Electric guitar on a budget

[Druid]

Fair play to him, I'd be happy to play that well.

I decided that one of the things I would do to keep me busy in retirement was try to learn to play electric guitar. I have no previous experience so I've watched (too many) youtube videos and asked a few questions and bought this starter pack from Andertons. I've had it a week and managed to break a string already. It's hard work getting fingers into unacustomed positions and trying to watch two hands at the same time. So far I've learned two chords but it takes ages to transition between them - it used to take much longer though, so I'm making some progress.

[Ian]

Hats off to him. I've been playing a fair while but the thought of performing in front of an audience scares the shit out of me.

[Rockburner]

Fair play to him, I'd be happy to play that well.

I decided that one of the things I would do to keep me busy in retirement was try to learn to play electric guitar. I have no previous experience so I've watched (too many) youtube videos and asked a few questions and bought this starter pack from Andertons. I've had it a week and managed to break a string already. It's hard work getting fingers into unacustomed positions and trying to watch two hands at the same time. So far I've learned two chords but it takes ages to transition between them - it used to take much longer though, so I'm making some progress.

It's one of those things that just takes a lot of practise, once you've got the shapes right.

Music can really seem like another language though.

I've attempted to learn to play guitar 3 or 4 times, I normally struggle with the mental understanding of the language of the music - fifths and 7ths and flats etc just confuse me.

You'd think a grade 1 in piano would help.. but that was over 40 years ago!

[weeksy]

Thank you

As we only bought it Nov i think it's pretty remarkable how he's getting on with it. He seems to enjoy playing and it's great he's enjoying it.

It's not even like that's his best song to play either. I'd argue he's better at a few other than Hotel California. He's been told by his teacher this morning that they're changing his GCSE practical now away from the flute lol.

Although, it's to SINGING !!! not guitar lol.

[weeksy]

Hats off to him. I've been playing a fair while but the thought of performing in front of an audience scares the shit out of me.

I'm guessing when you do this 4 weeks after breaking a collar bone, the playing in front of an audience is easy

2022-10-30_09-40-37 by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

I dunno mate, i've done plenty of Karaoke, but that's in a pub with drunk people... I'd have to be very very confident to do what he did last night.

He's now got to do it again for the leavers party at school in a few weeks.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Different people are freaked out by different things and there's usually no logic to it.

Remember that chap who parachuted from >100,000ft for Red Bull a few years back (Felix Baumgartner?) - he was properly freaked out by having to wear the pressure suit helmet! He had to be talked/supported through it.

[Ian]

Music can really seem like another language though.

I've attempted to learn to play guitar 3 or 4 times, I normally struggle with the mental understanding of the language of the music - fifths and 7ths and flats etc just confuse me.

You'd think a grade 1 in piano would help.. but that was over 40 years ago!

I went a long time with no theory (I started with punk) so I was shite and everything was hard work. Tried again in 90s much the same. But... Learning some music theory, scales, keys, caged made everything so much simpler when I picked it up again 5 years ago. With a little theory you know where the next note should be instead of hunting around for it.

[Count Steer]

Music can really seem like another language though.

I've attempted to learn to play guitar 3 or 4 times, I normally struggle with the mental understanding of the language of the music - fifths and 7ths and flats etc just confuse me.

You'd think a grade 1 in piano would help.. but that was over 40 years ago!

I went a long time with no theory (I started with punk) so I was shite and everything was hard work. Tried again in 90s much the same. But... Learning some music theory, scales, keys, caged made everything so much simpler when I picked it up again 5 years ago. With a little theory you know where the next note should be instead of hunting around for it.

I enjoyed the theory side of it. (Arguably got better at theory than the actual playing The missus did an OU music diploma and I was happy as Larry assisting by doing stuff like adding the bass clef stuff to bits of Beethoven or Bach using the music software we bought - think it was Finale. There's rules n' stuff so it's a bit like coding. ).

She was pretty good at the other stuff - did v well with dissertations on Schubert's Winterreise and Britten's Turn of the Screw but writing about music is a bit like singing about painting to me.

[Yorick]

I've been playing air guitar since I was about 16. Got quite proficient at it.
Was better in my yoof when I had long hair for the full effect

Could play both acoustic and electric

And over here I've been learning Spanish guitar. That's a beautiful sound

[Mr. Dazzle]

I've been learning guitar "properly" for the last few months. Still electric and blues lead, but actual lessons.

My experience is the total opposite of Ricey. . Learning to hear all the intervals unlocks it all! My lesson today was improv solo over a chord progression, something I would have thought way beyond me before but once you know, you know

EDIT: What Ian said basically, theory lets you know (or at least, gives you a very good start) what should come next.