I am 54 years old. I love listening to music. I am tone deaf. I have never played a musical instrument.
I have small hands and short, stubby fingers which I presumed, for many years, would preclude me from ever being able to play the guitar.
A few weeks ago, I attended a party with a band playing. I had a few drinks. I watched the guitarist intently as he effortlessly rattled through some rock classics.
Inspired, I impetuously bought a cheap electric guitar and watched YouTube videos about how to make a noise.
The first step was to tune the instrument. Initially I used a tuning gadget included with the starter kit but subsequently found it much easier to use an Android app (Guitar Tuna).
I devoured a load of YouTube videos on how to play electric guitar. My favourite was JustinGuitar.
I quickly got bored of 'formal tuition' and cranked out the classic 'Smoke on The Water' on one string like any teenager given a guitar would do. The very fact I could make a noise - through an amplifier - that was so satisfying. In fact, it was so satisfying it almost justified the cost of the starter kit.
However, looking at Justin's frowning face, I felt an obligation to, at least, try to learn some proper chords and advance to 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'.
So I constricted and contorted my fingers to produce a 'D' chord. I strummed the chord which sounded weird. Then I picked each string individually. This was very useful and informative as it showed me where my fingers were correctly positioned and where they weren't.
Then I tried and rapidly gave up on the 'A' chord (three fingers in close proximity on the same fret - tricky) so advanced rapidly to the 'E' chord which was slightly easier.
Then I was tuning up and stupidly over tightened the little 'E' string instead of the the big 'E' string and it snapped. Jesus. Now I have to re-string the flipping guitar.
Time for more YouTube videos and thanks to RockJam for providing spare strings in their superb starter kit. It was slightly tricky but finally I was back to a 6 string guitar.
To be honest, I wasn't practising much - it worked better for me when I was in the mood and quite often I simply wasn't in the mood. I didn't stick to any regime of 10 minutes a day or hire a professional teacher who would endlessly nag me to practice my fingering technique. I just played when I felt like playing. Which wasn't that often.
I thought it would be better to master the 'D' chord before moving on and I simply couldn't master the 'D' chord so I analyzed why not. It struck me that playing guitar wasn't necessarily an arty, creative activity, there was some science here as to why when you plucked as string, it didn't make the required noise.
My main problem was my fingers being too 'flat' so my fingers placed to play a chord on the third string would accidentally mute the second string. I tried to fix this by raising my fingers higher so the tips touched the string more vertically at 90' rather than obliquely. This helped slightly but then I found that my palm was touching the neck of the guitar and the first string - so although three strings sounded fine, irritatingly, the final string was buzzing, muted or just sounding naff.
Then I watched a load of videos about the myth of 'Small hands can't play guitar' and tried to move my re-position my hand so the thumb was behind the neck in the middle giving the fingers more room. This was better but felt slightly uncomfortable.
Practice makes perfect I guess and I'm toying with getting some proper lessons from a human being before I get into any more bad habits but the prospect of even changing from 'D' to 'A' to 'E' (within 10 minutes) seems a long way off.
However, the wife now knows the words to the opening of both 'Smoke On The Water' and 'Seven Nation Army'. Which is nice.
Hi Andy keep playing as much as you can, Listen to as much as you can. Play what makes you feel happy and the rest will come. I have played since i was 16 and now 37 and still learning. Most of my learning done off youtube had a few lessons. If you have any qus mail me I would be happy to help. Please bear with my tho this is my first post on steemit lol good luck
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You try to play violin .......
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Why ? Is violin more suited to small hands and short, stubby fingers ? :-)
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Violin looks harder as you have a tiny area for your fingers, but then they don't play so many chords. No frets on a violin, so it's easy to play out of tune.
BTW if you can pick out any tune on the guitar then you can be sure you are not tone deaf :)
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Great to hear you are making some progress. The early days can literally be painful as tender fingertips struggle to press on the cheesewire-like strings. You need to build some calluses. Some chords are a contortion, but your fingers will learn where to go with practice. Try regular chord changes to find how to get between them. I promise it gets easier. Every guitarist you see on stage has been through this.
Getting chords to sound clean is tricky. The next stage is muting all the strings you don't want as they will be noticeable when you are playing loud. Don't worry about that for now.
C and G are useful chords too. You only need 3 or 4 to play many songs.
Enjoy making a fun noise.
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Thanks Steve - Out of interest, once you're proficient, is it like riding a bike or swimming, can you can leave it for 6 months and return or does it need constant topping up (practice) ?
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Once it has become a habit you will retain it. I actually find I can play songs I've not tried in ages as my finger remember even if my brain can't. I've seen people at my pub sessions make great progress. It takes work, but it's very satisfying
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'Every guitarist you see on stage has been through this'. Yeah - that made me laugh when thinking about all the punks who 'couldn't play their instruments' !
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Some couldn't, but I bet some put in many hours before they got on stage. BTW playing with the guitar down by your knees is not easy. It bends the fretting hand at a horrible angle. Higher up is less cool, but much more comfortable.
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Yeah. One of my problems was sitting with the guitar and using the left hand to support the neck. I used a strap to reduce that dependency.
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I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.
- Albert Einstein
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