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Music lessons as an adult....

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Beginner lessons on guitar are going to be scales and building up finger callouses/flexibility for finger positions on chords. Just buy a cheap (not too cheap) guitar and watch a youtube video on how to practice scales. Scales are physically the best practice. Then mess around with chord fingerings and switching quickly between chords (some chord finger positions take some time to get down because you literally have to build up finger strength/flexibility).

My regret is that my parents didn't force me to play piano when I was little.
 
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torbee said:
I’ve done those a couple times, but apparently don’t have the self-discipline to stick with it. My thought is if I am paying someone and being held accountable, I won’t give up when it starts getting harder (which has been my downfall when trying on my own)
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This makes sense. I picked it up when I had a lot of downtime in the dorms fresh/soph year at Iowa. Rarely ever play anymore and takes a good month or two to get back to where I was (which was not great, but I could play along with a lot of Bright Eyes songs at least). The lessons might force you to do it but they're going to be boring. Find some old hippie running a local guitar shop and they can refer you to someone who doesn't stink. Maybe group lessons - it's more fun to play with other people and maybe it gets competitive if you're with other n00bs. If you get stuck playing by yourself, I don't know that individual lessons will be much better because most of the work is still you by yourself.
 
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Torbee, at your age, it would be more rewarding to
learn how to play a piano. You would have the
opportunity to play this instrument for the rest of
your life. You could learn jazz, blues, pop, etc.
 
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ConvenientParking said:
This makes sense. I picked it up when I had a lot of downtime in the dorms fresh/soph year at Iowa. Rarely ever play anymore and takes a good month or two to get back to where I was (which was not great, but I could play along with a lot of Bright Eyes songs at least).
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Yeah, I just have to make myself stick with practicing and if I have to show another person that I have, I figure that will pressure me to do it.
 
I am 60 years old and have been taking guitar lessons for 1 1/2 years. I don’t have much musical talent, but I have learned a lot.

I encourage you to start with a teacher and not try to learn from a book or online. You need to get started on the fundamentals correctly, and the personal attention from a teacher can tailor instruction to your personal needs.

Make sure the teacher is one who wants to know what YOU want. I use Craig Sinclair of Sinclair Music Studio in Des Moines. He is great. He makes a lesson video at each lesson on the things we went over that day, then emails it to me. Plus, he offers 1 hour lessons every 2 weeks. IMO, 1 hour lessons are better because you have more time to get into things.

I would NOT recommend group lessons. Each person learns at a different pace and has different needs. You won’t progress very far in a group lesson. If you want to be serious about learning to play, nothing beats individual instruction from a competent teacher.
 
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torbee said:
Yeah, I just have to make myself stick with practicing and if I have to show another person that I have, I figure that will pressure me to do it.
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I edited. Think about group lessons/classes to make it a little competitive. You're still doing 99% of the work by yourself.
 
Wendy79 said:
Do it. I hope to resume piano lessons someday.
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Did you start as an adult or did you get back into it with some experience from youth? Looks so hard to me, but it's an instrument I would consider paying for lessons to learn. I can't keep time musically to save my life (always speeding up), but a guitar is cheap and pretty easy to just keep in personal space. Good pianists have always impressed me. Especially the ones who can just play along with sheet music they haven't seen/rehearsed before.
 
One cool thing for aspiring guitarists which I wish I had 40 years ago are all the help videos for songs. Just search for the song name and add "chords". Usually there will be a video. I think learning something you like will help you stick with it.
 
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h-hawk said:
One cool thing for aspiring guitarists which I wish I had 40 years ago are all the help videos for songs. Just search for the song name and add "chords". Usually there will be a video. I think learning something you like will help you stick with it.
View embedded media
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This is how I learned as much as I did. The timing was weird. Youtube became global around the same time and then when I finally got a guitar, youtube had built up a nice backlog of guitar videos. This, and sharing my weed with talented friends.
 
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ConvenientParking said:
Did you start as an adult or did you get back into it with some experience from youth? Looks so hard to me, but it's an instrument I would consider paying for lessons to learn. I can't keep time musically to save my life (always speeding up), but a guitar is cheap and pretty easy to just keep in personal space. Good pianists have always impressed me. Especially the ones who can just play along with sheet music they haven't seen/rehearsed before.
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Took lessons as a kid (also played flute for a while). I was certainly above average in both but didn't practice enough to get really good.
 
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torbee said:
Anyone do it?

My biggest regret in life is not learning an instrument despite loving music. I have more free time these days as my kids are young adults now and I’m thinking of maybe trying guitar lessons.
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Good luck. Here a video to inspire you. Make sure you get Torbee inlayed on your guitar.

 
pablow said:
Good luck. Here a video to inspire you. Make sure you get Torbee inlayed on your guitar.

View embedded media
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Well, I woke up this mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Around the curve come a passenger train
Heard somebody yodel and a hobo moan
But Jimmy he dead, he's been a long time gone
Been a long time gone, a long time gone
 
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Fan In Black said:
Lessons never worked for me..as a kid or adult. Neither did practicing by myself. I only got better playing with other people ( or "jamming" as the kids say)
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How did you figure out what to do without lessons or practicing?

When I noodle on my guitar, I just can master like the same three things and not figure anything else out. Maybe I’m just a spazz, lol.
 
I was in band. I actually played a solo at Hancher when I was in high school. I never played after high school.

I took guitar lessons with my buddies after graduating from college. I hated it and quit.

Now I plan to take piano lessons when I retire.
 
torbee said:
How did you figure out what to do without lessons or practicing?

When I noodle on my guitar, I just can master like the same three things and not figure anything else out. Maybe I’m just a spazz, lol.
Click to expand...

That's what you do by yourself. I think it'd be similar with individual lessons except the instruction would be quality/tailored. If you're giving them money, they'll get you doing scales and chords and beyond that it'd be about what you want to learn how to play. I learned as little as I know playing along with the Bright Eyes catalogue. So it's all acoustic guitar work and it's mostly just strummed chord progressions or simple arpeggios/other picking patterns on chord progressions. And it's the same chords over and over. C, G, E, and bar chords up and down the neck.
 
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ConvenientParking said:
Beginner lessons on guitar are going to be scales and building up finger callouses/flexibility for finger positions on chords. Just buy a cheap (not too cheap) guitar and watch a youtube video on how to practice scales. Scales are physically the best practice. Then mess around with chord fingerings and switching quickly between chords (some chord finger positions take some time to get down because you literally have to build up finger strength/flexibility).

My regret is that my parents didn't force me to play piano when I was little.
Click to expand...

You are of course 100% correct. I found the guitar to be a very painful instrument to play. It hurt my levy hand a wrist.

Is that common?
 
Herkmeister said:
You are of course 100% correct. I found the guitar to be a very painful instrument to play. It hurt my levy hand a wrist.

Is that common?
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I started when I was 19 so it was just sore/blistery fingertips (right hand - I'm a lefty). Took about a month of scales and practicing chords for that. I could see it hurting my wrist with another few years of natural joint aging.

I need to make this clear in this thread. I suck at guitar. I only ever played for fun. I'm not currently playing but I do have a bottom shelf useless guitar collecting dust (after liquidating my college collection). But I became good enough to be recognized as a bad guitar player and not a toddler abusing his aunt's piano during a house visit.
 
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ConvenientParking said:
That's what you do by yourself. I think it'd be similar with individual lessons except the instruction would be quality/tailored. If you're giving them money, they'll get you doing scales and chords and beyond that it'd be about what you want to learn how to play. I learned as little as I know playing along with the Bright Eyes catalogue. So it's all acoustic guitar work and it's mostly just strummed chord progressions or simple arpeggios/other picking patterns on chord progressions. And it's the same chords over and over. C, G, E, and bar chords up and down the neck.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my modest goal is just to be able to play a few chords and some pretty basic songs.

I just have to make myself practice.

It’s weird because I’m not a “quitter” in anything else except for the handful of times I tried to learn an instrument. I definitely am not a natural at it!
 
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I took individual lessons for sax as a kid. Really stepped up my ability. Money would have been better spent on golf lessons at that age though.
 
torbee said:
Yeah, my modest goal is just to be able to play a few chords and some pretty basic songs.

I just have to make myself practice.

It’s weird because I’m not a “quitter” in anything else except for the handful of times I tried to learn an instrument. I definitely am not a natural at it!
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I'm a "don't-starter" in 99.9% of the arts. I asked my folks for a guitar for Christmas for 3 years and it was a big deal for me to get it at the time. They actually had to do work to find one at a good beginner quality/price because I'm a lefty. And then there was the matter of money (a decent beginner guitar is not going to be one you see online for $100 - that POS will usually discourage you from playing). They would have been so pissed if I never played with that toy.
 
Hawki97 said:
I played sax for a number of years and can read music. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the bag pipes. Wonder if I could pick that up in my late 40’s early 50’s and ever be any good...
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When you said read music, do you mean you can play along with new sheet music? That's impressive to me. My Catholic elementary/middle school had music built in and they taught us to read music but I only ever read at slow translation level. People who can play along reading unfamiliar sheet music are mind-blowing to me.
 
Hawki97 said:
I played sax for a number of years and can read music. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the bag pipes. Wonder if I could pick that up in my late 40’s early 50’s and ever be any good...
Click to expand...

I think you learn on a recorder. I played the piano when I was young and trombone and bass trombone for 8 years. Should have never given up either.
 
Moral said:
https://www.justinguitar.com/

http://www.chordbook.com/guitar-chords/
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Actually the justin guitar series has worked pretty well for me. Started playing 3 years ago, right before I retired. I've completed both his beginner and intermediate series. However, you can take the lesson but you still have to practice the technique in the lesson and then need to be able to apply the technique in a song. Once you have the technique down you can apply it to other songs which makes learning other songs much easier and quicker.

Takes a lot of work and discipline. I practice up to 2 hours a day which is about all my finger tips can take.
 
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