[Sticky] --> Share things you've learned about guitar

Here you are:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/columns/gear_maintenance/restringing_your_guitar.html

8)

A friend taught me to liken learning to play the guitar with learning to drive a car, and the four stages of learning, which are:-

1. Unconscious incompetence - You can't drive or play, and you don't know why.
2. Conscious incompetence - You still can't drive or play, but at least you know why, and are taking steps forward.
3. Conscious competence - You can drive but you're having to think all the time. Likewise with the guitar, you can play along, but it's taking a lot of thought energy.
4. Unconscious competence. You drive home home from work and you can't even remember how you got there. Same with a guitar, you play it without even realising you know it.

I've taken up guitar at a fairly late age, and the thing that drives me forward is playing with friends, both experienced and not so. Playing with my friend from a band teaches me so much about playing, and playing with friends just starting out makes me realise how much I've learned in a short time.

Oh, and that was my first post btw, so be gentle with me!

1. Unconscious incompetence - You can't drive or play, and you don't know why.
2. Conscious incompetence - You still can't drive or play, but at least you know why, and are taking steps forward.
3. Conscious competence - You can drive but you're having to think all the time. Likewise with the guitar, you can play along, but it's taking a lot of thought energy.
4. Unconscious competence. You drive home home from work and you can't even remember how you got there. Same with a guitar, you play it without even realising you know it.

Excellent analogy, Kowboy!

That has to be the best first post I've ever seen. Well put. I think those 4 lines put it all into perspective.

Hello All

I'm on my way back to England...home sweet home! I have just spent two days in Cyprus (at some hotel in Cyprus as I write this) not having no sleep for past 2 days, having to catch a 3:45am flight back to where I call home. I'm feeling like a broken string or stretched out like an elastic band. But I just had to get on the net to find out more.

Anyway to my point! I went to a music shop in Cyprus (WOW) and got overwhelmed with the idea of starting to learn how to play the Guitar, this has happened to me in the past many many times but I just never took the opportunity.

My new idea has led me to this site and I just want to say WOW to Some, Most, All of the comments I have seen so far. I will no doubt have many questions to ask/post and I look forward to any correspondence.

I haven't got a guitar yet but as soon as I get back to the UK I am aiming to get one.....WOW I can't wait.

Welcome to GuitarNoise! Great to hear of another person considering guitar. Trust me, you'll never regret it!

Slipperman,

I started when I was young. If I could have afforded the Ovation (or equivalent) I just bought, I probably would have still been playing. I got to where I was just almost, not quite, competent. At least this is my excuse, guitar not good enough. I know how poor an excuse that is, but it is the only one I have.

I am almost 10 years older than you and getting back into guitar playing; starting where I should have been 30 years ago, almost a beginner.

I have dreams of retiring and going on tour on the coffee house circuit.

That sig line about dreams and regrets still works if you have weird dreams, right?

Skip

Elastic, I hope you do at least try to play. I'd guess 95 % of people who pick up a guitar quit in after 2 months. I'd estimate most of us here on the forums are the other 5% who've said, “Yea, I suck, but even the pros sucked in their first weeks, months, and years so I'll try even still.” I still feel bad for all those who quit because it's such a fun hobby. You can't bring your stamp collection, your prowess at a software program, or your gifted abilities as a horticulture guru to a party. You can bring a guitar and be the life of the party after (honestly) just maybe a year of continued confusion of learning the guitar. Or that's just one guy's opinion…..

I would also like to add...

* That I found it handy to write anything that I picked up down in a note book, like chord charts and things, basics of reading notation, I think that writing them out helps it to sink in, well it helped me anyway and if I do lapse in memory on occasions its there in the book to jog my memory.

That's exactly the same way I am, something about writing it really makes me remember. And I can offer one tip...
*ASAP learn a song you really like, learn it by tab or whatever, the easier the better. I find it helps keep me motivated. After you can play it well move on to another.

BTW this may be the most informative and 'on-topic' thread I've ever seen on ANY board!

Disclaimer: I'm an odd dude…read on at your risk. It's tough for me to learn songs. I can read a tab or chords/words a dozen times and that helps me slowly get the gist of a song. But I'm so odd that I literally have to type the song chords and words out to really get it. I've done that for say 60+ songs and it's worked for me. The process of literally typing it out has made a lasting impression of the songs in my head.

My best friend (for high school) and I play twice a week. Normally I type up the songs and I give them to him and we play. Lately, he typed two songs for me and I could not get them. So I retyped them and then I got it. It's the process of actually going slow, reading, and typing that does it for me. I then got the songs. Weird. Similarly, when I write stuff down I'm MUCH more apt to remember them rather than saying, “I'll remember to do X..”

Also, I go out to my garage for breaks from playing music every few hours. I'll go out there, listen to a cd of the song I'm working on, close my eyes, and visualize my hands going to certain chords or notes while the songs is playing. I often do that after typing up a song. I'll do that for a couple of days and then try the song. By then, I've got it already in my mind from typing and visualizing.

Will it work for you? Maybe not, unless you're wired like my odd brain. But give it a whirl.

A friend taught me to liken learning to play the guitar with learning to drive a car, and the four stages of learning, which are:-

1. Unconscious incompetence - You can't drive or play, and you don't know why.
2. Conscious incompetence - You still can't drive or play, but at least you know why, and are taking steps forward.
3. Conscious competence - You can drive but you're having to think all the time. Likewise with the guitar, you can play along, but it's taking a lot of thought energy.
4. Unconscious competence. You drive home home from work and you can't even remember how you got there. Same with a guitar, you play it without even realising you know it.

I've taken up guitar at a fairly late age, and the thing that drives me forward is playing with friends, both experienced and not so. Playing with my friend from a band teaches me so much about playing, and playing with friends just starting out makes me realise how much I've learned in a short time.

That is a fantastic way to put it. Hooray for that. Im gonna use that sometime.

What Ive learned about guitar? Well, I'm a beginner with one acoustic guitar, but Ive learned that it can be bloody addictive!

you must believe you can learn to play the guitar - even if you're teaching yourself (that's the path i'm taking), or learning from the internet or a pal.

as i was about to toss my guitar in the pond, i remembered a John Lennon quote: "it's not hard if you try". that quote kept me going during frustrating times. i've improved a lot, and as a folk guitarist, i can really see my style developing.

play on and believe in yourself,
:D

You know, I've been watching the responses to this thread and I'm getting encouraged at the powerful wisdom that's being offered. When I get down on myself I come back and read some stuff from fellow contributors and it picks me back up off the floor. :)

I think one of the things that makes me really want to move on and keep learning is to hear/see those who've just started playing guitar for a few weeks or months. They try so dog-gone hard. The sounds may not be “right” but they shrug it off as just being part of learning to get better and that's definitely the way to think positive. It's the human drive and effort that brings us all just a little bit closer to playing well. I could go on….