What/Who has helped you learning most!!

[Deleted member 5962]

I tried somehow and it didn't work. Is there another method?

7 years of college, down the drain.

 

[Rod/]

Well, I've told this often, but it is a thread topic again so here goes.

I played classical piano up until I was 15 years old. I was pretty advanced for my age, but got to the point I didn't want to play piano any more. I wanted to play guitar, and rock and roll guitar. When I got my first guitar, I had no books, no teacher, no lessons, no NOTHING. Except a good ear. I'd sit down and turn an album on and play along with it and learn the songs. There were no "online instructional videos" or anything like that, because there was no "online." You either took lessons at a music store, or you winged it. Thank God I had a good enough ear, and enough musical background, that I could learn it all without any help.

Now, I've said a million times. I'm no chordsmith or anything. I don't know 50 inversions of every chord. But, when I'd hear a different version of a chord, I could usually figure it out quickly and move on, even if I didn't "know" what chord I was actually playing. To this day, I learn most things by ear and only consult a basic chord chart for some things when I play at church, and only sometimes. I've never bought tab charts, instructional videos, etc. I've pretty much taught myself everything I know. YES, by watching, copying, duplicating etc., but I've never had any type of actual instruction.

Now, if you think I suck at guitar, that doesn't really mean much... except that I probably should have taken lessons!

I have a strong feeling that you truly don’t suck on guitar. I learned the same way as you did. And I was born with a good ear

 

[Alnus Rubra]

I have a strong feeling that you truly don’t suck on guitar. I learned the same way as you did. And I was born with a good ear

He’s an absolute hack

 

[Deleted member 5962]

He’s an absolute hack

ExPOSED!

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Actually Howie you have immense chops.

 

[dmatthews]

Actually Howie you have immense chops.

I have pork chops.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Actually Howie you have immense chops.

Thank you! (insert blushing emoji)

 

[bodia]

I have pork chops.

Me too. Haven't shaved since Halloween!

 

[Lewguitar]

YouTube, I suspect, is how young people learn to play the guitar and perfect their skills these days.

I learned by observing and by slowing down record albums.

Not all that different.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I learned by observing and by slowing down record albums.

I learned by playing along with albums. And whenever I could observe, by watching. I had the whole first Van Halen album all figured out in a week but (like most others probably) two months later still couldn't figure out Eruption. Then I saw him on TV, saw how it was doing it, and had it down in 2 days. But without seeing him, I'd probably never have figured it out until someone did and showed me.

I never slowed the albums down though. Slowing it down (with albums) changed the pitch so I never tried it. Then they started coming out with devices to do it without changing pitch and made it much easier, but that was was later in my playing days so I never tried one. I do remember for really hard songs, how much better CDs were than albums or tapes, because I could not only stop and rewind exactly the section I wanted to learn, but I could even set my CD player to loop that section. I don't think I could have ever gotten through Far Beyond The Sun or ANY Yngwie song (most of which were 3 minutes of soloing) if I had to pickup and drop the needle over and over to learn all those parts. CD's made it much easier... to figure out at least, if not to play. LOL But that was a few years after I learned the DiMeola stuff I used to play, and I had nothing but albums to learn all that.

 

[Lewguitar]

I learned by playing along with albums. And whenever I could observe, by watching. I had the whole first Van Halen album all figured out in a week but (like most others probably) two months later still couldn't figure out Eruption. Then I saw him on TV, saw how it was doing it, and had it down in 2 days. But without seeing him, I'd probably never have figured it out until someone did and showed me.

I never slowed the albums down though. Slowing it down (with albums) changed the pitch so I never tried it. Then they started coming out with devices to do it without changing pitch and made it much easier, but that was was later in my playing days so I never tried one. I do remember for really hard songs, how much better CDs were than albums or tapes, because I could not only stop and rewind exactly the section I wanted to learn, but I could even set my CD player to loop that section. I don't think I could have ever gotten through Far Beyond The Sun or ANY Yngwie song (most of which were 3 minutes of soloing) if I had to pickup and drop the needle over and over to learn all those parts. CD's made it much easier... to figure out at least, if not to play. LOL But that was a few years after I learned the DiMeola stuff I used to play, and I had nothing but albums to learn all that.

I grew up in the era where you could switch a turntable from 33 rpm to 16.5 rpm. The licks would go by half as fast but also an octave lower.

I also had a Wollensak reel to reel tape recorder and I could record an album at 7 1/2 ips and slow it down to 3 3/4 ips.

Same deal.

And i watched alot of music on TV and stole a lot of licks from bands I saw on Shindig, Hullabaloo, Ed Sullivan and the Grand Ol Opry.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

I grew up in the era where you could switch a turntable from 33 rpm to 16.5 rpm. The licks would go by half as fast but also an octave lower.

Oh that's cool. I never had one that went below 33 1/3, so I couldn't do that. Half speed an octave lower would have made some things easier for sure. I made cassette tapes of a couple of my DiMeola albums, just so I wouldn't wear my vinyl out trying to learn the songs. LOL