It is so much easier now.

[rllink]

I bought a guitar in Spain sometime around 1970. I was in the Navy. I got a method book and a couple song books from the PX at the NATO base in Naples and learned some chords. I used to sit out on the fantail singing and playing the songs out of my song book. But that was about it. There just wasn't that many resources to go beyond that. I lost interest, loaned my guitar to someone and got transferred before I got it back. That was that. I bought another in the early eighties. No idea what happened to it or where it went, but same story with that one.

But now here we are and there are so many resources out there. There are sites you can go to and learn anything you want. Wonder how to do something, just Google it. You can find local groups to join, you can find open mics to play, you can find other people to hang around with and learn things, you have any song you can imagine that you want to play a click away. It is just so much easier. Heck, it takes me less than thirty seconds to tune my guitar, and that's only if my six dollar tuner tells me it is out of tune. You just gotta love it. I don't know how people learned to do things like play the guitar so well back in the day. If it had just been that easy.

[Gordon Currie]

Yes, in many many ways it is a golden age for learning guitar (and musical instruments in general). It seems like any technique or theory is available somewhere if you can only find it.

I imagine myself as a kid faced with these vast resources and how many years I might have been able to shave off.

One area I wonder about is in ear training and general development of being able to hear something - even in the middle of a complex mix - and instantly have a corresponding mental model of what you are hearing.
Strictly anecdotally, comparing to last century, I seem to encounter WAY more folks these days who know how to move their fingers but lack a practical understanding of making music.

[NormanKliman]

For learning, it’s so much easier now to slow down recordings, often with free software, and with YouTube settings, you can even do it without a computer. Recording software has changed everything, too.

Originally Posted by Gordon Currie

I seem to encounter WAY more folks these days who know how to move their fingers but lack a practical understanding of making music.

I agree. There’ve always been guitarists who learn a few moves from the lessons they've had, but with all the online resources, there are many more of them today who don’t seem to get much further than aping what they’ve seen.

[zztush]

Photocopy machine is my friend.

[NormanKliman]

A long time ago, we all learned from photocopied material that we shared. We were young and didn’t have money to spare, and there wasn’t much available, either. Things have changed. I still don’t have money to spare, but I’d rather pay the author. You think differently?

[dnf777]

Yes! Some of the famous tab/chord websites have really opened up music to guys like me. I was indimidated at first when I saw the names of the chords that were a type-set inch or two long....until the chord diagram hyperlinks showed that it was a simple chord with just lifting a finger! Dmaj#7thadd9sus12flat, for example! ;-)

[Mandobart]

Hmmmm......
It was easier for me as a young teen with no computers, no cable TV, no smart phones or apps - just hours of unstructured time, a songbook or two, a notepad, nimble fingers and mind, stack of LP's, stereo and maybe a friend or two.

Today I would need many tech shortcuts to attempt to learn guitar with kids, family, job, home projects.....

[rllink]

Originally Posted by NormanKliman

A long time ago, we all learned from photocopied material that we shared. We were young and didn’t have money to spare, and there wasn’t much available, either. Things have changed. I still don’t have money to spare, but I’d rather pay the author. You think differently?

If you are talking about books, I don't mind paying the author, or anyone else for their services, but at the same time it makes learning to play the guitar much more fun and enjoyable to pull songs that you like off the internet to learn from than it was to buy a book with a dozen old songs that they got out of the public domain so they didn't have to pay to put them in their book.

[NormanKliman]

Actually, my comments were directed at zztush. Yeah, Internet's changed everything, mostly for better.

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by NormanKliman

A long time ago, we all learned from photocopied material that we shared.

No 'we' didn't.

[NormanKliman]

Originally Posted by Gordon Currie

No 'we' didn't.

Gordon Currie: I was referring to my friends and I. If your friends and you didn’t learn that way, that’s fine.

[zztush]

"We" (me and my friend) still use photocopies rather than digital music sheets. Digital music apps are very good to handle but I can not remember songs with them.

[NormanKliman]

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I thought you meant something else. Yeah, I prefer hard copy, too.

[rllink]

It wasn't my intention to start a tiff.

[NormanKliman]

Originally Posted by rllink

It wasn't my intention to start a tiff.

It's all fine. Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. Let's talk about guitar!