I'm taking the leap! Better late than never I guess.

War_in_D

War_in_D

Well-known member
I'm 110% self taught. Starting playing when I was about 16, and I'm 53 now. I was able to devote a lot more time to guitar up until I hit my mid/late 20's and then life kind of got in the way. At my peak and when I was playing all the time, my ear was pretty decent and I could figure out some stuff on my own. I would have considered myself a competent guitar player and if you handed me a bunch of songs and I could find the tab for them I could bang them out in no time. The problem was that if you put me in with a group of real musicians and they said, we're going to play in the key of G... I got that deer in the headlights look, and I was usually pretty lost... and forget about improvising. Wasn't going to happen.

One of, if not the greatest regret I have, was that I never took formal lessons and never studied any kind of music theory. At least not seriously. I'm not completely ignorant of music theory, but my understanding would be considered "beginner" at best. The other day, I was going through Youtube and I saw this "One hour of basic music theory" video by Rick Beato. Love or hate the guy, I do enjoy his videos and he seems to really know his stuff. Anyway, I learned more about music theory in that one hour video that I have in 30+ years of playing (or trying to play) guitar.

So tonight, I signed up for his courses. He was running a special, and it was just a little over $100 for all four. So, I guess I'll be working on some of that stuff and hopefully gaining a better understanding of the instrument. Yeah, it's probably about 35 years too late... but better late than never, right! LOL
 
Nice, Ive thought about getting some of his material but the reality is I still have other material I've bought that never got finished. I still have the old CAGED system book from another lifetime ago that I only got halfway thru. So I encourage you to keep at it even when you hit that wall.

Regarding improvising, I think a lot of that is actually doing it, actually playing with other people. Look at bluegrass players, most of them are total shredders without a lick of theory. But tons of jamming with others. Just adding the mixolydian (aka dominant) mode to the major and minor keys covers almost everything.
 
As I've gotten older, I've discovered that I'm much more of a visual learner. I've tried books, but have a lot of trouble staying engaged and get either bored or frustrated with it easily. I think that's why that video resonated with me so much and rekindled the flame in my to try this again. Rick used to teach college level music courses, so he's got that teaching mentality which I think helps a lot as well.

Now, it'll just be on me to stick with it and actually put in the time.
 
Awesome! I love theory . It helps a lot . What’s cool is when you do something wrong by the book and like it you then can make that and remember why you like it . So many unique ways to use theory . The modes will change everything for you .
 
311splawndude said:
Let me know what you think.
I may follow suit.
I know jack shit about guitar.
Click to expand...
Check this out, this is the video I watched. If this gets you fired up, then it might be for you! LOL

Looks like he extended the sign up period. When I signed up the other day, there was only like a day left. Probably runs the "special" all the time. LOL

 
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