The most difficult part of learning the guitar is starting it…
In: Rocking in the free world Wednesday Feb 6,2008
Note: This post is targeted to those young guitar players intimidated by the apparent complexity of playing the guitar.
As with everything in your life, playing the guitar is not an easy thing. I know that in the beginning, most of us look up to various guitar heroes, admiring them, maybe cherish them, even idolizing them. We all say that man, this guitar player is better than I will ever be!!!
Well, there is a big chance that you are right since that guy is probably a professional guitar player that works his guitar a lot each and every day, not being forced to go to work from 9 to 5 to earn a living so he has all the energy just to practice and learn.
But during my life as a person trying to learn one thing or an other, I have understood that as difficult as a particular action or process may seem, in order to master it, the most important thing you can do is to start learning it! I have a saying, I don’t even know if this is a real saying or I just made it up: even the longest path starts with a first step!
So, in order to master playing the guitar, first start learning it, even if it seems you have such a long way in front of you! After a while you will find yourself way in front of other guys that will look up to you saying wow, this guy plays the guitar pretty good! They will start asking YOU for help and tips on how to play the guitar, you will find that THEY will look up to YOU!
And all you did was actually to start and keep on playing the guitar! Remember that in order to become better and better you just need to play and study!
Of course, we can not deny that there are some gifted people that are somehow born for playing the guitar, who seem to have a great learning curve, long and agile fingers, great ear and great composition sense, those ones probably become icons that the whole world looks up and respect. This should never discourage you! This should motivate and inspire you, should give you reasons to study more and play more!
Also, you should keep in mind that playing the guitar is more than shredding and fast arpeggios. Guitar playing is feeling, tone, personal touch, style. All these can be discovered in the simplest songs.
Think of Eric Clapton and his nick name, “Slow hand”. I bet he didn’t get his name for being a shredder. Instead, he is one of the most giving guitar players in matter of feeling and personal touch. He puts his soul in each melody and this gives his playing a particular something that no shredder can achieve.
Think about this and make your first step, playing the guitar is not that hard as it sounds! All you need is start learning it, play from the heart and trust yourself, the rest will follow!
Now go on and play that guitar!
- Tags: Eric Clapton
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9 Responses to “The most difficult part of learning the guitar is starting it…”
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Ovidiu OprescuRomania, 31 years
Playing the guitar since 17
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Frank V.
February 6th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Ovidiu,
I could not agree more with this post. I’m not nearly as experienced at Guitar as you are and I’m glad to see you (someone with your experience level) write about this.
A while back (months for me, not years) when I picked up Guitar, I wanted to learn how to play. I wanted to be able to jam with friends or be able to relax and strum a soft tune. The Guitar, however was not my first attempt as a musical instrument and that last attempt was not pretty which left me very hesitant to invest in learning to play.
At some point, my wife convinced me to just start learning, just like you are describing here. She was right. It wasn’t easy at first and at times it was just plain frustrating, but I know that I’m getting better. At first, playing was almost awkward, and now it is comfortable. I can almost feel myself getting over the learning curve and dang, is it rewarding!
Thank you! I look forward to future posts from you.
admin
February 6th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Hey, Frank!
I am glad my post inspired you! You know, I really mean what I have posted here, I do have this belief that no matter what you want to do, as difficult as it may seem, you just need to start it in order to master it. Once you get to do this, it gets easier on the way!
Keep on playing, after a while you will get better and better, as you already say you’re getting.
Glad you like my posts, keep on reading and why not subscribing to my RSS feeds
Doug
February 7th, 2008 at 1:52 am
Hey good post!
Although I’m pretty sure Clapton got the nickname Slow Hand because early in his career he used really light guage stings in order to be able to bend them better during solos. This resulted in plenty of broken strings. Whilst he was changing broken strings the audience would clap slowly, waiting for the show to resume. Hence the name “Slow Hand Clap”ton.
robert schettino
February 7th, 2008 at 4:35 am
Most of us are never going to rival Clapton or Buddy Guy or Jimmy Page. But there is a lot of joy that comes from coaxing even simple tunes out of a guitar.
I agree the important thing is to start. The second most important thing is to recognize that you are never done, that there is always more to learn.
I have found it easier to learn in the context of a song — not just theory and riffs but the songs in which they are expressed. There is a new site — http://www.ivideosongs.com — that shows how to play complete and accurate songs.
Disclosure: i work with iVideosongs. I also like learning the songs.
thanks
bob
admin
February 7th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Beautiful story, Doug! I didn’t know that, I though he got the name for his way of playing the blues, thanks for sharing!
For Robert: indeed, you are right, you never end, you never finish, you have something to learn every day. The most interesting part when playing the guitar is after a while when you realize that the more you learn, the more you still have to learn. It happens in any domain, not only with playing the guitar.
axlfuckinrose
February 7th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
I can remember the very first time I touched the guitar. wow. feelings!
admin
February 7th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Yes, it was kind of a magic for me especially that the guitar was not mine and it was a good guitar, big body acoustic guitar, a real charm, you know what kind of acoustic guitars I love
tony Hogan
April 27th, 2008 at 4:05 am
This is a really good post. Pretty thoughtful, and I’m really happy to see that a number of the other guys with guitar blogs are thinking and posting material like this instead of a lot of the nonsense that I see out there.
congratulations
Ovidiu
April 27th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Thanks, Tony! This kind of things runs through my head and I just try to put them here whenever I can make a story out of them.