ballybiker, thanks for making this post. I am one of those "late" starters redpoint was talking about. I actually just began lessons a few weeks ago, and already I have found myself getting frustrated and disappointed. Sometimes I didn't even want to practice, but I am forcing myself to do so (actually it ain't too hard to force myself). After reading some of the posts here, I can't begin to tell you how much more inspired I feel. It's sometimes good to know that you aren't the only one who is, or has, battled these problems. Not trying to make this sound like some support group or something :) , but you guys have given out some very good advice and I, for one, appreciate it. Thanks all.
makes this website worth all the worlds gold :lol: :roll: :wink:
ballybiker, thanks for making this post. I am one of those "late" starters redpoint was talking about. I actually just began lessons a few weeks ago, and already I have found myself getting frustrated and disappointed. Sometimes I didn't even want to practice, but I am forcing myself to do so (actually it ain't too hard to force myself).
Good luck with your journey, mate. :)
It's important to practice - in fact it's essential - but when I don't feel like 'practicing' I just sit down and play. That's to say I just 'noodle' (I love noodling...).
Perhaps I could explain the difference. I have a heap of good 'teach yourself' books, and I've had a few lessons to point me in the right direction. So when I'm feeling disciplined, I sit down and work through the pages, do the exercises and make progress in a reasonably formal and structured way.
But, although I can be very structured and disciplined in other areas (if I'm working on a computer or building something for instance) I can't keep that approach up indefinitely with music. In fact a few minutes at a time is usually enough.
So in between I "noodle" - which is to say experiment, improvise and generally fiddle about to see what happens if.....
You can get something interesting happening with just a single note, simply by varying the rhythm, the attack, the volume etc. And if you can stretch to two or even three notes - luxury- you can make a tune. :D
The point is, you can have fun - and start musically being you, rather than the guy in the instruction book - with almost no ability or knowledge whatsoever.
And don't worry about late starts. Like the old fart in Redpoint's great example I started trying to play guitar in my late fifties. My hands were somewhat gnarled from work, I had permanent pain and stiffness in one finger of my left hand, and at the start I had to literally use my right hand to put the fingers of my left hand into place in the frets. :shock:
I couldn't read music (in fact I'd become convinced that I was actually musically dyslexic after my early attempts to read failed miserably) and I felt like a foolish impostor even holding an instrument and imagining that I could play.
I'm now 60 and have been playing for a couple of years. I don't do hours every day, or even have a regular practice schedule, but I do keep at it.
After the first few weeks the pain in my hand disappeared and my fingers started to free up. It began to look as if something as fiendishly ambitious as an actual chord change might be possible one day.... My fingers, which seemed incapable of holding a string down firmly enough - or indeed just touching one instead of always overlapping and causing buzzes, screeches and embarrassing sonic surprises - just slowly seemed to find their way around...
Now... I can just fly round that fretboard. I haven't timed myself but I can do several chord changes per second instead of per minute. I no longer have to hide in the shed or the bedroom to play - so that nobody can hear me. I get great enjoyment out of playing, but the thing is that I was always able to find some small enjoyments even when I was as appallingly awful as it's possible to be. I can read music now, although I can't yet sight read at playing speed (as if.... :roll: )
And I've also managed to get good enough on the clarinet to play a few carols and so on. Although I'm slightly miffed by the fact that there's a guy of seventy just down the road who took the clarinet up a few months ago who looks set to overtake me on it.... :evil: He can't play guitar like me though... :wink:
Never too late to start anything.... just don't stress about about being awful.. or taking too long to learn something. What they always forget to mention in books is that something that takes a few paragraphs to explain can take anything from minutes to months to master, depending on what it is.
All the best with your playing.
And thanks Ballybiker for giving us all the chance to talk this over. :)
(i.e give me an excuse to boast about how good I am, when I was once worse than ugadog is now... :P )
haha chris c....i think this post has sparked the best from many....yourself included....simply my intention was to kinda let the freshers know that even someone like me...a total novice...can inspire belief in oneself....
i set off with a belief....music comes from the heart
what you call noodling ...I call doodling...and like you I have moments of true genius....chords flow,i hit bass strings at just the right moment to create an effect that spills emotion....i relax and WOW!!!!! write it down and lets see if someone whos been playing 40 yrs can give it the same feeling i can :?:
strange that...
my big problem is that I'm not from a musical background...nearly 42 and wishing i'd begun this journey into musicianship when i was a child....but what the heck eh.......
3 minutes of getting in the 'groove' is well worth 3 months of grafting/pain/despondancy/anguish/humiliation etc
I HAVE TASTED THE FUTURE........
AND I LOVE IT!
