Does anyone here play any musical instruments?

[StuntMan12]

My co-worker lent me a guitar to practice on. I am going to try and learn on my own, watching youtube videos ect. Anyone do anything similar? Was it hard to learn?

[Axeman33]

I play acoustic guitar but I've been playing for almost 50 years. I learned watching my dad put his fingers and then copied him.

My recommendation is practice practice practice. It's not easy as you have to hands doing two different things. One is for the chords and the other is for strumming. It isn't easy but if you're dedicated, you'll get there. I wanted to play and sing the old country with my dad. I'm glad I learned. He's gone now but I still play and sing a lot.

[Pengwin7]

If learning guitar, start by learning GCD.
You'll know from there whether you want to go further... but G-C-D is fun start.



Good luck.

[Call of Doughty]

A smidge of piano, but much more active on drum set and have played in highland pipe bands while on snare. I'd recommend taking lessons early to establish a solid foundation and stay clear of bad habits. Once foundation is in place, you could likely police yourself and technology allows for quick learning these days. Stick with it. Can bring a lifetime of good memories and nothing beats playing in front of a crowd.

[StuntMan12]

I play acoustic guitar but I've been playing for almost 50 years. I learned watching my dad put his fingers and then copied him.

My recommendation is practice practice practice. It's not easy as you have to hands doing two different things. One is for the chords and the other is for strumming. It isn't easy but if you're dedicated, you'll get there. I wanted to play and sing the old country with my dad. I'm glad I learned. He's gone now but I still play and sing a lot.

That's a great memory you have with you and your father. Dedication is the key as you noted. It was funny, the guy at the guitar shop quickly was showing me some notes and stuff, which sounded little complicated at first, then starts playing a (what I thought) was a complex song lol. Little intimidating but it should come along.

If learning guitar, start by learning GCD.
You'll know from there whether you want to go further... but G-C-D is fun start.



Good luck.

Thanks, I will be referring to this video. I'm going to try and learn as much as I can then start playing in front of my co worker whose a singer.

A smidge of piano, but much more active on drum set and have played in highland pipe bands while on snare. I'd recommend taking lessons early to establish a solid foundation and stay clear of bad habits. Once foundation is in place, you could likely police yourself and technology allows for quick learning these days. Stick with it. Can bring a lifetime of good memories and nothing beats playing in front of a crowd.

You never know! Haha, I will take this where I can and go from there. Should be fun. Thanks for the advice everyone.

[Axeman33]

I agree with P7 that G-C-D are you basic chords for playing music. Even most rock music use those are their base chords, but they just play them differently (usually in a power chord format).

In that video he shared, which is good by the way, take note of the strumming arm (right) as much as where he's putting his fingers (left). Both are important but strumming is a technique all in it's own. I have put up videos on Youtube of me singing and playing and the one question I get asked the most is "what is that strumming technique you are using?" I never have a good answer for them because I never took lessons and the technique is just how I play. It's a self taught technique. SO, what I am trying to say is, have fun and dont worry about it. Strum with the beat of the song you want to play. Up-down-up-down. Or sometimes it's just down-down-down...

[Russian Rocket 10]

My co-worker lent me a guitar to practice on. I am going to try and learn on my own, watching youtube videos ect. Anyone do anything similar? Was it hard to learn?

When learning guitar, I found that using chord charts to songs I already knew was a big help. I grew a Beatles fan, so I picked up one of their collections of sheet music that included the chord charts. That's how I first learned to play chords. Having a basic understanding of music theory also helps. I did piano growing up so applying that theory to the guitar neck was helpful in understanding that each fret is a semitone, and the note relationships between the strings. Start with old standards and early rock n roll or country. Anything that has a 1-m6-4-5 progression (C-Am-F-G) is a good place to start. Watching others in person is really valuable, so if you know someone personally who also plays, there's much you can learn from being present there. I always wondered how my play would have improved if there was YouTube when I was a teenager. We had to learn everything completely by ear or watching live performances on VHS over and over again. The day I finally watched Stone Gossard's hands on the Alive riff was nothing short of an epiphany. LOL That open D string made all the difference. Ah, the good ole days...

Very exciting for you... Good luck!

[lucafen4]

My co-worker lent me a guitar to practice on. I am going to try and learn on my own, watching youtube videos ect. Anyone do anything similar? Was it hard to learn?

Nope

[Invictus]

My advice is to not to try and play Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana until you are well prepared.

I thought it would be an easy one - and it broke me.

[StuntMan12]

The guy at the guitar shop started playing that tune from that one Shaggy song 'Hey Sexy Lady', I thought that was pretty cool. He's a music teacher. Am gonna look into lessons. I find it pretty hard to start out but once I wrap my brain around it all it should come together. It will give me a little hobby to add.

[Invictus]

How's the healthy living / exercise path you were on going?

[butch]

I can mess around on the drums and felt that if I ever took it seriously enough I could have been in a garage band so to speak .

in the late 80's on my friends drum kit I'd bang out the entire Cinderella album (night songs)

[StuntMan12]

How's the healthy living / exercise path you were on going?

Going pretty good for the most part. I went up to 216 lbs but on my way back down and am at 210. Target is 190 ��

[doulos]

I play the trombone and guitar.

[Invictus]

Going pretty good for the most part. I went up to 216 lbs but on my way back down and am at 210. Target is 190 ��

That's Awesome!
I was doing the opposite path of you. Got interrupted, but I bought some things and I'll be going back to the gym 6x a week soon enough. I managed to get myself up to 180 lbs. but back down to 170 now. I was targeting 190-200 lbs. depending how it was making me look.