Off Topic How many years....

[DrKev]

When you can measure the time you spend practising in terms of thousands of hours, rather than hundreds, then you are on the road to some of the higher levels of proficiency. And remember, one solid hour of practice, 6 days per week, for three years, gets you just over 1000 hours. It's a lot of work. To get to the highest levels of proficiency, you'd be aiming for 10,000 hours. That would be thirty years of practice, at one hour per day, six days out of seven. And practice isn't all you need. There is no substitute for actually playing music, developing your ear and abilities by playing with and reacting to other musicians of a higher level than you are.

Here's another truth - no matter how long you play, you'll never get to where you want to be. To me that's not a disadvantage, that's one of the joys of the guitar. There is always something new to learn, always a new direction to explore, always new music to discover, and that's more important to me that my state of my technical abilities at any one time.

 

[kbaim]

If you can play DT stuff, go ahead and give composing a try. Its ok to sound like guitarists you admire. Fame is out of reach of most of us so dont forget its not only the music you make, but the people you meet along the way because you happen to play guitar

 

[ScreaminFloyd]

10,000 hours. Even then you still learn.

 

[JDguitar]

Any recommendations?

Wow, where does one begin with Morse recommendations? Tumeni Notes is definitely a great exercise in picking. Steve considers himself a composer more than he does a guitarist and therefore all is material is great to work on. It will teach you to play melodies and you will pick up some great song writing skills. I really like listening to his CD Out Standing in Their Field that he put out a few years ago. It's been in constant rotation in my car since it came out.

Although he has so many other great pieces of work...The Introduction, Ice Cakes, On the Pipe, Ghostwind, Highland Wedding,
Simple Simon, Vista Grande, Sacred Ground, Rising Power...the list goes on.

 

[Spudmurphy]

My first musical instrument was the recorder. It taught me how to read music I could then play anything "by ear".

I then moved onto the trombone and played in the school band and Welsh youth orchestra - had to read music for the trombone, and couldn't play much by ear. Both these instruments play one note at a time. Then I started guitar - formal lessons but couldn't be bothered to get my head around reading the dotsand reading multiple notes for guitar. Within 2 years I had progressed to a stage where I had learnt enough material to play in a covers band.

I still to this cannot read guitar music and wish that I could play instantly what I hear in my head. I wish that I could improvise a lot better than I do. Oh well I retire in 5 years and will have more to time to spend on this.

I am astounded at tapping technique shown by some members.

 

[fbecir]

Hello

Do you want to be a good guitarist ? or a good MUSICIAN ?

A lot of guitarists spend too much time practicing scales in their bedroom and not enough time practicing with a band ... (I can tell you, it's what I did during so many years !).
Steve Morse is a great guitarist ... but also a great composer and a great musician. When he plays, he is perfectly "locked" with the other band members. People will not count the notes you play but will detect if you are not perfectly on the beat.

Personally, my guitar technique does not improve anymore. I am not a fast player and I will never be. But my musicianship still improves. When I play with my band, I feel that my playing is better (well sometimes, ... other times it is not so good ).
But with the years, the main improvement is the capacity to play everything and to improvise. My first inspiration was Iron Maiden, but after a few years, I felt that I was always playing the same stuff. Thus, I started to play classical guitar, folk guitar, after that I discovered Jazz ... and so on. A few years ago, I discovered slide guitar ... now I have always a bottleneck with me . I am sure you play much faster than I do ... but will you able to play with me if I play a bossa nova ?

My advice : play in a band (or in several bands). Even if this band is not playing the style of music you love (DT in your case). During a few years, I played in a big band (4 trumpets, saxophone, leslie organ, piano, trombone, ...). Not the music I listen to, but I learned a lot (we played a lot of concerts : always a good experience) and also it was a lot of fun !

Good luck with your quest

 

[Tim O'Sullivan]

I have been playing for 25 years now, and I suppose I was at a good enough level to gig after 2 years or so of daily playing.

I can't read a note, and I don't even know what the notes are called on the guitar for the most part. However, almost from the beginning I have played with other people and I am very satisfied that I can pick up songs very quickly and jam with more or less anyone in any given situation. I can't do all the widdly fast stuff, but I am happy that I can hold my own.

I had a playing breakthrough around 5 years ago where I felt my playing really had advanced. You can sit at home emulating your hero, but where it happens is when you play with other people especially if you are out of your comfort zone.

 

[ohdamnitsdevin]

When you can measure the time you spend practising in terms of thousands of hours, rather than hundreds, then you are on the road to some of the higher levels of proficiency. And remember, one solid hour of practice, 6 days per week, for three years, gets you just over 1000 hours. It's a lot of work. To get to the highest levels of proficiency, you'd be aiming for 10,000 hours. That would be thirty years of practice, at one hour per day, six days out of seven. And practice isn't all you need. There is no substitute for actually playing music, developing your ear and abilities by playing with and reacting to other musicians of a higher level than you are.

Here's another truth - no matter how long you play, you'll never get to where you want to be. To me that's not a disadvantage, that's one of the joys of the guitar. There is always something new to learn, always a new direction to explore, always new music to discover, and that's more important to me that my state of my technical abilities at any one time.

Interesting, I've had a lot of feedback on other forums (r/guitar on reddit) where a lot of people subscribed to the same train of thought behind the 10,000 hour concept. I have many, many, many more hours ahead of me. -___-

 

[ohdamnitsdevin]

Wow, where does one begin with Morse recommendations? Tumeni Notes is definitely a great exercise in picking. Steve considers himself a composer more than he does a guitarist and therefore all is material is great to work on. It will teach you to play melodies and you will pick up some great song writing skills. I really like listening to his CD Out Standing in Their Field that he put out a few years ago. It's been in constant rotation in my car since it came out.

Although he has so many other great pieces of work...The Introduction, Ice Cakes, On the Pipe, Ghostwind, Highland Wedding,
Simple Simon, Vista Grande, Sacred Ground, Rising Power...the list goes on.

Thank you much! man... I really, REALLY miss my Y2D

 

[ohdamnitsdevin]

Hello

Do you want to be a good guitarist ? or a good MUSICIAN ?

A lot of guitarists spend too much time practicing scales in their bedroom and not enough time practicing with a band ... (I can tell you, it's what I did during so many years !).
Steve Morse is a great guitarist ... but also a great composer and a great musician. When he plays, he is perfectly "locked" with the other band members. People will not count the notes you play but will detect if you are not perfectly on the beat.

Personally, my guitar technique does not improve anymore. I am not a fast player and I will never be. But my musicianship still improves. When I play with my band, I feel that my playing is better (well sometimes, ... other times it is not so good ).
But with the years, the main improvement is the capacity to play everything and to improvise. My first inspiration was Iron Maiden, but after a few years, I felt that I was always playing the same stuff. Thus, I started to play classical guitar, folk guitar, after that I discovered Jazz ... and so on. A few years ago, I discovered slide guitar ... now I have always a bottleneck with me . I am sure you play much faster than I do ... but will you able to play with me if I play a bossa nova ?

My advice : play in a band (or in several bands). Even if this band is not playing the style of music you love (DT in your case). During a few years, I played in a big band (4 trumpets, saxophone, leslie organ, piano, trombone, ...). Not the music I listen to, but I learned a lot (we played a lot of concerts : always a good experience) and also it was a lot of fun !

Good luck with your quest

I've been asked to jam with a few bands but, I really lack the confidence required to play with other people. It's a really awkward feeling for me. I generally just put my iPod on and try and play along with the track. It's a whole different ball game when you can pause and rewind the whole band. Playing with people introduces so many different variables but, you're right. With the very limited experience I have playing with others I can say it did bring a lot more to the table. If I could put it into an analogy, and a poor one at that, ill use a pot pielaying at home is like the top crusty layer. One of my favorite parts of a pot pie might I add. Playing with other people is like the meat and potatoes part of it. The stuff that really fills you up! Both are good but, the insides are really hot at first. You have to wait for it to cool down to dig in! The crust however, you can eat straight away. To me, the cooling off part is me building up my confidence. It's rather painful for me to dig in straight away. I don't want to end up with a burnt tounge. That is fun for no one. Haha

 

[billpepper82]

Never look on Youtube as there is always a 6 year old who can play better than Satch and it is soul destroying!

yes this, on the other hand I learned how to tune my guitar by ear and was on top of the World with thrill of accomplishment

 

[lukeuser78]

Im never happy, thats what keeps me going!
I have gone from trying to be a copy of my favourite players to now just playing what i want to sound like and being able to excute anything i want as flawless as possible.
I think you get to the stage you know who you are and what youre going to be and then its a case of moulding yourself around yourself.

 

[ScoobySteve]

I've been asked to jam with a few bands but, I really lack the confidence required to play with other people. It's a really awkward feeling for me. I generally just put my iPod on and try and play along with the track. It's a whole different ball game when you can pause and rewind the whole band. Playing with people introduces so many different variables but, you're right. With the very limited experience I have playing with others I can say it did bring a lot more to the table. If I could put it into an analogy, and a poor one at that, ill use a pot pielaying at home is like the top crusty layer. One of my favorite parts of a pot pie might I add. Playing with other people is like the meat and potatoes part of it. The stuff that really fills you up! Both are good but, the insides are really hot at first. You have to wait for it to cool down to dig in! The crust however, you can eat straight away. To me, the cooling off part is me building up my confidence. It's rather painful for me to dig in straight away. I don't want to end up with a burnt tounge. That is fun for no one. Haha

I know how you feel. But if playing with a band eventually is a goal, getting to it sooner is doing yourself a serious favor, on top of the fact that being with like-minded musicians who love to jam just pushes you more, both creatively, and out of your comfort zone.

Many famous rockers started out as bedroom warriors, and like yourself, got out playing live when they got the confidence. I played for about 3 years before I played before a meager group of 6 people, but ya'll start somewhere.

As nerve wracking as it sounds, mistakes are your best teacher. Goofing up will only make you better.

Plus... the energy of playing live, is intoxicating, to say the least. Good luck man.

 

[matty76]

I always found my playing ability increased drastically by forcing myself out there to play with like minded musicians. you would be surprised at the things you are capable of with a little motivation behind you. Most of the time mistakes are over and done with before anyone even notices they happened, being able to overcome mistakes is as mentioned, how we learn.
I used to suffer from anxiety bad as well, I didn't get over it until I forced myself out there to play in a band in front of people. most of the time by the end of the first song my anxiety subsides and I have a great time the rest of the night. It's a great feeling to overcome some of these obstacles.

 

[beefyslinky]

Any recommendations?

Buy a loop pedal. mine has helped me out tremendously in all aspects of my playing ability.

 

[Spudmurphy]

Buy a loop pedal. mine has helped me out tremendously in all aspects of my playing ability.

+1

If you get the TC electronics Flashback delay it has a basic looper too.
I have a dedicated looper and just lay down some chords and noodle over the top.
Sometimes I get carried away and end up with a zillion layers - but it's fun !!!

 

[KazJY]

It was years, and is still ongoing. I never really think of myself as "pretty darn good"

I always have a guitar magazine up on my music stand to try learning songs - and I try to learn the whole thing - whether it's back in the day with AC/DC or Metallica tunes, it's the way to go. that little segment is something to work on in a DT or Rush tune, for example (I can see the merits of learning a tough passage), but it's frustrating to not be able to pull out a tune when jamming because you don't know the whole thing.

I remember playing just parts of "Somebody Get me a Doctor" recently, and finally, it was like "I'm breaking my own rule! I gotta learn the whole thing!" and I still don't know the solo. We'll see, huh? haha.

Good thread.

 

[RJKANEAO]

Another great pedal you can check out that has a looper is the delay pedal by hardwire by Digitech.. I'm having one sent to me so I will give you y'all a review on it as soon as I get it. But how cool is that Loopers can now be put into your delay pedals oh what have you. As for the subject of this: I've never really thought about myself being good or even close to good. Growing up I was in a band since the age of 12 but I was not the guitarist I was always just a lead vocalist that played a little guitar. The guitarist in the band Was always rude and such real Butthead to me and seem to always be so jealous that he wanted to sing all the songs and play the guitar. But it was really hard for a guy who had probably the range of one octave. LOL I'm not trying to be mean but it's actually the truth. But I've never really thought about how well I played until I started to be able to do what I wanted on the guitar without having to overstrained and Eventually burnout or cram some lesson for weeks and weeks. I don't really think of myself as being a great guitarist but more so just someone who can say "just okay".. In deed I am no Petrucci or Morse But I do have my own thing and my Own style And that makes my music sort of a trademark for myself and my production.

 

[Roubster]

I must absolutely concur with either getting a looper pedal or just recording yourself. It is essential to practice rhythm and timing, because what may feel right to you may be totally off when you start playing with a drummer or a bass player. I havent actually done the recording thing for a very long time and I just got my Flashback x4.

It enables me to actually improvise over whatever chord changes I come up with. It makes you think and focus on proper timing and rhythm as well. You can have a simple loop going and start working with different scales and keys and get comfortable with every scale and key signature.

I have actually improved in a FEW days since I have been doing this! It enabled me to start harmonizing lines and actually hear it back not only theoretically. Harmonize in 4ths, 5ths, minor 3rds. It's great. I just rocorded a simple loop with a few cool chords, and once I started getting in the groove I recorded a little melody solo I improvised on top of it and it's totally inspired me to write a whole song around it. It's important to hear yourself play recorded to see what you are doing wrong so you can fix it.

I also recorded me and my drummers session yesterday and sometimes its really painful hearing it back, but I know what I need to work on.

And again try to play all kinds of different music, not just Petrucci.