I have a friend who has a bunch of guitars...

[garrett]

Thanks... I think my problem is that I started off backwards. My very first instructor told me on day 1, ‘your vibrato is awesome, where’d you learn that?’ and ‘you already know where to stop a bend at’. I was like ‘I don’t even know what you are talking about’.

My ear might be decent but I don’t really know.

Here’s how a typical lesson went with my second instructor:

Them: this is how to play this part...
Me: oh I’ve heard that song!
Them: cool...
Me: umm that wasn’t right... the note in the song sounds like it’s played on the A string
Them: nope, this is right, this is how I learned it... follow along
Me: can we listen to the recording just to make sure?
Them: Fine.
Me: see
Them: hmmmm. Yeah it’s on the A string.

That's excellent. You're off to a great start. Independent study sounds like a good option for you. The way I started out was with a scale book and a stack of CDs full of music I loved. I have never done an actual lesson with an instructor, but I've read, watched, and listened to a lot of stuff. I enjoy finding my own path.

Especially with blues, don't get too hung up on playing things the "right" way. Do whatever works for you and make it your own. It's supposed to be fun and creative, right?

 

[garrett]

Casi... think about what you first said. You want to play the Blues? Name a real Blues Guy that started by playing scales. Ain't no life in playin scales. You want to learn the blues you gotta pull the Blues out of your soul. Teach your ear to hear and your fingers to match what your ears tell you. You won't do it the way BB or Muddy did. You will do it your way, but that's the way your soul hears it and that's the way it will feel right. Blues ain't a technique, it's a feelin...

Right on! You got to FEEL it. That's something that I don't think can be taught. You have to develop it and just GET it on your own.

 

[grausch]

Let me second Artistworks. I've been doing the Paul Gilbert Rock Guitar school for a few years - excellent stuff! You go at your own pace, you can ask specific questions, etc. And most importantly, you can see everyone else else's "video exchange" and Paul's reply to them. In this particular school, almost 7,000 lessons to look at. It helps that Gilbert is very entertaining as well as a great teacher. BTW, Gilbert often does lessons on blues technique as well - he loves Gary Moore!

I can't speak for the "Blues" school, but I would assume the same high quality is there. I found this significantly better than one on one lessons.

I have been a student of the Rock Guitar school now for two years. Since I never had lessons before that some of my basic techniques needed to change a little and it definitely improved my playing a lot. The going at your own pace thing can either be great or not - considering how much time I spend playing guitar, I should be able to complete that course in 6 months max, yet most of my time is spent rocking out to old favourites rather than doing the lessons. Self-discipline, yeah right...

 

[danktat]

I may need to answer this same question for myself. I have a good amount of pretty cool gear. Enough that I could set up 3 or 4 bands, with different gear, and all be gigable (though maybe not all with as high end a stuff as PRS). I play "a little". But I really am not very good. Finding a way to structure when, how and what to practice has been my achellies heel for a good decade and a half. I even have friends that are music teachers, with Berklee degrees, that I could get hooked up on instruction from, but I don't use them. It is kind of like I know them too well so it is difficult to take that relationship from friendship to "teacher/student" if that makes any since. I have books out the @$$ but, somehow, it all gets jumbled up without much guidance as to how to use those books properly. I actually HAVE a subscription to some on line stuff. But again....it is the structure that keeps me falling short.

It was mentioned earlier about starting or joining a band. And THAT I think would help me trememdously. However, this is where I am with that. I am in my 40's. Being as though I am not that good, it would be tough for me to find other people, in a similar age bracket, that is at a similar skill set as me. They are often not looking to bump and fumble around with an someone who doesn't "really" know what they are doing in that setting. By my age, people can typically play [well] or they can't. If I am looking for my level of skill, the people I find will probably be late teens to early 20s, where they are just now experimenting with playing with other people. So, socially, it would be awkward to join in a group where I could be the rest of the band's father.

As a result, I just sort of muddle around with the gear that I have. Play some things that people can recognize [at least in part], and noodle around with minor pentatonic blues boxes as if I knew what I was doing. It gets me by, but it is not as satisfying as I would like it to be sometimes.

If you figure out your answer, let me know.....maybe I could benefit from it too.

 

[AP515]

... I am in my 40's. Being as though I am not that good, it would be tough for me to find other people, in a similar age bracket, that is at a similar skill set as me.

I think you would be surprised. There are thousands out there. I see CL adds all the time for "just looking to play with people". Most of us are 40's or older. I played with a few of them for a while. If you find the right one it can be fulfilling.

 

[shimmilou]

Another important aspect, your practice/playing space should be free of TVs and other distractions. Although I'm not a very good player, my playing improved the most, in the shortest amount of time, once I had a dedicated room in which to play.

 

[Casi1]

Another important aspect, your practice/playing space should be free of TVs and other distractions. Although I'm not a very good player, my playing improved the most, in the shortest amount of time, once I had a dedicated room in which to play.

I may need to answer this same question for myself. I have a good amount of pretty cool gear. Enough that I could set up 3 or 4 bands, with different gear, and all be gigable (though maybe not all with as high end a stuff as PRS). I play "a little". But I really am not very good. Finding a way to structure when, how and what to practice has been my achellies heel for a good decade and a half. I even have friends that are music teachers, with Berklee degrees, that I could get hooked up on instruction from, but I don't use them. It is kind of like I know them too well so it is difficult to take that relationship from friendship to "teacher/student" if that makes any since. I have books out the @$$ but, somehow, it all gets jumbled up without much guidance as to how to use those books properly. I actually HAVE a subscription to some on line stuff. But again....it is the structure that keeps me falling short.

It was mentioned earlier about starting or joining a band. And THAT I think would help me trememdously. However, this is where I am with that. I am in my 40's. Being as though I am not that good, it would be tough for me to find other people, in a similar age bracket, that is at a similar skill set as me. They are often not looking to bump and fumble around with an someone who doesn't "really" know what they are doing in that setting. By my age, people can typically play [well] or they can't. If I am looking for my level of skill, the people I find will probably be late teens to early 20s, where they are just now experimenting with playing with other people. So, socially, it would be awkward to join in a group where I could be the rest of the band's father.

As a result, I just sort of muddle around with the gear that I have. Play some things that people can recognize [at least in part], and noodle around with minor pentatonic blues boxes as if I knew what I was doing. It gets me by, but it is not as satisfying as I would like it to be sometimes.

If you figure out your answer, let me know.....maybe I could benefit from it too.

Totally same boat. I’m pushing 40; I can blend in with the 20s folks (emotionally, I am approx 17 years old) but I work 50+ hr weeks so our schedules don’t align.

Fortunately, one of my techs works at a cool little shop where everyone who works there is a gigging musician ... I figure I can find a good number of folks in there to play along with whenever I’m ready.

And very true, I stopped watching TV in my living room and made that room my practice area. Works so much better than using my ‘music room’. I now sit in front of the fireplace and practice.

 

[veinbuster]

Another important aspect, your practice/playing space should be free of TVs and other distractions. Although I'm not a very good player, my playing improved the most, in the shortest amount of time, once I had a dedicated room in which to play.

The counter to that is that I played a lot more when I was alone most nights and the TV was on. Some days the TV was background that I played to. Sometimes it was just a distraction from how long I might be playing. And it disguised what I was doing from some of the neighbours.

 

[Bowtiefanatc]

The counter to that is that I played a lot more when I was alone most nights and the TV was on. Some days the TV was background that I played to. Sometimes it was just a distraction from how long I might be playing. And it disguised what I was doing from some of the neighbours.

^^
Constantly I'll have a guitar in the living room as the kids are running around or we have the TV on for background noise. For me I work on the muscle memory and picking precision during those times.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Buy the entire Robin Trower catalog. Listen to each album multiple times, then get your guitar and start to play along. See what it takes from you to make it sound like what he does. FEEL those bends and don't be afraid to make faces while you're doing it, just be sure to include video so we can make sure you're doing the "guitar face" correctly.

In my opinion, you can learn scales and chords but that gives you "book knowledge." If you want to play blues, pick a great player and listen to him all the time. In fact, buy videos and WATCH him closely as much as possible. This will develop your "feel" way more than books and scales. And it will help you learn to play what you "feel" instead of what the book said. It will teach you how bending up to the next note has way more feeling than just fretting it on the correct fret.

I typed all this before reading any of the other posts. Now I'm going back to read them to see what others said.

 

[shimmilou]

^^
Constantly I'll have a guitar in the living room...

Yep, an acoustic for sudden urges, but when I really want to play, I want to be immersed in the experience. It might be different for me since I am easily distracted, oh look, a squirrel!

 

[dmatthews]

The counter to that is that I played a lot more when I was alone most nights and the TV was on. Some days the TV was background that I played to. Sometimes it was just a distraction from how long I might be playing. And it disguised what I was doing from some of the neighbours.

I like to throw Spotify playlists on my stereo and try to play along to whatever comes up next. Might even be watching the game

 

[danktat]

Coming from someone who isn't a great guitar player, or someone who has NOT a very good grasp on Theory, I can say without a doubt, one of the most frustrating things that you can hear from somebody is "just feel it...... True music comes from inside you...... It doesn't really come from book study".

Ultimately they are correct. However, you have to have good enough technique, and good enough grasp on the theory, and a good enough ear, for all that to come to fruition. In order to just play what you feel, you have to play well enough for what you feel to come through. It is really easy for someone who plays that well to say that. I understand, because that is the way that I tattoo. I have pulled several apprentices from knowing nothing, all the way through to being pretty good professional tattooists. When someone is really still in the learning phase, you can't tell them to just "allow the machine to do what it does and let the art flow from within you". Because even though that really is how I tattoo, they haven't developed the skill set yet for it to translate into that level of ease and fluidity. I remember being similarly frustrated in martial arts as a relative beginner when someone who was really good, said that I just need to "feel where energy goes and apply my technique from there". That meant nothing to me at that stage of my training. I was even still questioning it a bit going into my first degree black belt test. The feeling it part is for those who know what they are doing. For me, with the guitar, I'm still developing the knowledge, understanding, and technique to get to the point where I can just feel what I play.

I think often, what happens, is that people forget what it was like to struggle to master something after they already have mastered it. To where someone who was still in the process of accumulating the knowledge, may need more technical input than they need emotional.

Just my two cents.

I hope all that made sense. I'm at work using the talk to text feature on my phone. Sometimes it does not like my accent. So if some of that seems jumbled up, blame it on Verizon. LOL

 

[shimmilou]

I like to throw Spotify playlists on my stereo and try to play along to whatever comes up next. Might even be watching the game

See, I can't multitask, heck, I can barely task, lol.

 

[Lister]

I really can't add anything of substance that hasn't already been said, but I did want to say, THANK YOU to everyone sharing your struggles with guitar. This thread gives me hope in realizing that there are more than a few of us here living with similar frustrations.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Ok, read them all. So I have more to say.

I find it interesting that so many recommend "learning the scales." I never learned scales. I don't want this to sound wrong, but in my early 20s I was playing things as complex as Van Halen solos, Marino, Di Meola, all the 80s shredders, and Trower and Hendrix, Rush, Zeppelin etc. and didn't "know" one scale. I could play any of them by ear, and learn them quickly. But didn't know what scale or key or many times the name of the chords I was playing.

But, I was a classical pianist growing up. I was way more advanced in playing than in theory, because my teacher didn't start teaching a lot of theory until the student reach high school. I was playing Bach and Chopin etc when I was in Jr. High. So I had the ear thing down, and the book knowledge once I started playing guitar, meant nothing to me, because I could play stuff so who gives a crap about the science behind it, right? That said, take what I say with that grain of salt. If your ear is not developed enough, it may be mandatory to learn scales and at least some theory.

I think some of you have heard a little bit of my playing. I can still get around a little bit on the fretboard for an old guy. But to this day, when I play music with one of my groups, I listen to the song and only watch the lyrics to follow along with where I am in the song. Often, I only take the lyric sheets on stage. No music at all. Once I played in our Easter Musical with the orchestra. We did 90 minutes of music. The music director asked me what music I wanted and I said "just give me the choir music version because I'll just follow the songs by following the words." I'm not bragging. I'm just saying that's how I do it and that's what works for me. If you write out guitar music or tab and tell me to play it, I'm LOST! Totally. But, I'm OK with that. I'm not a hired studio guy who needs to site read and I can jump in with anything after a few chords, or if I know the song.

So all that was said to make this point: You have to kind of see where you are in the overall scope of things, then decide which is the best route to take. This is why a good teacher can be invaluable. You have to find out just where you ARE in that scheme of things and it's better if someone else tell you.... If you "have it" you can skip some of that and move forward a few squares. If I know someone knows how to play for example, but they want to learn to solo, I teach them more about shapes, than scales. Teach them simple things you can do from one position first, then how to go above and below that position, etc.

That said, I've actually proposed to do skype jam sessions with one of the members here who shall remain ScottR, just to have fun and share a few things. We used to do it without video with some members of another forum I used to be in. We'd have 3-5 guys online, taking turns jamming or doing riffs for the others. It was a blast! I think that would be a cool thing to try. I'm getting ready to get a computer with a web cam rigged in the music room so maybe soon some of us could jam a little.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Coming from someone who isn't a great guitar player, or someone who has NOT a very good grasp on Theory, I can say without a doubt, one of the most frustrating things that you can hear from somebody is "just feel it...... True music comes from inside you...... It doesn't really come from book study".

Ultimately they are correct. However, you have to have good enough technique, and good enough grasp on the theory, and a good enough ear, for all that to come to fruition. In order to just play what you feel, you have to play well enough for what you feel to come through. It is really easy for someone who plays that well to say that. I understand, because that is the way that I tattoo. I have pulled several apprentices from knowing nothing, all the way through to being pretty good professional tattooists. When someone is really still in the learning phase, you can't tell them to just "allow the machine to do what it does and let the art flow from within you". Because even though that really is how I tattoo, they haven't developed the skill set yet for it to translate into that level of ease and fluidity. I remember being similarly frustrated in martial arts as a relative beginner when someone who was really good, said that I just need to "feel where energy goes and apply my technique from there". That meant nothing to me at that stage of my training. I was even still questioning it a bit going into my first degree black belt test. The feeling it part is for those who know what they are doing. For me, with the guitar, I'm still developing the knowledge, understanding, and technique to get to the point where I can just feel what I play.

I think often, what happens, is that people forget what it was like to struggle to master something after they already have mastered it. To where someone who was still in the process of accumulating the knowledge, may need more technical input than they need emotional.

Just my two cents.

I hope all that made sense. I'm at work using the talk to text feature on my phone. Sometimes it does not like my accent. So if some of that seems jumbled up, blame it on Verizon. LOL

Great post! I'm not even that good, but am very guilty of what you just said. For a beginner or even a seasoned player who is now learning to solo, "just play what you feel" doesn't work. It only works if what you feel, also sounds great. If you haven't gotten to that point yet, then it's meaningless.

So I say "get a guitar buddy." Whether it's an official "lesson" or a more seasoned player who will just jam with you and show you things. Get someone to play with and that will help you learn.

The other truth is, when it comes to soloing, not everyone is GOING to "get" it. I know guys who know every chord in the book and can play them as soon as you yell them out, and they are solid, timing is good, etc. players, but they CAN NOT play leads at all. Even simple ones. Some guys get very basic leads but can't ever get past that. So, if I ever say "this is easy, just do this" you can call me a jerk and tell me to slow down and see if you can do it. Not everyone can. Just like if you're trying to teach me country and you play fingerstyle... you start playing things that are simple for you and I'm going "where's my pick????"

 

[danktat]

Great post! I'm not even that good, but am very guilty of what you just said. For a beginner or even a seasoned player who is now learning to solo, "just play what you feel" doesn't work. It only works if what you feel, also sounds great. If you haven't gotten to that point yet, then it's meaningless.

So I say "get a guitar buddy." Whether it's an official "lesson" or a more seasoned player who will just jam with you and show you things. Get someone to play with and that will help you learn.

The other truth is, when it comes to soloing, not everyone is GOING to "get" it. I know guys who know every chord in the book and can play them as soon as you yell them out, and they are solid, timing is good, etc. players, but they CAN NOT play leads at all. Even simple ones. Some guys get very basic leads but can't ever get past that. So, if I ever say "this is easy, just do this" you can call me a jerk and tell me to slow down and see if you can do it. Not everyone can. Just like if you're trying to teach me country and you play fingerstyle... you start playing things that are simple for you and I'm going "where's my pick????"

Lol....what I posted prior to this post that you replied to covered that part of it too............Ahhhhhhh......the struggles are real!!!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

This. Learn that scale first, and then you can play 90% (to some degree) of blues songs. Then you can get creative and tasty from there.

I assume you can keep time. ? If not, get a different hobby.

Anyone want to buy some guitars?!

 

[ElrytNamrogo]

Legend has it that there's a certain someone you can meet at a set of crossroads somewhere down in the deep south. For the small exchange of your mortal soul, he'll give you everything you could ever need to play the blues.