Discussion

How to Get Better at Guitar

ben7799: All of it is good but none of it is a shortcut.The greats who became so good doing this had massive amounts of time to do it and put in massive amounts of effort.

exabrial: Practice a lot. Try things you "can't play" and do them a lot. Pick it up every every single day.

jrop: Tommy Emmanuel apparently learned by transrcibing, famously thinking that both the bass line and guitar lines he was hearing were a singular "guitar part". Just by having his expectations (incorrectly) raised, he rose to the occasion and played both parts.I forget where I heard this story -- it's probably either rather famous, or buried in an interview somewhere.

dizhn: He tells it everywhere. (Also demonstrates the thumb vs fingers playing independently everywhere.)

beachy: Sting famously learned to play bass using this sort of technique with music on LPs, lifting the needle and dropping it back a bit in the track over and over again as he gradually worked out the notes and fingering.Probably almost any method is effective at learning guitar, as long as it includes the key factor - time spent practicing.

BizarroLand: My music teacher said that practice does not produce perfection, only perfect practice produces perfection.If you mess up, redo the part you messed up correctly 5 times in a row.And, don't just practice the easy stuff. You have to challenge yourself to grow.

bluGill: Time is the largest factor though. Some ways are better than others but there is no substitiute for time.why am I posting here instead of practicing?

freejazz: That's called ear training and it's crucial. I don't think all ways one can play and call it "practice" are equal

RomanPushkin: I am playing for quite a while... Had private lessons with a coach to practice solo guitar, and general understanding for a couple of years. Before that around 10 years or more as amateur, now it's been 3 years since I spoke to a guitar coach last time.I play every day, I do my solos, I play blues, I don't need chords. But it's hard.Just don't underestimate how hard it is - to be able to play any solo by ear. I guess I just don't have any freaking talent. Pretty obvious at this point, since some people do a better progress in 3-5 years of work.But for me it's not. I realized that for me something isn't just clicking. There was no breakthrough moment I expected all these years.I invested a lot into playing guitar, but... meh. Honestly, I wish I spent all that time learning AI math or just math in general. Or spend my time on something that would have a better ROI.Looking back I see how much effort it took, and how low my ROI is. I wish I gave up earlier.

kelvie: Are you telling me that spending time writing an app to learn the guitar neck isn't the best way?? Blasphemy, I tell you!Anyway here is my app of shame:https://kelvie.github.io/chord-finder/I also came to the realization after making this that my time was better spent transcribing, but I wanted to learn egui (and this was before coding agents, so it actually took some time).

dexwiz: There should be a saying like "A tool is not the task" similar to "A map is not the land." As professional tool makers it can be easy to replace the task with a tool in theory, but that's not reality.In a similar vein I think that's why there are so many devs making game engines instead of games.

andrewvc: It’s a great article on something that’s useful, but a bit overconfident in its universality. Better at what? There are many dimensions to being a guitar player. Is it technique? Theory? Ability to pickup a song by ear (this article)? Better at playing in a group? Better at playing solo? Better at reading music? Better at accurate bends? Better at fingerpicking?One of the nice things about music is you can’t get good at ALL of it. You have to pick where to focus. I’ll also say, you might need to ask yourself if you want to get better. I love relaxing by reading through the chords on a new song and playing it. I already have a job, and the time I truly have for intentional practice is like once a month. Most people are not studying to become guitar pros but to enjoy their time with the instrument. If that is your goal let joy be your guide. Perhaps some short term pain is part of that journey but really weigh out what you want out of the experience.

doubled112: As somebody who started teaching himself guitar as a teenager, put it down for 10+ years and started back up, this resonates.Everything takes twice as long to learn because I first have to unlearn the old habits.

crtified: One truth I've observed from decades of keen hobbyist involvement in guitar music and playing is that a lifetime of music is largely an individual journey.The fact that some players learn by transcribing, while others learn by jamming, and yet others learn by rote theoretical study, or 10-hour practice sessions, etc, is a big part of the variety which results in the wonderfully varied tapestry of music styles and approaches that humanity creates and enjoys.Not to take away from the age-old, valid advice in the link about the value of ear-to-fretboard work.

Affric: I can’t imagine stopping every note. I think it is pretty good practice for me to never stop if one can avoid it.I used to stop all the time, when I made a mistake, between repetitions, when I finished the piece.I agree about ear to fretboard.

emil-lp: Why did you continue playing for over a decade?

RyanOD: I've been playing guitar for 30+ years. When I was a kid, I learned almost everything by ear - note by note by note...In hindsight, once I had learned a song, I had actually learned MUCH more than just that song. It is that "extra" that adds up over time and makes one a guitarist and not just someone who can play some songs on the guitar.Rock on!

bardackx: this is pretty sad

freetime2: This brought to mind a quote from Ira Glass:> Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.I think listening and transcribing is great advice. Careful listening will help to improve your own listening ability and taste. It also helps to demystify why something is great.But it's also going to be a struggle - especially at first. You have to be prepared to struggle, a LOT. Most people won't be able to keep at it, and that's one of the things that separates the greats from everyone else.

bityard: I mean, it kind of sounds like you hated the whole process and didn't care about the result either. What was your reason for taking up the guitar as a hobby in the first place?I suspect it's actually impossible to get reasonably good at something without some amount of passion for it, to some degree or another. Most musicians are in it for the thrill of learning something that most people find hard to do, or because they love music, or because they want to be part of a community that values music. Occasionally because they think they can make money at it.I play an instrument or two, but only for fun. I love music, but I'm at a point in my life where I will never be good enough to be in a band. I have enough other hobbies anyway. I take a random 15 minutes out of my day to play a few songs, maybe practice a new song I'm learning, watch a short Youtube video about it here and there, and that's enough for me.

agumonkey: Add some distance and sensitivity. I used blunt / brute force repetitions and somehow wasted years. Music is very subtle, and keeping a focus on small details is worth thousands of hours.

dcminter: Perhaps you're looking for this?https://strangestloop.io/essays/things-that-arent-doing-the-...

The Way I Learn Now: Listening & Transcribing

dfxm12: The Way I Learn Now: Listening & TranscribingI lived near a music school and took proper guitar lessons. After getting down the basics from the Alfred Method book, this was the homework my guitar teacher gave me.Confidentially enough, I was also transcribing RATM back then too...