A question for the community as we head into the New Year:
What do you wish you had done earlier in you guitar journey — be it 20 years or 20 months.
I’ve been playing five or so years:
My answers
Focus on playing in time. Using a metronome and realizing how vital it is. I bought Justin’s timer app and it has changed everything.
Focus on what I want as my goal and not dabble. I have two electric guitars and used to practice scales and then put on a jam track and play along. Truth is I discovered I love acoustic guitar and want to play songs. Focus on that now gives my practice a purpose.
Think about dynamics, thanks Justin, softer, louder, break out of boring playing strumming pattens over and over. I now play, feeling the song.
Sing. I’m not great, but who cares. It makes the song come alive. And when I have done two open mics I realize the audience is generous. They like a song. Not just technique. Singing has made all the difference for me.
Experiment. Add a note to a chord and see why I like it and then study the theory. Add a relative minor from time to time in a song to hear how it sounds. Makes me connected with the music
Don’t compare to anyone else. I’m an intermediate player. Could I play a blues solo in a band? No. Maybe one day. But I’m just being me for now.
Love the learning and frustration and growth, realizing there is no finish line.
Best wishes, community. You have all helped me grow.
Thanks to Justin for being an inspirational leader.
I used to stress about a lot of things i didn’t or couldn’t do, things i should have done earlier on, like why i didn’t start at the age of 5 or 6…
But i’ve come to realize that the more i stressed, the less time i had to really enjoy what it is i’m doing. Playing the guitar.
And that didn’t help either.
So these days, i don’t any more and i’m glad. I’ve learned to embrace the frustration and growth as they come.
I’m learning at lot at school (evenings) and have fun playing in my first (school) band.
Ofcourse i’d wished this to happen several years earlier, but hey, that’s life.
I can cry about the things i didn’t have, or i can make it work with what i have now. I’ve chosen the second option.
Also from me, my very best wishes to the community. I don’t think i’ve gotten this far without everybody here…
This is tricky to answer because I don’t believe in the idea of wishing I’d done something sooner or differently because it doesn’t change anything. There’s usually something that can be learned as a result of that alternative path.
It’s only as I’ve got older that I’ve developed the patience and correct mindset to be able to learn guitar. Previous attempts were always destined for failure because of those things.
To your point about acoustic guitar, it was when I got my first acoustic instrument around 2 years ago that things changed for me also. I listen to a load of metal but it turns out I love playing acoustic guitar. The thing is because of my previous mindset I think if I’d picked up an acoustic guitar 10 years ago, it would’ve still resulted in me quitting as I did electric guitar.
Ok so to finally answer your question, maybe I needed to have met my yoga teacher 20 years ago because she’s been a real inspiration to me and at least partly responsible for my shift in mindset which has created the space to learn guitar. Of course 20 years ago, I thought I had all the answers and you couldn’t have dragged me into a yoga class… I was both very opinionated and very wrong! It might seem a strange leap to link yoga and learning guitar but I think I’d have quit again without a new outlook on life. Yoga is similar to a martial art. There’s the surface level and there’s what lies beneath the surface. Surface level martial arts might be knocking someone out but there’s a discipline behind it. In yoga, there’s the surface physical practice, doing things like downward dog, but there’s also a whole philosophy behind it which is really powerful
Certainly, looking back 20 years and wishing otherwise is a fruitless exercise, guitar or otherwise ; but if you’re doing it in the wider scheme of self reflection or improvement, then that’s different.
Re guitar. In relation to shorter time frames - say 12-months - looking back is a critical and essential process, if it with the purpose of reviewing progress, highlighting weaknesses, and critiquing your own learning process. It can give one an accurate, honest, and up to date picture of themselves, and can very much inform future action and direction.
Much in your list appears to be of this type.
All the best.
When my parents gave me my first guitar about 55 years ago there was no online instruction Available and my small town didn’t have good instructors available so my journey was rocky with a lot of start and stop along the way. Today there are so many options for new guitar players and I feel Justin’s training is what I needed all those years ago. Now that I’m retired I can focus more on learning and having fun playing. Even though my skill level isn’t where I want it to be I am continuing to make progress.
For me, it honestly has nothing to do with the guitar. But it would have helped.
If I’d had any clue I had ADHD 20+ years ago and had received treatment for it, I think a lot of things would be different for me. But I think at its core, the reason I had such a hard time consistently staying focused on guitar and building a playing/practice routine back then was because of that.
Because when I realized I had a problem and sought help for it, a lot of things started opening up for me. Guitar was just the last one to fall in because I was prioritizing addressing other things in life first.
Hehe, I had forgotten about that thread, Clint
It’s a long read, but some interesting and very different points of view…
You have a blast of a New Year and don’t forget to keep sharing some of those tasty tidbits from your guitar and garden
