At your age, how is your playing?

[fpuhan]

Like others, I started young, put playing aside for a while when marriage, kids, work and travel got in the way, picked it up again, and now I'm playing better than ever.

One thing I've said more than once: If the Internet had existed when I first started playing, I'd be a guitar god by now. These days, if I find myself in a rut (an all too often occurrence back in the day), I just go online and find something to spark my interest.

My knowledge of music theory and the fingerboard have increased dramatically. I still need to improve my precision, but I'm playing a lot more and varied music than I ever did.

[Glennwillow]

Hi Frank,

I think my agility with my fingers was better 15-20 years ago. I sure had a whole lot more songs and pieces at my fingertips back then compared to now. My memory was pretty flawless back then, also. But with age I have learned to make sense of the compositions of others much more quickly.

I'm glad I can keep on learning.

- Glenn

[stephenT]

At 71 my playing is pretty decent. I've been working at my skills mainly by gigging, learning new songs and checking out the nuances of various Roots style artists. Hands are in good condition, did have trigger finger surgery on my fretting hand 6-years ago w/ no real issues, just different so we adjust.

Play electric w/ a four piece band every week in a well known Blues club, get compliments from the young and old,..Sunday before last, on our last set a fellow stops in front of me on his way out and shows me his smart phone,. he just Venmo-ed us a $2500 tip. Not sayin' it was my tasty licks just 'cos he showed me,..

And on acoustic I feel like I finally got a handle on picking w/ all my fingers, w/ no picks and it sounds pretty good, I'm playing w/ some authority. I've gotten to this point by NOT thinking about it w/ the hope that intuitively my fingers will go to the strings I've fretting,.. slower that way I'm sure.

This last week I surprised a couple long time musician buddies who hadn't heard me on acoustic in a couple years which was nice.

I'm a lazy guitarist as far as formal studying, scale exercises etc but I've been lucky to gig most of my life as part of my living and the last thirty some years I've played with talented, authentic musicians so I listen and try not to sound stupid,.. "Earn while you learn".

[Russ C]

I’m 71 too and I’m the best I’ve ever been .. but .. I have to work harder to maintain my technique/ease or I lose it fast and I’m finding the brain ain’t what it used to be either
I’m in a band that does 2 sets each gig and the second set is the imperfect one - and it’s not the beer’s fault anymore. I have thought that “we’re gonna take a nap now, be right back” would be an appropriate halfway sign off.

[marciero]

Following with interest. Thanks all for sharing. I am about to turn 60, playing 45 years and have always improved. I've never played better and mostly thats what keeps me in the game- that and having wonderful instruments to play. Have been playing almost exclusively acoustic on medium strings for the last year or so. So for rock and roll on electric a little rusty but that goes away. Also have not been practicing jazz so on the harmonic complexity side of things I have not been progressing. But physically I've not lost any speed or technique over the years-if anything my abilities continue to advance. But I am concerned about physical decline. I saw videos recently of a couple of my guitar virtuoso heroes of advancing age who are clearly in decline and it saddens me. But look at Stephane Grapelli who played at a very high level into his 90's. I think there are things we can do wholistically- diet, exercise, lifestyle, that can stave off the decline.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

After 50+ years my playing has changed. I am now primarily an acoustic player and one of the positive outcomes of Covid is that my playing is better than it's ever been.

[MrDB]

I was a music room player for years, and tended to play the same things over and over. Jumped back into the band scene a few years ago with a bunch of fellow grandpas. I am better now than ever as a player by being exposed to music I would have never played by myself.

So I am at my best right now and looking for improvement.

[rmp]

It's interesting to see how many regulars here are of the same vintage.

mid 60s to early 70s...

I love reading that many stuck with it and are still active.

This is a really good thread.

[catndahats]

Good post, Chickee and great replies.
We are about the same age, and while gravity, assorted aches and pains, and weathering have taken their toll physically my playing is better than ever. Not faster, but more complex and on diverse instruments.

I was on and off the guitar bus over the last 45 years a lot, life and other interests mixed in the middle limited my play...but over the last 5 years something clicked and my playing (and singing) took a big leap forward.

I'm still learning (and improving). I keep picking up new tunes, and have added a few new instruments which keep the mind and fingers working in new ways and it is good!

Woke up from a dream a few months ago where I was 85 years old, sitting in the music room with grand kids running to a fro, picking and singing, sounding better than ever, and enjoying life. So, I must have at least another 20 good years of music ahead of me.

[KevWind]

Humm @ 73 yrs. I think I am still playing as well or better as I did 5-10-15 yrs ago ..

And it is still more a matter of diligent practice at least 5 days a week as opposed to slacking off for a week or four, at a time (which since I am no longer gigging , I tend to do that more now days).
The main thing I have noticed is I cant play for more that say an intermittent hour at most, where before I could play (gig) 3 hours straight with only some short breaks.

Welcome to the "Golden years" --methinks the Rust years is more accurate

Here is a music video & slide show of one my original songs I just published to YouTube,, on a somewhat related subject

[davidd]

Going on 71. I'm a far better player, but also far slower than I was 20 years ago and that's fine with me. Speed means nothing. Learning how to use beautiful new chord progressions and soloing off them is what I try and improve upon.

[Paleolith54]

Originally Posted by Chickee

This could have been put on the acoustic main forum, but because I play electric more often I listed it here.

Glennwillow had said in a different thread, and I am paraphrasing here,
“my playing was at its best fifteen or twenty years ago.”

That got me to thinking about my own playing. I’m 66 years old now, my fingers are thick with weight, arthritis and a life of hand damage from laborus jobs. No longer the hands of a young man, to be sure.

But the thing is, my playing is better now than any other time in my life, not because I am able to perform fretboard acrobatics and feats of derring-do, but because I have reached a point in my playing that my own “style” of strumming, picking and just plain attacking the fretboard is now front and center. The way I play is mine and mine alone.

Is that the holy grail? To come to a point when your playing reflects you, after a lifetime of wishing you could play and be comparable to all your guitar heroes?

This gives me great hope I will be content with my playing the remainder of my days.

How is your playing at your current age?

frank d.

I'm 68, played on and off since 17. I'm much better than when I started getting more serious at age 45 or so: I can pick up solos better, "hear" fills and embellishments more accurately, and come up with my own parts much better. Solos I used to struggle with come much more easily now. I was never particuarly fast, but have lost no speed. The only issue I have is actually my calves, which will tend to cramp at a gig after a couple of hours if I'm not careful. But overall, I've still not hit a point of diminishing returns.

[Golffishny]

My speed was better in my 20's and 30's. At 70 my clarity, tone, dynamics and composition are much better. Youth loves a power play, a seasoned player knows how to score.

[Chickee]

Originally Posted by rmp

It's interesting to see how many regulars here are of the same vintage.
mid 60s to early 70s...
I love reading that many stuck with it and are still active….

Me too, Ray! Almost all of the replies posted so far tell the tale of so many of the CoolCats here, more comfortable and in touch with their playing now more than ever before, and that makes me smile ear to ear.

Even with the physical changes that come along as we age, we carry on enjoying this gift we have.

The comment that keeps making me look back to my beginnings as a guitar slinger is this….”so, how FAST are you?” Or “I’m still pretty fast” Or “I’ve lost a lot of speed over the years.” So many of that specific sentiment has surfaced throughout this thread.
I had completely forgotten this to be the de facto measurement of guitar prowess in the 1960’s. If you weren’t considered “fast” by your peers, you were nobody! Bahahaha😂😹😂

And here we are, sixty years on, better players than we ever were before. More tactile, more melodic, supremely(mostly)confidant how to coax music from this elegant instrument.
We are the luckiest people in the world!

frank d.

[FrankHudson]

Seventies here.

While I play for pleasure and "mental integration," mostly I've been composition-oriented in my use of guitar -- I focus on creating musical pieces more than mastering the instrument. This means that my technique all through my life is very uneven. I can do somethings, somedays, that fool folks into thinking I'm skilled at guitar playing, and other days, and other things (often, embarrassingly, very basic things) I can't do at the level of many one-month-in beginners much less those with basic musician skills.

I've recorded myself a lot, so I can evaluate my overall playing ability without the fog of memory. Listening objectively, I think I was playing both acoustic and electric at my peak in my late forties and into my fifties.

Things that have dropped off? I have had some joint pain and a bothersome reduction in finger flexibility, and those issues came on strongly around age 60, and since then exercise has helped relieve that, but I'm still not able to fret acoustic guitar as cleanly as I once did. Most days these issues don't intrude on electric guitar playing as much.

What's improved? I know a bit more theory, I can understand what I'm trying to do more often and I can look at a theoretical idea and make a composition around it without having to thrash around some looking for what sounds good. Still, when I listen to what I was doing "in the dark" 25-30 years ago I admire some stuff that I can't do as well today.

Not what's asked, but my singing voice is unattractive and clearly unskilled. Unlike my current project, I was focusing largely on instrumental pieces around the turn of the century so that my singing wouldn't detract. In the past few years my singing has gotten a little bit better, enough so that I'll expose it to the public more often.