How long does it take to play good?

[Big green elf 55]

Hi my name is joey
i want to know basically is if anyone experiences bad arthritis problems for playing guitar and how long youve been playing. Also your level of skill on the guitar. i am 16 and have been playing for two years, and i guess i'm ok.

[lalimacefolle]

I have been playing for more than ten years, and I don't have arthritis.

But I have had some pain in my forearm when I used to practice a lot, but since I knew it could lead to a kind of
tennis elbow, I stopped practicing on the spot... So I never had any major problem.

I am a pro guitarist.

[Lordathestrings]

I haven't played for pay since 1971, but that means I've been an amateur for 31 years now. I play 4-10 hours a week. I'm starting to notice some stiffness in the middle finger of my picking hand, but I attribute that to the damage I did to it when busted some jerk's chops back in '73 :D

[Incidents Happen]

im 14, been playing about a year.


but ya know, it all depends on how much work you put into it.

[Bardsley]

I'm 19 and have been playing for almost four years. I would almost say that I am quite good; I am a useful player in some circumstances as I actually know waht I am doing. I have a wierd cracking sound in my left wrist (like a series of light cracks) when I strecth it in a particular way, but my doctor said it was nothing more than a slightly relaxed tendon and is nothing to worry about. I also occaisionally get a pain in my shoulder and I am doing a lot of work in making sure it is relaxed and it is getting better.

[Jimmy Page XVI]

Thus far I have no tendonitis nor anything of the sort. As far as my level of playing, well no one really knows. I play well, but as everyone does, I have my few problems I still have to work on. Nonetheless I guess that after playing for about a year and a half, I have learned quite a lot, specially in the recent past, and am keeping a quite fast pace. Hopefully I can continue my learning and practicing routine this fall at my first year of college...

[river]

i been playin long time. i practice 20-40 hours a
week. what ive learned to do is to use light strings
on my practice guitar and to keep the action very
low.i do exercises and scales a lot and when im
loose and feelin musical i play real music.and
yeah the pain is less when yer playin somethin thats
easy to play. dunno how anyone could expect to become
expert without practicin a lot and keepin yer hands
in good shape.

[Incidents Happen]

Originally posted by river
i been playin long time. i practice 20-40 hours a
week. what ive learned to do is to use light strings
on my practice guitar and to keep the action very
low.i do exercises and scales a lot and when im
loose and feelin musical i play real music.and
yeah the pain is less when yer playin somethin thats
easy to play. dunno how anyone could expect to become
expert without practicin a lot and keepin yer hands
in good shape.

you know, heavier strings are more of a challenge, maybe you just arent up for it.

Strong fingers = heavy strings

i mean c'mon your not going to break your pinky trying to do a scale.

[lalimacefolle]

Watch out for tendinitis though...

[river]

challenge ? kindo like a wrestlin match ya mean ?
i play lots n lots. light strings is the best
way ive found to play for several hours every
day and not cause problems with my hands. quickness
and agility are most important i think. i thought
the purpose of playin was to enjoy and sound good.
never really considered challengin someone to a
strong finger contest. lighten up huh?

[PonyOne]

EXACTLY. I don't tap, I don't fingerpick, I don't do anything that doesn't seem to fit me. I go for my sound, I listen to other sounds, I gather what I like and need and forget the rest (when it comes to playing). That's why I never took lessons to learn to play like someone else.

Besides, there's always time to learn how to do lightning quick sweeps and such. No reason to throw yourself down the stairs trying to do things to difficult.

[i.s.marshall]

it dont matter how long it take's, there is always some asshole to tell you you are crap, so's he can inflate his own ego, secret is do your own thing but always enjoy what you do, keep rockin guy's.

[Incidents Happen]

Originally posted by river
challenge ? kindo like a wrestlin match ya mean ?
i play lots n lots. light strings is the best
way ive found to play for several hours every
day and not cause problems with my hands. quickness
and agility are most important i think. i thought
the purpose of playin was to enjoy and sound good.
never really considered challengin someone to a
strong finger contest. lighten up huh?


well it all depends. i shouldnt try to argue/debate with you because im 14, but regardless of age-

i got used to my .009 electric strings...then i got my acoustic, which is i think .013 or higher. well, needless to say, it was a bit tougher at first. so thats what i mean is a CHALLENGE- because if your playing .009's, then you pick up a .014 , are you going to be able to play as good on it as you can with the .009's? no, but if you play on a .014, then every once in a while go to a .009, you will be able to tear it up alot easier.
in my opinion, you can get quickness and agility on .013's, you just have to work harder. also known as a CHALLENGE. who wants to take the easy way out?


i also practice alot- 35 to 40 hours a week. i 'practice lots n lots' too.


[Edited by Incidents Happen on 02-24-2002 at 06:48 PM]

[Jimmy Page XVI]

Well if the sound is the same I'd take the easy way out!!!
I understand what you mean, yet why make a hard task such as mastering every aspect of the guitar even harder??? I use .009 or similar gauges because it allows me to play comfortably for long periods of time. I would actually recommend anyone either starting out or experienced to use light gauged strings thus far.

[Raskolnikov]

I play .012s on my guitars for a few reasons:

I like "heavy string" tone... it's so briliant and sparkly
I play bass most of the time and have a tendancy to kill guitar strings
I like the work out better.


Sure, it takes time to adapt, but once you do you're in better shape for having done it.

[Incidents Happen]

yeah, i can 'kinda' see where your thinkin there, but i agree with rask. the heavy strings have a pretty phat pitch.

when somebody says "high action" or "low action" what does that exactly mean? i dont recognize that term

[Raskolnikov]

"Action" is (basicly) the distance between your strings and your frets. Higher action is a bit cleaner sounding, but you have to push the strings a lot further to make them fret. A typical "shred" setup would be light strings with a low action. An "SRV" sorta setup would be heavy strings, high action.

[Incidents Happen]

oh really..garcia had a pretty high action, relatively heavy strings...

[Bardsley]

SRV often had his action set to 1/4" above the fretboard. Combine that with his tendency to use strings as heavy as .013s and you've got one helluva tough guitar to play.

[Incidents Happen]

i actually saw a picture of it. i thought it was a bass the first time i saw it. crazy.

[saul hudson]

ive been playin for nearly 6 years now i pratice at least 6 hours everyday everything from simple power cord's to solos from slash to kirt kammit, but you always sound good playn someone else's solo's,it's only until you come up with your own solo and think yea that sounds **** hot that u know that your good and you dont have to play really fast to be a skilled player your can still sound great by playn slow heart felt solo's but it dosnt hurt to through in some hammer on's and pull off's,and i had a seroius case of tennis elbow there last year the bset thing to avoid getting it is to always warm up first do a few scales or sometin before trying some sort of blistering solos cause it will seroiusly hurt and can cause maijor damage for life

keep on praticing u can only get better

[jack7]

after all these years the only pain is
the fact I didnt become famous rock star.
all body pain comes from age.:cool:

[otis31]

ive been playing about 16 years
i practice 15 to 20 hrs a week i use 10 to 52`S
the only pain i got is the wife telling me to turn it down

[spliphiticus]

I have been playin for 23 years and.... hmm sometimes they clap and sometimes they don't, go figure.

[fuhrysteve]

about 2 and a half years... two hours or so a day, i thought i had tendonitis once, but it was just that i played hard as hell for about four or five hours, and i used an old crappy guitar cause my nice ibanez rg470 had a broken string and i didn't wanna fix it, and it's got some pretty stiff stringage dude.