music. When my youngest daughter was tiny, I used to play Marillion's "Kayleigh" to her all the time (even named her after the song!) and she still likes the song over 20 years later!
:D :D :D
Vic
Know any good Jane or Janie songs? I'm not singing 'Janie's Got a Gun' to her. :lol:
All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now I see I should have been more specific.
.
Keep playing to her - it'll bond you both even closer through music. When my youngest daughter was tiny, I used to play Marillion's "Kayleigh" to her all the time (even named her after the song!) and she still likes the song over 20 years later!
:D :D :D
Vic
Know any good Jane or Janie songs? I'm not singing 'Janie's Got a Gun' to her. :lol:
Something back from the 80s. Might have even been named Jane. I can hear the song in my head now. I just can't come up with the band right now.
The Stones did a song back in the 60's called Lady Jane.
Jane's Addiction did one called "Jane Says" that's a little catchy.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
Sweet Jane by Lou Reed (with and without the Velvet Underground). Easy and fun either electric or acoustic...
Peace
Well I took Misanthrope's advice and did a little bit of playing around with the baby there. Her favorite part was the tuning. :roll:
:mrgreen:
