Well, Iām no longer a ābeginnerā
⦠and I will never be āadvancedā
So that puts me in that great big messy mass of āinter-ā ā¦. No! I am not a number! I am a free man! Donāt label me, buddy!
Just a quick note to say I am a bit overwhelmed by the quality and length of the responses and will get around to replying to you all.
Just a couple of points
Based on my own criteria if I am honest I donāt tick all of the boxes.
Justin has a Grading system so it is reasonable to judge yourself against those if you are so inclined but appreciate many others will have different criteria.
Michael
Michael, I am happy you asked this question and made the list. I suspect most of us who are still honestly at some level of beginning think about this. I do understand most of the more philosophical comments, and find @jkahnās analysis helpful (except that as a beginner I do find your list helpful!). Still they donāt address (for me) the situation where I want to do self-assessment before making a decision, say, about joining a class or a community group. We understand that itās good to play with those who are better than we are, but that has limits.
A personal example: When I started Grade 2, I attended several sessions of a country-style jam at a local grange hall. They stated loudly and clearly that beginners are welcome. And welcome I was! However: I did not have the skills to even participate. Granted part of this is due to the structure of the particular jam, but most of it was me not knowing what I didnāt know. I felt useless, wasnāt learning anything because I could barely participate, and after three times I never returned. It just wasnāt worth the time investment. The interesting thing is that 18 months later, Iām still not sure I could keep up at a beginner level, though I do consider giving it another try! Of course, Iāve got other things going on nowā¦
Yes thatās one of the many problems with labels, when itās not something that has an objective measure that is universally agreed upon then theyāre of little use. And trying to get broad agreement on something that is hugely subjective (like guitar playing) is never going to happen. Itās much more useful to have an accurate description of what skills are actually required for a given situation than trying to do it via a very arbitrary skill level