9 years of wasted time?

[hippietim]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

The two most important things said in this thread.

First from the horned one:

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shut up and play yer geetar... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

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And from our friendly neighborhood he-man Ibanez lover:

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The bottom line is bro.. if you love playing guitar that is the only thing that really matters.


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In my mind it's pretty simple: either you want to play or you don't. You are overthinking this.

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

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Good point, so why don't you start playing along with CDs NOW? I started by playing along with the records and trying by trial and error to imitate the sounds I hard. I didn't learn any theory until 8 years in. In July I will have been playing for 33 years and hear people who've been playing 10 that can smoke me. It's depressing, but when I forget about music as a competition I have fun, and most who hear me think 'm much better than I think I am

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Have been now, but didn't start like that. 33 years...holy sh**.

I'm not gonna get rid of stuff, it was a fit of disappointment when I made that comment. I do need to take a break though.

[MBreinin]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

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dude, i've played for 20 years and peaked out on my pentatonic minor scales!!! i can't shred - and i don't want to. i am like CC Deville!!!!! i do one thing and i do it well. then and again i was never good at learning other people's songs so i started writing my own. still to this day i can't play 1 cover song all the way through...a riff here and there, but that's it. as far as learning someone else's solo, i can't do it. don't feel bad. take a short break and evaluate what you want to be able to do.

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We should get together and play...17 years and all I play is minor pentatonics in about 3-4 positions...that's it! However, I do kinda focus on blues, and that is all you need.

I once had a very talented music teacher who taught for the love of it, hanging out, talking guitars, musicians, music. He wouldn't take my money at the end of the day. He had soul feeling, tone and he could shred. However, I could never learn to practice with a metronome, or sweep pick or run scales at light speed. So, I am a bender and shaker. Its all I am ever going to be.

To the original poster, learning something is never a waste of time. Maybe you need to adjust your goals, it sheds a whole new light on things.

Mike

[atomic charvel guy]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

dude,
come out here to sunland and we'll both tackle the issue at hand while getting some nice rays at the same time. i'm rusty as fukk.

[atomic charvel guy]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

my moment of clarity in regards to guitar hit me yesterday.
real hard. i used to be a fairly decent gunslinger, and now it's time to walk tall again. join me for the summer don , we'll hound all the girls while we watch the yankees storm back into contention.

[Ace]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

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I don't believe in instructors once you have the fundamentals of technique and music down unless you are taking classical lessons. The drive to improve needs to come from YOU not someone else. There are too many tools available today such as books, videos and tab that you don't need a teacher to learn or improve.

Everyone goes through ruts or peaks and valleys in their lives, not just on guitar. Usually the ruts come when the instrument doesn't seem fun anymore. Try to forget about practice in general terms and learn or do something fun. That can be improvising, playing with cover songs or learning a song that you always wanted to learn. You just need to either play through the rut or put it down for a week or so, don't however sell everything.

I'd start by learning something simple, like a cool song by a band that you like, that can spark you outta the rut.

Also you don't need to be the next generic super shredder in order to enjoy the instrument. Whatever level that you are on can be enjoyable. One note can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

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What he said. Don't just think when you play, feel. If I start to feel discouraged because there is a riff I can't nail or something, I crank up the volume and pound out all four chords of "Wild Thing" by the Troggs and just let the simple sound of the guitar move me. It sounds like you need to find the fun in playing again, and that has nothing to do with skill. If you have fun while you are playing, that's the reason you play in the first place.

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

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join me for the summer don , we'll hound all the girls while we watch the yankees storm back into contention.


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Sounds good, don't know if the new wife would like it......wait, I'll ask her..........(POW) [img]/images/graemlins/sick.gif[/img],..........guess not.

I'll be in the Frisco area this month and August though, and the Yanks will be in contention sooner than those other anti-Yankee fans think.(jealousy) [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[donf]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

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Don't just think when you play, feel

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Thats a good point Ace. I've noticed, that since I'm on this guitar learning quest, a lot of times, feeling doesn't come in, and I know, it should.

It almost a mechanical learning process, especially with the band. Point taken, now if only you were a Yankee fan [img]/images/graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

[atomic charvel guy]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

go put on "the final peace" on there and back by jeff beck. it's the last tune on the album, you'll wanna play again after hearing that tune.

[MBreinin]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

If I can't feel it when I play, I just stop. The inspiration comes...or it doesn't. It is all about feeling, otherwise it is pure mechanics. That is why guys like David Gilmore have always been high on my list of greats....amazing feel, great tone and all done without the need for super-human skills and speed.

The solo from "Time" is just about the best piece of expressive rock guitar ever recorded. It is, for me, the benchmark of emotional playing.

Mike

[paulbag]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

we've all been there. everyone is different. different strengths and weakness'. i quit for 7 or 8 years myself but picked it back up 5 years ago and i'm loving it. like its been said already, what got me through was writing my own songs, so this is what i did.
after quitting for 7 or 8 tears my skills were shot. i could only remember a small fraction of what i knew, and i was schizzin' out cuz i never thought i'd be able to do it again like years earlier. it was a frustrating daily struggle just to pick it up let alone set any practice goals. i was on the verge of just saying fuck it, but then...
i just thought about what i like about guitar. what about it hits a nerve in me and can make me want punch someone out, cry, whatever. i thought about the bands i was currently into. when i quit no one was tuning low. it was all 440 or 430 with the occasional dropped e string. but here i am (the year 2000) and theres slipknot, mudvayne, stuff like that that was real pissed off and i loved it. so what did i do? i tuned to drop c (cgcfad) and just started fucking around. before i quit i could write riffs but not songs. i gave up on trying to bang out those megadeth riffs and solos that i couldn't come near playing fast enough and let my own creativity take over. just having fun. creating riffs and eventually songs that i enjoyed playing so much i became my own favorite artist. if you don't have any recording gear you could pick up some really cheap software and do amazing stuff with it. it worked for me, i'm still using it. cakewalk music creator 2002. now 5 years later i've got the largest and best arsenal of guitars i ever had, 3 half stacks, thousands in rack gear etc. now i'm going back to my roots of speed and thrash metal, as well as some older 80's metal and learning and playing the solo's i couldn't back then. i don't know what your style and taste is but iron maiden is a great place to start for solos. i finally learned the solo for the dio tune "rainbow in the dark" recently. i couldn't do it back then. it will come. don't force it. have fun. i burnt myself out practicing militantly 8 hours a day before i quit 12, 13 years ago. find a balance. you don't have to quit and i wouldn't call 9 years of anything i loved wasted time. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[morbid]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

9 years of wasted time?, Weren't they my university college years?

[horns666]

Re: 9 years of wasted time?

something learned is never a waste..

throwing it away and or quitting...is!