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need direction?


cloud90

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hi guys,

 

I got forwarded to this sub forum by a guys post on my original thread;

 

Firstly, , forgive me if i have posted in the wrong section or so. To start off, i have always wanted to play the guitar. I have been on and off it for the past 2 years. My problem, is kind hard to explain. I have learnt everything from youtube, so far. I can play a few songs and i have learnt some theory (like chords and stuff)off youtube channels such as justinsandercole and lypur (piano/music theory). It's all been good and all, but i just feel like i am not being able to know the guitar, properly. Like, learning the theory stuff from justinsandercole's vids are good and all but i just feel like i'm learning these ideas but i just don't know how or if i will ever implement them (you guys prob think im crazy lol), esp as i am going along. For example, i would learn a chord or something and practice it etc, but then after, i would be like "now, what? what do i do with it?"

I have learnt songs off youtube but i feel, like im only learning how to play songs. I feel like i only know the guitar through song tutroials off youtube. Other than that, i don't feel like i know, know the guitar (if that makes sense). You know how some guys can just randomly sit at a guitar and just play about and make up something that sounds alright, i would love to know the guitar enough to reach that stage. It's like when i approach a guitar, i feel limited as i don't feel like i know, the guitar properly and i don't know how to do anything but those 3 or 4 songs i learnt off youtube. Or maybe, it's all in my head. Please, help guys frown.png

My main aims are; to be able to get to that stage as mentioned above -to be KNOW (as mentioned above)and be able to Play the guitar -to know how to play the guitar -to be able to make my own proper songs using the guitar -maybe to learn how to play via ear

I dunno, maybe i just need some sort of direction or something. I really want to be good at the guitar. I used to practice at least 2 hrs a day. I just need help, guys. I am ready to put in the work in.

Thanks!

Much appreciated. Oh yeah, lessons are out of the question as i can't afford them atm lol

 

To sum up my problem, it's like i am learning some theory but don't know how to apply it and at the same time i'm learning songs but don't feel like i'm getting anything out of them.

 

 

 

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Tough love time. Please know, I mean this in the spirit of helping:

 

Once upon a time people used to learn to play guitar by going in person to see another human being who can show them stuff, answer questions on the spot, inspire, expose them to new ideas.. This person was called a teacher.

 

The phrase "can't afford it" usually has much more to do with priorities than realities in my experiences. Lessons are only out of the question because you either don't care about guitar enough, or you don't think paying for it is worth it, or it just seems like a nuisance. You can easily get a few lessons without spending tons on it. You have a computer... so you aren't exactly destitute now right? You likely have a cel phone and an internet connection (probably an Xbox or some other gaming console and games for it too I'd reckon) This isn't a thousands of dollars prospect here it's a tens of dollars situation.

 

Sorry for the sarcasm/jerk-ism but seriously, I was completely broke growing up - completely. Zero help from parents etc. Yet I found ways to see a teacher here and there. How? Because learning guitar mattered to me. It was of importance. If you don't feel that way - that is fine ... But don't expect internet videos to be your salvation. You have specific questions, specific to you and your learning process. You will come to learn all the things you seek by playing in time ... but it will just take just that - a lot more time.

 

Best of luck!

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I'm going to disagree (slightly) with Jeremy (who I normally agree full with!).

I had no lessons when I was learning. It wasn't so much that I couldn't afford them (I probably could have, just), but I'd been put off teaching of all kinds by school. School meant "work" - doing thing you didn't want to do. Guitar for me was recreation. If a really great teacher had turned up and offered me FREE lessons, I'd have turned them down flat, run a mile. (There were no such teachers around in those days anyway, mid-1960s; everyone was teaching themselves in those days, as far as I knew.)

Of course, that was plain teenage arrogance (I was 16) - mixed with lack of confidence. I knew what I wanted to play, and damned if anyone was going to show me how - anyone like a "teacher", of course. ;)

 

I learned partly from friends at school (who had a band), but mainly from records and songbooks. (Music lessons at school had at least taught me how to read music, for which I am eternally grateful. There was no tab or guitar mags in those days, and learning from records was hard. Crucial, but hard!)

I joined that band after 9 months and did my first gig with them a month after that (well, 3 tunes at an open mic, strumming simple chords).

 

You say "I'm only learning how to play songs" - well, what else do you want to play? Instrumentals? TV themes? Guitar concertos?? :rolleyes:

You're learning theory, but not connecting it with the songs, right? (If you can't see how it applies to the songs you know, you don't need the theory. Theory doesn't really matter, unless you're interested in it, or unless it helps you make sense of the music you're learning.)

Or maybe you just don't like the songs you're learning?

Find some songs you really like - or somehow learn to like the ones you know (so you can get into them more).

 

It's quite natural - especially when faced with all the youtube stuff currently available - to feel lost, like there's so much to learn, so many directions.... But you've got to get back to why you wanted to learn to play guitar in the first place. What's driving you? Who or what inspired you?

Maybe visit some local open mics - not to play, just get to know people.

Find some like minds to play with, learn from each other. If you can find guitar evening classes, they have the double advantage of being cheaper than one on one lessons, plus you meet people like yourself.

(I recognise that my big advantage when I began was my schoolfriends' band - if my best friends hadn't been guitarists, I might still have started learning, but I might not have stuck with it. The gigs, and the camaraderie, gave me the thrill I needed, the reason to improve; it became a way of life.)

 

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What do you mean?

 

Lol.

 

and this:

It takes time. Directed time. Which means you need some inkling of music and your place in it. Which means you need the patience to listen to all kinds of music - and smell the roses so to speak. Easier said than done but you gotta learn the terrain before you can build your monuments.

 

and what Jeremy says.

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I'm going to disagree (slightly) with Jeremy (who I normally agree full with!).

I had no lessons when I was learning. It wasn't so much that I couldn't afford them (I probably could have, just), but I'd been put off teaching of all kinds by school. School meant "work" - doing thing you didn't want to do. Guitar for me was recreation. If a really great teacher had turned up and offered me FREE lessons, I'd have turned them down flat, run a mile. (There were no such teachers around in those days anyway, mid-1960s; everyone was teaching themselves in those days, as far as I knew.)

Of course, that was plain teenage arrogance (I was 16) - mixed with lack of confidence. I knew what I wanted to play, and damned if anyone was going to show me how - anyone like a "teacher", of course. ;)

 

I learned partly from friends at school (who had a band), but mainly from records and songbooks. (Music lessons at school had at least taught me how to read music, for which I am eternally grateful. There was no tab or guitar mags in those days, and learning from records was hard. Crucial, but hard!)

I joined that band after 9 months and did my first gig with them a month after that (well, 3 tunes at an open mic, strumming simple chords).

 

You say "I'm only learning how to play songs" - well, what else do you want to play? Instrumentals? TV themes? Guitar concertos?? :rolleyes:

You're learning theory, but not connecting it with the songs, right? (If you can't see how it applies to the songs you know, you don't need the theory. Theory doesn't really matter, unless you're interested in it, or unless it helps you make sense of the music you're learning.)

Or maybe you just don't like the songs you're learning?

Find some songs you really like - or somehow learn to like the ones you know (so you can get into them more).

 

It's quite natural - especially when faced with all the youtube stuff currently available - to feel lost, like there's so much to learn, so many directions.... But you've got to get back to why you wanted to learn to play guitar in the first place. What's driving you? Who or what inspired you?

Maybe visit some local open mics - not to play, just get to know people.

Find some like minds to play with, learn from each other. If you can find guitar evening classes, they have the double advantage of being cheaper than one on one lessons, plus you meet people like yourself.

(I recognise that my big advantage when I began was my schoolfriends' band - if my best friends hadn't been guitarists, I might still have started learning, but I might not have stuck with it. The gigs, and the camaraderie, gave me the thrill I needed, the reason to improve; it became a way of life.)

 

 

 

Well, i would like to be able to learn to play songs and accentually make my own songs

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I'm going to disagree (slightly) with Jeremy (who I normally agree full with!).

 

Allow​ me to clarify a bit why my response took the angle it did... Couple reasons.

 

Firstly, unlike many people the OP actually had some observations about his progress. Usually the answer to a question like "What is it that you want to be able to do?" is "ummm I don't know??".. So in this regard the OP is PRIME material for a teacher. Anyone who has specific questions like this can save a boatload of time with a human to bounce questions off.

 

Secondly, is the expected: nobody wants to pay for anything these days it seems. Which is fine i guess... but then there is frustration abounding and option anxiety.

 

Thirdly, I will add that some people are quite self directed and don't need help (sounds like you were one as was I). But there are a lot of others who do need help and have questions that they need answered. Teachers are still imo the very best way to learn for a segment of people. The OP seems to me to be one that would do well (again, due to the specific observations he/she had - which i applaud them for)

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I agree that a good teacher (perhaps I should say the "right" teacher) is the best way to go.

 

The next best thing would be to get together with a friend who is also learning guitar. You can then learn from each other without the need fro money to change hands and, more importantly, you can get some practical experience with that new chord you have just learned.

 

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Get a good chord book, learn each chord in different positions of the fret board. Chords open up the mind to melody. After a while, learn the name of the notes in the chord , get to know the name of the notes from top to bottom of the fret board ... it's not hard, you'll appreciate the learning effort. Don't look at it as a boring labor, this could lead you to be very creative

After, you get what I suggested under your belt, the fun begins .... you can write and play your own music !!!!

Have fun, I know I have, I've been playing for 36 years and I'm still learning ... that's the fun part, so many styles with so many individuals with in and out of those styles and always have an open mind .... there is always something new !!!!

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Get a good chord book, learn each chord in different positions of the fret board. Chords open up the mind to melody. After a while, learn the name of the notes in the chord , get to know the name of the notes from top to bottom of the fret board ... it's not hard, you'll appreciate the learning effort. Don't look at it as a boring labor, this could lead you to be very creative

After, you get what I suggested under your belt, the fun begins .... you can write and play your own music !!!!

Have fun, I know I have, I've been playing for 36 years and I'm still learning ... that's the fun part, so many styles with so many individuals with in and out of those styles and always have an open mind .... there is always something new !!!!

 

Yup. If the chords are in your hands, you can hunt and grab at the complete tune instead of just the licks. tongue.png

 

I offered some basic fingering drills a while back. I should do that with grabs although the permutations now go thru the roof. Maybe just all the 4 finger placements in a pentatonic box. 2 volume set...

 

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In traditional societies (whether in the hills outside Asheville, N.C.; in Jogyakarta on the steaming plains of central Java, or Auchercairn, Scotland), the student-apprentice is introduced to a series of pieces which he/she learns to play. Some teachers will discuss how these are related, but the master is typically more focussed on getting the fingerings and/or dynamics "right" (meaning the way his teacher taught him!).

 

So the youngster learns to perform a set or group of pieces in the style of one or more teachers; having accomplished this, he/she seeks opportunities to play. With input from other players, he/she comes to form opinions about what his/her repertoire sounds like, and how to make it work better. At some point, the student becomes a journeyman player, with a knowledge that encompasses how to perform a number of pieces in a variety of settings, and the potential to take the long road to mastery.

 

All of this process is the development of a theory of music. There are at least as many theories as there are players (I have a good dozen, myself). In the courts of Java, for example, there is a belief that every piece is always playing in some Hindu-derived neo-platonic heaven, and that - as a performer - you join in (why they always start with the final note). John Cage told me that the music was in the listener's head, and not the composer's. That kind of stuff is theory.

 

Sounds to me as if you're at the stage where you're picking up the stuff that - new to you - is going to lay the foundation for your journey. And you lack the cultural assurances a traditional master gives his student-apprentice that you are travelling the proper road. Now, you can overcome this by getting involved with a particular tradition (perhaps bluegrass or thrash metal) where all the guys and gals involved are headed in the same direction. Or you can hire a teacher, and give him control over your decisions. Or perhaps you can stop letting YouTube tell you what to do and start working on some stuff you already like, making it come out the way it's going on in your head (or neo-platonic heaven). And this last is helped by undergoing the process with some other folks - and talking about it out loud.

 

Back to what Cage said - notice that if music is happening in the listener's head, then you have to have a listener!

 

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[h=2]need direction?[/h]

Go straight until you come to the blues.

 

Make a right at Clapton.

 

Then left at Hendrix.

 

When you see SRV you are almost there.

 

Stop for tapping directions at EVH.

 

Proceed to Paul Gilbert at top speed using alternate picking.

 

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I would strongly suggest you get a good teacher. And on the other hand get clear on your goals. What do you want to be able to playing in 5 years, what style... This will help you get started in the right direction. Don't waist time surfing on youtube and watching 100 videos, you won't learn guitar in this way. You will learn songs and theory, but on the long run you won't learn as fast and as much as you will under a guidance of a pro teacher. I've been teaching for 6 years and had lost of totally frustrated students that wanted to learn on their own via youtube.

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