new one 26.10.2008 19:32 |
I know this probably sounds really stupid and maybe even a bit sad but here goes anyway. I'm in my thirties and have always fancied learning to play guitar. I can play the drums and even played in a couple of bands when I was much much younger( just out of school). Anyway my wife says she'd like to get me a guitar for christmas this year as I'm always going on about it so I figured why not, better late than never. So my questoion is this. If I was to start taking lessons in January, assuming I take to it and don't completly stick how long should it take me to be able to string a few tunes together? I'm not talking solos here just to be able to play a bit of rythm. Just for myself for a bit of fun, obviously I'd love to be able to play something like CLTCL. Am I being unrealistic at this age or what? Are we talking weeks, months, years??? I do actually know two or three chords that I remember from when I used to play in a band as I said before but I don't know how to use them if you know what I mean? Any thoughts would be most appreciated as I don't want to just waste the money if its going to take years to get the hang of it. |
Marcos Napier 26.10.2008 19:50 |
It's impossible to say and it doesn't have anything to do with age except that when too young you have some difficulties to reach the strings and play barchords for example. You have something in your favour that is playing drums - you probably won't have too many problems with beats and tempos which sometimes are hard to get for some people. |
steven 35638 26.10.2008 21:38 |
I'm a trumpet player, not a guitarist, but I think I might be able to offer some advice for what it's worth. First of all, I'm majoring in music education and have a graduation requirement -- guitar. They expect us to master the instrument to some degree by our junior year. Now, we aren't given class for it until our junior year, so that's only two semesters of classes/lessons! So, I suspect learning the basics (which I assume is what you're after) shouldn't take incredibly long. Now, by basics I'm talking about playing single lined melodies (that is just a melody, no harmony), and touching on basic chord progressions. Enough of that, those are requirements for a music education major. If we're talking about a new student, such as yourself, it all depends upon the individual. Every student learns differently. It could take one student a week to master one subject, while it takes another three weeks to master that same subject. If you're going to take on the guitar I suggest you accept the fact that you're going to need to take your time, because you just don't know. For all you know you will pick up that guitar and you'll take onto it extremely easily. Everybody is different. Just go for it and see what happens, you'll never know unless you give it a shot. I apologise if this advice was completey bogus. |
inu-liger 26.10.2008 22:40 |
I haven't been a musician in constant practice for a long time either, but I've found that learning drums first before guitars/bass *does* help you keep better pacing and rhythm. Whereas with my bandmates, they're not very good with drums as they learnt those instruments first, and always rely on the backbone that is the drum and bass section to keep timing and pace. Everyone does learn differently though, that's very true. With me, I don't learn drums for covers by tabs - I do that strictly by ear to the point I can more or less even implement tiny nuances in my drumming for those songs not usually noticed by most people. Playing in a band for a year now has really opened up new ways of how I listen to music - I can't really listen to it the same anymore! |
teleman 27.10.2008 03:05 |
It's difficult to figure how long it will take for somebody to achieve a level of proficiency on an instrument when they are just starting out. I used to teach guitar and I had some students who had an incredible aptitude for it and were doing extremely well in no time and I had others who had a great desire but no talent who were still struggling after years. |
Togg 27.10.2008 05:48 |
Buy 'A tune a day' everyone starts there, or did and seriously you will be playing something basic in a day. Try Mull of Kintyre has about two or three chords in it. No matter what age if you can find some songs you like and a chord book you will be playing in no time. Basic chords are easy D A G E C F gets a little harder when you get to Dsus4 or B, but frankly it's just about remembering the pattern, you will have great fun and I reckon you will be able tpo play CLTCL fairly well in about 8 months to a year. Good luck |
new one 27.10.2008 06:00 |
Thanks for all that guys I may as well give it a bash. Anyone else got any advice? |
Marcos Napier 27.10.2008 14:44 |
One trick that worked for me: learn first songs you LIKE whatever they are, even if you can't play them as good as you wish. No matter how good a song is technically or how difficult - good for training blah blah it is, if you try to learn things you like first you will get much more interested. |
Bo Rhap 27.10.2008 14:56 |
Another thing to take into consideration is not to go out and splash out megabucks on a fancy guitar,because the chances are you may well lose interest in it.People tend to go off learning the guitar when they find out how painful it is at first. My advice is to go out and find one of those cheap Fender Squire deals that you normally find at this time of the year.Squire guitars are quite good for learning on as in general they have a low action on them.This means it would be less painful for you as you would not need to press on the strings that hard. Good luck my friend |
new one 27.10.2008 15:40 |
Bo Rhap wrote: Another thing to take into consideration is not to go out and splash out megabucks on a fancy guitar,because the chances are you may well lose interest in it.People tend to go off learning the guitar when they find out how painful it is at first. My advice is to go out and find one of those cheap Fender Squire deals that you normally find at this time of the year.Squire guitars are quite good for learning on as in general they have a low action on them.This means it would be less painful for you as you would not need to press on the strings that hard. Good luck my friend Funnily enough thats exactly what I was looking at. Squire by Fender. Thanks! |
Markman38 27.10.2008 15:51 |
Well it mostly depends on how many practising hours you will spent per day. try to practise every day with simple chords it's not the best part for the people around you. My advice (I play guitar for 22 years and bass for 20 years) start with an acoustic guitar and then in favor a spanish guitar with nylon strings it's softer for your fingertips. Then on acoustic guitar you have more finger space to practise and you hear much better if you're playing the chords right. My own experience was that the first six months it goes straight on and I thought I'm learning fast. Then there was a period for 3 to 4 months when I found it hard and then suddenly I realized I really made progress. It's all about ups and downs. Start with open chords before picking up barre's. There al lots of big hits that are very very simple like Let me Entertain you (from Robbie Williams not from Queen) Beat it ( from Michael Jackson) I will Follow (U2) all songs are about three chords. And off course a couple of old school Rock and Roll and Beatles are also very good starters. I agreed with somebody that playing CLTCL is possible in about 8 months till one year. Good luck with this great new road And yes this is only my own road :-) |
Marcos Napier 27.10.2008 16:30 |
Another tip: if you are going electric, try getting some effect unit too. A distortion and a chorus are nice for a good start. Sometimes you think you're playing something wrong, but it's just the effects that are missing. Tie your mother down in a clean sounding guitar won't sound that good... Also, considering songs with guitar parts like Brian's: sometimes there is more than one way to play a song, pick up the easiest and what you think is best. Combine some. No problem. There were some good tutorials in Youtube with very popular songs that were vere well explained for beginners, they seem to be gone because of copyrights... now instead of teaching you how to play a Queen song quoting its name, they are forced to use titles like "learn to play Queen-like riffs" or something and don't teach you to play a certain song, just hints. |
ITSM 27.10.2008 19:19 |
At least the intro to Crazy Little Thing Called Love is simple : ) But there are a couple of Queen songs that are pretty easy to play, at least parts of songs. For example Doing All Right, You Take My Breath Away. These 2 songs, are transfered from piano to guitar. Really cool to play. Search for tabs on the Internet... enjoy! |
Winter Land Man 27.10.2008 19:29 |
new one wrote: I know this probably sounds really stupid and maybe even a bit sad but here goes anyway. I'm in my thirties and have always fancied learning to play guitar. I can play the drums and even played in a couple of bands when I was much much younger( just out of school). Anyway my wife says she'd like to get me a guitar for christmas this year as I'm always going on about it so I figured why not, better late than never. So my questoion is this. If I was to start taking lessons in January, assuming I take to it and don't completly stick how long should it take me to be able to string a few tunes together? I'm not talking solos here just to be able to play a bit of rythm. Just for myself for a bit of fun, obviously I'd love to be able to play something like CLTCL. Am I being unrealistic at this age or what? Are we talking weeks, months, years??? I do actually know two or three chords that I remember from when I used to play in a band as I said before but I don't know how to use them if you know what I mean? Any thoughts would be most appreciated as I don't want to just waste the money if its going to take years to get the hang of it. I can't play guitar, but I know it depends on the individual. No one is ever too old to learn an instrument. |
Marcos Napier 27.10.2008 20:57 |
On the other hand, a good amp is a nice thing to have from the start. |
new one 29.10.2008 22:39 |
Cheers guys, thank for all that. I've decided not to wait until Christmas and ordered myself an acustic guitar today, some sort of Ridgewell thing, fairly cheap. The wife says she'll get me an electic one for Christmas if I still want one. Now I have another question. How do I tune the thing? Should I get one of those electronic tuners?I've seen some on ebay but they seem very cheap like around £2.99. Does that sound right? I've also seen some for around £20. Whats my best bet? |
Mr Mercury 30.10.2008 05:48 |
new one wrote:Bo Rhap wrote: Another thing to take into consideration is not to go out and splash out megabucks on a fancy guitar,because the chances are you may well lose interest in it.People tend to go off learning the guitar when they find out how painful it is at first. My advice is to go out and find one of those cheap Fender Squire deals that you normally find at this time of the year.Squire guitars are quite good for learning on as in general they have a low action on them.This means it would be less painful for you as you would not need to press on the strings that hard. Good luck my friendFunnily enough thats exactly what I was looking at. Squire by Fender. Thanks! Another thing to remember is you will not become "Brian May right away". This is what I have been telling my mate's son, who is really interested in playing guitar. Its like being a baby in as much as you have to learn how to crawl before you can walk before you can jog before you can run and finally sprint. It takes time. And yes, at first it can be painfull on the fingers but that is only because your fingertips arent quite used to the strings. You will overcome all that. |
Markman38 30.10.2008 06:04 |
new one wrote: Cheers guys, thank for all that. I've decided not to wait until Christmas and ordered myself an acustic guitar today, some sort of Ridgewell thing, fairly cheap. The wife says she'll get me an electic one for Christmas if I still want one. Now I have another question. How do I tune the thing? Should I get one of those electronic tuners?I've seen some on ebay but they seem very cheap like around £2.99. Does that sound right? I've also seen some for around £20. Whats my best bet? A tuner is not very expensive you can always less expensive gear when you grow in to playing guitar. Much fun |
Treasure Moment 30.10.2008 06:15 |
new one wrote: I know this probably sounds really stupid and maybe even a bit sad but here goes anyway. I'm in my thirties and have always fancied learning to play guitar. I can play the drums and even played in a couple of bands when I was much much younger( just out of school). Anyway my wife says she'd like to get me a guitar for christmas this year as I'm always going on about it so I figured why not, better late than never. So my questoion is this. If I was to start taking lessons in January, assuming I take to it and don't completly stick how long should it take me to be able to string a few tunes together? I'm not talking solos here just to be able to play a bit of rythm. Just for myself for a bit of fun, obviously I'd love to be able to play something like CLTCL. Am I being unrealistic at this age or what? Are we talking weeks, months, years??? I do actually know two or three chords that I remember from when I used to play in a band as I said before but I don't know how to use them if you know what I mean? Any thoughts would be most appreciated as I don't want to just waste the money if its going to take years to get the hang of it. Age has nothing to do with it, if you really want to learn to play the guitar then get one and just practise on your own, you dont even need lessons, you could just sit and practise yourself and come up with stuff. Me and my brother both just learned ourselves, never took a lesson. Im not saying its bad to take lessons but you could do fine without them if you practise alot yourself. About how long it will take all depends on how motivated you are and how often you play, dont go into it only thinking of the end result, just take your time and have fun learning and playing and gradually getting better. |
john bodega 30.10.2008 08:06 |
That's the most sensible thing you've ever written. |
new one 30.10.2008 12:17 |
Well, the guitar should arrive tomorrow. I picked up a tuner today for £20 in the local music shop. Apperantly it clips onto the head of the guitar,something to do with vibrations. But the big news is I've booked a lesson for next Thursday so no backing out now. I honestly don't now if I'm excited or just shitting myself!! |
Bradley 30.10.2008 12:42 |
Markman38 wrote: playing CLTCL is possible in about 8 months till one year. I played it in less then 2 weeks on my keyboard[img=/images/smiley/msn/wink_smile.gif][/img] |
Matias Merçeauroix 30.10.2008 14:27 |
Zebonka12 wrote: That's the most sensible thing you've ever written. |
queentel 01.11.2008 17:58 |
Treasure moment? Are they still around/ Accoustic first, then electric. |
new one 09.11.2008 05:33 |
Thanks for all your advice guys and gals. For anyone interested, I've been strumming away for just over a week now, had a lesson which went quite well, very enjoyable(another on Tuesday). But I'll tell you what, the tips of my fingers are red raw. I've actually got wwhat look like little blisters on two of them so I think I'll take a break today. But no pain no gain I believe. |
Marcos Napier 09.11.2008 10:48 |
Haha I think nobody told you about this because you would give up. No pain, no gain. This is also why sometimes a nylon accoustic is recommended I think, it's softer - but still hurts. Try not to hit the frets with the sides of your fingers, or it will hurt even more. Think of them as mini-hammers, to get the right position. |
Adam Baboolal 09.11.2008 16:26 |
No pain, no gain, indeed! Disagree about going for a nylon over a steel stringed acoustic. Starting on steel strings is what made me more resilient than other guitarists I've come across when fretting certain things. I never find things hurting my fingers these days, unless I've been digging into the strings for certain soloing stuff over and over. I'm helping my girlfriend learn on a Nylon, but only cause it's a guitar that was given to her for free. I say free, but uh...well, technically she should've given it back to the store when she finished there! That's all I'm sayin'!! Adam. |
new one 17.11.2008 05:21 |
Hello again. Why is the F chord such a pain in the ass to master? I find the only way I can play it is as a Barr chord but its still a pain. The guy teaching me says everyone struggles with F at first. Is this true or is he just sparing my feelings? |
Marcos Napier 17.11.2008 08:56 |
All these chords are a pain for beginners. These shouldn't be teached for a while I think. Wait until you are introduced to B. |