[Irishcocacola]

I sure do feel like I am picking up the guitar fairly quickly. Ive only been playing for about 8 months and I have over 100 tabs, I can play barre chords, and I know quite a few riffs by heart. I have even taking to teaching newest of new by putting up a guitar information section on my website(link below).

I pretty much just got the hang of barre chords a few weeks ago and committing tabs and songs to memory is becoming easier week by week. I don't know too many chords well...

Heres the thing, I taught myself(and am still teaching). A lot of thanks to this site, and the providers of the tabs.

I play at least an hour a day, and the summer is coming up so I will play a lot more!

My question is this, do you think I am progressing faster than the norm, or at a pretty regular rate. Consider the fact that Im teaching myself, and that Im not always about learning new material. I often times go back and play the old stuff.

Regardless of whether or not I am picking up this guitar thing at an accelerated rate, it may surprise some of you to know that I used to play Tuba for band in school until I was kicked out. Even though tubas and guitars have nothing in common I think it was benificial for my guitar learning experience to have learned tuba prior.

Anyone pick it up faster than me...slower, same rate?

[jshrel24]

Id say your about the regular rate. try learning some blues, talk to dadfad about that. Also try alternate picking. Barre chords are cool and all, but try more open chords. Especially for acoustic IMO. Learn theory blah blah blah. Yea keep up the good work, glad youve got good motivation and arnt down about not learning stuff.
Josh

[wannalearn01]

Do you know songs or riffs?

Knowing enough to make it reconizable isn;t the best way, try learning them through and through...if that what your doing...then good job, 8 months and over a 100 songs learned...thats above average....but I got over 25 tabs printed out...

I've been playing about the same as yourself, I can play/link about 10-15 open chords...but not too many barre's. I can alt. pick like a mofo...but I can't ska upstroke...when you teach yourself, somethings come fast other things come slow.

T^roy

This post has been edited by wannalearn01: 25 May 2004 - 09:54 AM

[Irishcocacola]

Well, when I compare myself to my friends it seems like Im progressing faster then they did/are.

I'd say most of the poeple on this website progress at a faster rate, however...Because most of us are very interested in guitars wheras a typical beginner may not have enough interest to sign up on the forums.

[lyra14]

You can always new learn things- not even masters like Satriani or Vai play everyting.

[Irishcocacola]

Well, quite a few of the songs I have printed out are simple. They progress in complexity and challenge.

You can't learn how to play the guitar in 8 months, the best of the best have been learning their entire lives!

[lespauladdict]

hey man, just keep playing. if you like a particular artist or band, try learning as many of their songs as you can. once you get the base chords down, try hybrid picking or arpeggiating those songs. that's the best advice i can give. and like someone said, talk to dadfad. he seems to be the "god" of guitartabs.

[wannalearn01]

If you started after your friends did...you have a smaller learning curve. If there is a group of five people who are learnging the guitar, whoever is last to start will progress the fastest b.c the others will know what to tell/show that person.

Just like on a production line, the last product off a line is always the cheapest to make..compared to the ones at the beginning.

Surround yourself with the best players you can, b.c they have been where you have been and know how hard it is.

T^roy

[Irishcocacola]

Well, My friend started before me and he thinks he's better than me but I call him a liar. It's hard to judge, and I don't think you can judge me and my friends on whos better.

I've taught myself completely solo....only the help of people online. My older brother plays but he's at college all the time.

[wannalearn01]

For two people who are both relatively new, you both could be better in different areas. His ear might be better than yours, but your alt. picking might be better etc etc

I would say this: Play for unbiased friends and ask them who they think is better...someone can be awesome at the technical side of playing....but without passion, they won't sound as good.

It sounds to me as though you two are similar in experience...with out a "play-off" to see who has better style...it is a useless cause.

T^roy

[Irishcocacola]

Yeah see heres the thing.

It's myself, and my two friends. One of my friends started after me, and openly says he's gonna get better than me.

I never ever want to turn guitar playing into a contest but sometimes I can't help but think whos better. He says he will be better than me by summer. Well summer is here, he plays a lot. I play a lot. I don't know, and I don't want to know cause I don't want to care.


Oh well!

I just want to play guitar for myself anyways!

I want to learn techniques and everything else. I want to make it easier for beginners though on my website. Thats why I need to learn this stuff before I post it!

[jshrel24]

well maybe some of the regulars on here could put some helpful tips on ur website. id love to help. PM me sometime and we can talk about it if you want.

[Jon_Mac]

This is one reason i started playing guitar. I use to Mountain bike constantly all the time and i felt like all my friends were trying to presure me to do better, things were always a contest and i didnt like that. I started guitar and i thought hopfully no one will go so low to judge whether they're better then someone. Just remeber what wannalearn01 said... "For two people who are both relatively new, you both could be better in different areas. His ear might be better than yours, but your alt. picking might be better etc etc".

[trippenit]

if you think your learning fast, your not learning properly . Learning guitar is harder than child-birth, otherwise any drop-out joe whould be jimmy page

[Irishcocacola]

Nah, I think im learning...I know Im learning!

I think because I was in band, that has helped tremendously even though I played tuba!
I think it just helps to have played music before I played guitar and everything else.

Im not saying its easy, but I think I've had a kind of a boost to start...

This post has been edited by Irishcocacola: 27 May 2004 - 03:37 PM

[jshrel24]

Nah, I think im learning...I know Im learning!

I think because I was in band, that has helped tremendously even though I played tuba!
I think it just helps to have played music before I played guitar and everything else.

Im not saying its easy, but I think I've had a kind of a boost to start...

I used to play the trumpet in band, i think it prolly helped me.

[wannalearn01]

Nah, I think im learning...I know Im learning!

I think because I was in band, that has helped tremendously even though I played tuba!
I think it just helps to have played music before I played guitar and everything else.

Im not saying its easy, but I think I've had a kind of a boost to start...

I used to play the trumpet in band, i think it prolly helped me.

I think any music will help out when learning a new instrument. The piano is supposed to be the best for being a "cross-over" instrument. I think mainly what it does is uses the previous knowledge of notes/sounds in combination and makes it easier to relate it to the guitar.

I'm sure you'll notice when you play a combination that is "familar but isn't"...that you reconize it, but just not sure where from...thats your ear/mind remembering part of a song/exercise.

Previous knowledge is good, but isn't the only thing. Even the way your mind processes things can effect how fast you learn. And no matter how fast you learn, someone else will learn faster/better.

Like me, I'll go a week or two without learning anything new, and then I'll figure something out that lets me "leap" forward in my progress. Strumming was uber hard to figure out, but once you do, and can apply it to many things..combinations of hammer-ons/pull off.

I will say having someone to push you to be better is a good thing, but if they are taking it to extremes of needing to put a label on who is "1st" and who is "2nd"...just let them think they are better...and play so you know your working harder than them and eventually you'll be getting asked how to do things instead of the other way around. Guitar has a learning curve, and the faster you can adapt to that, the faster you'll learn...but as said above...if you go too fast you can skip steps that will hold you up later on.

T^roy

[dogpoo]

i think that i got the hang of guitar pretty quickly.
at eight months i think i was pretty advanced considering the amount of time i had been playing.
thats when i got into classical, that was hard, and even though you may have picked the basics up really quickly, you WILL get stuck somewhere.
i felt like i was stuck in a rut there and i didn't feel like i was progressing. happens to everyone at some point. just happened to me a few weeks ago. i've given up pure classical for the time being. after a year or so it got to me.

i'm happy doing cavatina now. barre till death. good practice though.


people advance at different rates, and pick up different things faster than others. of course, having 10 years of piano helped a whole lot. theory-wise and rhythm-wise, it helps.

[metallica_fan_03]

i could barre e's and a shapes in about a month cleanly but i mainly play/ed lead. i could play a hell of a lot of stuff by 8 months- too much to count, i tried once but i kept leaving stuff out. you think you are laerning fast/ and are becoming brilliant. then you see a guy on t.v ora tape whatever thats supposed to be crap and they cna out play you no bother.

i'd say i'm better than alot of my friend- perhaps 2-3 guys are at a similar level but everyone else is way behind- i've been playing 2 years nearly. i know a guy who's been playing for about 7-8 years who's useless. he is terrible but believes he' blows everyone else out of the water so really while you think you are way better in fact you could suck.

also 2 people can play the same song, an easy one and one will sound far better than the other. a person who's comfortable and really at ease with the instrrument will make every chord progression sound great whereas a beginner will not be as smooth and will make tiny errors etc..

[Irishcocacola]

Yeah, My objective is never to be a competitor with this guitar thing.

I don't care if im the worst player in the world, I just play to imrpove myself and have fun.