Hi! I've been reading GN for a few weeks, and have just started to explore the Forums. It's such a great site--I've learned a ton from reading it, and I'm really impressed with how nice and helpful everyone here is. Thank you already!
Since I expect to be around for a while, I thought I might as well introduce myself. I'm an absolute beginner, in my mid-30s, and though I've been passively interested in playing the guitar for a long time, I've never done anything about it, mostly because it's always seemed so challenging and difficult to me. It doesn't help that the stuff I generally like is really complicated. My main interest is British folk-rock from the '60s and '70s--Richard Thompson, John Renbourn, Bert Jansch. I do like guitar-driven classic rock in general, but usually lean towards the acoustic side of things even here.
A month or two ago my passive interest became much stronger, and when it didn't go away, I thought, "Maybe I should finally give it a shot." So I started reading GN and other sites, talked to a few teachers, considered getting a guitar. I figured I'd get an inexpensive acoustic, with the goal of upgrading in a few months if I stuck with it, but I made the mistake of mentioning this to a family member who said, "Oh, your sister has had a guitar in the basement for 20 years, I'm sure it's good," and I got guilted into using this horrible piece of nylon-strung crap. However, it stays in tune for at least an hour, so even though it sounds like hell, and I recoil from it as a physical object, it's probably good enough for the next month or so. (In general I have a tendency to always want expensive things, which I usually can't afford, so I'm concerned about what I'll want to upgrade to....)
I've avoided playing it, so as not to learn any bad habits before my first lesson, and also so that I didn't get upset that I didn't immediately sound great. But the lesson was today, and it went really well, and I'm very excited. I really like my teacher--he's very knowledgeable, and plays lots of styles extremely well, but shares my basic interests. He's into theory, but for helping with the music, not as an intellectual exercise. He was very good about letting me talk and giving me good answers, not just saying, "Yeah, let's learn some chords first, then we'll talk" or something. For today, we worked on basic position and strumming techniques, and did six chords, and I am to practice these and some changes; we finished with a pentatonic scale. And like everyone else, my fingertips are killing me and my whole hand is exhausted, but I'm excited to keep it up.
Well, I think I'll stop here for now. I have loads of questions, but I thought it was only fair to say hello first. Thanks again for a great site!
Hey Jester
Welcome aboard, it's a great hobby to have, and as you know this is a great site to visit to support it. (That was a confusing sentance eh?)
Seems like you've got a good teacher there, make sure you practice though, otherwise it's 'all for naught' as they say.
Lookin' forward to seeing if I can help with any of your questions ;)
Welcome again.
Taso
On the equipment issue . ..
Of course you know the names of the strings, which are:
(E)ventually (A)ll (D)edicated (G)uitarists (B)uy (E)quipment
That mnemonic didn't just happen by accident :)
A 20 year old nylon string guitar with probably questionable set up is simply not the tool for the job you're doing.
You don't have to spend thousands, but scrape up $200 and go to the nearest good guitar shop and try on a few. Doodle around with them, talk to the salesperson (if they don't seem like they know what they're talking about, or start trying to heavy sell you leave immediately!) and find yourself a good guitar.
A bad instrument is not going to make your lessons easier, it's not going to make your practice fun, and it's not going to make you want to pick upt he guitar and play.
You don't need a mazarati, but you sure do need to move out of yugo-ville. To continue with this analogy, get something in the Honda range ... inexpensive enough to not break the bank, but with enough of the right features to make you happy.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
welcome
it's always to hear that someone over 30 picked up a guitar , I am 42 and being practising for a ( whole ) 8 months , my first strum on a guitar was 25 November 2004 . ( important date for me ) this is when I realised that if so many other people in this world can do this surely I can , I amaze my self at times when I finally learn something new ( to me it might a different strum pattern or a different chord ) . But geeez this is fun I just wish I was 18 again with my long hair instead of ever growing skin on top of my head . Maybe not though but enjoy your new hobby / life .
And I found out that there is soo many terrific peole on this webb site just ask and someone will always reply "like someone said to me there is no stupid questions only stupid people who won't ask ."
see ya :D
Here is to you as good as you are
And here is to me as bad as I am
As good as you are and as bad as I am
I'm as good as you are as bad as I am
I had a similar experience. My family had an old classical guitar lying around which they foisted on me when I mentioned I wanted to play guitar.
After a month (no teacher, just learning chords and strumming easy songs on my own), I decided I was tired of not being able to hear the sound that comes from steel strings, so I bought a good used steel-string for about 200. Before, even though I was strumming the right chords for Eight Days a Week or One, the nylon strings don't produce the right sound. But now when I play it sounds suspiciously close to those songs, which is pretty cool, and very satisfying.
All I'm saying is that it might be worth it to invest in the right kind of instrument for the stuff you like. For me, it was a steel-string guitar.
I've avoided playing it, so as not to learn any bad habits before my first lesson
I think the whole concept of "bad habits" is overdone by guitarists. It's really about having a good time playing the music you love. If you have to "cheat" or make adjustments here and there, great. Whatever keeps you plugging away.
Is never using your pinkie to fret a note a bad habit? Everyone says so, but Eric Clapton doesn't do it (or at least I think I remember reading that).
Furthermore, Django Reinhardt only used two fingers on his fretting hand and B.B. King never plays chords. So anytime someone tells you that you can't do it that way and must do it this way... they're wrong.
Django's hand was damaged in a fire when he was 18, he could only use 2 fingers because the other 2 were paralyzed. Prior to that, he was an exceptional banjo player who used all 4 fingers quite well.
Using him is probably a bad example.
Ultimately, the pinkie issue comes down to this -- if you don't develop it, and use it, there are things you won't be able to do.
Django was a fabulous musician, but there was plenty of things he could NOT do on a guitar because of his physical limitations.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
I think the whole concept of "bad habits" is overdone by guitarists. It's really about having a good time playing the music you love. If you have to "cheat" or make adjustments here and there, great. Whatever keeps you plugging away.
The 'bad' in bad habits is that certain motions or positions make it really hard to connect to the next note or chord smoothly. Hooking your thumb over the neck limits the freedom of movement of your fingers. Maybe you can reach what you want to do, but you're using more effort than you need to. Using 1-2-3 fingering for G major in first position means you'll rotate your wrist to get to C major or G7, again wasting energy. Every single 'bad habit' limits you in a way that the 'proper' technique won't.
If everything you ever want to play on the guitar is already within your grasp, then it doesn't matter how you play. If there's something you aspire to that's beyond your reach, the cheats and adjustments might keep you from getting there.
The 'habits' part comes from the fact that instrumental proficiency is a muscle memory thing. If you're going to be fluid on guitar, you need to place multiple fingers without thinking - you don't go "Cmaj7 in third position... first finger 3rd fret A string, second finger 4th fret G string..." you just snap into position and go. That comes from doing something over and over until it's habit.
When I started to play I developed some bad habits. I worked hard and overcame them. But I still find I 'catch myself' once in a while and have to correct - even though I've now been playing those movements 'right' for 12-15 times longer than I ever played them 'wrong'. We're talking decades of practice the right way fighting with months of playing the wrong way... so even if you fix the movement, the force of habit developed early on stays with you for an awfully long time.
If it's the terminology that bothers you, consider them 'ingrained limiting movements'. The concept is valid - guitarists with good technique can play things that guitarists with bad technique can't.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
