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  #166  
Old 07-03-2017, 02:59 PM
jimrivera jimrivera is offline
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Originally Posted by SunnyDee View Post
Thanks paulp1960, this isn't my thread, but beginners who want to use guitar for composition and songwriting are pretty common, I think. There are many things they might want to learn: music history, lyric writing, fundamental theory, ear-training, rhythm, notation and sight-reading, singing, other instruments, other people's songs to a degree, even using a DAW, as well as guitar technique (all things I've worked on the last couple years). Wanting to learn all of that might influence how they go about learning to play guitar.
I write music/songs but will never be much of a guitar player, I started way too late and would rather spend the time composing than practicing.

I write in a DAW but picked up a guitar to expand my soundset as guitar, like brass or woodwinds, are not replicated well in software. As a keyboardist, I can play alright to write on but with guitar you can get away with strumming new or different chords which gives me new sounds, and I can then build songs from them. For some reason, the guitar is more immediate in being able to put down what is in my head, and the more theory/chords I've learned on guitar, the more songs I've been able to create. Hope that makes sense.
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  #167  
Old 07-03-2017, 03:04 PM
SunnyDee SunnyDee is offline
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For some reason, the guitar is more immediate in being able to put down what is in my head, and the more theory/chords I've learned on guitar, the more songs I've been able to create. Hope that makes sense.
For me, too, it's a very intimate instrument, especially if you only use fingers and have a very responsive one. It's relatively easy to create on and, for me, inspires new sounds more than some other instruments. And it looks cool.

Any instrument can do that, of course, I think people just gravitate toward ones that appeal to them. I'm taking up cello next.
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Last edited by SunnyDee; 07-03-2017 at 03:12 PM.
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  #168  
Old 07-03-2017, 03:17 PM
Wyllys Wyllys is offline
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Originally Posted by jimrivera View Post
As a keyboardist, I can play alright to write on but with guitar you can get away with strumming new or different chords which gives me new sounds, and I can then build songs from them. For some reason, the guitar is more immediate in being able to put down what is in my head, and the more theory/chords I've learned on guitar, the more songs I've been able to create. Hope that makes sense.
In the gym that's called "cross-training". Sometimes I forget that I've learned to play almost two dozen different instruments. After a while it's more about the music than the mechanical means of sound production. Heck, I even get different musical ideas from different guitars. It's interesting to feel how a tune or song wants to be played on my hand-made dreadnought, my Harmony Sovereign grand concert size or my Loar archtop. They all want to play it their own way...
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  #169  
Old 07-03-2017, 04:01 PM
paulp1960 paulp1960 is offline
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I've just listened to a couple of tracks by Toby Walker on Youtube and he is a superb guitarist/singer. Really, really good. I know I will never be able to be that good.
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  #170  
Old 07-03-2017, 04:37 PM
Wyllys Wyllys is offline
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I've just listened to a couple of tracks by Toby Walker on Youtube and he is a superb guitarist/singer. Really, really good. I know I will never be able to be that good.
George Gershwin went to Paris and applied to study under Maurice Ravel. Ravel rejected him saying, "Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?".

To paraphrase Luke 4:23, "Musician, be thyself."

If you believe you can't, you won't. If you suspend disbelief and venture forth in good faith, you will.
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  #171  
Old 07-04-2017, 04:27 AM
tonyo tonyo is offline
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I've just listened to a couple of tracks by Toby Walker on Youtube and he is a superb guitarist/singer. Really, really good. I know I will never be able to be that good.
You don't need to be that good. You just need to be better than you were a day or a month ago. Or not.
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  #172  
Old 07-04-2017, 04:28 AM
tonyo tonyo is offline
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Originally Posted by jimrivera View Post
I write music/songs but will never be much of a guitar player, I started way too late and would rather spend the time composing than practicing.

I write in a DAW but picked up a guitar to expand my soundset as guitar, like brass or woodwinds, are not replicated well in software. As a keyboardist, I can play alright to write on but with guitar you can get away with strumming new or different chords which gives me new sounds, and I can then build songs from them. For some reason, the guitar is more immediate in being able to put down what is in my head, and the more theory/chords I've learned on guitar, the more songs I've been able to create. Hope that makes sense.
That's encouraging. Thanks.
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  #173  
Old 07-04-2017, 06:20 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Originally Posted by Wyllys View Post
George Gershwin went to Paris and applied to study under Maurice Ravel. Ravel rejected him saying, "Why become a second-rate Ravel when you're already a first-rate Gershwin?".
The other story I heard about that meeting was when Ravel asked Gershwin how much he earned. When Gershwin told him, Ravel replied "perhaps I should study with you".
Another version of the story has Stravinsky in place of Ravel, but both are apocryphal.
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  #174  
Old 07-04-2017, 06:27 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Originally Posted by paulp1960 View Post
I've just listened to a couple of tracks by Toby Walker on Youtube and he is a superb guitarist/singer. Really, really good. I know I will never be able to be that good.
You are not that good now. But neither was Toby Walker a few years ago. He was once a beginner, once worse than you are now.

IOW, you don't "know" any such thing. Unless perhaps you are already 93 years old and have been given 6 months to live....

It's never a good idea to compare yourself with anyone, especially not anyone you think is better than you. You're not seeing the work and time they put in to get where they are, you're just seeing the end result. Or rather, you're seeing them at a stage on the same journey, many miles ahead. He has a head start, same as you have a head start on beginners who started after you. You're on the same road, and you can get there, same as he did. It just might take you a while.
As they say: don't think about the destination, or the time it takes. Enjoy the journey, and the scenery where you are now. Just keeping putting one foot in front of the other, at your own pace. Or st down and take a rest if you want. It's not a race.
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  #175  
Old 07-04-2017, 01:53 PM
paulp1960 paulp1960 is offline
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Thanks for the encouragement but I'm ok really. Even if I can never be that good it's still my main hobby and I prefer to try to learn guitar over watching television or other passive activities.
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  #176  
Old 07-04-2017, 04:25 PM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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Thanks for the encouragement but I'm ok really. Even if I can never be that good it's still my main hobby and I prefer to try to learn guitar over watching television or other passive activities.
That's all that matters. It's recreation.
Which makes it important (not trivial) - but equally important that you enjoy doing it, without being concerned that you're "not good enough" (by any measure).
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