Guitar Playing Revelation

There's a wonderful moment where muscle memory and the creative mind finally synchronize and the fingers do what your brain is thinking. It took years of practice, and it doesn't happen every time I pick up the guitar, but when it happens there's nothing quite like it.

 

Im no

Of course non guitar players hear me and think I'm great, but of course I'm not, if they only knew. I spent waaaayyyy too many years playing but not practicing. Had I buckled down and really learned some stuff back then I would be twice as far down the road. But oh well. I did spend time on other instruments as well so it's ok.

 

I did the same, most of the years I was playing in bands, I didn't improve very much. It was in the years since that I learnt a little more, practised rather than just playing and trying to write. Ironic really that now that I'm a better player, I actually don't play in a live or band environment! But like you I also tried my hand at learning to dabble on a few other instruments. My proudest achievement was playing and recording absolutely everything on what I considered to be one of the best songs I'd written. I'm terrible at showing on demand what I'm capable of, but if I ever need to, I pull out that track and say "Take a listen, this is what I can do". I may not be technically gifted, but I'd hate to think that was all there is to playing music.

 

the greatest players in the world all stay there is still much to learn. that is one of the many beauties of playing, learning never ends.

If a player says he knows it all, he's lying.

 

Just to put it in perspective, the years in question were 1965 and 1966.

 

What a great thread! Excellent input from everyone!

I'm in the 4th quarter so to speak and time is running out but I still enjoy playing. It does seem to get more difficult physically every day for me as 60 looms straight ahead in June 2016 . I self taught at 16 and had a brief 6 month lesson time at 18 with a Berklee grad. That was tough until he taught me the pentatonic scale...lessons over. I realized that scale was what I needed to play 90% of the music I loved.

A couple of other events influenced me to go on different paths. One was seeing a PBS special about Elizabeth Cotten back in the late 70's and Philly Folk Festival programs with David Bromberg and Norman Blake. I wanted to learn finger style Blues and Ragtime and flat picking. Even though I grew up on Rock and 60's Brit and Pop, wooden music was calling my name. So, I woodshedded on that stuff for a few years and also got influenced into open tunings thru Rory Gallagher,Robbie Basho,Ry Cooder,Leo Kottke,John Fahey,Pierre Bensusuan,and the Windham Hill gang of Ackerman,Hedges,DeGrassi, Winston. Rev. Davis and Mississippi John too.

Then friends started a band around 1980 and I went electric. That lasted awhile and I went back
underground and unplugged getting into Bluegrass and Celtic. Drafted back into a Country band then out and started to write a lot of instrumentals and recording with lyrics too. Got out of that and went into P&W for past 15 years playing electric fill and lead. Free now and health problems have slowed me down and I get frustrated because I'm losing speed and technique. Still, I feel so blessed to have played all these years. Never learned to read but have a lifetime of wisdom by trial and error. Many times I've regretted not learning theory and reading or getting into styles that intrigued me like chordal Jazz and Classical. However, that has made my playing unique as I never tried to copy (hated playing covers) or trying to be a walking jukebox or all styles player. I sometimes envy players who seem to have total recall of decades of songs or can play many different styles but that's who they are and we can't all be the same. At some point you just have to be comfortable with who you are and what you can play and admire each player for their unique path.

 

I took guitar lessons at age 10, and am now 58. Of course, that doesn't amount to 48 years of playing, 'cause there were big gaps with little to no playing. For me, it's not a linear thing - more like one step up, back, sideways... to this day each time I pick it up, the guitar is a new source of mystery. After this long, I realize that's the way I like it. Don't play the same things the same way, but treat it as a never ending discovery.

 

Good post, I enjoyed that. If and when I'm at the doors of my sixties I hope I have a similar attitude to you. Like you, there's many times I regret not learning theory. My long time musical collaborator, one of my very best friends, he does work with theory, keys, scales and I often bemoan that I never knuckled down and picked up some of that. One day he told me not to. When I asked him why, he said because the way I play and compose would be ruined forever, that one of my assets was not being tied to theory. And at that point I realised there were pros and cons to each side of this musical coin, and nowadays I don't beat myself up too much about my lack of technical knowledge. Yes, it would make things a lot easier, especially when I'm trying to figure out what other musicians are doing, but I'll get by, I just have to work that little harder.

 

Yeah, try DADGAD tuning and you'll be stealin . . . er, writing great songs in no time! ;^)

 

That's definitely a real phenomenon. I think part of the reason for this is that, with pianos and electronic keyboards, equal temperament means that all keys have the same basic sound. Whereas, when playing open position chords on a guitar (as most guitarists do most of the time), every chord is voiced differently and every key has a different tone color.

 

It's been years since I tried DADGAD! I tried, and failed to emulate Nic Jones' "Canadee-i-o" (FAR outwith of my picking abilities!) but stole the tuning for my classical... BbFBbFBbC is now one of my favourite open tunings of the few I've tried!
And I don't steal... I, erm, re-appropriate

 

What great musical career! It's great when you find that knowledge that unlocks so many doors. I had played for 15 years before I found a blues video that showed me bending the 4th up to the 5th, the most popular blues lick. That was it, changed everything for me. Now why the hell didn't I figure that out 20 years ago?

 

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but pianos are tuned to "stretched" equal temperament and guitars are tuned to equal temperament.

 

I understand what you are saying about the open chords but why would that lend itself to allow for greater ease of songwriting?
Also, what leads you to believe that most guitarists play open position chords most of the time? Jazz players rarely use them and to some extent rock players also.

 

It is ok, all of us live on the edge of our own struggle. So much so, we often forget how much progress we've made. There is no shortage of people who will gladly pull you down a few pegs if your head begins to explode. My own father looked into my eyes when I was 12 and told me that I was so horrifically bad at piano I should consider playing the cotton-balls (hold one in each hand, bang them together like symbols). I suppose you've got to admire a man who won't lie to his son, spare his feelings, or feel shame for putting his son in a suicidal depression.*




* Story greatly exaggerated and made tragic to elicit sympathy.

 

After 40-plus years of playing, I think (hope?) I'm better than your average living room rocker — if not by much these past few years, as life kinda got in the way of practicing regularly. It's been ages since I experienced anything even resembling what Fastnbulbous describes. That said, I did play competent if not spectacular rhythm & occasional lead guitar in a few bands back in the day.

I blame at least some of my guitar shortcomings on Bob Dylan. While my 70s peers were emulating the various guitar heroes & heavies of the day, I was able to develop passable versions of most of Bob's stuff fairly quickly. My mistake was thinking I was then good-to-go as a guitarist — WRONG!

Yes, I know Bob's done some nice fingerpicking here & there, but most of his stuff is simple flatpicking & basic chords. As far as his "lead" playing during the Never Ending Tour, even the biggest Dylan fan I know described Bob's technique as "search and destroy."

 

I'm self-taught beginning at about age 14. In the intervening 50 years, I've had occasional gaps of a year or two, often because I didn't have and couldn't afford a decent guitar. Other than that, I could've posted the same comments as you.

 

Its a shame that most weddings today have DJs instead of the classic "Wedding Band". Back in the day, I played in a couple of wedding bands.
You know you have made it as a guitar player when you have played "After The Lovin" for a couple hundred half smashed (some fully smashed) wedding reception partiers.

 

I sometimes have the craziest "guitar playing dreams". One that I get a lot is the strings on my guitar are too thick and I can't play them. Usually it is when I have to play a wedding or a college party. Another one is I get to the gig and I forgot something like a cable or other crazy thing. I must get them at least once every few months.
Do you have any "guitar gig dreams"?

 

While it is true that guitars are tuned to equal temperament, the open chords by which the overwhelming majority of writing guitarists play the majority of their chords are all in different voicings with different tone quality and each key has a different set of open chords associated with it. To me, that makes it easier to "feel" your way to a melody from a key signature. What leads me to believe this is simply my knowledge of most guitar pedagogy.

In my experience, jazz guitar players seldom write songs.

 

Great thread and I can relate to a lot of it. I'm 58 and been playing since my early teens. Again like many it was on again off again due to life stuff. But still there is nothing more enjoyable than a sunny fall afternoon in lovely Wake Forest, NC, a cold beer and my Martin OM-35. I remember when I was 20 and staking lessons and thought I was the bomb. I walked into my teacher's studio and he was playing a Joe Pass recording..virtuoso 2 and the tune was Joy Spring. I was mesmerized and I quickly fell in love with jazz guitar. While I consider myself barely above a jazz novice I can play a nice cover of Satin Doll and I'll smile like hell.

 

I don't recall having any guitar playing dreams, ever

 

I'd have to agree that most guitar songwriting happens around the first position chords, and there's a multitude of melody notes to find in between. Take for example "Norwegian Wood" which has the entire verse melody in the D chord position. It just had to be written that way. Why guitar melodies would be more/less accessible than piano I can't say.

 

Music is like a fractal - the more time I spend with it, the more I learn about it, the deeper I look into it, the more I realize that it's fathomless, that there are always more aspects to it than I ever knew about. To me it turns out to be more of a vast concept than an accrual of facts. I plan to spend the rest of my life getting more familiar and comfortable with the concept, but I don't think it's possible to ever fully assimilate it.

That might be a scary or off-putting thought, but the saving grace is that you don't need to know everything to make perfectly satisfying music. And the beautiful thing about guitar in particular is that all you need is a couple of cowboy chords and right away you're making real music, or at least a reasonable approximation. You can then get into it as far as you want or you can make good music with just a few simple tools.

I think everyone should be issued a guitar at birth.

 

I've had several guitar revelations in my life:
1. I was 9 years old, just beginning with open chords, and was utterly convinced that the open G was insurmountable. On a sick day, I spent all day in bed trying, but no go. Finally (finally!) I got it to sound. That taught me to fight-through difficulty, because ultimately, it would pay-off.
2. I had a seeing-through-the-matrix moment where the patterns and chord shapes on the fretboard revealed themselves to me. I remember thinking how amazing it was that by learning one barre "shape", I essentially learned 12 new chords! Very empowering.
3. A change in priorities. I began by wanting to shred as many notes as possible. My cousin was maybe the worst teacher in the world. "How'dya do that?!" I would ask, and he would just reply "try it like this", and show-off for another hour.
Anyway, I eventually realized I gained much more satisfaction from songwriting. Just playing different chords against one another and listening to the effect gives me hours of fun.