- This topic has 8 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 1 week, 6 days ago by
.
-
Topic
-
I’m a senior(73), and only learning for 14mos. The learning journey has been steep. I will not detail at what stage I’ve attained, but my chromatic scales are very comfortable, my pentatonics have developed to be really easy, my near memorization of the fret board is there, and my understanding of CAGED chords is near fluid.
My topic of “Fog Lifting” refers to … realizing that I can choose any fret on the neck and proceed to in-beat march up and down the major diatonic chromatic scales, hitting the right intervals and naming each note correctly. Tomorrow I’ll attempt to experiment with minor diatonic scales in the same way… I know this step (accomplishment) is “giggling” to many… but it was fog-lifting to me. (pressing a fret and subconsciously knowing what note it is … is confidence building.) Hopes this encourages other beginners. (David… Louisiana)
-
Replies
-
-
David,
A lot of players never bother to learn more than the notes of the 5th and 6th strings (of course, not AM members!) so don’t minimize your accomplishment. I’m a firm believer that any knowledge of the fret board is good knowledge and multiple perspectives are useful. Congratulations and keep going, your progress sounds impressive.
John -
-
Man, I wish I had progressed so far on the theory side in my first year-and-a-bit of playing. To quote an old song, “I wasted something I never saw, only knew that I had: Time…”. I’m very happy for you David! 👍
Yeah Mark!! The Pink Floyd song “Time” spells it out pretty good!!
-
Sal, I do love that Pink Floyd song but actually that snippet was from a very obscure song on an equally obscure 1970 album ‘Morning’, by a very obscure LA band of the same name. Superb record, I still play it when I need an uplift; it gets better as I get older 🙂
The album’s well worth tracking down, having been reissued a few times. Here’s a link to “Time”, I was amazed to find someone had posted the whole album on YouTube:
-
-
David I am 73 years myself. I visited my cousin 5 years ago, for whom I hadn’t seen for him maybe 45 or 50 years. an accomplished musician for over 40 years. long story short he gave me an Epiphone Les Paul’s, and this is where my journey was reenergized and today collaborating with him and finding my way musically today with the lessons from Active Melody have catapulted me into now writing my own music. So, keep at it because we are never too old or too young.
BobbyD
-
You speak the truth, Bobby. Age has little to do with our guitar playing ability or potential, unless you have some kind of physical injury. Most of us AM members are old men, as judged by society. And yet, look how many of us have become accomplished guitarists, thanks to Brian’s lessons. So we need to stop apologizing for our age. I’ll never be able to play super fast like a heavy metal shredder, but I’m pretty sure I could not have even when I was 20 years old. Some people are just born with faster reaction times than others. So we learn what our limitations are and do the best with what we are capable of.
Sunjamr Steve
-
-
-
Wow David, that’s amazing. I’m at it 4 years, and don’t even know what some of the terms you used in your original post are. Very impressive. And oh, yeah, I’m going to look up those terms, and find out. (Diatonic, Diatonic chromatic).
And BTW, I’m going to be 73 in a few months. I’m learning that it doesn’t matter. And that we septagenarians are not the minority here, which is great lol.Never Stop Learning. Ever.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
