It feels good to be a "real musician"

[Hink]

ntom - isn't your dad a guitarist?

Yes, he has been playing Guitar since he was 7 and he is now 58 - or something close to that.
I tried getting him to teach me but he never would...now that I picked up the game he seems more interested in teaching me (I think he just wanted to know if I was serious)
And it was thanks to him I have a guitar to use, and I just want to add; When I played Bass Guitar there was a....mmm, I don't know how to describe it, but a bland feeling to the instrument.
All the other instruments I had played before had a grand and magnificent feeling because either they were 1 of a kind or just elegant in nature (partly due to price - thank you rent-to-own!)
As ungrateful as this sounds, I really feel part of the reason I dropped the Bass ( ) was - well really there were several reasons - but one being that I just couldn't feel that legacy behind my simple little $80 fender bass.

The guitar my dad has loaned me to use is a 1970 Gibson Les Paul Custom (with Tobacco Sunburst finish) and the feeling behind it is just astounding.

your dad is generous to loan you such a guitar...ftr I'm 5 years younger than you father and have a 31 year old son as well as a 17 year old daughter. Both have shown interest in music (my daughter has a squire hello kitty guitar) but I have never taught them, it's not a case of 'never would' but instead a case of just not being able to teach for some reason. That might be the same with your father, my best musician friend growing up taught his son drums then guitar and I use to be so frustrated I couldn't do the same thing but I just do not have the teaching gene...so go easy on yer ol' man...I have taught my kids a lot but not music or how to play guitar

[Moe Shinola]

I'd like to add my 2 cents:

I've been playing guitar a long time, decades in fact, and should be waaaaay more skilled than I am now(too ADHD to practice regularly) but grateful for the skills I have. I feel that I'm more gifted than I deserve given my work ethic. Playing guitar and writing music on it come pretty easy. As for learning the guitar, I hope you don't make the mistake I did starting out and try learning on an instrument that's hard to play, physically. Lighter strings are your friend. I also benefited from learning a lot of major and minor 7th variations of easy chords in open positions. I taught myself those and began sounding unique right away. I also recommend inventing your own alternate tunings, and playing around with capos. If you want to learn blues playing, ask your teacher about playing over a blues progression through the cycle of 5ths. I made a lot of progress quickly doing this, taking the chords at just a little bit faster tempo than I was used to. Interesting licks kind of started playing themselves.

[hibidy]

Do everything different than what the hibidy did.........

-take lessons
-play the music you LIKE (not what gets you into a band)
-practice
-practice some more
-why are you not practicing?????
-learn theory, inside and out
-experiment with different tunings BUT only after you've PRACTICED
-are you reading this instead of practicing????????

[Gonga]

Agree with Hib, but add "listening" to the list. Listen deeply to great music - a lot. Listening is underrated.

Regarding Sendy's post, I too have been scared away from steel strings by finger pain (I'm a wimpy keyboard player). So I prefer nylon (I love the sound anyway).

But I'm curious - has anyone tried using alum powder soaks on their finger-tips? A great musician I knew as a kid (my piano teacher) told me string players (her father was a famous French violinist and composer) did this to harden the fingertips.

p.s. - a synth is a real instrument too - you just have to play it like one

[Hink]

rumor has it SRV use to put superglue on his fingers...but you know how the rumor mill goes

fwiw, of course a synth is a real instrument...has someone tried to tell you different?

Also that pain doesn't last

[robogone]

rumor has it SRV use to put superglue on his fingers...

So how did he ever manage to play more than one chord?

[ntom]

Also that pain doesn't last

I actually have many responses to everyone but I need to go to sleep for work tomorrow, I just want to write one response pertaining to this;
The pain is no problem for me. First of all I already have calluses on several of my fingers from my job (I'm a cable tech) - putting the cable fittings on the cable doesn't always go smoothly and so sometimes I have to fight it which tears up my fingers.
Anyways, point is, I am use to it.

Now about my strings, my dad and teaching, and being in a band I'll have to come back to tomorrow.

[Hink]

rumor has it SRV use to put superglue on his fingers...

So how did he ever manage to play more than one chord?

very well?

[hibidy]

rumor has it SRV use to put superglue on his fingers...but you know how the rumor mill goes

fwiw, of course a synth is a real instrument...has someone tried to tell you different?

Also that pain doesn't last

and talcum powder. But then again he played with like 13's so.........

@listening: Ironic that it has to be mentioned but well played! Funny. I used to be able to pick out so many details, now.......just now.......after all these years.......I just heard "shoot that poison arrow" and the plucked bass parts are overdubbed (how did I miss that??)

[robogone]

rumor has it SRV use to put superglue on his fingers...

So how did he ever manage to play more than one chord?

very well?

[David Carpenter Wind Core]

Instead of playing the guitar like most people why not choose a more difficult instrument like the piano. In the end you will be able to do so much more musically. Compare the top guitarist's and top pianist's songs you will find that lead guitar is nothing without the rest of the band where as piano can easily stand alone.

If you do have your heart set on guitar then get guitar pro 6 it will help big time. Also after a while you build up nice calluses on your finger tips and there is no pain. After a month of solid hour or two a day practice these will develop avoid lotion at first.

Tell your dad you are eventually going to surpass him. I think it is retarded that he doesn't want to show you some chords or get you started sounds lazy to me. Get some lessons from someone that knows what there doing those who can't teach just don't want to share there knowledge.

Good luck and hopefully you choose the piano instead play bass and melody at the same time.

[Arglebargle]

What are these "instruments" people speak of?

[debra1rlo]

What are these "instruments" people speak of?

it's kind of like buying boxed plug-in software instead of downloading

[ntom]

What are these "instruments" people speak of?

Instead of playing the guitar like most people why not choose a more difficult instrument like the piano.

Learning guitar is for my music - this is also partly a response to Hibidy when he said;

-play the music you LIKE (not what gets you into a band)

I am the band. I am moments away from releasing my album which literally everything (musical) has been done by me, myself, and I. And that is the way I want to keep it.
I have tried collaborating with people to contribute guitar parts, vocals, or even cellos to my project but almost never do they come through (even when I offer to pay them fairly well) I don't know if it's the way I handle things or if they are just too busy but regardless I came to the conclusion that it's not going to be easy to get a bunch of collaborators to help with future projects, it's just going to be easier if I take the time to learn the instruments I want in my music that can't be handled (very well) by a Kontakt bank.
My music is still very computer-music-cky and will remain that way, so fortunately my mouse can point and click in the notes on the piano - that's not to say I don't first sketch out the piano melody by myself. There is a 1930's Baldwin Grand (which has been passed through the family because even my combined income with my father is hardly much to ever even dream of purchasing such - we're musicians, that's why we are broke) in the room downstairs that is nothing short of inspiring. I can play some of the shittiest of tunes on it and it will make those sound astoundingly beautiful. This is where I sketch out my melodies 90% of the time.
But I digress,

your dad is generous to loan you such a guitar...ftr I'm 5 years younger than you father and have a 31 year old son as well as a 17 year old daughter. Both have shown interest in music but I have never taught them, it's not a case of 'never would' but instead a case of just not being able to teach for some reason

Well I would have cut him some slack if he still worked, but he is retired now and I have lived with him for a year now after getting evicted from my apartments - I know his routine. On some rare occasions he has done some work as an adviser under a contract for a parent company that he used to work for (they actually want to hire him full time really bad and have made some outstanding offers on payment, but my dad is determined to stick with his dream which is why he retired - so that he can reach his dream sooner) but for most of the time he actually isn't doing much of anything. He teaches piano and as of yesterday picked up a guitar student (not me) to teach once a week, but aside from that his day consists of mostly sleeping, then in the evening going to a bar to drink with some friends.
Of course he is in a band (that is well known throughout Austin and has been awarded "The Knot's Best Wedding Band") so he does gigs, however January and February are slow months - and all the months before....well they are just 1 night gigs, there are plenty of other days to teach.

Really I think he just needed to see I am serious about guitar. He loaned me his gig-guitar which is an old Fender Strat (not sure what year, I want to say late 70's early 80s) but after seeing I was using it a lot he dug up the Les Paul - well he was actually looking for a different guitar but when I saw this one I fell in love with it.

[robogone]

Instead of playing the guitar like most people why not choose a more difficult instrument like the piano. In the end you will be able to do so much more musically. Compare the top guitarist's and top pianist's songs you will find that lead guitar is nothing without the rest of the band where as piano can easily stand alone.

There are a few things here I don't agree with.

I think piano is a far easier instrument to learn than guitar as you can be up and running and playing a tune very quickly on the paino, but it takes longer on the guitar. Also, guitar chords are much harder to start learning than piano chords - piano has very little resistance from the keys compared to the resistance from the guitar strings.

Mastering either is as difficult as anyone wants to make it. Both guitar and piano are versatile, so not sure how one is more difficult or better than the other.

How can you say that guitar songs can't stand alone? Dylan? This Mortal Coil's version of 'Song to the Siren'? Brian May's 10 minute plus solo parts on stage with Queen? Either can stand alone in a song, and there is plenty of recorded evidence of this.