Being a beginner: My experience and perspective!

Alicia Willis said:

Thank you so much for posting this !

I am a beginner and you hit the nail on the head when you said that intermediate and advanced players sort of forget what it’s like.
As a beginner, I was so scared to ask questions because I felt they were stupid or other people wouldn’t understand why I couldn’t do something so easy. However, everyone here is beyond amazing with answering any questions I’ve ever had.

I also loved how you talked about learning how to hold the bow for your cello. It’s the same with learning how to hold a pick. I was holding my pick wrong for awhile as many students were and something so simple can change your playing drastically.

Also, loved the 15 minutes mention. I try to practice at least that much.
I find when I practice for long periods at once I tend to get very overwhelmed and honestly pissed off to the point I won’t want to play for a few days.

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Jesse Salmons said:

Sweet video man. Honestly, my experience as a beginner was that of a kid in the 70’s (kind of) when i started the internet was just starting to (almost) get to the point where it is now (circa 2010-11) and honest to god i had to learn from watching my favorite players play live on youtube (from like, Led zeppelin in the 70s(TSRTS) to avenged in the early 00’s) and playing along with my jimi hendrix CD’s. I am entirely self taught up until i came to this website, and my ear developed rather quickly (figuring out riffs) and melodies always stuck in my head. Anymore im to the point where i can roughly play/figure out a song just by listening to it, and only use tabs really for solos. Also, being comfortable with a guitar and pick always came natural, probably bc of all those old Zeppelin videos i watched giving me the mojo of jimmy page i even played bass for a while, so that gave me a good sense of rhythm early on in my playing. There’s a lot of things i wouldve done different given if i wouldve had a teacher, but honestly im at the point i am now for a reason and i love it.

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Jesse Salmons said:

Yeah that makes sense. And the only thing i can tell you to better develop your ear, is to not only play a large variety of music, but listen to a large variety as well. And dont just listen to the song, but “listen” to it. Are they playing notes in a scale that you recognize? What chords are they playing, and what scales work over those chords? The biggest thing it comes down to is just play man, and study theory

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Dominik Gräber The Great said:

Awesome video! I can agree with you about being a beginner and quite honestly, although I play since 2015 only this site and especially the last few months put me in a position in which I start to feel like an actual musician and guitarist. I can't really tell how hard it is as a beginner to ask questions but I can imagine. I was on the school since day one more or less and quickly discovered the open mindedness of this school is I was always comfortable to ask questions.
For me it was more being overwhelmed, cause I didn't understand the connectections on the guitar. Getting into theory, scales and chords really opened my eyes.

It was a real pain in the ass to try and find good tabs for a song, learning it bit by bit without understanding what you actually do and without the practice to get it down quickly. I see exactly that with my brother, who just gave the guitar another shot. He wants to learn a new lick of a song but his fingers aren't quick enough. I learn it within three minutes but he has to sit there for days. I guess no ones journey is easy, you know what I am talking about, you just picked up a freakin new instrument! But I am incredibly thankfull for this school cause it allows us to give and get advice, make friends and grow as musicians and as a community.

PS.: Don't let @Christian J.S. Schulze Aguiar see that Ghoul mask, he might steal it. lol

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chris_is_cool said:

When I started a couple of months ago, for the first weeks i physically couldn't play for more than five minutes per day, my fingers would just hurt too much. I didn't have much hope that I could possibly ever be able to really play guitar at that point.

Then, after my calluses finally built up and my finger dexterity and strength got a bit better, I suffered from an immense lack of direction. I thought, hey, let's learn Nothing Else Matters, that's supposed to be easy, right? Then I would get discouraged after watching youtube lessons and discovering just how much is going on in that supposed beginner song. Similar stuff with other songs. Luckily, I had some solid music theory foundation from learning trumpet as a child/teen, but that didn't help me at all at improving my guitar techniques.

Getting a real life teacher was the biggest help in focussing my direction, choosing songs based on how much I like them and what they can teach me. Now, after about 4 months, I'm finally getting some confidence, I can already make some cool sounds come out of the instrument, have a couple of songs in my "repertoire" (some of them not even close to full speed, but it's recognizable) and I can feel making weekly improvements. I can finally see that, with solid practice and enough time, I can be the guitarist that I want to be.

Anyway, that's my current thoughts about being a beginner.

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