Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Oh how I hate RHCP... yeah that’s maybe one aspect that you don’t get with the online format that you would with face to face lessons - with a teacher you can take a piece of music that you like and they can help you work on it.

i dunno. i did 2 years of in person lessons when i was a nipper learning upright. started resenting the fuck out of it after about a year because all we'd learn were jazz standards and i wanted to be the next Lee Rocker.

The reason I can’t play properly is because I refused to ever have lessons. I didn’t want to do any of that shit, I was punk!

25 years later, turns out I’m holding the pick wrong.

I’m holding the pick wrong.

There's a "correct" way to hold a pick?

I’ve always held it between thumb and both first & middle fingers, didn’t realise “normal” was thumb and first finger only. Turns out I can play ok with only first finger but it feels weird, like I’m going to drop the pick at any moment. So I probably won’t be learning pick & finger techniques any time soon.

Ah it's all a bit subjective though, classical guitar technique is entirely objective but if the way you hold the pick gets you the sounds you want and doesn't cause any discomfort you're doing it just fine!

Come to think of it, I don't have a pick to hand at the minute but I suspect I might sort of do the same thing?

Also cc: Marty Friedman for weird pick hand technique...

I always thought that technique was a middle class affectation and I was always broadly proud of my ignorance. I've recently started taking piano lessons and I realise that actually, to be able to play some things, you need a specific type of technique. And as with singing lessons, so much of that technique is about a) maximising your ability to find your own voice, and b) avoiding damage to your body.

I'm still culturally punk rock, and fuck lessons, and DIY, and all that. But secretly I do recognise the value of takign lessons from someone from a formal cultural background.

Big time! Cultural punk rock is the way to go but punk rock technique is just lack of proper technique. It's always good to have the tools in the toolbox, being punk rock is knowing which ones to take out because there are enough people out there who'll take them all out every time :)

^ agreed, I reckon it's good to know enough about the rules that you can deliberately break them, but not so by-the-book that it becomes unnatural and difficult to work outside of those rules. At least this was the vague conclusion of my ill-advised dissertation on the question of whether or not tuition limits creativity*.

Disclaimer: I definitely don't claim to be well versed on the subject, despite having finished off my degree with that. "Reckon" is the word, for sure.

Balance definitely the one. When I was in a band and we decided to do an (also ill-advised) seven minute drum and bass / feedback / french horn / cello / live drum noisefest, all the people we asked to come and play on it had been heavily trained as kids. All but one of them gave it up once they hit their teens, beacuse they'd just had the enjoyment of playing an instrument studiously drained out of them through all the practicing. Much healthier to suck but enjoy it for a few years, then get trained out of your bad habits later on. Teaches you respect for the craft.

I’m trying to fund a Strymon Iridium, so can I interest anyone in my Boss Waza Air? Mint condition, boxed, hardly used, bought new at the end of November. £250+postage?

I reckon it took 10 years of lessons (and not very much practicing) for me to start enjoying playing violin/viola on its own. Prior to that I’d only really enjoyed playing in various ensembles (4-100 people). Kept it up till I left college but only as I had a very good teacher who viewed our Friday afternoon lessons as a chance to relax, have a chat and play some duets. If I’d been under any pressure to achieve at that point I would have probably binned it off but I think it was trained technique that let me enjoy it. Different with bowed instruments though where the timbre is unlistenable without good technique!

Different with bowed instruments though where the timbre is unlistenable without good technique!

Ugh! I wish someone had put a guitar in my hands instead of a bloody violin when I was 9. Do kids learn cool instruments in school these days?? :-)

(Apologies to any fiddlers who are actually quite good/enjoy playing, and/or make it sound cool...)

Do kids learn cool instruments in school these days?? :-)

They don't seem to. Or at least, the guitar lessons at my kids place appear to be the usual unimaginative thing. Also, they only seem to be allowed to play acoustics, which maybe isn't a bad thing, but I know wasn't what I wanted when I tried to learn as a kid.

Get them learning the Seven Nation Army riff early doors rather than faffing about with assorted nursery rhymes!

Sabbath (especially “Ironman”) has been the gateway drug for my kid.

I felt sorry for my nephew a few years ago when he was briefly fighting with a cello, so I bought him a ukulele. That didn't really take off but to be fair he then got on the drums (and bass) and is now at music college, so maybe the cello was a rite of passage to the fun stuff!

Weirdly I was the opposite.

I got a guitar around 9-10 and never took to it much.

Then when I went to boarding school I took up double bass and that helped to push me back towards guitar. I didn't take any guitar lessons until I was around 17 though and I felt like I was at a standard to actually really learn, I had an unbelievably good teacher which helped. At the same time I took up classical guitar, it was a good experience but I didn't stick with it, one year of lessons at RIAM and I completed Grade 6 but I will say my sight reading on guitar has never been even close to my sight reading on bass which is the one down side to starting formal lessons so late...

started playing in bands to attract girls. i'll let you know if it ever works.

Rep

I wish I’d had this with my piano lessons instead of the traditional do-the-grades approach, it was v much a chore. These days I play quite a bit to add layers to my band’s stuff and wish I’d stuck at it past 15/16 years old. So useful now but I struggle with technique stuff

Same for my middle one, but he's more into his Slayer and Lamb Of God so a massive difference between expectation and reality. I think trying to teach him doom in drop A has put him off.

Don’t get me wrong, it was years of reluctantly doing grades before that point!
I also had piano lessons till I was 10-11 and gave that up to play the drums, which I regret - ‘fun’ instruments are a lot easier to play to a competent standard than traditional ones.

I posted here a few weeks back about wiring. I've done the job and it sounds great many many thanks to @mattioats. Taking a bit to get used to the knobs 'effect' being in opposite directions but the flexibility is great.

Today I waxed some pups.
One went fine.
The other, I'm not sure what happened. It may have been the heat. The wax instantly fizzed at a boil when I added more wax, the pup was already in the bath but neededtopping up. Same wax, both melted. Scared the shit outta me, choked the famallamas out. It was like when you inhale sulphuric drain cleaner fumes when its doing its thing to leaves or whatever.
The electric tape melted away away too. Maybe it was that?
Parraffin wax, some old scented candles.

Should I try again?

Meet him in the middle with Kylesa

I learnt classical piano from 4 to 16 or thereabouts to a decent standard. In that time, I stupidly never pushed to learn more about improvisation and ended up not touching a keyboard for the next twenty years.

About four years ago, I got an old Kawai hammer action stage piano off craigslist to have a go. It took a solid 6 weeks of straight technique for an hour or so a day before I could attempt to get up to speed on some old stuff - proper arm pump and cramp. After that it came back surprisingly quickly and I found that the intervening, unlearned guitar playing had given me a better ear for picking up stuff quick. Kept it up for a couple of years but it's been another year or so since I've touched it. It's astonishing how use it or lose it the practice is. I can't play for shit again now!

For me at least, playing to a decent standard required a couple of hours a day just to maintain and who's got that time? I can noodle on guitar for 30 minutes and be happy. Probably an indication of how much lower my standards are.... :)