Ok a run down at what happened at the guitar lesson.
Todd taught me how to change my strings properly *blush*
I put some D'addario 9's-42's.
He also taught me that thing about tuning a guitar using the 5th fret trick if i dont need to have the tuning perfect.
He then went on to teach me some modal concept shapes and scales.
And how i can make the scale take on different moods by playing them in minors or majors. This part i sadly dont fully remember.
He then for some reason got me memorising the notes on the first 2 strings.
That was pretty much it. I see him again next week.
He brought along a guitar he made himself. It looks beautiful and looks like a totally professional job and has bartellini pickups in it (spelling?) lol.
yeah i started in the 4th grade...however old i was then and i'm in the 11th grade now and i know people who have started at age 16 and older and can play amazing! Age doesn't matter. Your trying again...thats what matters.
yeah i started in the 4th grade...however old i was then and i'm in the 11th grade now and i know people who have started at age 16 and older and can play amazing! Age doesn't matter. Your trying again...thats what matters.
Good - oh - the lesson sounded pretty fruitful - I used to take lessons from a staggeringly good player in Sydney called Dieter Kleeman (who co-incidentally was the owner of the first JEM I ever saw - a 777DY - sadly Dieter has moved on to those vile Line6 Variax guitars - I guess you do when you get your guitars for nothing!) - Dieter divided lessons into two parts - a theory part, where he'd go through modes, scales, chords, reading etc, and then he'd ask ME to pick a song which would challenge me, and go about teaching me how to play it, while demonstrating the structure, progression of the song etc - so the great thing was that I a huge amount of theory, but also learned how to correctly play some really cool songs - that approach keeps your motivation very high, as you're not just hammering your way pointlessly through scales. It is pretty cool though when someone shows you the first pentatonic scale shape, and you realise that you can play about 90% of all rock and blues lead breaks with just that weapon!
Warwick is a small town of 10,000 people 2 hours approx away from brisbane. The closest larger town from warwick is toowoomba which has 90,000. People in it.
There is only 1 music store in my town and they only stock ibanez guitars and Peavey amps of stuff i want to buy at least they also stock ashton stuff but i wouldnt touch that stuff with a 10 foot pole.
Most of my stuff i order online except i got my guitar from them. A ibanez SZ520 Except it musta been one of the first year of production or something becuase mine didnt come with the duncan/ibanez pickups. Just normal ibanez ones. (you will probably freak out but i payed $995 Australian for my SZ but it did come with a hardcase i guess... but i wish it had of come with the pickups the more modern ones are supposed to knowin gme i woulda changed them anyway)
I plan on changing them i have a few ideas thanks to people on these forums and on the seymour duncan forums. if you want to know i can tell you the ideas i do have....
I got to play my guitar through a Marshall Valve amp at lessons.... it sounded phenominally better than i could imagine the guitar would sound through a normal amp. Thats how much of a difference it makes i know that sounds kinda lame but when your used to using 15 or 30 watt normal practice type amps (Peavey for the 15watt line6 for the 30) its kinda amazing how much better your guitar can sound through a great quality amp.
You're never too old to start playing this music. Check out the jazz guitarist John Stowell. He's one of the most creative players ever and he didn't get into the music until he was in his mid twenties. Take Ravi Coltrane, John Coltrane's son. He started later in life and now he's burning.
Just look at what they have done to the instrument.
I think the most important thing, more than anything, is the understanding of the instrument and music. Some Young starters tend to recieve this naturally because of time, but many people will never understand music properly. Thats what i feel all the greats have over everyone, not speed or technique or whatever. (The understanding, i feel, is what gives them their ability to write music good, as well).
Why is Steven Hawking so amazing? Because people say he has an understanding and view of the physics of particles better than anyone. Alot of people can do the math (these are alot of new age shredders as a metaphor) but can't look at the math and see it in real terms as Hawking and Einstein could (Vai and Satch or whoever else in the same league).
(Sorry for the physics, but we just talked about this today in school).
After working in a music shop for something like 8 years, I've seen MANY people who started to play guitar in thier 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and even had a couple 60-80 year old folks come by asking about learning to play guitar. In fact I'd have to say that 8 out of 10 people that come to my shop asking to learn to play guitar are at least 20. (Mind you, we don't do lessons where I work, instead we just sell A LOT of tab books and self instructional material so we're definitely geared towards the older crowd).
I personally started playing guitar when I was 17 after I started working at a guitar shop for a year and a bit. If it gives you any encouragement, even though I start at 17, I quit playing when I was 19 and didn't really play guitar again until maybe a year ago (I'm 24 now). Oddly enough when I started to pick up my guitars I just realized that I'm a better guitar player now than before I quit. Figure it this way, you're never too old to start playing guitar unless you think you're too old.
Who care ! there is no age for begining .... I mean my wife started to learn guitar at the age of 29 and she make real progress everiday ....
All is in your motivation , your talent and the time you spend on pratice not on the age ....
I started playing when I was 17 and I too thought that was too old, but really, that was dumb. The only thing was that I was into shredding while the rest of the world was getting into grunge, but that's not such a problem nowadays! My reason for starting late was simply cash, I couldn't afford a guitar when I was younger...but I always loved it, and listened to Vai and Satch and all the other great guitarists of the day YEARS before I tried to play their stuff. I found that I 'knew' the solos just as well as any guitarist, and that did help when I started to play.
The key to it, like just about anything else in life is consistency. But you'll find that once you have the chops, you won't ever 'lose' that skill...it'll be rusty, but after a few weeks or maybe months you get back to where you were.
My only advice is to pay attention early on to the actual structure of music, and to jam with others frequently. That helps, and makes you a better musician.
yeah! its not too old for you to start! for instance take joe satch! he started out pretty late just like me T_T 17 i think... its all good. i think the stuff that matters is how much do you practice... =]
21 - 34 of 34 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
A forum community dedicated to Ibanez JEM guitar owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about collections, displays, models, styles, scales, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!