If you could start your guitar journey over from scratch what would you do?

[Deliberate1]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Rather than lament The Ghosts of Guitars Past, it might be more positive - and productive - to state what you are going to do NOW that addresses the regrets you have for NOT doing those things.

Fair point, Charles. Ironically, if I had not bought my first guitar two years ago there would be no regret at all. I did not travel throughout my life procrastinating or pining for a guitar that just never materialized. Indeed, I used that time to become a fairly accomplished jazz winds player.

But, through the wondrous vagaries of the universe, there came a time two years ago when I “needed” to take up the guitar to accompany the songs I was starting to write. And, as is my nature, and expectations as a musician, I have thrown myself into it. Weekly lessons and several hours of playing each day.
The “regret” I experience is simply the reality that my guitar road, at 65, is considerably shorter than my clarinet road was at 8. But when I look back at to February, 2019 when that first guitar arrived, and where I am today, there is no regret at all. Just joy. I am making music I could not have even imagined.
Oh, and four more guitars - just making up for lost time....
David

[Scotso]

metronome
metronome
metronome

[Dru Edwards]

I'd probably do most of the same. I'm thinking if we had YouTube and the internet back in the 80s I could have learned more things at a moment's notice but at the risk of playing less.

[Br1ck]

Bypass cheap guitars. I'd have gone directly to something like a D 18.

I'd have been clairvoyant, and practiced hard at what I'd like post 50.

Started playing mandolin before I was 65.

Quit my band even though we were good and great friends, and found people interested in songwriting and playing original material. Still, I was having fun.

[Benjo]

I would not buy the jumbo size guitars I bought way back when. Too big for me.

[leew3]

not take all the bar gigs in the 80s or the free drinks that came with them.

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by leew3

not take all the bar gigs in the 80s or the free drinks that came with them.

Ha! You and me both, except mine would have been in the early 00's.

[buddyhu]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

IN reading the responses so far, my thought is, "What's stopping you now from doing those things that you regret not doing?"

Sure, you can't un-buy cheap guitars that were a bad idea, but one can certainly take lessons and/or learn and develop whatever skills one didn't and wish they had.

Rather than lament The Ghosts of Guitars Past, it might be more positive - and productive - to state what you are going to do NOW that addresses the regrets you have for NOT doing those things.

I wish someone would have told me that i just need to put in the time, and to do it regularly. Which is what i was told when i started taking lessons 8 years ago, and have been doing regularly ever since. When i was young, i expected to learn things much more quickly than i did, and tended to think that the failure to learn quickly meant that i lacked talent. Regular, focused practice with many repetitions has brought me quite a ways in recent years, and i am playing better now than i ever have.

I might want to learn to read music (i can read only read a small amount...enough to discern rhythms within a sequence of notes) if i had to do it all over again...but i am uncertain about this. I am sure that would open some doors, but i don’t know if my aspirations are so high that I would put in the time.

Id want to learn how to use a metronome well (my current teacher has shown me how); since I didn’t know how to use the metronome as a helpful support, my use of the metronome was just reinforcing the fact that my time was not very good; i needed to learn how to use it in a way that helped me improve my time. Since i have learned this, the metronome is my friend.

[UncleJesse]

I would have practiced a lot more. I've been playing since I was 13 but initially I only got good enough to play rhythm in a bar band but never tried to better myself into a lead player or pick up any chops on acoustic until the last few years. I would sometimes go weeks or months without playing until I decided to get serious a few years back. I practice now on average an hour or two every day for the last two years without missing a single day. Still not very good :'(

[phil0021]

Really interesting question that has set me to thinking -- To tell you the truth, I dont think that I would change a thing because for 55+ years the guitar has been such a joy for me, I wouldn't want to mess that up. I'm not great -- Call me a Cowboy Chord Afficionado, but with some doggone good fingerpicking I make the simple sound great. I'm totally self-taught and I'm afraid that instruction may have poisoned some of the thrill I've had "figgerin it out." I'm not dissing lessons. They're great. But I have never had the patience and am a bit of a rebel.

Send my 73 D35 to Kimsey when it started developing issues, rather than selling it for $900 bucks because I thought an old set neck that had a low saddle and couldn’t intonate anymore was unfixable...I’d still be playing it today.

[guitararmy]

Back when I started guitar, there weren't a lot of choices in acoustic guitars.

If I could go back and do it over, I would have grabbed a Martin D18 and a D28 and called it a day.
Of course with my luck they would have had the bridges in the wrong place as has happened around that time...

[Robin, Wales]

Picked up a fiddle!

[Don W]

I too startedd with the Beatles. Looking back I also wish that I had learned standard notation and classical fingerstyle in the beginning. It is hard to learn these things later in life. It is such a good foundation. But...hey...the Beatles...had to go with it...we were all forming rock bands back then...classical was not cool.

[charles Tauber]

Originally Posted by Don W

Looking back I also wish that I had learned standard notation and classical fingerstyle in the beginning. It is hard to learn these things later in life.

People often say that, suggesting that it was easy to learn these skills when young. It wasn't.

When I was young, starting as a teenager, I took lessons from skilled musicians, studying both theory and performance. I practiced 4 to 5 hours per day, every day. In my thirties, I went back and studied jazz arranging for the guitar with a skilled teacher. I studied with him for 7 years.

Sure, there are exceptional players who can reach a high level of skill by being self-taught. But, those are exceptions. Those who aren't exceptions are fooling themselves and limiting their progress.

Aim high and get help getting there and you'll be surprised at how far you can go in a short time.