How long did it take you to be good?

[Stewie]

ive been playing guitar since the end summer, and i was expecting to be pretty good by now (by pretty good i mean playing some songs complete). im okay i guess but i have trouble playing fulls songs and stuff like that. to be honest, i dont practice too too much, but still i thought i'd pick it up by now. the only thing i can really do, is solo when my teacher tells me what scales to play off and stuff like that.

whatever... i'll buy a great guitar that will inspire me to be good....

[AdamCU81]

1042 hours, 13 minutes, 26 seconds

[alphatabs]

well, i played trombone thoughout grade school and have put it down for now. having the prior music expirence helped me a lot. i would say it took about a year and a half for me to become quite smooth with guitar. i would credit this to one thing...practice. you have to practice ALL the time to become great at it. people who see practice as a struggle to do will not succede in such a feild because it becomes a headache ya know? if you've played since end summer i would say keep at it. one day, you'll be practicing and it will be like WOW, and everything seems understandable. it's hard at first, but it's rewarding. just work at your own pace. also, yes i have found a nicer guitar helps motivate someone better :) but then again, anythings nicer than what i started with: Johnson Black Dreadnaught, that thing is similar to plywood.

[werkinsnake]

I've been playing the saxophone since I was 10. I've played throughout grade, middle, and high school, but did not actually start taking it seriously until I was about 18. Up until then, I never felt that I was "talented" enough to take it seriously. In about late 2000, a friend (and fellow saxophonist) introduced me to DMB and subsequently Leroi Moore. I was completely blown away by his style, and discovered that a saxophonist could be a vital part of a rock band. I listened to him over and over and over again, and started reading up on technique and music theory. In a matter of months, I had a good musical foundation in which I was able to build upon. Now I work and tour with a funky rock band and do studio work with other bands who ask. People always tell me that they enjoy my playing, but I always hear things that I feel I can improve upon. I imagine that I'll always find new tricks and techniques to work with, and though I can keep up with Leroi now, I will never say that I can surpass him. So the moral of the story is keep on working. If you enjoy listening to, and playing music, you WILL become good. If I did it (believe me I used to suck) so can you.

[Dancing Ants]

ive been playing guitar since the end summer, and i was expecting to be pretty good by now (by pretty good i mean playing some songs complete). im okay i guess but i have trouble playing fulls songs and stuff like that. to be honest, i dont practice too too much, but still i thought i'd pick it up by now. the only thing i can really do, is solo when my teacher tells me what scales to play off and stuff like that.

whatever... i'll buy a great guitar that will inspire me to be good....

honestly..you sound like you don't care much.

i've been playing two years...practice AT LEAST 30 minutes a day..AT LEAST. and getting a good guitar ain't gonna help...sure, it'll look pretty, but it won't do shit if you don't know how to play it.

[DMDream]

1042 hours, 13 minutes, 26 seconds
Sweet, I only have 11 minutes and 8 seconds left until I'm good!

[Jamo52]

it took me a while to get good, but only a second to look good...just playin, im ugly and suck at the guitar...dont listen to me, lock your self in a room and dont come out until you can play the complete dave matthews band catelog thats the best advice i can offer

[Pat M]

About a year and a half to two years. (to be decent)

[|UAY| |)(V)|3]

I have been playing for about 4 months now (i played for about 2 years when iwas 7) i have about 6 or 7 dave songs down and some other ones...im gonna start taking lessons to get a little more serious once basketball season ends...i really really really wanna be good and practice as much as i can in my downtime

[Afoolsmistake]

ive been playing guitar since the end summer, and i was expecting to be pretty good by now (by pretty good i mean playing some songs complete). im okay i guess but i have trouble playing fulls songs and stuff like that. to be honest, i dont practice too too much, but still i thought i'd pick it up by now. the only thing i can really do, is solo when my teacher tells me what scales to play off and stuff like that.

whatever... i'll buy a great guitar that will inspire me to be good....
you sound stupid... practice if you want to be good, if not... you can be one of the dumbass 18 year olds playing a 4000 taylor using it to 3% of the guitars potential.. ( i always crinch at open mics when i see teens with really expensive guitars.. i suffered through college with a POS and learned. now 23 out of school, i still use the same guitar. all i can say is GROW UP..)

[greenpick41]

you sound stupid... practice if you want to be good, if not... you can be one of the dumbass 18 year olds playing a 4000 taylor using it to 3% of the guitars potential.. ( i always crinch at open mics when i see teens with really expensive guitars.. i suffered through college with a POS and learned. now 23 out of school, i still use the same guitar. all i can say is GROW UP..)
Why?

[alphatabs]

you sound stupid... practice if you want to be good, if not... you can be one of the dumbass 18 year olds playing a 4000 taylor using it to 3% of the guitars potential.. ( i always crinch at open mics when i see teens with really expensive guitars.. i suffered through college with a POS and learned. now 23 out of school, i still use the same guitar. all i can say is GROW UP..)

yeah, i dig what you're saying about the dumbasses. i've seen my share. but you shouldn't call the guy stupid, that's very discouraging. and he's not stupid.

[unccrombie]

some people are slow learners too, ie me. 2 years this past december

[Martial14]

haha, this is kinda pathetic. I'm not a guitar player (I play the drums), but you say you don't practice and ask how long it will take you to become a good player? Thats just amazing... Why don't you try putting some effort into it and then see where you are. I've been playing for 12-13 years and I am good. Either practice, or stop wasting money on lessons and expensive intruments that you can't use. People have no patience anymore.

If you do decide to put any effort into it, then good luck. If you don't, then its what you get.

[youneverno41]

ive always had a thing for music, so it didnt take too long...but i have a friend who was god awful about a year ago, and with some inspiration and practice, you will progress so fast you wont even knnow it

[Dancing Ants]

yeah, i dig what you're saying about the dumbasses. i've seen my share. but you shouldn't call the guy stupid, that's very discouraging. and he's not stupid.

his last sentence was pure stupidity. i hope it was sarcasm.

[alphatabs]

his last sentence was pure stupidity. i hope it was sarcasm.

whatever motivates him. if he has to go out and buy a nice guitar to do that i say do it. it's not my money. :lol

[genesissccr22]

yea for me it was about 1 and a half or 2 years to be ok. and untill then it took forever to learn a full song. at one point i just took off, and started learning full songs left and right.

[Stewie]

you sound stupid... practice if you want to be good, if not... you can be one of the dumbass 18 year olds playing a 4000 taylor using it to 3% of the guitars potential.. ( i always crinch at open mics when i see teens with really expensive guitars.. i suffered through college with a POS and learned. now 23 out of school, i still use the same guitar. all i can say is GROW UP..)

haha take it easy. im sorry if i offended the guitar gods...

and by dont practice i mean what my teacher gives me. i dont go over the songs and the little time excercises, but everytime i am at the computer or watching tv i have a guitar in my hand. my point being, i simply just dont sit down in a chair and practice what he gives me.

my dumbass is going back to doing homework...

thanks everyone who responded without name calling

[dmb6743]

and by dont practice i mean what my teacher gives me. i dont go over the songs and the little time excercises, but everytime i am at the computer or watching tv i have a guitar in my hand. my point being, i simply just dont sit down in a chair and practice what he gives me.


i've been playing for about 4 years, and i really only did that during my first 2 years. after that, i just kinda didn't care about the technical stuff (not saying that you shouldn't) but i just felt that i had it down fairly well. now, i just care about getting through and entire song, which is quite difficult with my short attention span. you just gotta practice (not nessecarily the stuff your teacher gives you), but if you want to get good, and be good, it's just not gonna happen over night if you get an expensive guitar, you have to practice.

[bigeyedharper]

good is subjective. i mean, i can play all dmb but i don't think i'm good. thats the thing about guitar, you never really consider yourself good because there is always someone significantly better

[stevo]

the thing about the guitar is that you'll always want to be better. "good" is something you continuously aspire towards.

[PilotC150]

haha take it easy. im sorry if i offended the guitar gods...

and by dont practice i mean what my teacher gives me. i dont go over the songs and the little time excercises, but everytime i am at the computer or watching tv i have a guitar in my hand. my point being, i simply just dont sit down in a chair and practice what he gives me.

my dumbass is going back to doing homework...

thanks everyone who responded without name calling
There's a reason he's giving you those exercises. They are to help you get better. You are only short-changing yourself and wasting your own money if you don't do what your teacher tells you to.

[YknSTONE]

the thing about the guitar is that you'll always want to be better. "good" is something you continuously aspire towards.


This gets my vote for "Musicians forum post of the year" :thumbsup

[Play_Like_Fonz]

I've been playing for almost 5 yrs now w/ lessons every week, and I practice every day. It seems likea long time but it really isn't. Instruments take a long time to master, and it generally doesn't happen over a few months. Stick with it tho because only practice will get you anywhere.

[guitplyr86]

i got my first real guitar when i was 6. i am now 18, still play every day. occasionally i'll get real distracted and lose track of time, play for a few hours. hate to tell ya buddy but it's gonna take more than a few months and a $2000 guitar to make you good. and you might wanna try listening to your teacher and practicing. :BANG

[alphatabs]

For Sale: Three Years guitar expirence. Mastery of scales, riffs, and the like. Other techniques include tuning and string guitar, cleaning, care, and a vocabulary of 172 songs. Only costs your soul + 25 shipping.

:lol c'mon, you won't use it!

[deuceman2003]

I've been playing about a year now, and your improvement comes in spurts. If you keep practicing songs or riffs or exercises that seem difficult, one day you'll be surprised you can play it. Basically, I haven't had a lesson on guitar and that is definately hurting my technique, but I've been studying music for 5 years.

Anyway, like everyone else here says: PRACTICE and then practice some more

[Dancing Ants]

For Sale: Three Years guitar expirence. Mastery of scales, riffs, and the like. Other techniques include tuning and string guitar, cleaning, care, and a vocabulary of 172 songs. Only costs your soul + 25 shipping.

:lol c'mon, you won't use it!

not unless you've mastered tremolo picking.

[Dancing Ants]

I've been playing about a year now, and your improvement comes in spurts. If you keep practicing songs or riffs or exercises that seem difficult, one day you'll be surprised you can play it. Basically, I haven't had a lesson on guitar and that is definately hurting my technique, but I've been studying music for 5 years.

Anyway, like everyone else here says: PRACTICE and then practice some more

yep. since early december, i have noted a sharp spike in my "goodness".

[alphatabs]

not unless you've mastered tremolo picking.

okay, you can have tremolo picking, but it's gonna cost ya an extra liver.

[Dancing Ants]

okay, you can have tremolo picking, but it's gonna cost ya an extra liver.

son of a vondruke. ....ok.

[werkinsnake]

For Sale: Three Years guitar expirence. Mastery of scales, riffs, and the like. Other techniques include tuning and string guitar, cleaning, care, and a vocabulary of 172 songs. Only costs your soul + 25 shipping.

:lol c'mon, you won't use it!
I'll take three.:devil

[bstorey]

I've played for 9 years now, hours and hours a day (it fluctuates, sometimes I'll only play for an hour; others it'll be 6, just depends), and I'd say I'm a mediocre guitar player at best. Of course, it all depends on your definition of "good," but becoming "good" at an instrument requires real dedication. I'd say it took me a couple years before I could play full songs, etc... Took me about 5 years before I could play/sing with any confidence.

[defcon]

I've played for 9 years now, hours and hours a day (it fluctuates, sometimes I'll only play for an hour; others it'll be 6, just depends), and I'd say I'm a mediocre guitar player at best. Of course, it all depends on your definition of "good," but becoming "good" at an instrument requires real dedication. I'd say it took me a couple years before I could play full songs, etc... Took me about 5 years before I could play/sing with any confidence.
Same for me, almost to the word. I think there's a difference between being "good" at guitar and mastering it...guitar is an easy instrument to learn, but one of the hardest to master. You see everyone walking around playing 5ths or D-C-G chords and they think they are the hottest guitar player ever. Ask alot of them to play some scales and they shit themselves. I'm not saying power chords and the key of G are bad, but overly common.

I don't know alot of the songs people want to hear - like stairway, under the bridge, etc...I don't know them by heart per se, I can play part of the way through them but I really need the sheet music in front of me to play them. I can play any song with time. I kinda get peeved at myself and people when they request certain songs, first at myself for not knowing them, and then at them for not wanting to hear my stuff. I'm more of an artistic type of guitar player, I'm introspective and mainly just play for myself, I set poetry to music and a few people like to hear me play. I love singing and playing my own songs when asked, because they come natural to me because they came from me.

[kracker]

Personally, i don't think it's so important to learn how to play a bunch of songs. Sure, learning certain songs may help u to become more familiar with certain chords and some different techniques like slides and hammer-ons and pull-offs, but once u get all that down u should try to focus more makin up your own stuff and just jammin. one of my favorite things to do is just sit there and improvise for hours.... it'll take some time to become familiar enough with the guitar to be able to do all that, but it's a lot more fun and a lot more rewarding. the best way to get started doing that is to learn your scales and once you know them pretty well just start playin around with different notes within that scale. once u get good at that u can start adding chords and all sorts of things. just have fun with it and practice!:)

[Play_Like_Fonz]

so like....ive been playing since like noon, and like I still am having trouble, wtf?
give me till noon tomorrow and ill be a lil reynolds, just you wait







;) I already added my serious post to this thread.

[jrh312]

you said you had hoped to have some songs learned the whole way through by now. But what kind of songs are you trying to play? If you're trying to play DMB stuff, there are very few, if any, that you'll be able to play the whole way through with just a few months under your belt. I've been playing for about 8 years and I still don't consider myself good. I can play about half of the DMB catalog (working on the rest of it for this time next year though), a lot of "guitar god" stuff (i.e. Satriani, Vai, Clapton), and I can improvise well. I'm happy that I'm able to do this finally because a lot of this stuff was part of my goal when I first started playing, but I'm still not going to consider myself "good." The reason? The minute I call myself good is the minute that I stop aspiring to be better.

My advice to you is to just give it some time, practice what you WANT to learn (I've never taken a lesson because I didn't like the idea of playing "Little Brown Jug" or something similar 85,000 times a week just to get a chord progression down) and that'll help you get your technique in order. I'm not saying to blow off your teacher or his/her exercies, but just keep in mind that's not all you can be practicing and, in reality, playing something you want to learn is way more fun than something you're forced to learn. Either way, don't give up, and I wouldn't buy a real expensive guitar until you're sure you want to stick with it. Good luck!

[bustdstuff]

You should hear eric(h) do stream. That will motivate you. ;)