When I learnt to play the guitar nearly 30 years ago, there weren't the resources there are today. Instantly available TAB of whatever tune you wanted? I wish! I bought 1 book and set about devouring it. If I wanted to learn a tune, I sat there and worked it out, If I couldn't work it out I was lucky enough to have a few friends who were better than me that maybe had worked it out and could give me a hint. I lived in a small village with no guitar teacher, so for 10 years, I taught myself. I got pretty good too. Jump to today. I teach fulltime and have done for nearly 20 years. I have seen a change in students. Now I'm not saying that resources aren't good, quiet the opposite, I love the amount of stuff available. But students are jumping on to youtube, looking for online lessons and trying to bypass the basics in the attempt to be Steve Vai next week, ( cos you can on Guitar Hero...that bloody game grrr)in doing so they get all the terms and none of the foundations.
You have to play the guitar, you have to live with it, have fun with it. The most important thing is PLAYING it. Play means have fun, not work. Get with other people and play things. Learn by interaction.
Get to feel what music is like. Feel the emotion, the dynamics, the essence of music. There are many guitarists who can play along with GP5 like demons but have completely missed Vibrato, bending and tone out. Lots of demi-semi-quavers does not a good guitarist make. Now I know most of you on here will be annoyed by my comments. Sorry but that is the way I see it. You fill your heads with "advanced" theory as you see it, most of it is pretty basic, and then try to reproduce a Dream Theater Epic, and wonder why you sound crap. Petrucci, not my favourite guitarist, has taken decades to get where he is and be able to do what he does. You are trying to replicate it after a month... get real! The rest get caught up in this guitar snobbery and don't think they will be taken seriously unless the can play erotomania with their bellends. Just ignore the cliques and crowd and play what you like and can do and let yourself progress at your pace.
There is more to this rant, but I'm guessing no one will read it anyway
Thats true! see it the same way, I wish I'd lived in a nearby past, 'cause I practice by myself, I close the door & just play random, but not too advanced (I'm not able!), I wish I'd lived in a nearby past to be 18 or more to be in woodstock '99!! But I like these times too... great blog!
I really hate the guitar snobbery. REALLY hate it. You should have pride in how far you've come on an instrument but it doesn't mean you have to try and be the top of some fictitious heirarchy.
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