Yes

[sabasgr68]

Totally true. In my case, at least .

[bleys21]

Lol, guilty as charged! If I spent as much time practicing as my son (music major, multi-instrumentalist) does, I'd play like Enrique!

[Partscaster]

Yes.
And a guy who can make so many other musicians seem not so talented,
but who can inspire so many to keep on practicing.

Unknown.jpeg (10.53 KiB) Viewed 1123 times

[url]

[tonebender]

I am with you Sabas. Playing guitar always came tough to me. I do not think I have one ounce of natural talent. I had to work hard to play whatever it was I wanted to play. In the end I realized my sound engineering skills were far better than my musicianship. Even that has left me behind because I was an analog man like Joe Walsh. I have never even ran a digital board and especially never ran sound with an ipad. I do not think it would hard, I still no what sounds good in the room I am working. My guitar skills are diminishing because of not playing as much. I am still in a band but 99.9% of my load is rhythm guitar so I am getting rusty playing lead which I was never very good at in the first place. The band is fun and the guys I play with now play a lot of original music and I have know them for many years. If I were not playing with them I would not be in a band. We've only gigged about 6 times this year which is fine with me. I helped them record their 5th record over most of this year. That is fun stuff.

I would rather play the acoustic and perform mostly songs I have written. I get much more reward from that these days than playing in a bar in front of the drinking masses. I used to absolutely love the bar scene and trying to land the big gigs and then one day in 2017 it just clicked in my head that I had enough. I suppose it is a factor of age. It was getting harder and harder which was sucking some of the fun out of it. I always said it had to be fun.

[sabasgr68]

Lol, guilty as charged! If I spent as much time practicing as my son (music major, multi-instrumentalist) does, I'd play like Enrique!

Yes, I think most of us could practice a little more than what we do . So great about your son! What instruments does he play? I´m so happy about that, none of my young(er) relatives play any instrument.

[sabasgr68]

I am with you Sabas. Playing guitar always came tough to me. I do not think I have one ounce of natural talent. I had to work hard to play whatever it was I wanted to play. In the end I realized my sound engineering skills were far better than my musicianship. Even that has left me behind because I was an analog man like Joe Walsh. I have never even ran a digital board and especially never ran sound with an ipad. I do not think it would hard, I still no what sounds good in the room I am working. My guitar skills are diminishing because of not playing as much. I am still in a band but 99.9% of my load is rhythm guitar so I am getting rusty playing lead which I was never very good at in the first place. The band is fun and the guys I play with now play a lot of original music and I have know them for many years. If I were not playing with them I would not be in a band. We've only gigged about 6 times this year which is fine with me. I helped them record their 5th record over most of this year. That is fun stuff.

I would rather play the acoustic and perform mostly songs I have written. I get much more reward from that these days than playing in a bar in front of the drinking masses. I used to absolutely love the bar scene and trying to land the big gigs and then one day in 2017 it just clicked in my head that I had enough. I suppose it is a factor of age. It was getting harder and harder which was sucking some of the fun out of it. I always said it had to be fun.

Your story exemplifies the opposite of the picture - which intends to be funny, but it holds a lot of true in it; I can attest to that, regrettably -; you practiced and played again and again to be good at it. From the few videos you´ve showed us of you playing, I´d have never thought you had to put a lot to play; you looked like killing it and sounded like killing it. I hear you, some of us don´t feel that comfy with digital stuff. We try...

Yeah, that´s a sad truth: what you don´t practice, you lose it. But it´s still good you´re playing rhythm guitar and, most important, enjoying it in that new direction of playing your originals. It requires some bravery to do it. You enjoyed your bar scenes, and now you´re into something different. Cool. And I agree, it has to be fun, in a serious way, but fun.

I keep telling myself to start practicing and playing again; it´s been more than a year, close to 2, since I grabbed my guitar and played. I´m afraid to discover how much I´ve lost...

Anyway, keep having fun, Jeff!

[sabasgr68]

Yes.
And a guy who can make so many other musicians seem not so talented,
but who can inspire so many to keep on practicing.

Unknown.jpeg



[url]

I´ll listen carefully to that song. The only YES song I think I´m familiar with is "Owner of a lonely heart"...

[bleys21]

Geeze, what doesn't he play? His main instrument is clarinet, and he can play any variation of clarinet (bass, A, Bb, baritone, etc). Then he also plays mellophone, french horn, trumpet, guitar, piano, percussion...there might be more. He's the music talent in my family...

Lol, guilty as charged! If I spent as much time practicing as my son (music major, multi-instrumentalist) does, I'd play like Enrique!

Yes, I think most of us could practice a little more than what we do . So great about your son! What instruments does he play? I´m so happy about that, none of my young(er) relatives play any instrument.

[tonebender]

I am going for cross thread points. Sabas, not quite the opposite and I can explain. I never took lessons and did not bother to learn scales until long after I was actually playing in a band. Even after that I knew I should be putting hours into alternate picking the scales, etc. but I just learned to play (sort of in some cases) the songs the band was playing. No 10,000 hours locked in a room for me. I never established the base of fundamental skills to build off of, more of a monkey see or hear and monkey try to do. Eventually I got a better understanding of scales and application but I still never spent hours trying to master them. I pretty much stuck with minor pentatonic and applied it as a minor scale or a major scale as needed. I typically only venture off that scale when I actually learn someone else's licks that uses a different scale. I am sure I could be a better player or could have been a better player with more dedication to practice but I was happy enough with myself as a musician so I spent the time riding my motorcycle or working on the horse farm.

I always admired those that put in the work to become a top player, they certainly deserve all the praise. That said I think some do have more natural talent. I am going with that was/is not me. I have seen too many younger guys just pass me by in no time and they did not exactly lock themselves in a room either.

[Tonray's Ghost]

You guys make me chuckle....I suck way more than both of you combined...however I'm quite proud of what I can do which is all self taught and in an alternate tuning to boot (before the Internet I never knew there was a standard tuning so I just tuned to what I'd heard my fave guitarist at the time Keith Richards tune to in a video, only years later I learned I was playing in Open G). Hacking my way thru and proud of it !

[tonebender]

The other guitarist in the band I am in plays about half the time in open G. He plays a lot of slide. I have dabbled with in out of curiosity but never could get that comfortable with it. I will say that it really helps playing a lot of Stones tunes.

[redman]

My dad was a musician one of those guys that could play a lot of different instruments well but was primarily a mandolin player. So when I was young he taught me the 7 major chords and said if I couldn't learn from there I wasn't meant to play. As a kid like @tonebender I just practiced until I could get involved with others and formed my first band. I have never considered myself much of a player I never had any real lessons because of that I still have no idea of how to play properly. In fact I just recently discovered a chord I have played for decades is called an A7 before that I just called it "some kind of A". I had to totally relearn to play after my accident and subsequent health issues so now after close to 60 years of attempting to play there is no doubt that if there were a contest I would be the worse player on this forum. But I sure have fun banging along.

[Partscaster]

Yes.
And a guy who can make so many other musicians seem not so talented,
but who can inspire so many to keep on practicing.

Unknown.jpeg



[url]

I´ll listen carefully to that song. The only YES song I think I´m familiar with is "Owner of a lonely heart"...

I am sorry to hear that, Sabas.
Owner Of a Lonely Heart is amongst their worst popular songs...IMO.

Siberian Khatru is another great song on that same album.
Starship Trooper, and Roundabout, are classic popular older songs by them.
You should check those out as a furthered sampling of them, and Steve Howe's guitar work.
They were one of the most complex prog groups to hit it big in the 70's.
Close to The Edge is one heck of a symphonic song. The entire album, by same name, is a headphones spectacular lp.

[sabasgr68]

I am going for cross thread points. Sabas, not quite the opposite and I can explain. I never took lessons and did not bother to learn scales until long after I was actually playing in a band. Even after that I knew I should be putting hours into alternate picking the scales, etc. but I just learned to play (sort of in some cases) the songs the band was playing. No 10,000 hours locked in a room for me. I never established the base of fundamental skills to build off of, more of a monkey see or hear and monkey try to do. Eventually I got a better understanding of scales and application but I still never spent hours trying to master them. I pretty much stuck with minor pentatonic and applied it as a minor scale or a major scale as needed. I typically only venture off that scale when I actually learn someone else's licks that uses a different scale. I am sure I could be a better player or could have been a better player with more dedication to practice but I was happy enough with myself as a musician so I spent the time riding my motorcycle or working on the horse farm.

I always admired those that put in the work to become a top player, they certainly deserve all the praise. That said I think some do have more natural talent. I am going with that was/is not me. I have seen too many younger guys just pass me by in no time and they did not exactly lock themselves in a room either.

Ok, I got your point. Now I can see what you mean and why you related to the pic. For more than 30 years I was just happy strumming some chords, never went for more - I didn´t think I could -. Then, I started to get into scales and all that, and even though I actually became a lot better at playing and "understanding" music , it made me realize how much there is to learn.

Still, you had - have - your fun. All´s good!

[sabasgr68]

Yes.
And a guy who can make so many other musicians seem not so talented,
but who can inspire so many to keep on practicing.

Unknown.jpeg



[url]

I´ll listen carefully to that song. The only YES song I think I´m familiar with is "Owner of a lonely heart"...

I am sorry to hear that, Sabas.
Owner Of a Lonely Heart is amongst their worst popular songs...IMO.

Siberian Khatru is another great song on that same album.
Starship Trooper, and Roundabout, are classic popular older songs by them.
You should check those out as a furthered sampling of them, and Steve Howe's guitar work.
They were one of the most complex prog groups to hit it big in the 70's.
Close to The Edge is one heck of a symphonic song. The entire album, by same name, is a headphones spectacular lp.

Thanks, Christopher! Taking notes about those Yes songs/albums; will give them a listen.

[nomadh]

I am with you Sabas. Playing guitar always came tough to me. I do not think I have one ounce of natural talent. I had to work hard to play whatever it was I wanted to play. In the end I realized my sound engineering skills were far better than my musicianship. Even that has left me behind because I was an analog man like Joe Walsh. I have never even ran a digital board and especially never ran sound with an ipad. I do not think it would hard, I still no what sounds good in the room I am working. My guitar skills are diminishing because of not playing as much. I am still in a band but 99.9% of my load is rhythm guitar so I am getting rusty playing lead which I was never very good at in the first place. The band is fun and the guys I play with now play a lot of original music and I have know them for many years. If I were not playing with them I would not be in a band. We've only gigged about 6 times this year which is fine with me. I helped them record their 5th record over most of this year. That is fun stuff.

I would rather play the acoustic and perform mostly songs I have written. I get much more reward from that these days than playing in a bar in front of the drinking masses. I used to absolutely love the bar scene and trying to land the big gigs and then one day in 2017 it just clicked in my head that I had enough. I suppose it is a factor of age. It was getting harder and harder which was sucking some of the fun out of it. I always said it had to be fun.

Same here. Chasing gigs just sucked. Just want to play with friends now. Mostly just try and sing and play acoustic solo now.