I'd add: unplug your electric and play it. Sit on the couch or wherever without an amp and play. A lot. Listen to the strings.
Like Les said, Neil Young can do more with one note (Cinnamon Girl) than many can do with "Weedley, Weedley, Weedley" all the time...
True. It probably takes Satch and Vai a hundred notes before I can reach for the skip button... from Neil it takes just one. :tongue:
I say never stop trying until that all magical switch finally turns on......... For some the switch was never off, but for some of us like me it could take many a year before that switch turns on. How it gets turned on is different for everybody. I was born to parents of which both sides of the family played some kind of instrument, including cousin Merle Haggard (no, I never saw the man, just for making a point. So, there was always a guitar around and people that played really well. In all honesty, I was just plain lazy..........I wanted everything to come easy and if it didn't then I would find something else to do. Now I am older and I am willing to take the time and patience to work through the different walls that come up..... For me I have found (after looking for a long long time) a guy on YouTube that teaches guitar in a way that clicks with me. Since finding him, I have made leaps and bounds in my playing. I also found a guitar I LOVE playing, so now I can no longer blame the guitar for my lack of playing , something like a crappy buzz in the strings or action set too high or whatever. RUTS...It is easy to get into a rut playing the guitar with the same tone/sounds. For me that would have me putting the guitar away for long spells, So I got a Eleven Rack that allows me to change up the sounds which helps me stay out of a rut.....The are tons of things you can get cheap or used that allows you to change your guitar sounds to help you stay away from ruts........ Play because you love playing, not just trying to get to a place where you can impress someone.
Wait just a dang minute -- I started playing guitar to impress women. As far as I'm concerned, that's the only legitimate reason to accomplish anything.
Unless you have an audience, in which case the point is how good playing makes everyone, including you, feel. But it doesn't have to be complex or dazzling to be good. I'm living proof.
You can always find something to suck at, right now I'm trying to work on getting my bends spot on again. Nothing more exciting than recording bends and hearing how sharp or flat they are.
Instead we just take pleasure in the contorted faces of those who hear us play. Of course I prefer this guy, he makes me laugh every time. The original doesn't do anything for me. So I'm pretty sure there's something wrong with me, but I'm ok with it.
Once I realized I could get laid playing James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Dan Fogelberg songs, my desire to improve waned...
...and so did the quality of the women. What you don't get from playing James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Dan Fogelberg songs. Though I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
I agree with just about everything on here except 'IKnowALittle' s comment. LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO PLAY CRAPPY GUITARS. I started late, I am still not very good, but I bought the best guitar I could afford (PRS HB2) and this guitar has inspired me to keep practising every day. When I open the case I am still excited by its quality and beauty, it just HAS to come out and be played. A $99 Squier would not do that for me. Its set up and intonation is perfect and vey rarely needs tweaking. You would not get that from a $99 guitar. The PRS playability is fantastic, easy to fret and low action without buzz. You wouldn't get that from a $99 guitar (and in my experience not from one other US guitar makers at any price, hint G) Learning to play guitar is a great challenge, its not easy, but when you see some improvement it is tremendously satisfying. I practise playing music I like (even if it is a simplified version), and that way I don't get fed up (Row the Boat Ashore is not on my playlist!). So - buy the best you can afford, practice every day even if only for a short time and most of all remember to enjoy it.
Wrong. Totally, completely, wrong. But once you reach a "certain age" (which I have) you are invisible to women unless you are very, very rich. Doesn't matter WHAT songs you play.
Eeh, I can't play worth a damn either... but I'm also my own worst critic. I heard something a few years back, a list of common mistakes guitar players make, and how to get rid of them. It is actually pretty damn close to the list of tips from our resident Thor... err, Les, posted earlier with the addition of 1 more thing... making goals. Ever since I read the original list, the thing I took away from it the most was setting goal for myself. Every time I practice now I set some sort of goal, and the practice doesn't end until I reach it. My goals are generally a bunch of short term goals to get me to where I want to be in a long term goal. Creating goals for yourself can be just as rewarding as recording yourself and listening to it a few months later. Set a goal for yourself, write it down, throw it in your gig bag, or in a random page of a song book, and start working on it. Eventually you'll run across the paper, look at it, and realize you know how to do what you set for yourself. If you don't know how to do it yet, put it back and keep working toward that goal.
