Has your playing gone as planned?

[flaggerphil]

Considering I'm not on an oldies tour with my hand from '67 after we had some number one hits in the late '60s and early '70s with reunion tours in the '80s and '90s before finally getting the surviving members together for said oldies tour...no.

[Dbone]

Originally Posted by flaggerphil

Considering I'm not on an oldies tour with my hand from '67 after we had some number one hits in the late '60s and early '70s with reunion tours in the '80s and '90s before finally getting the surviving members together for said oldies tour...no.

Nope, not even close, but I’m still loving it...The journey that is...I feel that I plateau hard very often...keep up the good fight...

[TRose]

I’m just two years in to my guitar journey and I fully expected I would be a strummer of 60’s and 70s rock/folk.
I’m playing finger style exclusively and lean towards classical pieces with a mix of more current folk songs. I’m playing nylon by far more than steel. I would have never predicted that but I’m enjoying myself.

[rpguitar]

When I started in 1976, I hardly planned to explore folk, hard rock, prog rock, jazz fusion, American songbook, 30’s plectrum style, bossa nova, flamenco, classical, jazz chord melody, acoustic versions of 70s and 80s tunes, and bluegrass, not to mention writing maybe 100 songs. Or to learn bass, uke, mandolin, and drums. Plus a little piano (very rusty).

So I guess it didn’t go as planned. Pretty pleased with how it’s gone so far, though!

[beatcomber]

I never really had a "plan," but I never really paid much attention to acoustic guitars during the 40-odd years I've been playing guitar, focusing pretty much exclusively on electrics.

A year or two ago something clicked in my head, and I've become enamored with the acoustic guitar, which is a very different animal.

I now rarely play my electrics at home (although I still play electric in a rock band).

[Irish Pennant]

Originally Posted by donlyn

"Planned" ?

Don
.

Yeah, what he said.

[s2y]

Complete trainwreck.

[jpricewood]

No. I began playing guitar off and on when I was 12. I thought I’d be a professional by now (32), but there was always something more important going on in my life than practice, such as sports, school events, undergrad projects, and then 5 years of intense grad school. I consider myself an intermediate player, but I enjoy every second I get with a guitar. I always let my professional guitarist friends know how jealous I am of them. They let me know how lucky I am to have a steady paycheck.

[LindaW]

Originally Posted by warfrat73

Don't know how it happened... but somehow I'm not a bluegrass picking star.

And what happened to my Americana career???

[rick-slo]

I always have played simply for fun, relaxation, and perhaps the challenges of working through certain pieces. Mainly worked on
classical guitar music the first few decades so the path was pretty straight forward.

[Jaden]

I haven’t been a practical guitar player at all - only as a hobby heavily driven by a philosophy of originality, no campfire or folk songs, rather, lengthy instrumental studies exploring the relationships within triads. Pythagoras approach to the instrument, but ignorant of the math. Some recent practical breakthroughs: free of reliance on fingernails, no picks of any kind, thumb strokes anchored by all four* fingers on the pickguard, downward strokes using entire length of thumb, much palm muting, Jazz-blues influenced.

* incorrect - often only 2, hybrid fingerpicking with index and middle, walking bass with thumb

[TBman]

Well I wanted to learn finger style back in the early 2000's when I picked the guitar back up again. I guess I've accomplished that to a degree.

[tonyo]

My plan (started just over 7 years ago) was to play songs that people would sing along to around a campfire.

It's gone mostly to plan. And it's been a great experience. I picked up a few more obscure folk songs once I got about 30 or so popular songs (Dylan, Eagles, Beatles).

Now I'm starting to focus more on blues. Always loved acoustic blues most of any genre but was having so much fun with the sing along songs that I never got around to the blues.

I initially started only fingerstyle, now I use pick on some songs.

[raysachs]

I guess as nothing about my playing was ever planned, I guess my playing is going exactly as planned and not at all as planned. Best of all worlds. I just learned some basic stuff about 42 years ago and just went with it. As I'd hear or see something that I thought I'd like to try, I'd try and in some cases stuck with it enough to incorporate it and in some cases decide it wasn't worth the effort it would take me to get.

My latest endeavor, which I'd been thinking about and making aborted starts at since I first picked up a guitar but only recently had the patience to stick with, is finger style blues. I've been at it a little over a year, I've made tremendous progress (given that I couldn't do ANYTHING a year ago) but I still feel like a rank beginner. Each new step just seems exponentially difficult until I get it committed to muscle memory. Greg Lemond once said of bike racing, "it never gets any easier, you just get faster". That's what fingerpicking feels like to me - it never gets any easier, but I guess I AM getting a bit better in fits and starts.

So, yeah, right on schedule...

[jaymarsch]

When I played guitar as a teenager, I was either playing folk songs or sing-a-longs, but I listened to a lot of guitar music - Norman Blake, Rick Ruskin, Doc Watson, John Renbourn, etc. I also listened to a lot of singer songwriters but didn't believe that I had the talent for that.

When I re-dedicated myself to learning guitar about 15 years ago, I wanted to learn to play fingerstyle instrumentals similar to Martin Simpson, Al Petteway, Doug Smith, etc. What I have ended up doing is really embracing my love of singing and songwriting. I have really spent the last number of years working away at the art and craft of writing and singing a good song while accompanying myself on guitar. I have two great teachers and a songwriting group that give me plenty of support and feedback. So, I guess I have come full circle without necessarily intending to go that route. I think that discovery is a wonderful part of learning anything that you are passionate about - that ability to let it take you someplace that you were not expecting.

Best,
Jayne