How hard is it to play Guitar?

[tapper mike]

One in One Hundred people who pick up the guitar are still playing after a year. I wish I could find stats on what happens after that year.

There are plenty of resources to learn guitar. When ever I ask someone who starts and then stops a month in I ask why. The response is always it's hard.

I'll be honest it's hard for me to keep up my linnstrument playing because I don't practice consistantly and I really have no clue on how much better I'm getting. I should be getting better but as I'm well aware people are not the best judges of their own abilities.

I can (and have) quit playing guitar for long periods of time. I find that when I come back my timing/chops are not my best but within a week or so of practice they come back.... Then I'm bored with myself again.


what do you tell people who ask If it's hard to play guitar?

[donkey tugger]

That the first couple of months are the hardest as it physically hurts your hands, but that it does get easier, honest..

And secondly (as you touched on..), it's worth persevering because once you've learned it's something that will remain with you for the rest of your life, bring you great happiness, cheer you up when you're out of sorts, make you good friends, and will be something you can always come back to.

[Fannon]

I would say that indeed, it's hard. With guitar, you need to get quite some practice in to get to a point where it's somewhat good sounding. And you need to put in "deliberate practice". It's better to play a little bit almost every day than do binge-training.

And you already mentioned it: Once you have gotten some real practice and you learned something to the point that is has become more automatic (think of it like you learn driving), then you'll not entirely loose that. You just get rusty but can dust of the skill much quicker. That's really comforting, because it means that you can do a break and try something else (a different instrument?)

To get over a certain point, you'll always need to train somewhere above your comfort zone, I'm afraid.

Many people say that you just need to find the time and discipline. But I'd argue that this is sometimes not the real problem. Do you have enough energy to spare, to put into learning a new instrument? It's not just the time, if you don't have the energy to learn in a more challenging way, you'll get stuck at some point.
But on the other side, if you find a bit of energy and a bit of time and keep at it, learn more systematically, then you can beat this with time. Just keep doing it for a few years and many aspects of playing the instrument will become like second nature - you don't have to think about it so much and now you can focus your attention more on music itself.

Also have a LinnStrument, btw.! That's currently my challenge to learn and I'm still quite mediocre at it.

Not sure if it's a good idea, but I'm also using Melodics for learning (probably too much). The nice thing with something like Melodics is that you can see and judge your progress and that it comes with many challenges that will force you to move forward, beyond your comfort zone. On the other hand, I have the feeling that with a program like Melodics, you learn more to play the software than you learn to play the instrument / music. So you should definitely also learn and play without such assistance.

[vurt]

depends what we mean by playing guitar really.
anyone can have fun with a guitar though, which is where it begins.

if you pick one up, and it feels good getting a noise out of it, you'll want to get that good feeling again.
over time, like any drug, you need more for that good feeling, so eventually you need to play, a rip roaring solo, just to get out of bed in the morning.

[lfm]

When I started mid 60's basic things
- tuning, you had a pipe style pretty much if you were lucky, I had a tuning fork 440 hz
- ears were not good spotting pitch either, and that regular tuning style where cents off on one string transfer to next string
- knowing about intonation and proper setup, choice of strings

so that clean chord sounded clean were a culprit as I recall.

And as said, hands and wrist hurt learning barred chords.

That turned you off a bit, but still played in a band and had dreams(I thought).
- creedence clearwater, stones, alvin lee Ten years after etc

To learn guitar today would be way simpler, I mean basic stuff some open chords and get going.
- and there are youtube and videos and things
- tabs were unheard of then, for me anyway
- guitars are better standards
- good tuner cost nothing

So less hurdles today, I think, to sound clean and nice.

Is it hard to play guitar?
- raises another question

to what level are you talking about?

[Largos]

What do you tell people who ask If it's hard to play guitar?

"Only for bass players"

[xalama qo]

It's really hard if you don't have a clear goal in mind of how good you want to be when you start. Just like starting any new skill.
I taught myself acoustic guitar during school holidays in 1988, Tracy Chapman's Fast Car was my first goal. There was a lot of nice acoustic stuff happening at that time, Michelle Shocked, etc. Then in 1989 I heard Joe Satriani for the first time and my goals shifted substantially.
But even before I picked up my dad's guitar and chord book I made the decision that if I was going to do this I was going to be good at it. I was going to crack the code and understand the instrument and learn all those frgn chords, and then scales, etc.
And I did. I got much better than I ever thought I'd be able to. Guitar is hard work, and physically painful in the beginning, but if you start with a clear goal and keep going you'll get there, and playing guitar is an absolute joy. Totally addictive and meditative and therapeutic. Can't recommend it highly enough.

[Bombadil]

I'd say no. It takes a couple of months to push through the sore finger tips, wrist, thumb, etc., but once you get to the point of doing the F major chord cleanly, with ot without barré, you're on your way.
To learn to play well, and develop your own style is where the real work will come in.
EDIT: All I had when I started in 1974 was a pitch pipe, a circle-of-fifths chord chart and an Aria 12 string strung with 6. Being a loner, I was pretty much all self-taught, until the guitar helped me to be less of a loner.
I still think I'm nothing special, but I've had convos 30 years post facto with people saying 'I STILL REMEMBER YOU PLAYING KASHMIR OVER YOUR HEAD!' And shit like that.
EDIT ZWEI: and if you have a background on another instrument, your progress will be greater, because the knowledge is transferrable.

[donkey tugger]

but once you get to the point of doing the F major chord cleanly, with ot without barré, you're on your way

mgp4.jpg

[Bombadil]

but once you get to the point of doing the F major chord cleanly, with ot without barré, you're on your way

mgp4.jpg

[GuyaGuy]

It's hard.
Then it's not.
Then it is again.

As mentioned, starting is hard because you have to put your fingers in uncomfortable positions onto steel wire that hurts your fingertips while coordinating your picking/strumming hand. After pushing through it's pretty easy to know a handful of chords that get you through a large amount of rock/pop/country. Then you realize that gets boring so you want to learn more and that's when it gets hard again--fancier chords, more complex finger-picking, really learning the fretboard, etc.

[donkey tugger]

You're never going to look cool playing a sinthesiser.

[vurt]

You're never going to look cool playing a sinthesiser.

with a fez, even accordion players looks cool

[donkey tugger]

[Harry_HH]

Depends how hard you play.