Where Were you At After 1 Year?

[Fingerstylist]

I'm coming up on a year of playing and was wondering how my progress stacked up against others. I know it's not a competition or anything, it's just something I'm curious about. So far, I know quite a few chords and have several fingerstyle pieces under my fingers. There are some I can play well and more that I'm trying to put the polish on. So where were you at this point?

[Bob1131]

You've made good progress. I started playing when I was 12, so my progress was different due to my age, interests, and the quality of my guitar at the time. My point is, progress depends on many, many factors, so comparisons from one player to another are impossible and impractical.:)

[ljguitar]

...So where were you at this point?
Hi FS...
I was jumping into the middle of any opportunity to use the guitar, and playing things just a bit beyond my ability...I knew how to moderate back even then so I didn't embarrass myself when playing in public.

And I was in a duo right away, because two of us could play more than just one of us...

You description of you progress leads me believe you compare pretty favorably with the ''intuits'', ahead of the ''average joe'' and lagging behind the ''prodigy'' types (those cute little Asian 8 year olds who play like Tommy E).

[Sugarlander]

You sound about like me after 1 year of playing. Keep at it.

[CrawfordCentury]

I was 15 and a sophomore in high school when I picked up the guitar. By 16, I got to the point where I could say with certainty that I sucked.

But I stayed with it, and by 17 had learned quite a bit and had developed the foundation of the style that's with me 20 years later.

[shawlie]

I was around 15 and didn't have a strict practice schedule - but I played an awful lot. I had no tabs to work with, but in the first year I got fairly good at alternating thumb type patterns and had a book of chords that I learned quite a number of. It was a very fun year, I remember.

[rcadian]

I started to learn on May 18th, 2008. I was 39 years old and about to turn 40. I started but then gave up on learning fingerstyle pieces and concentrated on strumming recognisable songs that people could sing at parties and family get togethers. By the time my year anniversary came along, I could identify and replictae just about any strumming pattern and was able to play hits by The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Oasis, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Dylan as well as a few others without needing to follow a chord sheet... I could do hammerons and pull offs - although in playing round the campfire, I found the former are far more important than the latter). I couldn't - and still can't - switch perfectly between a Bm barre chord (the only one I've found that I really need) and any open chord - other than a Am - but I'm getting better. There are also songs I listen to that I just don't have the ability to tackle (Sister Golden Hair, for example) and that frustrates me... But what I can do still amazes me - and my family and friends. Learning the acoustic guitar has been one of the best things I have ever done in my life...and the help and advice and tips I've got from this people on this site have unquestionably helped (as well as costing me money through having GAS!)...

Good luck, best wishes, and stick with it...

Rc

[Fingerstylist]

Interesting stories guys, keep em coming.

Larry, those little Asian kids are downright amazing. It seems like Sungha Jung learns a new piece everyday. And that may not even be an exaggeration.

[mmmaak]

One year after I first started playing? Pretty much nowhere :lol:

One year after I joined the AGF, I probably learned more than I did in the last 5-10. Having the right guidance/influences can make a *huge* difference :)

[Fliss]

One year after I first started, I only had basic chords and a few strumming and picking patterns, so you're definitely ahead of me!

Fliss

[EVANSSS]

I was 14 when I started playing, after a year of hard work and sore fingers I can distinctly remember being able to play 'stairway to heaven' and all my friends thinking I was awesome.

I could play the basic CAGED shapes, a few classic 'schoolboy' tunes (hotel california, house of the rising sun etc) and knew no theory what-so-ever.

After you have the basics, learning becomes much more fun though I think.

[815C]

I would have been 13 after my 1st year of playing.

I knew the following songs....

House of the Rising Sun
Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay (verse only - didn't know the chorus)
Something (Beatles)

I could also pick out some partial melodies of Black Sabbath, Ten Years After, and The Guess Who tunes on the 6th string of my guitar.

I'd received a $5 acoustic for Christmas a year before and during the summer had mowed yards in Ft. Rucker, Alabama @ $3/yard to buy a $25 electric and a $30 amp from the PX.

I didn't really progress much until a couple years later when my future brother-in-law started hanging around our house. He taught me quite a bit on guitar.

[Don Lampson]

I started the guitar when I was 10 with a five dollar Stella. The first year, I learned timing, lots of chords, and simple note reading.....

Toward the end of that year, my parents bought me an 0018 Martin. I started learning to accompany my singing. My major breakthrough came in my second year!

By twelve, I could play all the Johnny Cash songs he'd recorded at that time, (1956) and won the sixth grade talent contest, by singing "Folsom Prison Blues"! I was on my way to being a real performer!

At 14, I was recording, and doing some fairly big shows with a "boy band", called "The Outlaws". I wrote several songs, and was a decent finger picker by then!

I remember it all like it was yesterday, even though 50 years have passed under the bridge since then! Gawd! Where did all that time go to?

Don

[usb_chord]

Attempting to play things I had no business playing. :lol:

[Fingerstylist]

Attempting to play things I had no business playing. :lol:

If I had a nickel for every time I've done this...:D

[Fingerstylist]

You sound about like me after 1 year of playing. Keep at it.

What kind of stuff do you play now sugarlander?

[Sugarlander]

What kind of stuff do you play now sugarlander?

I play almost only fingerstyle. Mostly folk, rock, country and pop stuff with vocals. A few instrumental things - some blues, some Mark Hanson stuff, a couple of classical things.

[BULLSPRIG]

You know, its funny. I'm just a different cookie I guess. I started at age 12 and now I'm 45. I'm different because I never have had any desire to learn other peoples' material. I might pick up certain portions of a song that I like and figure out how to play it. But I'm not lying when I say this. I can only play 1 song from start to finish. The song is Amazing Grace. I don't read music or do tabs. On this song, I just started sounding out the way it sounds when I hear the song played. Only I put a real bluesy touch to it. I bet a certain % of parishioners wouldn't like the way I play it. Because its all from the inside, the way I process the song in my own mind. And it has a heavy blues signature the way I play it. It was only about 2 years ago that I put my mind to it to learn the song from start to finish. Maybe some day I can tape it and put it up here.

Mostly what I do is dabble around. I'm probably A.D.D., truth be known. I get to playing a certain riff over and over and over because it sounds good to me. Then I switch to something else. There are times when a lightbulb pops off in my head and I tell myself to switch gears and play something else finally. I can sit and play the same riffs or partial creations for an hour or more. Trying to perfect it or add other sounds that I like to hear.

I started at age 12 on the bass guitar, by pure accident. It was my brother's and he was killed in a car accident. Shortly thereafter, I switched to acoustic and never looked back. Within 1 year of playing, I could do quite a few riffs and a lot of chords. Had pretty decent dexterity by that point. But never to this day have I been able to sit down and learn an inventory of songs created by other people.

[John McGillivray]

Sounds about right

[solarix]

I have doodled for almost 30 years. My 1st year I had many chords and basic strumming down given I had a fire sale guitar (really in a fire, water stains warps and all) that couldn't be tuned I felt pretty good but gave it up for a few years, technically I know many chords, inversions, scales, tunings but lack/ed "music", frustation! A few years later (now an adult on a limited budget) I bought an Applause, gave it up, bought a Breckenridge B20 gave it up, sold them all and gave it all up for 10 years or so, tried the electric, gave it up, sold it.

Now I am 1 year into the best instrument I have ever owned, wishing my parents would have recognized the importance of good tools and passed that on. I feel I no longer "doodle", I can make some meaningful music and after 1 year I am so much further than I ever got before, yet I am lacking my own style and rhythm. I think it is back to lessons for a while, I am growing frustrated again. For me it has always been a struggle.

Jerry

[sm000]

Were going to be seeing alot of people be able to play guitar in the near future. And I feel it's because of all the readily information we have at our fingertips. I'm so thankful we have sites like AGF and a few others, that we can go to to look for help and encouragement. Can you imagine learning to play guitar back in the 30's through say...the 60's? Information was limited then, and only found in a book. And they didn't have the help of millions of other people who've already been down that road. That's dedication! We should be playing like...4 or 5 different instruments....at the same time...lol

[TBman]

Doing a few fingerstyle pieces at such an early stage is very good.

[Howard Emerson]

I'm coming up on a year of playing and was wondering how my progress stacked up against others. I know it's not a competition or anything, it's just something I'm curious about. So far, I know quite a few chords and have several fingerstyle pieces under my fingers. There are some I can play well and more that I'm trying to put the polish on. So where were you at this point?

It's so long ago I don't remember, but what's more important is you and your progress as it relates TO YOU.

Therefore you need to sit down in front of a recorder and just play the stuff you know. Don't bother to get it perfect, or to try for perfect audio quality........just do it.

A year from now you should go listen back to it, but only after you record yourself playing some new, and older stuff.

Then put your guitar down, hit rewind and listen to it all.

THAT.........will tell you how you're doing.

It might hurt, it might not hurt, but it will give you a much better indication of your progress. Then you can take that information and let it dictate whether or not you want to take lessons of some sort, etc.

Best of luck!

Howard
http://www.howardemerson.com/

[Sugarlander]

It's so long ago I don't remember, but what's more important is you and your progress as it relates TO YOU.

Therefore you need to sit down in front of a recorder and just play the stuff you know. Don't bother to get it perfect, or to try for perfect audio quality........just do it.

A year from now you should go listen back to it, but only after you record yourself playing some new, and older stuff.

Then put your guitar down, hit rewind and listen to it all.

THAT.........will tell you how you're doing.

It might hurt, it might not hurt, but it will give you a much better indication of your progress. Then you can take that information and let it dictate whether or not you want to take lessons of some sort, etc.

Best of luck!

Howard
http://www.howardemerson.com/

Great idea and response, Howard.

[Fingerstylist]

It's so long ago I don't remember, but what's more important is you and your progress as it relates TO YOU.

Therefore you need to sit down in front of a recorder and just play the stuff you know. Don't bother to get it perfect, or to try for perfect audio quality........just do it.

A year from now you should go listen back to it, but only after you record yourself playing some new, and older stuff.

Then put your guitar down, hit rewind and listen to it all.

THAT.........will tell you how you're doing.

It might hurt, it might not hurt, but it will give you a much better indication of your progress. Then you can take that information and let it dictate whether or not you want to take lessons of some sort, etc.

Best of luck!

Howard
http://www.howardemerson.com/

Howard I totally agree about the recorder. I've actually been thinking about doing this for awhile now. I guess I've been putting it off because it'll make me realize truly how much I totally suck :) Anyway, I'll end up doing it. I guess we all just need a slap in the face sometimes to really get going.

[Howard Emerson]

Howard I totally agree about the recorder. I've actually been thinking about doing this for awhile now. I guess I've been putting it off because it'll make me realize truly how much I totally suck :) Anyway, I'll end up doing it. I guess we all just need a slap in the face sometimes to really get going.

That's exactly why you need to do it, and then get over the 'slap in the face'; that ugly reality of 'OMG........Is that what I sound like??'

Yes...........That's what we sound like.

As a teacher I find it amazing to read how much time and energy is spent on choosing 'the right guitar' or 'the right woods', etc, etc..............but hardly any energy is spent on self realization/analysis as a player........Even if you're taking lessons!!

Nowadays it's so cost effective to record and listen to yourself, and the playback nets a big payback!! You just have to listen, swallow hard and utilize that information in a positive way.

Gopher-it

HE
http://www.howardemerson.com/

[Bern]

...I find it amazing to read how much time and energy is spent on choosing 'the right guitar' or 'the right woods', etc, etc..............but hardly any energy is spent on self realization/analysis as a player........Even if you're taking lessons!!



In a nutshell...that seems to be a trend, Howard, and you're absolutely right about that. People seem to believe that by sticking a couple thousand dollars into a music box they will hear divine sounds. ;)

[Howard Emerson]

In a nutshell...that seems to be a trend, Howard, and you're absolutely right about that. People seem to believe that by sticking a couple thousand dollars into a music box they will hear divine sounds. ;)

Hey Bern,
The 'car' won't start without the 'key', kind of thing, huh?

So nice seeing you and the family last Friday!

Best,
HE

[Coke_zero]

Interesting stories guys, keep em coming.

Larry, those little Asian kids are downright amazing. It seems like Sungha Jung learns a new piece everyday. And that may not even be an exaggeration.

Sungha was interviewed in Acoustic Magazine over here in the UK, he said it takes him about 3 days to learn a tune and a a week or more for a "difficult tune" but when you have a teacher like Ulli Bögershausen, I'm sure he doesn't go short of advice either.

[ewalling]

One year after I joined the AGF, I probably learned more than I did in the last 5-10.

This boy will go far ... ;)

After a year I had acquired a good Yamaha electric, a pair of patchwork jeans and Southern Comfort T-shirt, and was in a 6th form school band trying to do covers of Wishbone Ash and Jethro Tull songs. I'd decided that playing lead guitar was the way to go, and I was spending all my time between A-Levels trying to play fast scales.