The aging guitarist....

[TBman]

I have found that the "Easy Classical Guitar" books are great for my 69 year old fingers. Nothing fancy, concentrating on tone. A few times a week I'll work on the "hard" stuff too, just to keep the easy stuff "easy."

Lots of great input to this thread, thanks everyone. Be well.

[Bluenose]

Once in a while I pull out my Mel Bay Presents Classic Guitar In Tablature. Volume I: A General Anthology - from 1500 to 1900. Before anybody starts berating tablature, all 19 pieces in the book come with tab and standard notation above. It was published in 1986 and I think I bought it shortly after it was published. It's great when you become tired of what you usually play. Most of it is not really hard but some it is challenging and my I think favorite of all is JS Bachs' Minuet in G. Most of the songs are really old and credited to anonymous.

[Dan Winheld]

Originally Posted by TBman

Not a pretty sight. Loss of dexterity, finger stiffness, any glimmer of speed has gone on down the road. My hearing is probably going too, but headphones help cover that up I suppose. Playing nylon almost 100% of the time has helped alleviate a lot of the finger soreness I was getting.

What a kick in the teeth. You work all your life and are now in retirement able to take the time to play any time of the day and now the hands aren't cooperating.

Worse things could happen though. Just another old guy rant

Hey, I resemble all your remarks! (77, heart attack survivor, paralyzed feet, blah blah yadda yadda etc.)

-But I want to congratulate you for playing lute music on steel string guitar! That is my favorite specialty these days, I also continue to play the lutes themselves as well, and I highly recommend the lute for being extremely finger friendly in regard to tension- pairs of gut or nylon strings at lower tension than nylon strung guitars. With a French Baroque lute in d-minor tuning, you could play that Anton Logy piece straight from original lute tab. (Same as guitar tab, just letters instead of numbers).

[Br1ck]

Exercise is good. I can’t think of a better hand exercise than playing. I can’t think of a better brain exercise either. And I certainly have no need to meditate. I play and I pull weeds

[vintage40s]

Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks

... Now 78, I have Depuyten's Contracture (trigger finger)... goes away by very early morning...

To be clear, they are not the same thing. DC is a growth of the whole tendon, does not go away, and is permanently debilitating until the operation. TF is an annoyance that requires injections or a minor operation to release the snag of the tendon.

I had two DC operations on my fretting pinkie 15 and 10 years ago. And am now getting injections for TF on the other pinkie.

[vintage40s]

At age 81, I am doing something new. Since college I had always been a home-playing finger/thumb picking folkie that could not hold a flat pick when trying to bump-chuck.

Then a few years ago I enrolled in a local folk school for their bluegrass classes (skipping the African drum classes). So 4-8 strangers show up with various instruments and abilities, and the instructor molds them into a group by assigning songs. No teaching at all, and each class ends with a public showcase. The group dynamics makes the best of whatever each person can do.

Thanks to YouTube, and its videos of Steve Goodman, Norman Blake, Clarence White, etc, bump-chucking is long gone and flat picking is as much fun as thumpicking. Now I am a lead guitar and singer in their bluegrass ensembles.

[C-side Grandad]

As I approach 80 this year, I find the preponderance of other ageing guitarists on this forum an enormous encouragement. Thanks, everyone (especially Silly Moustache – cheers, Andy!). I'll keep playing as long as I can.

[Eldergreene]

At age 75, and after near-60-years of playing, I'm relieved and thankful to be among the luckier ones as far as health/age-related issues go; hearing still ok, albeit with some high-frequency loss, fingers still work, tho a tad less dextrously than they used to - I play 00-sized acoustics & resonators for ergonomics, & weekly jams are good for incentive to stay up to the mark.
Keeping the weight down + daily dog-walking help to keep me feeling ok for my years, & I think pure luck also plays a big part ( I've lost a lot of pals over the years who should have made it but didn't ) - my late mother had very much a glass-half-full positive attitude to life, which I seem to have inherited, and which I believe is very important - & when the fingers finally fail, lap steel awaits!

[tinnitus]

This thread intertwines (for me anyway) with another one here on AGF about declining an offer to join a band (actually acoustic duets going forward for me since I don't wrestle with electric volume and cumbersome piles of equipment anymore).

To the point - inevitable physical and audio declines aside, I have found a plus side to being an "aging guitarist."

Simply, when it comes to collaborating with bands and/or individual players, I now have a much clearer picture than ever before of what I don't like and will not tolerate.

Doubtless, it's a function of realizing I don't have another half-century ahead of me that I can devote to playing out. Thus, I will be grateful for whatever time I can still enjoy conspiring with compatible musicians only and not squander it on trudging through somebody else's preferred set-list just because I can play a guitar.

[fitness1]

You're making me feel bad reading this.

I don't have any physical excuses - just somehow losing interest in the last few years of performing any longer.

I still play and sing some 5-6 days a week, but just not as engaged as I once was.

I find myself on the classical well over half of my playing time too - but it's because it fits my ear so much better. I've become quite adverse to strident metallic sounds (good news I have a steel string that doesn't have any!).

Retired six weeks ago and part of me feels I should be doing more with it - but another knock against me is my allergies just keep getting worse and it makes it so hard to sing in the spring and summer.

Maybe by this fall when golf and cycling season is over I'll change my course.

[Thoughtfree]

When I was younger I would play music with whatever group would have me. Always a follower, always a supporter of someone else's musical concept. Just so I could work.

Now that I am 71 I feel pretty strongly about playing WHAT I want, LIKE I want, WITH WHOM I want. I have turned down a couple opportunities, and it feels pretty good. I would never have done this in the old days.

[Br1ck]

You don't have to play with others or perform, but I do think you need modest goals, if only the desire to keep ahead of decline. I know far too many older players that just play what they played twenty or thirty years ago. Being on a constant learning curve is what motivates me and keeps me really engaged.

[Murphy Slaw]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

You don't have to play with others or perform, but I do think you need modest goals, if only the desire to keep ahead of decline. I know far too many older players that just play what they played twenty or thirty years ago. Being on a constant learning curve is what motivates me and keeps me really engaged.

I agree. You have to "get out of your comfort zone". I try to jam with different people, in different locations as much as possible.

[robrick]

I am 60 and just starting to feel it. I look at gigging like retirement: only you will know when it is time. I still have a few years left in me. Yow many? I don't know. I'll know when it is time. I can retire soon from my day job, part of me thinks I will spend retirement strumming my guitar and singing in a rough voice in some small town in New Mexico. The other part of me thinks I will be in the audience drinking a glass of wine, listening to a young guitar player entertain the audience. I already have thousands of gigs behind me. If I stopped today, I had a great run! No regrets.