Has your playing gone as planned?

[sloar]

Coming up on 2 years now and I'm going in an unplanned direction. I initially thought I'd be learning and playing music that I listen to and love. But I'm doing the opposite. I started out learning from Marty Schwartz, playing popular main stream music. But lately I've been watching Letsplayguitar and learning songs I've never heard of before. I'm in the middle of learning Unravel, I asked my daughter if she ever heard of the band Tokyo Ghoul. She then told me its not a band but a cartoon show theme song. So I googled the song and realized its a horrible song. I'm really enjoying fingerstyle classical type music. Who knows, maybe a nylon string guitar is in the future for me. How about you guys, did you plan on the direction your journey has taken you?

[Mayfair]

Yes, and at those times I grow the most in my playing. I still gravitate towards my own style, but I'm able to bring all of those other ideas into it. Keep at it!

[warfrat73]

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

[Pitar]

I wanted to develop the motor skills, ear and fret board knowledge enough to finger pick the way I wanted to. I did that within 2 years, through focus and regimentation, creating my own melodies using the major/minor chord structures and their embellishments. Otherwise, I gravitated towards no musical genres. It was more about creating music than copying, or covering it as they say today. Within 3 years of starting out I could copy the pop music air play of the time but I was more aligned with writing. I clearly remember not wanting to have to play songs on request. I guess I was the antithesis of an entertainer, which is a natural ascription for anyone who plays a musical instrument. I just wanted to learn to play without genres or their fans steering it.

[justonwo]

I played classic and modern rock on electric from 1993 to about 2008. Life changes leaned heavily in favor of playing acoustic, so I started picking out some James Taylor songs. After that, I started to get into blues and gospel and now play fingerstyle almost exclusively. So my style changed pretty radically, but I find fingerstyle just as enjoyable. And I don’t have to coordinate with a band or worry about heavy equipment.

I would never learn a song I didn’t like, however. Sounds like a guitar teacher may be of some value to you, OP.

[sloar]

Why do you think I need a teacher out of what I said in my post?

[SpruceTop]

Being fortunate to having played professionally many years ago, and since then my technical and artistic prowess has increased tremendously but with carpal tunnel in both hands, this physical limitation is now taking a toll on my playing. An example is that when making a simple C-chord, my index finger wanders off the second string without my knowing it and the string becomes muted and my finger also mutes the third-string that it wanders into. A COWBOY C-CHORD of all things! Yes, it's true and I hope it doesn't happen to you ...

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by sloar

Why do you think I need a teacher out of what I said in my post?

It sounds like you’re learning songs you don’t like and are a bit stuck. Teachers can help get you out of a creative rut.

[sloar]

I’m not stuck, I’m enjoying learning these different songs. I’m trying to pick songs that challenge me and also that have a nice sound.

[foxo]

I started guitar in June 2017. Recently a number of people at open mics and online have been describing my fingerpicking as “excellent”. The first few times I heard it I thought they were having a laugh, I am a bit of a one trick pony. There are four or five fingerpicking patterns I like and play very well and can add suspended or add 9 chords in etc. to make them sound more melodically complex. I can do fairly basic blues fingerstyle not relying on patterns. From my own perspective I could improve a lot, I can’t play even the most basic Bert Jansch to save my life and he is my favourite guitarist.

What I am really pleased with is my songwriting. I’ve written about forty songs now since I started learning guitar and I think some of them are really original and interesting. As a matter of fact I am working on the chords for one I wrote today. I really wish I could make a living out of it.

Here’s a recent song I am pretty proud of, just a basic recording on my Zoom H2N. https://clyp.it/3zhqphxs

[Bob Womack]

No, my guitar playing hasn't gone in the direction I expected.

The first three decades rotated mostly around playing with bands. I did some recording sessions while my career as a recording engineer and producer grew. I began playing fingerstyle as well. Somewhere around the turn of the century I started playing more sessions and discovered I really liked it. Now, nearly twenty years later, session work has just about supplanted my live band work.

I don't miss the noise.

Bob

[Rev Roy]

I’m about six years into my guitar journey having started when I retired. The first couple of years were a slog (though the teacher I occasionally took classes from kept insisting I was doing great). The light came on during the third and fourth year...and since then it’s been a lot of fun. I’m now to the point where the creativity and artistry is coming out...making the couple hours I spend with my guitars every day my happy place for sure.

It certainly hasn’t been the straight line of progress I expected. More like peaks and valleys. But when I started the journey I was looking for a rewarding challenge...and I certainly got it.

[donlyn]

"Planned" ?

Don
.

[Methos1979]

Originally Posted by sloar

Has your playing gone as planned?

Timely post. We (my wife and I) were just talking about this last night. A more accurate question for me would be, 'Has you playing gone as hoped?' And the answer would be, 'Yes, and then some!'

When I embarked on this little adventure after turning 50, my hope was to eventually get to a place where I could play well enough to play complete songs well enough that one could sing along with them. My wife joined me early on for this adventure as a vocalist and we started slow just playing songs in our living room. Then we started to play open mics on the rare occasion. We vividly remember the first open mic when we were SO nervous and after playing she was literally jumping up and down in the parking with joy.

Then I remember struggling to get like 10 songs down. And then being relatively horrified at the thought that we'd need something like 45 songs to be able to actually play a real 'gig'. We pushed ourselves but always with the caveat that it was for fun only and anything above and beyond that was just gravy. Today we've forgotten more songs then we know, we keep a full 50 song setlist active and we've got excellent equipment, a nice webpage, a Facebook page and we are playing gigs we want to play and getting paid to do it.

So yes, even though I still consider myself a relative mediocre player at best, my playing has gone as I'd hoped, and well beyond.

[LadysSolo]

I still enjoy classical, folk, an light rock, but I planned on being a lot better than I am by now. As in all things in my life, work and unplanned issues have gotten in the way. So I just keep trying and SLOWLY moving forward.