How Long Should It Take An Adult To Learn To Play A Musical Instrument?

[Happy Panther]

Also is this guy good? This is one of my favorite bass lines

 

[PhillyB]

If you just wanna learn chords and strum Beatles songs, a couple of weeks.

 

no way man. beatles songs have insane chord progressions half the time. you can often bullshit well enough to get through them as an accompaniment but for most of them you'll need a lot of suspended and weird 7th chords. not something you pick up in weeks.

 

IMO the best thing to do is learn to play barre chords right off the bat. learning to bridge properly will strengthen your fingers and allow you til learn the muscle memories necessary to play power chords, the basis for most rock music... you'll need to learn very little switching with this, which allows you to essentially play up and down the fretboard with you fingers locked in the same position and bang out a song. this is how i broke my teeth on the guitar, jamming my fingers into one position and playing punk rock powerchords with my buddy on the drums until my fingers bled.

[SZ James (banned)]

It took me like a year to beat Jordan on Expert.

[TANTRIC-NINJA]

I used to practice Guitar 6 hours a day growing up bc I was going to be the next Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker Neoclassical guitarist in a Prog-metal band and had to get the dexterity for clean sweeping appregios.. Looking back I would have been homeless if I moved to LA to attend Musician's Institute which I was a bus ticket away from but had a friend back out on me last second.

After melting my brain learning Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover and being able to play it in time I realized how far away I was from being the next anything.

To answer the question... With you tube videos and tabulature all on the internet the curve should be much shorter.

I mean I tought I was incredible the first month when I busted out Iron Man, Sweet Leaf and Paranoid from Sabbath... Just the main riffs.

[TheRumGone]

I mean I tought I was incredible the first month when I busted out Iron Man, Sweet Leaf and Paranoid from Sabbath... Just the main riffs.

 

exactly and then you put on jimi or dimebag poo and your like omg i'm never going to be good. that's when i just started jamming with friends for fun and stopped caring how good i was or wanted to be.

[Doyle]

I would learn on an acoustic to build your hand strength.  I wish I could have stuck with it longer.  I played everyday for 10 years and then just lost interest.  You will get decent fairly quickly but you will stay decent for a long time before getting any better.  This will frustrate the hell out of you.

[Proudiddy]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I've tried a couple of times to learn since I was a teen, using tabs and such, but I always ended up quitting because I felt like such a loser trying to play along with songs and it sounded nothing like what was coming out of the speakers. Then, I'd get a portion down of one song through tabs and thought I was ready to step it up, then I'd pull up the tabs on "Little Wing" and discovered that Jimi (as most guitarists do) used his thumb as well as his fingers to play, and it felt impossible, so I'd give up again.

I never learned chords or anything, I just went straight to tabs, so perhaps that's why I always ended up quitting. I really want to learn now though and just have fun with it, whether its doing covers or just making stuff up with friends.

[hepcat]

Also is this guy good? This is one of my favorite bass lines

 

He looks like an alright player but he's playing a shitty bass

[hepcat]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I've tried a couple of times to learn since I was a teen, using tabs and such, but I always ended up quitting because I felt like such a loser trying to play along with songs and it sounded nothing like what was coming out of the speakers. Then, I'd get a portion down of one song through tabs and thought I was ready to step it up, then I'd pull up the tabs on "Little Wing" and discovered that Jimi (as most guitarists do) used his thumb as well as his fingers to play, and it felt impossible, so I'd give up again.

I never learned chords or anything, I just went straight to tabs, so perhaps that's why I always ended up quitting. I really want to learn now though and just have fun with it, whether its doing covers or just making stuff up with friends.

 

I know zcustom said don't get a teacher but I disagree.  If you're a total newbie and don't have any foundation in music, I'd get one.  So find a teacher you like, start taking regular lessons, and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE.  Practice every day every chance you get.  Once you've taken a few lessons and gotten some fundamentals in your head, youtube videos will help take you further.  It's definitely easier to start when you're younger, mainly because you have more free time, but not impossible to start as an adult.  Just takes more work and determination.  Don't start with Jimi songs, start small.  Baby steps.  The first song I learned was Good Riddance by Green Day.  Simple song with an easy strumming pattern, and enough chords to be a challenge for a newbie.  Once you get a teacher, the best way to get the most from them is to know what you want to learn.  Know what style you want to play, what songs you want to learn.  

 

BOTTOM LINE IS PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!!!!!!!!  BTW - most tabs are wrong anyway.  Better to learn songs by ear.

[natty]

It depends on how passionate you are for learning and practicing.  If you have to force yourself to practice then you aren't very passionate for learning how to play, and it'll probably take you a long time.  I learning when I was 14 and was insanely dedicated to learning how to play.  Every time I'd walk into my room I was going straight for the guitar and I learned very quickly.  

 

Hepcat is right, don't try to start playing Jimi right away, you'll just get frustrated.  I had been playing a few years before I learned how to play Little Wing and the thumb thing came to me easily.  

[Herbert The Love Bug]

It takes 10 years of practice time to master the guitar

[Proudiddy]

So, I went and bought a new entry-level (obviously) H/S/S Squier Strat w/ Tremolo.  I already had a 10W amp, and I'm ready to go...  I'm really determined to learn this time because I plan on starting my children in music lessons sometime in the next year, so I hope to be a source of inspiration as well as a resource for them when they get into it.

 

So, I'm thinking about trying to start without formal guitar lessons from a teacher...  Instead, I'm trying to start with resources on the internet and if I run into anything I can't completely wrap my mind around, then I'll acquiesce to lessons.

 

My question is, have any of you used or heard of http://www.justinguitar.com/ before?

 

If you haven't heard of it before, if any of you experienced players get a chance, would you mind checking it out and letting me know what you think?  He apparently has great reviews and the lessons are completely free.  Do you think that's a solid place to start for me?

 

Only thing I'm curious about is that it starts directly with learning chords but, it doesn't actually go over music theory starting out (reading sheet music, staffs, etc.).  Is that typical?

 

 

[Doyle]

So, I went and bought a new entry-level (obviously) H/S/S Squier Strat w/ Tremolo.  I already had a 10W amp, and I'm ready to go...  I'm really determined to learn this time because I plan on starting my children in music lessons sometime in the next year, so I hope to be a source of inspiration as well as a resource for them when they get into it.

 

So, I'm thinking about trying to start without formal guitar lessons from a teacher...  Instead, I'm trying to start with resources on the internet and if I run into anything I can't completely wrap my mind around, then I'll acquiesce to lessons.

 

My question is, have any of you used or heard of http://www.justinguitar.com/ before?

 

If you haven't heard of it before, if any of you experienced players get a chance, would you mind checking it out and letting me know what you think?  He apparently has great reviews and the lessons are completely free.  Do you think that's a solid place to start for me?

 

Only thing I'm curious about is that it starts directly with learning chords but, it doesn't actually go over music theory starting out (reading sheet music, staffs, etc.).  Is that typical?

 

Thats a good place to start.  For a few months you really should be only be practicing your basic chords and scales.  After your hand strength and coordination start to come together you can start learning songs.  The biggest thing is don't try and tackle songs above your level.  If you do you will become extremely frustrated and if that happens and you set it down for a while you may never pick it back up.

[Proudiddy]

Thats a good place to start.  For a few months you really should be only be practicing your basic chords and scales.  After your hand strength and coordination start to come together you can start learning songs.  The biggest thing is don't try and tackle songs above your level.  If you do you will become extremely frustrated and if that happens and you set it down for a while you may never pick it back up.

 

Yeah, that was my problem before.  Because I love music so much, I immediately would pick up the guitar and turn on some Jimi and think I should magically be able to play exactly what I was hearing by osmosis, lol.  Obviously, what I was playing sounded like pure crap, I'd get frustrated because I wasn't able to play anything close to it already, and then I would just give up ever being able to learn it.

 

The guy at Guitar Center actually gave me a lot of encouragement as well though...  He was saying how a lot of retirees come in there in their 50s and start just because they have nothing else to do.  He said a guy like that had come in a month ago and then came back a week later for some stuff and was showing them how he was going through the chords and such already, lol.  So, I'm trying to be patient and work my way up this time.