I'm thinking of trying again

It depends on where you live ......... if you don't live near me, then yes, you should try again. If you want it bad enough you can do it. A teacher is good but you have to learn on your own too. Teacher and student are a team. Maybe with a different teacher you will do better. That said I taught myself but boy would a teacher have sped things up.

If you do live near me and can still play drums, you should forget about the guitar and concentrate on drums so you can join my band. :lol:

Seriously though, I am 51 and learned when I was 17 so I can't comment on the learning at an older age thing. I can tell you it is one of the things I enjoy most in life and would encourage anyone to do it. This forum can help you too and the site has great lessons. If I had those as well when I was learning it would have been nice too.

Welcome to the party. We think you'll like it here.
I really struggled and it got to where I dreaded going to my lessons because I never seemed to get better. After 6 months I still couldn't play a song and I didn't do much better with the scales she wanted me to learn.

Wrong approach, especially with the older student. I find it best to start with simple chords (over no more than three strings if necessary) and some very basic songs. I do this because students want to play something right from the start.
we both kind of realized that I wasn't going to ever be a guitarist.

So, what we get is your teacher had no idea how to get you playing anything.
She kept re-scheduling my lessons towards the end and it might be 3 weeks between lessons which made it harder to practice things that I just couldn't grasp.

What I get here is that your teacher had no strategy. If what she wanted you to do wasn't working straight out of the box, then she had no idea how to adapt to what you could do and her rescheduling your lessons means she didn't know (or want to know) how to try. People here, like Tom, David or myself, only reschedule lessons for extreme reasons.
I finally gave up back in February of 2011 and stuck my guitar back in it's case and put it in a closet. I quit coming to the guitar forums and tried to forget the entire episode.

We're not surprised.
But every now and then I still wish I could play. ... I wondered if my age (55) has made it more difficult to learn. But then I read on here about guys in their 60's and 70's learning how to play so it looks more and more like it's just me.

Sausage-fingered Mick - so called because he had hands like a pound of Walls' Pork & Beef sausages - started having lessons with me in his 60s. He always struggled but he got to strum open position chords and make a decent sound he could sing over.

Trevor is retired - I teach his grandson too. He falls off the golf course, into his very nice Mercedes (if I'd known that up front I might have charged him more :lol: ) and comes along to his lessons with a folder full of songs he's worked on with me and a few more that he wants to play.

Mick tried really hard between lessons. Trevor works really hard between lessons now. Mick even got some practise time in whilst his wife was in hospital and really very ill. I find if you give an older student the right material they will make time to practise.

Start with the easier lessons on this site, and let us know how it's going . If we can't help you play, with the experience we've got here, then we're all in trouble.

First time poster.

A few years ago I finally stepped up and bought a guitar and signed up for lessons with a well respected and long time teacher. I was a decent drummer back in my younger days and I always envied the guitarists. They could make music anytime and the girls loved them. Drummers were a necessary evil and the girls settled for them. ( ok....not entirely true, but true enough to be funny)

Anyway, after getting my guitar and starting lessons, I practiced pretty hard and I didn't make much progress. I really struggled and it got to where I dreaded going to my lessons because I never seemed to get better. After 6 months I still couldn't play a song and I didn't do much better with the scales she wanted me to learn. It was like my fingers weren't connected to my brain very well. It just seemed like I never retained any of the lessons. I could tell that she was disappointed in my progress and we both kind of realized that I wasn't going to ever be a guitarist. She kept re-scheduling my lessons towards the end and it might be 3 weeks between lessons which made it harder to practice things that I just couldn't grasp. I finally gave up back in February of 2011 and stuck my guitar back in it's case and put it in a closet. I quit coming to the guitar forums and tried to forget the entire episode.

But every now and then I still wish I could play. I love music and I'd love to be able to pick up a guitar and play a little. I'm just not sure if I should give it another try. It was very frustrating and very disappointing. I don't think I can go back to my original teacher. She is really nice and she is very patient, but I don't think she would be very enthusiastic about having me back. It just didn't seem like she could figure out why I was having so much trouble and I'm sure my disappointment at my inability to get better was pretty evident. I wondered if my age (55) has made it more difficult to learn. But then I read on here about guys in their 60's and 70's learning how to play so it looks more and more like it's just me.

Anyway, I know you guys can't really solve my dilemma about whether I should try it again, but I was hoping some of you have had students like me, or possibly even been a student like me, and had some advice or even a plan for starting over. I guess hope springs eternal and I'm hoping for a better outcome if I decide to try it again. But then again, if some people just can't learn to play the guitar, I'd be disappointed, but I'd rather be disappointed now rather than after putting another year or so in and quitting again because I'm still not making any progress.

Thanks in advance guys for any opinions or advice.

OK, well as a older starter myself I understand your fears. You know... I know at 47 Im never going to be a rockstar. Also for me anyways time is the biggest factor in not learning fast enough. I was a late starter to having children, and now Im running around taking care of a 6 and 10 year old. When you add a full time job, taking care of kids, and also a home, and making sure you devote the time to making it happy... well there is only so much time to fit in guitar leaning. Its somehting Ive always wanted to learn, and sorry I walked away from it in my teens to start my adult life.... and sence coming back to it in my early 40's ive struggled to get it done..Now with lessons I have progressed a fair ammount, but are still held back by not having that few hours a day to woodshed. But you know.... Im having fun. I enjoy when you fight with it, then it starts to come together and sound like.... dare I say...MUSIC!!!! Agean, im not going to be any rock star. I would like to get to a point that maybe I could do some playing for people....or fit into a band, and make some good music!! Other then that, I just enjoy it!!

Also I I know the feeling about setting it aside. I struggled for about a year or two, and started to loose my drive...They My Mom passed away, and a lot of stuff got laid aside..guitar being one. Well after about a year I asked myself what am I doing?? I enjoy it, and want to learn so I jumpped back in, got a teacher and now progressing.

As someone thats been there, I have to say dump your teacher, and find a new one. Somepeople just dont click. She might be a good teacher...but not for you. Grab that guitar out from behind that old suit jacket hanging there, and start doing SOMETHING with it!! Start poking around the lessons on this site. David does a great job of braking it all down so eaven a moron like me can do it. :) Get a song or two under your belt, then get that new teacher!!!

Sorry just to add.... Have you stepped back and thought about .....
It just didn't seem like she could figure out why I was having so much trouble and I'm sure my disappointment at my inability to get better was pretty evident.

????

You know yourself better then anyone. Look inside and see if you can see what is your holdup. What is holding you back from realy learning. We ALL have that thing that we fought, or still do!! [mine was/is fast, and smooth chord changes!!! ] Just maybe if you can find what your tripping over, you can approch that new teacher, and talk to him about it. There are a LOT of little hills to get over.... but after you get to the top, you have that whole downhill, and valley where you progress FAST!!! ...well till the next hill.. so find your hill, and then ask for help on how to get over it!

Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate the help and encouragement. I just need to sit down and decide if I'm committed enough to stick to it this time. I thought I was committed enough before but I sort of gave up on myself. If I'm going to try it again, I need to figure out how to stay positive when it goes bad. Hopefully with the help I can get here and finding a new teacher will give me a better chance at success.

Thanks again guys.

I need to figure out how to stay positive when it goes bad.

Come talk to us! :wink:

I need to figure out how to stay positive when it goes bad. .
Thats where a fallback song or two helps. Agean... I beat my self up ALOT, and when I get into one of those days where nothing goes right, just going back, and spend a little time messing with a song you do know helps.. Mess around with it, and just have some fun "Jamming" around for a little bit. Sometimes it helps me. And if not... well its better then sitting it on the stand and just looking at the thing!!!

I think the fact that you are here asking means that you owe yourself another chance with the guitar.

You and I are in the same boat, more or less. I had a fairly negative experience with guitar, and put it down for about 10 years. But the interest in music never went away. I wound up taking Music Theory, and Keyboard classes. And when I got to the keyboard, I found that I was no longer the slowest student in the class, but only the second slowest. Then some bad stuff happenned in life, and music was put down again.

And now I am picking up the guitar again, in my 50's. I am finding that some things that did not make sense before now make more sense to me.

. Then some bad stuff happenned in life, and music was put down again.

.

I went through the same thing. I started agean in my early 40's, then after the first year of struggling, my Mom passed away... Guitar got put aside...and put aside...and put aside... It was over a year when I said to my self.. "What the H are you doing!!??!!" So I started agean...Well lost dad this spring, and started to feel it coming... insted of dumping, I switched it up alittle. Packed the electric away, and dug out the Resonator, [Dad realy liked the resonator.. he was a Blue Grass fan, and liked the sound over the electric..] and mixed things up... Helpped me focas a little.

How strange that I would see this post. I haven't been on the boards here for a while because I was having a guitar "relapse." I have started up and stopped playing the guitar since 2006 more times than I care to count. I too am an older (54) beginner, well to borrow a phrase "a perpetual beginner." I have had good and bad teachers and once again am without. I would love to take lessons again from my last teacher, but his schedule and mine aren't meshing right now. Anyway, everything these wise gents have said rings true to me, too. I have a lot of doubts about my playing, though I do love it and can make a bit of noise that pleases me. I have found that it really all comes down to me and whether or not I want to keep playing. Sometimes that answer is yes and sometimes it's "Meh." Don't know if I will ever overcome this (I sure hope I can), but I try to take advantage of the times I do feel like it. Everytime I restart, I find that I have a little more knowledge from the last time, so I guess that should be encouraging.

Anyway, best of luck to you and let us know how you're doing. This forum is the best I have found (and I have joined several, but keep coming back here). This group is unwavering in their support and advice. They would never tell you to "just quit then" as I have seen on other boards.

Jim

NEVER GIVE UP!

I got immensely frustrated the first time I picked up my guitar, and vowed to not touch it until I'd had my first guitar class. It worked out brilliantly, he's an amazing teacher and even more importantly: we get along great. A teacher's supposed to be a friend in some ways. You have to be able to trust him, both with your doubts and fears, and he should be able to put you at ease.

After having the basics down, everything's about relaxation ultimately. You'll never play as good as you'd like to, even Steve Vai says there are things he can't do (and I just picked a player known for his technique). It's all about accepting what you -can- currently do, and try to use those things to make music. Progress isn't made by unhappiness with what you have and trying to make it better, it's about being happy with what you've got and liking it so much you'll proceed.

Even if you can only play a few chords, mixing up your strumming can make it really awesome. Try to play along with some songs you've learned. Try to find the music in the guitar :wink: