How does one know when they are no longer a beginner? What criteria separates a novice from a "regular player?
brent
I have often said: "I've been a beginner for 30 years, and I'm getting pretty good at it!"
The path from beginner to expert is continuous with no road signs. Some people will say that you're more than a beginner when you can play barre chords or a Bm. IMHO, once you can play a few songs from start to finish, and once you've taught someone else something (anything), then you're more than a beginner.
The other conversation goes like this:
"When will I know if I'm good enough to play on stage?"
"When you step down from it."
It's a moving target.
I think I went from novice to beginner and then back again. It was last Saturday for sure.
When you feel like you are a regular player.
It's when you feel (semi) confident with playing with others. We all never wonder where we are on the ladder. God, I totally understand the question. Been there. When I'm with better players I cringe because "I'm not that."
Food for thought. You will never be as good as Johnny Guitar Player. For now. Yet, some day, you will be that Johnny Guitar Player and have someone like yourself wondering the same thing. Think about this post and let me know in 20 years...
"Nothing...can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts."
We are all beginners and we never stop learning. In the meantime, everybody wishes they were a better <something> than they are.
I started playing 34 years back, and I have to play the lead lines in Boccerini's Introduction and Fandango for the Essex Guitar Orchestra this year - and I'm sitting here looking at it going "Oh, sh.......... look at that"
The <something> is important - it could be you wish you were a better lead player, or rhythm player, or knew more chords, or could compose, or write four-part harmony.
A :-)
"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk
How does one know when they are no longer a beginner? brent
By the very fact that this question has ocurred to you!
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
Thanks guys great philosophy. I "chorded along" for many years (open Chords) then lately picked up the guitars again and discovered that you can play down on the neck, with barre chords and riffs.
I apply that "forever a beginner" philosophy to my profession as a plastics engineer. Though I have degrees and wrote a lot, I always consider my self a student, I guess that applies to life too as well as the guitar.
Hey, ever really notice the feeling the vibrations of an acoustic guitar impart to the midsection of your body? A real Zen like experience, especially when you are alone with the guitar.
Keep Strummin'!
brent
Brent...Im requoting something I said a while ago:
Re: Theory? When, if, how?
by Cat on 08 Oct 2008 16:03
Don't look for any sort of structure to what you want to feel as you play. Sure, put in your practice regimen...but take a break every now and then. Hit just ONE simple chord...LISTEN to the inherent intervals...pick one of 'em...then chase after it. It's tough for me to describe it any bettern' that. You might end up with just ONE following chord that feels right. So what?! Another will follow...a chord cycle will materialise out of nowhere...with associated cycles teeming up like recombinant DNA pieces.
That pretty much sums it up...
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
This thought has crossed my mind as well, especially since I just started playing in Jan. 2008. To a degree, I hope I always feel like a beginner, in the way that there will always be something more to learn, and hopefully I still enjoy learning it.
Reminds me of the book Zen Guitar, which is a really pleasant read.
"How long will it take me to learn the Way of Zen Guitar?"
"As long as you live - that short."
"What kind of music do you usually have here?"
"Oh, we got both kinds. We got country AND western."
How does one know when they are no longer a beginner? What criteria separates a novice from a "regular player?
I'm still trying to figure out when I'm going to grow up . . . what's the criteria? . . . anybody? . . . did I miss the deadline?
KR2
It's the rock that gives the stream its music . . . and the stream that gives the rock its roll.
The vibrations? Yep. It is Zen like. I've got a Collings that the whole instrument feels alive. You can feel the vibrations in your fretting hand. I've got another guitar where the sound seems to emanate from some focused point in front of the guitar, rather than the guitar itself. You'd have to play it to know what I mean, or have abused drugs in the late 70's. I think that is why I own more guitars than I should. Each one has some very special characteristic that makes me want to play it.
I think when you can learn and play songs relatively quick without making major mistakes. Then I would say you were in the intermediate stage. For example, if you go to a jam and someone gives you a songsheet with the lyrics and chords written out, and you can play the whole song in a presentable fashion, you are no longer a beginner.
But we are all beginners in that you never finish learning, and you are never good enough. :D
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
I think that by any objective standard I am a beginner. I can play chords from a sheet as Wes mentioned but it wont be creative or flashy, I can't improvise well with jazz harmonies, I can't shred, my comping skills are hopeless, and on and on. So am I beginner? In my opinion (and I might be biased) no. Music is too wide to have set objectives. I personally belief you're no longer a beginner if you can create the music you want to create with some fluency and control. This means that you can be an advanced punk-guitarist relatively quickly, but being an advanced jazz-guitarist will take longer. In my book there is no such thing as a 'general guitarist'.
In my book there is no such thing as a 'general guitarist'.
You forgot Colin Powell...he plays a decent six string! :lol:
Good point, though. There's only so many strings and so many frets...and you've got so many fingers. I guess it's time and interpretation the rules your planets???
Cat
"Feel what you play...play what you feel!"
This thought has crossed my mind as well, especially since I just started playing in Jan. 2008. To a degree, I hope I always feel like a beginner, in the way that there will always be something more to learn, and hopefully I still enjoy learning it.
I had to do a double take when I read ^that post ^, thinking I wrote it. :lol:
I also started in Jan. 2008, and feel the same way you do. Imo if you feel like a beginner with the attitude that you can always learn and do better, yet still be confident in your current skills, you'll actually be fantastic.
It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.
