Music Banter - View Single Post - How hard is it to learn to play the guitar?

The Bullet · 10-23-2012, 06:59 PM

That really boils down to onw simple, basic question: how good do you really want to be?

Spoiler for Long rant that can be summerized in the two sentances below::

If you want to learn how to accompany your singing? Eh, should take two years max with occasional practice. I've seen it done in months. Still, you'll have to throw in that occasional practice.

If you want to really play guitar, it takes a lot longer and takes consistant, focused effort. Maybe it isn't hard as much as it just takes dedication, but if you really have no dedication, you'll throw away your guitar before you can even play like Taylor Swift. Just as a warning. I've seen people ask me to teach them and give up after they can't play a simple song in a week. A basic level does not take long to achieve AT ALL, but people seem to think it takes even less than it does. They think they'll get it one day as opposed to one year. Wrong.

Not to mention that there's some people who simply won't be able to do it just like some people can't whistle, even if they work at it hard and play other instruments well. I've seen that happen, too.

I've been playing for five years, I practice every day, and I usually warm-up my practice sessions by playing the first "Jump In The Fire" (Metallica) solo without making any mistakes (double speed on a very good day, but that's rare.) And, quite frankly, that's nowhere near as impressive as it sounds. I don't consider myself to be anywhere near as good as most people who take it as seriously as I do who I find myself jamming with. I constantly find myself realising I suck more than I thought I did the day before. I know, that relative to my lifetime, five years is a microscopic blip, but that's all I've played so far. I shoot for the skies because, although my life has plenty of time to change and my love for the guitar may change, I love playing and I would love to play for a living some day.

My point is, the better you want to be, the longer it takes. If you want to be at a professional level, that takes no less time than training to be a major league athlete, as I remember a group of three world-renounded jazz musicians, who I won't specify incase someone can track me down based off of their names, telling me and a crowd of about two-hundred other amateur musicians. they basically spent two hours saying "none of you guys play enough, and when you do, you play along to your iTunes instead of going out and forming bands." Unfortunately, that was pretty true of everyone, including me.

Take your pick. The more skill you want, the more time you'll have to put in.

10-23-2012, 06:59 PM	#18 (permalink)
The Bullet Music Addict Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 454	That really boils down to onw simple, basic question: how good do you really want to be? Spoiler for Long rant that can be summerized in the two sentances below:: If you want to learn how to accompany your singing? Eh, should take two years max with occasional practice. I've seen it done in months. Still, you'll have to throw in that occasional practice. If you want to really play guitar, it takes a lot longer and takes consistant, focused effort. Maybe it isn't hard as much as it just takes dedication, but if you really have no dedication, you'll throw away your guitar before you can even play like Taylor Swift. Just as a warning. I've seen people ask me to teach them and give up after they can't play a simple song in a week. A basic level does not take long to achieve AT ALL, but people seem to think it takes even less than it does. They think they'll get it one day as opposed to one year. Wrong. Not to mention that there's some people who simply won't be able to do it just like some people can't whistle, even if they work at it hard and play other instruments well. I've seen that happen, too. I've been playing for five years, I practice every day, and I usually warm-up my practice sessions by playing the first "Jump In The Fire" (Metallica) solo without making any mistakes (double speed on a very good day, but that's rare.) And, quite frankly, that's nowhere near as impressive as it sounds. I don't consider myself to be anywhere near as good as most people who take it as seriously as I do who I find myself jamming with. I constantly find myself realising I suck more than I thought I did the day before. I know, that relative to my lifetime, five years is a microscopic blip, but that's all I've played so far. I shoot for the skies because, although my life has plenty of time to change and my love for the guitar may change, I love playing and I would love to play for a living some day. My point is, the better you want to be, the longer it takes. If you want to be at a professional level, that takes no less time than training to be a major league athlete, as I remember a group of three world-renounded jazz musicians, who I won't specify incase someone can track me down based off of their names, telling me and a crowd of about two-hundred other amateur musicians. they basically spent two hours saying "none of you guys play enough, and when you do, you play along to your iTunes instead of going out and forming bands." Unfortunately, that was pretty true of everyone, including me. Take your pick. The more skill you want, the more time you'll have to put in. __________________ http://soundcloud.com/zachary-steuer Last edited by The Bullet; 10-23-2012 at 07:41 PM.