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August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | How did you learn to play guitar? Are you self-taught? Did you (do you still) have five lessons a week? What's your "modus operandi?"
I started out by buying songbooks of my favorite artists, listening to the LPs they matched up with, and working through song by song, learning chords as I went (for you youngsters, an LP--also called a "record" or "album"-- was like a big, black vinyl CD). As I got further into it, I got some "music-theory-for-guitarists" books, and read all the acoustic guitar magazines I could get my hands on.
I have a rudimentary understanding of theory, even though I've had no real formal training. I've always had an innate "feel" and a good ear for music. As you get into it, you realize that certain chords sound good together, and others don't. You're doing it right, even if you don't exactly know why. Sometimes I'll be playing, and my 20 year old son, who's majoring in music education at Northern Kentucky University and has forgotten more theory than I'll ever know, will ask me, "What's that you're playing?" I'll say, "I don't know-- just goofing around." He'll say, "That's a perfect example of a Neopolitan chord progression." I answer, "No kidding? I just thought it sounded cool."
Anyway, I think it'd be interesting to hear how you boys and girls have developed as pickers. How'd you get started, and what do you do now? |
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July 2006
Posts: 171
Location: Oregon | Long time ago I had some lessons. My sister and I gave that up (she played violin)to snow ski more often. Three years(?) back, I started taking lessons again. I don't have the disipline to do it myself, even though I like it. Not the playing, but the book reading for me was hard to keep regular. So I did the lessons thing and learned ten times more than I would have on my own. I also took a music theory class in school.
Anyway, I think it helps learning with someone who has been playing for 30+ years with you than on your own. |
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August 2006
Posts: 2804
Location: ranson,wva | my first go at it was when i was 13yrs old,i learned to play the blues from the old colored man next door back in westvirginia,he played a old beat up 1113 ovation and a 30's national duolian. never had any real payed for lessons just advice from a picker with 50+yrs playing experience. a bad head trauma in high school caused me to lose the gift. my second go at it im teaching my self this time, i can read some tab but not much,ive taught my self 5 songs in 2months just by memorizing the cords and progressions. i can play 4-5 cords by memory, as rick stated above some sound good together some dont..jason |
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August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | The first really authentic guitar book I got was Happy Traum's classic (and out-of-print)"Songs of James Taylor," which has every song from his first two albums-- the Apple album and his monster hit "Sweet Baby James" album. I still have that book ($4.95 in 1970). Great tabs in there; it de-mystified JT's licks and made them accessible. Purists will tell you that you should learn to read standard notation (and you probably should), but tab will get you there in 1/2 the time (maybe less), and it can show you the licks. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | I was in the choir in college (1971) and a decent guitar player and singer was playing a Bread song. It was wrong, so I went home and learned it on my brother's guitar that he had from when he gave up on lessons. I bought a Univox because somebody needed money and started messing around. I took a couple of free, community education type lessons. The last one I tried, the teacher tried to teach me Time In a Bottle and I ended up showing him how to play it. It's not that I'm any good, I'm just obsessive about playing just like the album. Then I quit for 20 years until I found this board. I'm still learning the same way, except I found out about tabs. Makes things a lot easier, except that most of them are wrong. (There's that obsessive part of me.) |
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March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | Mark, anyone ever accuse you of being legalistic? ;)
I watched and listened to my dad play, until I could play just like him (which I still can't). That was about 12 years ago, and I just dinked around with it for a long time, doing small things like camp stuff and friends' weddings. I was asked out of the blue to start up a new praise band at our old church, and I did that for three years, which was the best period of learning and growth I'd ever had in playing.
I'm basically self-taught, mostly through trial and a LOT of error. I watched videos and listened to songs from artists whose music we were doing, and then slowly figured out how to make what I was doing sound similar.
I got a lot of music theory in school, and was actually a music minor in college. All that said, it really didn't do me a bit of good in learning guitar. To this day I transpose my music from sheet form to tabs and cheat sheets - it's just so much easier for dummies like me to follow.
That, and no pages to turn! :D |
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Joined:
May 2005
Posts: 486
Location: North Carolina | Originally posted by rick endres:
I started out by buying songbooks of my favorite artists, listening to the LPs they matched up with, and working through song by song, learning chords as I went (for you youngsters, an LP--also called a "record" or "album"-- was like a big, black vinyl CD). As I got further into it, I got some "music-theory-for-guitarists" books, and read all the acoustic guitar magazines I could get my hands on.
That's eaxctly the way I did it. For me it was Kingston Trio records and "vocal albums" with the chord diagrams over the lyrics. (I ignored the dots and lines) At some point I discovered bossa nova and graduated from cowboy chords. After that, I was pretty much a guitarist. |
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June 2006
Posts: 7307
Location: South of most, North of few | I started way back in '63 just listening to the songs on am radio (remember that?) and trying to figure out where my fingers should go to make the chord sound right. As a result, I now play in somewhat of a non standard form, which I can't change now. But the plus side is that I can usually figure out most any song, given enough time and effort. I still consider myself just a casual player, and am humbled more and more seeing what others can do with these fine instruments. |
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December 2001
Posts: 10583
Location: NJ | I always remember wanting to play the guitar. My parents took me to the local music store to get lessons when I was in first or second grade I really don't remember. took lessons on and off all through grade school with the mel bay method. (AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH) Joined my first band when I was in sixth grade. In high school I found a teacher that taught me Hendrix, grand funk railroad etc and I was in heaven. In college I took a few years of lesssons from a classical player that cleaned up my technique and gave me the only bandhanded complement he ever gave a student which was "if you continue to practice like you have for the next couple of years you will be an average player" No I did not hit him.
mostly self taught from the on. At one point I could read in 4 positions on the fingerboard but I never kept that up, too much life got in the way.
Spent way too much time doing original music while in my 20's and 30's and now spend most of my time learning tunes I should have known back then |
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July 2005
Posts: 3410
Location: GA USA | I probably have had the worst learning habits of anyone. All self taught. I cheat a lot. I went for long periods of not playing. Now that I'm 46 I play a little every day, and I'm starting to think that I really need lessons to break through some bad habits and sloppiness. But I really enjoy playing. |
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February 2004
Posts: 2487
| Started out picking up an old Kay acoustic at a yard sale for 3 bucks and with the 5 original strings still on it going from Smoke on the Water and a hundred guitars later... right through to what I am learning today.
Never had a lesson, and although I can play pretty good I can't Jam worth a dam if I do not know the song real well. My partner in this Duo I am involved with is the real musician. He has been explaining things to me, I am facinated and I understand now, how you can name a chord a 7th or a 9th or and add 9th etc. But I will forget this very soon. Way to many things going on to keep this information where I can recall it when needed.
The thing that has helped me very greatly is one of those photo chord books. It shows the guy's fingers on the chords. Always amazes me just how many combinations of notes there are on a guitar neck with 6 strings.... Never knew I could play a C 7th so many different ways! Also one of the Tascam machines that slows the CD down but keeps the pitch. Absolutely fool proof for Bass notes!!!!! |
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February 2004
Posts: 1634
Location: Warren,Pa. | Back in '68-'69 I took 3 informal lessons from my girlfriend's mother. Then I just got together with friends and we'd try to figure out songs together. Played 'till the mid 70's or so when I put it down 'cause life got very serious with raising a family and all.
Started up again in my late 30's by purchasing a used '82 Custom Legend 12 string (since lost in a fire). I must say I've learned much more this second time around...by being thrown in with seasoned musicians on the WWorship team and struggling to keep up. Being "pushed" like that has been a great way to learn for me. John <>{ |
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August 2006
Posts: 3145
Location: Marlton, NJ | My mom was a big Neil Diamond fan back in the early 70s so she started taking lessons to learn some of his songs. She taught me a few chords and I started playing Cherry, Cherry, Song Sung Blue, Shiloh, Solitary Man, etc. I started taking lessons on my own, although that didn't last too long. I really started playing when I joined the folk group at church in 9th grade... got to play with other musicians for the first time and it was a great way to meet girls! :D
As a matter of fact - last night, I went to my first practice for the musical group at out church... first time in 25 years! Had to wrack my brain to remember some of the chords! It was a blast though. |
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May 2003
Posts: 425
Location: SE Michigan | I was driving along a deserted country road late one night when my car stalled out. Suddenly there was a brilliant light shining down all around me from the sky, with flashing colors and wierd vapors, accompanied by single tone notes kinda like you hear from a old chord organ. My car shook and trembled and I blacked out.
I awoke several days later, I was asleep in barka-lounger in the lobby of a hotel in New Orleans. There was a note pinned to my shirt stating "Paul is not dead, and use a lot of G to Em". Laying across my lap was a model 1111 balladeer.
I've been playing ever since. |
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March 2002
Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | You TOO??? |
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September 2004
Posts: 1180
Location: Vermont USA | Brian T posted I was driving along a deserted country road late one night when my car stalled out. Suddenly there was a brilliant light shining down all around me from the sky, with flashing colors and weird vapors, accompanied by single tone notes kinda like you here from a old chord organ. My car shook and trembled and I blacked out. Same thing happened to around 1968 I think it was my first acid trip, for years I thought there was a tattoo on my butt that said "No Hope in Dope"
Anyways around 1967 I started playing I bought a St. George piggy back amp and a Hagstrom guitar. Wish I had the Hag today
Pauly |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | After receiving my first guitar (used pawn shop Silvertone) for Christmas when I was 9, I spent hours learning chords from charts, listening to records, and learning by ear. That was 1960. Music came easy to me. While touring as a professional child tap dancer a few years later, I was taught a number of surf songs by members of various Southern California surf bands who would come and go on the show. Surf music was easy and I really loved it. In the latter 1960's, I was in several local surf bands doing the high school dance and party scene. I progressed into folk, country, and early rock and roll after that, and learned to read a song in one key and play it in another on the fly. I also bought many music books and memorized many of them. Learning to read music 20 years ago also helped. My greatest pleasure has been during the last five years when I began to understand how to play blues and adlib a lead blues line over any chord progression you care to play. I'm sure I have developed poor habits and bad technique that could have been corrected by taking lessons from a good teacher over the years, but I'm satisfied with where I'm at and I enjoy it immensely. That's what matters to me. |
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April 2006
Posts: 1017
Location: Budd Lake, NJ | There was nothing mystical about my first guitar--a 3/4-sized thing that was barely better than a cheesebox strung with elastic bands. Not playable above the 6th fret. The fellow who led the more informal "Sunday night around the campfire" service was kind enough to give me a lesson here and there, I got my first "real" guitar--classical, married Jack and got to play Gertrude (our first Ovation), spent 10 years in a Christian rock band where I got my playing horizons considerably stretched (including playing bass), and finally ended up playing well enough to lead worship for our church's women's ministries and to fill in for Robbie on Sunday mornings if need be. (And to be our praise team's regular bass player--at least I hope it wasn't out of desperation on Robbie's part! ;) )
Most of what I learn now is by watching other people play and listening to cds; I realize that in the large pond of guitar players I am a very small fish, but I sure love swimming there!
--Karen |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | 1968, a Christmas Harmony Stratotone, a motorless Ampeg reel-to-reel for an amp, and a burning desire to be a Beatle. |
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March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | Originally posted by The Wabbit Formerly Known As Waskel:
1968, a Christmas Harmony Stratotone, a motorless Ampeg reel-to-reel for an amp, and a burning desire to be a Beatle. The story of many in the time - although a lot of the time trying to be a beatle would just end up bugging people... ;) |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | I had everything it took to make it, too.
Except the gear. Well, and the voice... and the looks.
Ok, and the talent.
But I still have the Stratotone. |
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July 2002
Posts: 1900
| "It was a dark and stormy night..." pphhttt....
Nothing special, just chord charts and a pitch pipe, and practising everyday. (And then there was this skinny kid from arkansas...) |
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Joined:
March 2006
Posts: 1634
Location: Chehalis, Washington | Originally posted by The Wabbit Formerly Known As Waskel:
I had everything it took to make it, too.
Except the gear. Well, and the voice... and the looks.
Ok, and the talent.
But I still have the Stratotone. Well, at the risk of being stoned for blasphemy... :eek:
The beatles were a classic, and no knocking them at all. However, there wasn't much in "looks" to be worried about, and vocally they weren't the best thing ever. They did do great songs and musically their stuff was unbeatable ( ;) ). The one I really don't get is the Beach Boys. Again, great music (heck, I grew up on the California beaches) but vocally...I've heard high school groups with better vocal blending. I guess it's all about the right songs, sound, manager, etc.
I just have got to find me some of those... :D |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Oh, hang on a sec, Andrew....
<Honey? You seen them rocks I left left by my desk yesterday? we got another one o them stinkin heretics around agin> |
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January 2006
Posts: 5881
Location: Colorado Rocky Mountains | The Beach Boys were not necessarily known for their voices, but their harmonies were outstanding at that time. Glen Campbell even recorded some of the lead licks and high falsetto lines with them in the studio. Brian Wilson continues to be considered a genius by many for his composing and studio work at the time. |
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How Did You Learn To Play Guitar?
