So excited - making progress

[Muffinhead]

I have finally gotten over my problems with doing arpeggio fingerpicking. Up until now it has really been kicking my tail, I just couldn't get it. It was like some kind of mental block or something. I have had much better luck with Travis style, and to me that is a more complex pattern. Yesterday something in my head just clicked and it fell into place. Today I was even able to do an arpeggio style in 6/8 time.

I say all of this not so much to toot my own horn, but rather to encourage others like me who may have had a guitar of some kind or other since being a teen and now in my senior years I have finally decided to go from playing music to being a musician. An old dog can learn new tricks, and if you are a young pup, you can certainly do it too. It just takes passion and commitment. Love what you do and you will be rewarded.

Now if I only practiced guitar half as much time as I spend reading about guitars and guitar playing, I would really be good!

[Bern]

Originally Posted by Muffinhead

Yesterday something in my head just clicked and it fell into place.

That's how it works...and it doesn't stop if you don't want it to.

[skitoolong]

I'm an older guy learning too.

I can relate to the moments when things snap into place with Travis picking. Like you I seem to be drawn to this style.

Something odd happened this weekend and I bet you can relate. I'm essentially three songs into the way I've decided to learn: first Landslide, second Dust in the Wind, third Going to California. At this point I'm solid on the first two and still assembling the parts of the third. I haven't played Landslide for awhile, and GTC has more complexity and it's been pretty time consuming

There is a part of live version of Landslide that Lindsey does where the chorus different from the recorded version. I thought it sounded good but when I was learning the song could never pull it off, so I just let it go and forgot about it. Fast forward to this weekend. I thought I'd run through it a couple of times to see how I remembered it. After a couple of laps reminding my fingers what to do, when I was running up to the chorus I just thought "I wonder if I could do that section I like but could never do" and it just happened!.

I had no idea how, so I just kept looping through it and it sounded perfect. Honestly if someone asked me what notes to play and when I don't think I would know. Very very strange time when things just fell into place. Very exciting too. I know how you feel!

[Fruitloop]

That's great, I can certainly relate. For years I was pretty much going nowhere on the guitar, I was composing yes but my ability wasn't growing. All the time I should have spent learning tgings went to noodling, I couldn't even "see" the notes on the fretboard even though I'd been playing well over a decade. I was pretty clueless what I was doing and my ear was untrained.

The last few months I've finally been making an effort to break out from my rut and it's paying off big time. Both my ear and theory has improved in leaps, I was even able to transcribe and arrange Bach's minuet for solo guitar (chord melody). Granted it's easy for Bach but a big step for me. Simpler pop songs I can get with a couple of run throughs. I've also noticed I have started recognising intervals and rhytms when listening to music.

I'm really excited for the progress, the more I learn the easier it becomes to learn. Never too late!

[JanVigne]

"Now if I only practiced guitar half as much time as I spend reading about guitars and guitar playing, I would really be good! "



"It just takes passion and commitment. Love what you do and you will be rewarded."




Jus' sayin'.

[tonyo]

Congratulations! Great stuff

[Fatfingerjohn]

Well done. And, apart from actually cracking a technique, more importantly, you've cracked a key learning lesson; and that is that things happen in peaks, troughs and plateaux. There are times when suddenly you reach close to the summit on something and then have to stay there until you crack the next one; which can involve going downhill again a bit; this period can be frustrating. But remember that the next summit is always there and in 95% of cases you WILL get there.

I keep referring my learners back to times when they looked at me as if I were mad when I said 'right, we're going to try to learn this' and could see in their faces the unspoken reply 'no way'! And, later, when they have done it, you remind them that they said 'no way'.

And it doesn't matter how good you are, there are loads of 'no ways' ahead of you. Its never ending. And that's the beauty (and pain) of it.

FFJ