Can Everyone Learn To Play?

I think playing with "feel" or emotion comes in after one gains confidence in their playing.

Think of playing as riding a bicycle. When you are first learning to ride you feel the pedals under your feet, your grasp on the handle bars practically makes dents in the metal, you stare down at the front tire to make sure its going straight. You could ride right past a UFO and never notice. After you learn and become confident with your riding you look at the scenery and enjoy the ride. The physical act of riding and balance becomes relagated to your subconscience.

When you first are learning the guitar you are so bound up with hitting the right frets while plucking the right strings that you can't "feel" the music. At least that's what I've found when I just started playing.

Take the basic minor pentonic scale. At first you methodically practice it to memory, then you find that while you can bend or slide into any note, some notes sound better being bent/slid into than others. At some point you'll be able to pick up your guitar and just play phrases that sound good. There's nothing written down, you really don't think about where the music is going, you just play and look at the scenery as you go along.

Just my thoughts.

Michael

Think of playing as riding a bicycle. When you are first learning to ride you feel the pedals under your feet, your grasp on the handle bars practically makes dents in the metal, you stare down at the front tire to make sure its going straight.

I still believe that some things just come more naturally to some people. I'll use the bike analogy.

I've got two kids, one of whom was exactly like you describe above when learning to ride at age 5. My other one, we videotaped his first lesson - there I am walking behind to make sure he's OK, then there's me jogging, then sprinting as he just takes off. He finally hits the brakes, skids to a stop and dismounts as if he'd been riding for years. He was less than 3-1/2 years old at the time. That natural ability crosses over to all sorts of physical activities. He's just got something a lot of people don't.

I think the same thing holds true for music. I've got a friend who's never taken a lesson, never studied music and couldn't tell you a chord, note or scale, but can play a piano, drums, harmonica,etc. so well that if he starts playing, crowds gather to watch. I asked him how he does it, and he said, "I have no idea. It's just there."

"Have you ever seen someone who was not capable of learning an intrument no matter how hard they tried?"

Yes, me. I've been playing a few years and sound as bad as the day I first picked up the guitar. I methodically pick at notes and have no emotion in my playing. But if being "good" was the criteria for whether or not someone should play, I imagine there'd also be a lot of empty golf courses.

Hang in there.

I've got a right to be wrong
Got to sing my own song
I might be singing out of key
But it sure feels good to me
- Joss Stone

Funny you should mention this because I observed very early that good guitar players are relaxed (fingers, arms, etc.) and that's why they have speed. In golf, same thing. The more relaxed you are, the better the swing. If your grip is tight, everything else will be bad!

That's why, everything Jamie Andreas says makes sense to me. I orderd the material and I'm just going through it. I can play chords but still have trouble changing chords and it's because my fingers are all tensed up! Can't help it? Visit his website and see if it doesn't make sense! The material may be kind of pricey but worth it!

Just for the record: when it comes to playing guitar and golf -
I stink at both!

BJ

Anybody can learn to play as well as they want to be able to. Some of us hold ourselves to higher standards than others, because we feel we can excel at it. Others will be content to play "Wonderwall" at campfire get-togethers. It is simultaneously as complicated and as simple as you want or need it to be.

Even my tone-deaf mother (and I'm not kidding, she was one of the kids that the music teacher told to mouth the words at recitals instead of singing!) learned to play guitar.

Don't mean she was any good at it, just that she learned the chords and strumming needed to be able to play. (On a side note, my jackass uncle broke her guitar and didn't tell her until years later, when she wanted to break it out and get re-acquainted with it - thanks a lot, Uncle Bruce, I could've had a vintage Gibson acoustic to learn on!)

Hey I thought I was rythm impaired too. Not true. I have found over time and with the help of a good teacher, my problem was thinking too much and not feeling. I still think too much when I play and I can really tell the difference when I am thinking and playing instead of just playing.

Relax and feel the groove. You will get it.

Mshrad