Learning guitar now as opposed to 20 years ago

[TommyD]

> While the music we hear on the radio now isn't conducive to learning guitar,would everyone agree with me that with Youtube being what it is,that if you can't learn to play guitar now,you never will? With there being like 20 different guys showing you how to play Scarified,or Under A Glass Moon,how can ya not? Tommy D.

[horns666]

Yep, Tommy Absolutely. My kid is 14, and playing seriously just over a year. It took me much more time to get where he's at. He developed a machine gun right hand I'll prolly never have..and I taught him how to do that!!!:think:

Well , he actually practiced what I preached.

I know it's musch easier to learn proper techniques than to break old habbits. That's anything thing I discovered with him.

[javert]

Not only that, there's also so much sheet music available for free now and you have all these nice pieces of software for synthesizing or slowing things down. I remember that when I was a kid and learning to play the guitar, if there was something I couldn't play by ear, I had to order the sheet music at the local library, wait for months until they got and then I could only have it for a couple of weeks. Too much of a hassle. And I lived in a small town, so there would only be like one decent guitar teacher, and if you didn't want to play the music he liked, you were fucked. I remember asking my teacher if he would show how to play Sails of Charon. A couple of weeks later he would show me some half-arsed attempt that obviously wasn't right.

[Vass]

It's a totally different game- between the POD-type situations where you can get an approximation of whatever tone you want to go with their online service to Guitar Pro to YouTube to instructional DVD's coming free with guitar mags to even boards like the JCF, where you can ask a question about technique to literally thousands of guitarists with a few clicks.... it's just totally changed.

Imagine yourself in 1985 trying to figure out just something simple like Dimebag's squeals.... you might figure it out, and if you didn't, you might know a few guys from your neighborhood who might know, and if they don't, you might catch the video on MTV and if you're lucky the guy will have the camera on him at the right moment and actually be playing...or you might not.

Now, you go to YouTube, and there's Dime, showing you how to "get yer pull on".

Truly amazing. It just comes down to the accessability of information- The info was always there, you just couldn't get it easily.

You could compare this to the J-curve that is technology, showing that things don't advance at a constant rate but instead build on one another & compound over time at increasing rates- Like Bill's son- he gets the information he wants in seconds, instead of over months, years, or never, integrates it, makes something new, and then shares that.... then the next guy sees it and builds on what his son did, and he puts that out there, and on and on and on.

We've always stood on the shoulders of giants, but now the giant is also growing at a much faster rate.

[asix]

I love the ppl who think they can play on you tube. I know I cant play (that well) and dont try to tell ppl i can.

there is lots of bad advice out there as well.

[Grandturk]

Sometimes bad advise is better than no advise.

I Also think the kids growing up now are the first generation that like the same type of music as their fathers and that their fathers still play guitar even if not professionally. Dads didn't pack up or sell their guitars - they kept playing and still play, Like Bill.

[atomic charvel guy]

I'm glad i learned how I did. I had my ear and Jimmy Page and ace Frehley to shoot for in the beginning, then EVH almost made me turn my guitar into a coffee table, he definitely accelerated my want to get better. I had a great ear.

[992gnt]

My 14 year old is the same Bill, only I got him started at 8. If he can't figure out something by ear, which is rare, he'll pull up any one of a dozen sources and figure it out. If I had that kind of info to help me along then, like I do now, I can only imagine how much more proficient a player I would be. And GT you're right about us playing the same music. He cops stuff of my bands setlist ALL the time. Awesome.

[Jacksons Shred]

I think that kids of my generation may have it easier with the resources, but... How good are you going to get when everything is handed to you? Sure there's Youtube and anyone can post a video of them playing Scarified sloppy as shit and not in the pocket, it doesn't mean they are good. I actually think that people back then had it better, there wasn't as many distractions and you really had to work hard to get good at the guitar, which is why I think that music back then is better then it is now.

Don't get me wrong there are tons of great players now a days, but a lot of people (i'm sure including myself) lack creativity, a good ear, sense of rhythm, and the fundamentals.

I sit here typing this at 9:30 AM, I'm about to practice till about 8pm or probably till I go to bed, but I'm sure I will stop by here or answer a few texts. It's distractions that you guys didn't have back in your day, and which is why you're all better.

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

I dunno, 20 - 25 years ago I bought guitar magazines that would explain different techniques. Steve Vai and Joe Satriani both had columns in Guitar Player as I recall. And various interviews with artists who would explain their techniques and that kind of stuff.

Not that there isn't some good stuff out there, but I think the amount of misinformation and useless information from the Web adds to the noise, and that applies with nearly ANY subject.

But back then it wasn't so much "Here's a video where I'm going to show you how to make 'Dime squeals'" or "Here are a couple of repetitious patterns that Yngwie Malmsteen uses a lot" like the Youtube videos I see.

Instead, it was "Here are some harmonic and tremolo techniques to experiment with" and "This is what an arpeggio is, this is how to sweep pick, hey, let's talk about 'efficient picking'" and then you were off to make it your own.

I still like to look at the videos sometimes to see what's up but really most of the "new techniques" are stuff that some relatively obscure guy was doing back in the 60's.

[PowerTube]

Back in the 80's you could spend $300+ for a specialty tape player that could play at 1/2 speed. Now you can just run any number of free Winamp plugins that'll do the same or use Goldwave.

Back then, you hit Play, then Stop, then worked on it a bit, then Rewind (and hope you hit Stop at close to the right place), then worked on it again. Now you select your Start point and Stop point in Goldwave, select the Loop option, sit back and enjoy.

Back then, you waited eagerly for the song that was tripping you up to be tabbed in a guitar magazine. Now you find the tab within minutes onlines (although that's getting harder to accomplish).

Back then, you bought or borrowed an expensive 4-track recorder that was a pain in the ass to learn. Now you just plug the amp or POD into the sound card, then record and mix to your heart's content.

Back then, all of your music was on cassette tape unless you had a recording contract. Now you drop in a $0.15 CD and burn away. Plus, you can make and print pro looking CD labels at home.

So yes, things are much easier now.

So why are guitarists sucking ass now as opposed to the 80's?

Hmmmm....

[nor]

My 15 year old just plugged into my rig and ripped some SympX riffs. Damn...

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Back then, you waited eagerly for the song that was tripping you up to be tabbed in a guitar magazine. Now you find the tab within minutes onlines (although that's getting harder to accomplish).

I think that's a good part of the answer to your last question.

I like to dick around playing covers sometimes but for me it's about creating music. Half of the challenge for me (and no, I am in no way claiming to be an awesome guitarist) is being able to play what I imagine, and since I don't imagine specific fingerings, pick techniques, etc but instead just hear notes, tone and inflection I think at least for me, it's the same skill set as when I learn by ear that I use when I figure out how to play that new riff I'm imagining.

Without the TAB, we'd try a little harder to figure out what chord that was, what was special about this little riff here, etc. Sometimes you'd accidentally discover something really cool by accident, or you'd figure out your own way to play the solo that was passable and maybe it wasn't "just like the record", but it was good, and it was yours, at least partially.

I do use Sound Forge to slow stuff down, though.

[cvansickle]

Bah! These kids today - you all need MEL BAY to show you how it's done!