Playing with other people..

Read the new article on the Home Page. "Playing with Others" is our theme for a while, and there are lots of older articles, as well as new ones in the works.

-Laz

That's pretty weird. I usually check the front of the site daily but haven't done it in a couple of days. ..

You could try a guitar play-along CD to get good enough before playing with real people.

I have to disagre with patrick, lots of good players will jam with new players.thats kind of the point to this web site: older players helping the younger players and the other way around also :lol: :lol: You can always find others at your level too. You always learn something from jaming with others no matter what your skill level.

You could try a guitar play-along CD to get good enough before playing with real people.

Ooh, that can be tough, as you can't ask the CD to slow down or nod its head when the chorus is coming.

Have you ever heard someone say, "I won't play with him because he's a beginner." Unless we're talking about a paying gig, I've never heard that.

-Laz

I first played with someone else after two weeks of practice. I could play three chords G,C & D, but not very well. The person I played with had been playing over 30 years and I'd say is pretty good. He never once told me I sucked (I'm pretty sure I did). I had a great time and learned several new chords. Now a year and a half later I play with others every chance I get. Some of the people are better than me (most of them), some are not so good. I've never heard someone tell a beginner they where bad. And I learn something new every time.

We all started at the same place :D :wink:

If the better guitarist laughed at me I'd tell him to his face that he sucks coz he was right down there where I was before...and hes too immature to get that into his big head.
I seem to be bringing this up quite often. Everybody sucked at first. Its like older people looking at me funny coz I'm a trouble making teenager even though they were exactly the same age as me at some point of their lives.
If your roommate is any good he'd rather help you out than laugh at you and get bored just because he can't play his advanced stuff with you.

No matter how advanced his stuff is it still sounds better with someone playing some simple rythm to back him up.
We are all humans so everyone looks at things in thier own way.
Maybe he won't welcome your playing but chances are he will.
In my experience I have never met an accomplished player that didn't want to play with a beginner. In fact in every case the accomplished players would welcome the time and even look forward to it.

I started playing with the guitar group at church about six months after started. I was very concerned about my skill level (or lack thereof) going in. My original intention was to just practice with them for a few months but not perform in the church until I had everything down. Much to my surprise- after two weeks sitting in they declared me "Ready for prime time" and I made my debut on Tanksgiving Day. Now I've made a lot of mistakes- I know, and we are playing in front of hundreds of people on Sundays. Ans when I talk to the leder about it he says it's OK. He remembered when he was learning too, and he can tell i am very intent on learning and that i work at it. And he is right about that.

Also, I have people who hear us on Sunday compliment me quite frequently- they can't tell I'm making mistakes even though I know that I am. I am learning that you never sound worse to anybody than you do to your own self.

So don't worry about it. Playing with others is not as bad as you think it will be. Now I'm looking forward to getting together with a friend of mine and doing stuff as a duo.

as someone who has not yet been able to secure an instructor, and who is otherwise self taught (thank goodness for this website), i find it invaluable to hook up with others whenever possible

nuff said

:!:

I finally got started playing in a band this summer. The other two guitarists have been playing for twenty years and the band leader (one of the other guitarists) is an amazing musician who plays keyboards too. The bass player is also a veteran. I was very nervous at first but no longer. It's been a great experience and one helluva confidence builder (especially after our concert in front of about 300 people). Go for it. You'll learn a lot. And think of it as just that -- a great opportunity to learn.

I've gone through all of the self doubt about playing with other people and at times I'm still alittle uneasy about it but for me there was only so much playing by myself that I could take.

Unless your totally into a solo gigging to me the whole point is to make music with other people and the sooner you atrat the easier it gets.

I still like to play along to CD's when I'm home alone but there's no other feeling like when you get a few people playing together. Most of the mistakes are not even noticable.

So your teacher is correct, go out and find somebody to play with once you do you'll want to do it all the time.

What you all need to do is go play in a bell choir.

You are responsible for 2-4 notes, sometimes more. If you ring at the wrong time or the wrong bell it's a DISASTER. You very quickly learn the art of screwing up your face and looking at the person next to you when you ring incorrectly.

Once you can do that, playing with a bunch of guitarists is easy.