What's Best - One Perfect or Several Under Construction?

i guess i'm lucky, then, in that i've never made a mistake.

i guess i'm lucky, then, in that i've never made a mistake.
:D

Apparently I used to be like that too...

From some years back:

I'm one of those lucky beginners who never actually makes a mistake.  However anything I've ever played always contains one or all of the following:

Unexpected note re-arrangements and musical re-interpretations.  :shock:

Audacious tonal variations  :?

Vividly unusual structural experimentations.  :cry:

Sudden improvisations.  :roll:

And an astonishing range of Spontaneous Sonic Surprises. 

Personally I see it as a sort of gift really….. every attempt is unique and different. :wink:

Apologies for hijacking your thread Dylan. I think I'll see if I can get another one going just about approaches to practice.

Hey, not a problem because this is a big part of my problem I reckon and any tips and hints will be put through the 'filter' again and regurgitated when required....

I've got in my mind now how I should approach my playing, and as I said before, it's pretty much as I've been doing and pretty much how everyone else thinks it should be done (although there are multiple responses, you can usually eek out the common denominator) :wink:

For me, playing is for my own pleasure and satisfaction and to prove to myself that I can achieve something whilst not being in the first flushes of youth :( . The kids that pick up a guitar have all that extra space in their brains and dexterity in their fingers that they can achieve an incredible amount in a short time. As for me, my brain has had years of absorption and my fingers, although pretty dextrous need the strength and training to contort into positions they've never been asked to do.

I want to be able to stand on stage with a group of people and play to an audience and at the end of the song get an applause for a job well done rather than get a beer bottle bouncing off my head (although in Bob's Country Bunker this rule doesn't seem to apply). :roll:

Also, I have learned everything off the internet from websites such as GN and as such had to decide on the best method to approach things - I have NOT had an instructor telling me the error of my ways, so I know that I'm probably doing quite a bit wrong as far as 'text book' guitar playing is concerned, but I then think about the guitar greats that we all would like to emulate and the songs we cover and think, well, most of them probably never had formal training and they're pretty good at what they do...so....

I want to be able to play GOOD, I'm not really concerned whether what I play is perfect - I'm a perfectionist in my daily work because I have to earn a living from it, but I think I can cope with being a 'good' guitar player, rather than a 'perfect, professional, accomplished, fantastic, great' whatever word you want to use.

Think of it this way - if everyone played the same 'perfect' way, wouldn't the music world be a boring place to live!

Rock on!
D 8)

Also, I have learned everything off the internet from websites such as GN and as such had to decide on the best method to approach things - I have NOT had an instructor telling me the error of my ways, so I know that I'm probably doing quite a bit wrong as far as 'text book' guitar playing is concerned, but I then think about the guitar greats that we all would like to emulate and the songs we cover and think, well, most of them probably never had formal training and they're pretty good at what they do...so....

My take on the 'self taught' thing is that nobody is actually totally self taught. We all learn from others, it's just that some of us can't always see the person we're learning from. But they're still giving us lessons, whether it's because we listen carefully to their music and learn from what they do (which is how a great many people learned over the years) or whether we read their tips from books and websites. Even when I did have face to face lessons with trained teachers I still made most of the skills progress in the hours between lessons, by myself, when I was trying to put it all into practice.

The best teachers I've had are the guys that I play once a week with. They're all more experienced than I am, and the benefits of playing alongside them has been invaluable.

I once put a thread on a classical piano forum (and BOY! are those dudes super anal about doing everything according to the ancient books of rules....) asking what these legendary "Bad Habits" actually were on piano, so that I might better know how to recognise my enemy. And it was a pretty thin and unthreatening list they came up with... Nothing that I hadn't already been aware of... :wink:

Having a face to face mentor is great, but it's not a killer if you don't have it. In my opinion anyway.

Cheers,

Chris

My take on the 'self taught' thing is that nobody is actually totally self taught.

Yeh, I was quite careful not to put 'self taught' because I believe I am NOT self taught - I have a wealth of virtual instructors, tutors and mentors - it's great - I could never afford to get so much knowledge and learnings face to face... :D

I have a friend in France that I visited last year - he used to be quite an accomplished player and now does a bit of teaching and it was quite interesting - he was very complimentary about my playing but actually said that when I have been playing for a few more years, I could probably teach him some different aspects of playing because of the more modern styles that I like to play - poor chap has been out of the loop for a while as far as new musicians and singer/songwriters are concerned.

Also, I did find that it doesn't always work trying to get your friend to give you lessons because there's always other distractions and it's not taken as seriously as if your paying $70 an hour or whatever... Laughs have to be had and beers have to be drunk - house rules! :D

My finger position on the strings is pretty bad I think hence the muted and buzzing strings - I must try and use more of the tips of my fingers and keep them more upright. When I started it was painful, but hopefully that slight change won't be as painful - but, as said in a previous comment - I had no one to tell me exactly how to position my fingers and what part to use, so it's only when you come to play a piece that relies on good finger position, you realise that maybe you have been doing it wrong all the time... :roll:

Ahhhhh, wonderful...

Rock on!
D 8)