too late for sucess

Nick is talking about quality versus quantity. I can probably learn Nirvana - unplugged album in an hour or so. Other songs will take me about 1000x longer, if I am even able to do it. How many songs you can play is totally irrelevant.

Right, it just isn't a good measure.

I saw this poll on another site where I rated myself as intermediate, and this guy who is really, really good, much better than me rated himself the same.

Right, it just isn't a good measure.

I saw this poll on another site where I rated myself as intermediate, and this guy who is really, really good, much better than me rated himself the same.

The more I talk to guitarists I believe their is a huge area of itermediate-ness where your style and technique are developing, and you can't really be "better" than someone else. You can know more, play faster, etc, but style divergences make it impossible to compare.

Like I see someone who plays bluegrass (which I don't) and I can honestly have no means to compare their level with my own, just because they're doing totally different things.

Likewise, I see the crazy speed metal guys, and think "wow, they're fast" but I also know that they're just playing chromatic scales, so maybe I know more than them... better just kinda goes out the window.

Just be the best you can be.

sory to be an idiot ,but what does intermediate?

sory to be an idiot ,but what does intermediate?

between beginner and expert, or "in the middle." And the middle is a big place.

oh right, gee thanks. its was bugging me for ages.

It is NEVER too late for success.

Ask anyone who has thought it was too late, only to find success.

say you don't get started at it now. well next year you're going to be sixteen, and you're going to say "i should have started when i was fifteen." Then you're going to be seventeen and you're going to say, "i should have started when i was fifteen." then your're going to be 25 and you're going to say "i should have started when i was fifteen."

Just do it and don't worry about anything.

you know why do i feel that pearl knows me omg. thats exactly what i would say the nxt yr and yr after. i got to help myself i guess.

i've got to work hard definetly
:roll:
thanks everyone :D

p.s wots the most people you guys and gals played to or performed

"I don't want to be better than the rest, just better than my best." Im not sure where I heard that or who said it, but I know it had something to do with guitar playing. It's true, too. I don't compare myself to my guitar buddies, I compare myself to where I was a month ago or a year ago, and that keeps driving me.

It's true that how many songs you can play doesn't matter. I played through my entire binder of songs (when I learn a song I print out the tabs and save them for future reference) and it took me about three hours with only like a ten minute break. I figure it was about 50 songs or so, I haven't counted. Just because I can play that many songs in no way makes me a good player. In my opinion, I suck, because Im not where I want to be. But every time something new hits you, you can finally make that switch that used to give you hell, or a rhythm just comes without trying, you know you're progressing and that makes all the blood, sweat, and tears worthwhile.

Jardiny, the biggest crowd I ever played to was several thousand at an outdoor festival - I dunno how many exactly. Here's the story:

In 1979 I was watching the news... the reactor troubles at Three Mile Island were on. I wrote a folksy blues tune called 'Three Mile Island Blues' (There's a hole in the ground where Pennsylvania used to be / right between Ohio and the coast of New Jersey...) I'd been doing a lot of local smaller clubs in Chicago, like the Cubby Bear, the Earl of Old Town, Somebody Else's Troubles, No Exit Cafe, and basically playing for crowds of 20-150 or so (most nights 20-50) and somebody heard that tune. Next thing you know I was playing a huge no-nukes festival, opening for Jim Post.

I tell ya, it was just about the most fun you could have with clothes on :)

Fame is fleeting, though. It was either that year or the next - I do my best to not remember - that I played to the smallest crowd I've ever had for a pro gig: two.

Yep, two. At some hotel bar. My band seriously outnumbered them - I think they were scared to not like us!

We never got asked back to that bar. Dunno why - I was kind of famous then :)

oh my god that must be so cool playing to that many people. is it the appreciation from the crowd that makes alot of people addicted to performing.

sory to ask so many questions its so interesting though. must be cool people appreciating something you put alot of effort into even though you enjoy doing itof course. cool

thanks for answering my questions people its here we go again appreciated :) .

I just started learning guitar last year, at the age of 33. I'll never be a rock star, but then again I don't want to be. As others have stated, success is relative. My success at guitar has already slowly started. I picked up guitar because of my love of music and wanted to write my own stuff. Six month in now and I've got the lyrics for three songs and I'm working on the music for one. They probably aren't any good, but it's a start. I know a few scales, a few chords, and a few bits and pieces of songs. A LOT more than I knew just a few short months ago. That's success in my book.

Keep at it man. If you have the means to record yourself, do it. I've started recording some of the stuff I practice. I'll date the file and listen to it again a few weeks later. You can really hear your progress this way. Helps give ya a boost.

thanks for your advice dude. i want success not like famous but i wana be appreciated for something i like or love doing thats all. even if its 5 people that turn up for a gig i'd be made up because they would listen to what im singing thats success in my eyes. playing to people and have them listen.

thanks anyway. hope i cleared that up. :)

a kid in england did not get his first guitar until he was about 14 years old, though he really didnt play it much t until he was about in college...his name was Eric Clapton