# if you had to do it all over again..



## terminalvertigo (Jun 12, 2010)

Flash!









You've just lost everything you know about theory and technique..
You can still "play" the guitar... but you have no idea what you are doing!

How/would you do it different if you were given the chance to do it all again?


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## bzrkrage (Mar 20, 2011)

Practice. Without instruction at the beginning, just to work the guitar to the sound that I like.
Then, musical instructions, then, don't sign a contract at 19 so some soul-sucker has you by the musical short'n'curlies for 20 years.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)




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## Verne (Dec 29, 2018)

Not listen to my now ex-wife about how I spent too much time with my guitar and not enough with her. It caused me to put it down for many many years and not pick it up again until recently. Never listen to the negative people again.


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## FatStrat2 (Apr 7, 2021)

terminalvertigo said:


> You can still "play" the guitar... but you have no idea what you are doing!..


I think I'm still at this stage and probably always will be.


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## Grab n Go (May 1, 2013)

I'd go with Pat Martino's approach:

"Martino says he rediscovered the playfulness of the instrument. Martino says that when he is on stage, there is nothing else but the music -- equating relearning how to play the guitar to that of a child discovering and being fascinated with a new toy."

Pat Martino discusses relearning to play guitar after a near-fatal brain aneurysm left him with amnesia


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## terminalvertigo (Jun 12, 2010)

FatStrat2 said:


> I think I'm still at this stage and probably always will be.


I have no idea what you mean...


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## Wardo (Feb 5, 2010)

Shortly after high school I had a chance to buy a 1956 Gold Top for $1,200.

The owner of the store loaned it to me for two weeks and said you need to buy this guitar.

I should have listened to him and bought that guitar back then.


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

I don't have regrets technique wise. I always wanted to write songs and I've done a ton of that. I regret not being more decisive as far as who I played with though. I had chances to go on some tours and couldn't because of people in the band. I never wanted to be a rock star or anything, it would have been great to travel to some spots I hadn't been, while getting to play music the while time. Nowadays if I don't enjoy playing with someone, I just don't.

I never had any less fun playing because I wasn't a technical wizard on guitar though.


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

The first time around it was a matter of immersion, my family did music like some families do hockey. So, I'd probably hit the books with a tutor, applying the concepts on the instrument at the same time as learning them on paper, daily, several times.


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## Rollin Hand (Jul 12, 2012)

I would have learned more leads by other people. I was lazy and never wanted to put in the effort for that (did chromatics until I was blue in the face though). 

And I would have learned more blues.


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## bw66 (Dec 17, 2009)

terminalvertigo said:


> You can still "play" the guitar...


If I had to start again from scratch, I would also want this part to be erased. My physical technique is one of my many weak spots.


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## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

Rollin Hand said:


> I would have learned more leads by other people. I was lazy and never wanted to put in the effort for that (did chromatics until I was blue in the face though).
> 
> And I would have learned more blues.


What do you mean by this?
...I understand the blues part


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

as far as applying theory to guitar i would want to learn chords by notes in combination like a piano player does rather than by stock shapes

j


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## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

To be fair, I am doing this now. Having taken 20ish years off, I can still "play" the guitar, but I forget most anything of use outside, major and minor barre chords and the respective major and minor scales. I still have the "playable notes" for the lack of a better term in any given key... but man, I will be damned if I know what they are called.

I decided it is time to learn music theory on guitar, not guitar theory and some musicality.

Driving home tonight, I was going through all the major scale chord notations. It was amazing how slow I was and the fact I had to count them all 
I want to be learned in the music again and unfortunately the only way is to get back to memorizing.

I think to sum it up, I want an education, not to just get high as a kite and sound amazing although that was a lot of fun too!!


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## Permanent Waves (Jun 2, 2020)

I would find the right teacher and take lessons from the first day on to set me on the right path and not waste time. I waited 10 years to finally reach out to a good teacher and it was the biggest mistake I ever made. I had my reasons... 

When I started junior high, we had music lessons and I was assigned the clarinet. I always loved music and was so excited to have my chance to finally learn an instrument for the first time. I was seeing myself as the next Benny Goodman. The teacher was a drunk, burned-out stoner who generally taught hungover and had absolutely no structure or lesson plan - every lesson was always the exact same series of meaningless exercises. After 2 years of clarinet, I had learned 7 notes and the beginning of "Spinning Wheel". When I put the clarinet back in the case after the last class, I was relieved that it was the last time I would ever touch one. 

When I got interested in playing rock guitar about 2 years later, I doggedly insisted on doing it MY way and steadfastly refused to even risk having a bad guitar teacher ruin my love of the instrument. I learned by slowing down records, watching other players as much as I could - keep in mind this is 1983, even VHS is in its infancy and I am too young to go to bars to see older experienced players. I am learning the best way I can, by ear, and picking up tons of bad habits in the process. After about 10 years, I finally realized I could not play the way I needed to and reached out to a solid teacher who set me on the right path. 

Even a few good lessons early on can help eliminate years of frustration, and I paid for my stubbornness.


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## Rollin Hand (Jul 12, 2012)

Brunz said:


> What do you mean by this?
> ...I understand the blues part


I almost never tried to learn solos. It was just too much work even though it would have taught me so much.

Meanwhile, my buddy Pete had the solo from the live version of "Suicide Solution" down in a week.

Now when I think "I gotta learn that!" I don't have time.


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## Mark Brown (Jan 4, 2022)

Thanks for clearing that up.


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## mmurra55 (12 mo ago)

This is something I think about often. For me it would definitely be learn some music theory. My first teacher tried to get me doing a bit of theory but i was just a kid who wanted to play stairway to heaven and picked up none of it. Then when I got to the inevitable rut in playing pentatonic over everything I had no clue what to do and ended up not playing for a few years. When I picked it up again in my late 20s I made an effort to learn more theory and it has helped so much.


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## Derek_T (10 mo ago)

I would have started at age 5, and with more method and clear regiment.


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## Trimshaw (Oct 7, 2021)

If I had to start over, I'd like to say I'd learn more jazz and rockabilly/rock n roll as over the years that's where my musical taste has landed.


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## basscarter (Mar 11, 2016)

Started practicing again for the first time in basically a decade and I’m finally using a metronome as much as I should be


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## Mooh (Mar 7, 2007)

...and I wouldn't quit piano lessons because I thought I could play hockey, get girls, and get by by goofing off. I did get just good enough to kind of fake it as a keys player in a country/Elvis band, but better concert chops and self discipline would have helped. I was such an ass, such a time waster, in my first 20 years on this earth.


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## Dru Edwards (9 mo ago)

35 years with guitar and the only thing I would change early on would be to learn to flatpick sooner on acoustic.

I was fortunate that my best friend was a much better electric guitar player than I was when I started out so I was able to learn by playing with someone better from the start. I think that's important.


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## ZeroGravity (Mar 25, 2016)

I would have never used Yousician to “learn”


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

We were just discussing something similar on the weekend. 

My buddy (now brother in law) & I have known each other for ages. Were in a band together in high school, and have always jammed. His (more recent) friend is a gigging musician. We were having a beer at the cottage and talking about music. My niece says "I don't like the Blues... or Jazz". Now, the Jazz bit I get. But the Blues?? 
The other dude says "You have to learn the Blues, it's the corner stone of modern music". To which I said, "I sometimes wish I never learned the Blues" (que the odd looks and horror) "Cause maybe then I'd would have focused more on theory and less on the Blues... maybe I wouldn't be stuck in the box now". 

They both agreed. 

It's easy to get a hold of the Blues and make noise sound good. But then it's _really_ easy to stay there and not build on it.


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## Derek_T (10 mo ago)

SWLABR said:


> "Cause maybe then I'd would have focused more on theory and less on the Blues... maybe I wouldn't be stuck in the box now".
> 
> It's easy to get a hold of the Blues and make noise sound good. But then it's _really_ easy to stay there and not build on it.


I see what you mean, but I can bet you if you like Blues, and you purposefully held yourself from it to study "theory" you'd have been wasting a lot of time. 

When I started guitar I was into Blues, Rock... and interested in improvisation. My teacher was a Jazz guitar player and gave me a lot of theory and I was playing Bossa Nova tunes... which are quite rich harmonically. 
The things is, it's not knowledge I was able to leverage when I jammed with my friend playing Blues. So most of this stuff got lost for a time because I was not using it or did not know how to transfer it to Blues.

I think Blues can be a great place to start and add harmonic complexity to learn theory while playing the music you like.
you can add ii-V, #iv dim, turn around,... and soloing over this new harmonic structure you'll have to learn new vocabulary (scales, arpeggios, triads...). 

What's important is that you can use the stuff you learned otherwise it's as useful as not learning it.


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## SWLABR (Nov 7, 2017)

Derek_T said:


> I see what you mean, but I can bet you if you like Blues, and you purposefully held yourself from it to study "theory" you'd have been wasting a lot of time.
> 
> When I started guitar I was into Blues, Rock... and interested in improvisation. My teacher was a Jazz guitar player and gave me a lot of theory and I was playing Bossa Nova tunes... which are quite rich harmonically.
> The things is, it's not knowledge I was able to leverage when I jammed with my friend playing Blues. So most of this stuff got lost for a time because I was not using it or did not know how to transfer it to Blues.
> ...


Ya, I agree. I think for me personally, I am more frustrated (with myself) in regards to the last part of my post: _It's easy to get a hold of the Blues and make noise sound good. But then it's really easy to stay there and not build on it. _
I didn't keep going. I am not alone, I know plenty of others who kind of stopped there too. 

That's no fault of "the Blues".


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## AJ6stringsting (Mar 12, 2006)

Man, we all make mistakes, we just gotta learn to live with them .... I mean sometimes I wish that Peabody and Sherman ( from Rocky and Bullwinkle ) would give me a ride back to 1980. 

But luckily, I made some great choices too and I hope you guys made some too, that out weigh the bad ones.


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