How old is too old?

Just out of curiousity, I'd like to get an idea of how old some of you people are. I'm 22, and I feel like that there's zillions of teenagers on this site that are light years better than I am. Granted, I don't practice all that much, but it's still quite depressing.

I turn 50 this October. I gotta admit, some of the stuff I hear makes me very glad I don't depend on my playing to pay my bills. Then again, I'm very glad I can play. I figure I've got another 20 years or so. :D

JESUS!! I THOUGHT YOU WERE IN YOUR 30's at most lordoftherings (granted I've not actaully seen a photo of you)... I'm sure you got more than 20 years left in ya...
Well I'm 18, I started about 1 and a half years ago, but only actaully been playing for a year... um.. I know what your saying about little teenagers.. it's awful to hear some little kid has just figured out how play that solo from [fill in the blanks] song by steve via... it does get you down sometimes, and then you hear them in thier little bands..:D

The great thing is though, that your learning curve is far far far steeper than that of a 13 or 14 year old... I mean I over took alot of younger players who had been playing for years, not because I'm amazing or anything, it's just your learning curve differes at different ages... plus I think learing to play when your older gives a more mature side to your music (your not just another 12 year old wanna be constantly practicing scales or playing that Steve Via song over and over), the disadvatage is you (normally) wont have as much free time cos you've got commitments...

I'm pretty much self taught.. I lack any decipline what so ever, I just improvise alot... and I only do anything complicated or whatever when I'm struck with an idea... still I'm fairly happy with the way I'm I'm going, I'm learing some music theory, and starting to REALLY listen to music and try to play along (cos I had a problem with certain rythems like blues.. the books I've got explain blues rythem very very badly, and jazz in general isn't explained too well either)...

What does make me smile is listening to a 13/14 year old singin' something they wrote... 9 out 10 are rip offs, or just plain crap... then at 16 something magical happens to them, they become adventurous (so not every band at sounds like blink 182/ sum 41 etc having said that tough there is a band called thundermonkey in the year below us, when i used to go to school, that are just plain ripp off cack, so really the music is really is as individual as the person)... and it goes up from there..

sorry about the length of this thread...

I'm 18 and I've been playing for about 2-3 years.

I totally know what you're talking about, it hits you right in the heart when someone younger then you blows you away in technique. Not that I've experienced it personally, but I have heard early teenagers (13,14,15 etc.) with some nasty chops on guitarwar.

educated I think you hit it dead on when you said that learning curves grow at this age, and the added maturity gives you a huge advantage. By dedication and smart practicing, in about a year i overtook guys who had been playing for years. Some got pissed off when they learned I had only been playing for a year ;).

But not matter how good you are, there's always someone who started earlier and plays more. I've learned to try and develop myself musically as effectively as I can given the amount of time I can commit. I recognize that I simply can't play as much as Steve Vai did.

But this is music, just set goals for yourself and find your own niche, that's my philosophy.

i play alot, but im just getting into the whole improvising thing. i can go pretty fast, i guess, but i prefer to go slower, more emotion then.

people ask me why i play so much. answer is simple. i dont want to have to be one of them damn "yes sir" type people, so im trying my ass off to get to the point where i dont have to do that.

I'm twenty one and I've been playing bass for about eight years and guitar for a year less.

But I'm a much better bassist... my guitar skills are pretty limited.

well i'm 28 and last year me and the wife played a place, and the people there could not of been over 16 years old, i felt so so old and over powered in the amp department! (does anyone else know drummers that are way to loud?) but we got away with it, but scary! maybe i can feel a mid life crisis coming on, a tantrum maybe? i dunno.

i am 15.....been playing for about a year...i am certainly not one of those amazing young kids....i love guitar so much though and i would certainly play it all day if i could....
i am pretty busy though...so i dont have a lot of time...but i still get in about an hour a day..and 3-4 hours a day on the weekends..and somedays just so long i cant even keep the time...
i take lessons....
to whoever said that young kids are rip offs....i understand what your saying to an extent...but crap like Blink 182 and SUm 41 is hardly what i play at all..that music is a joke...
a lot of people think the music i listen too (old staind, Dredg, Alice in Chains,) and stuff like that is a joke though...but i am in a start up band with a drummer and a bass player...we mainly just practice together for fun...there is something about just jamming with someone else that makes guitar a lot more funner...but we practice for fun..and dont rip off anything like that teeny bopper mainstream crap...just pure new metal...good well written music...and solo's and things like that...
one thing though...to all you amazing guitar players who are really good...if you can talk to me online through instant messanger someday..that would be great....cause i got a lot of questions on how to solo better and stuff..and everyone around here just asks for money for advice...so i wold really like to get advice from some of you guys...cause its intudivly obvious that probalby 96% of this board are better guitar players then me...
have a nice day

oh yeah...if you want to instant messge me to help me with advice...
my email is
machinehead_40@msn.com

and my screen name is frettycrouger..i have AIM and MSN instant messangers....and AOL...

I'm 24 and been playing for ten years now.

When I was 16-17 I would impress a lot of people with my playing cause nobody really knew how to play. So I learn a couple of solos by Metallica and I was GOD. It never got to my head because I have an uncle who is really a great blues player.

So everytime I started to think I was great, he kindly reminded me to get down my high horse with some incredible solo. I can't thank him enough for that. Then, in college, I meet what I think is still the best guitar player I will have the chance to meet. That guy introduced me to Satriani Randy Roads and all the best out there. I learned and progressed so much with his teaching. I was 18 at the time.

I can't play what I used to now. All those Satriani solos are too hard, because I don't practice them enough but I am happier now than I was back then. I can improvise on songs and just jam away. That's what I like.

Like educatedfilm said, I got commitments and a lot of bills to pay. I can't spend three hours a day practicing, but I can spend 30 minutes - 1 hour of jamming along a tape and that is enough for me.

Hey Mr Crowley, I know exactly how you feel. I am eighteen and first started messing around on my Dad's old classical guitar (which was in the garage and hadn't been played in about 15 years) when I was 11. I am completely self-taught, and technically I have been playing for around 7 years. My senior year of high school I took a music class and met a guitarist a year younger than me who had been playing for five years and he completely kicked my ass. It is sort of humbling and depressing to hear about kids blazing away to Malmsteen and Vai when I am still struggling with arpeggios. I am a decent player, but nowhere near excellent or amazing. It is VERY frustrating sometimes. I feel like I can't improve at all!

When I was taking lessons last year, I introduced my teacher to the "Second Winter" album by Johnny Winter. It was kinda fun watching his eyes get all big! It was kinda discouraging to see him try to duplicate a couple of the riffs in "Memory Pain", and collapse in a heap. We kept at it though.

The point is, the players you look up to are not setting up roadblocks... they're setting up goalposts. If there's some song you wanna play, or some technique you wanna learn, you can get it, if you work at it.

Me, I take great comfort in the sure knowledge that on a good day, I'm almost as fast as David Gilmour.

yeah...i play aaaallllooot.

what kinds of things should you do in order to get better?..i mean a lot of my stuff i try to teach myslef and venture off and learn something new....but i just find myself going back to the things i already know and just getting better at those....

when i want to learn something new though...and i work at it..i usually get good at it...and it just adds to my special list of things to "continue to get better at" when i am trying to learn a new thing...

so what kinds of things should i constantly practice to become amazing one day?...

arpeggios...scales...improv...other suggestions?

Hi!

I´m 23.75 *L*

I´ve started to play at the age of 17.. i think.
For about 1.5 years i tried to learn it on my own, but soon i got frustrated abd gave up on it .. then, some day, for no special reason at all i grabbed the guit again and started to practice again. Day after day. Thas got me on kinda Guitar-Spree and soon my playing improoved. Then i decided to take lessons for at a certain point my developement stopped. I found a great Teacher and he pointed out my mistakes and helped me to master them. Then, about 2 years ago, he had the idea to show me a few classical compositions, for i sometimes did a bit of fingerpicking and he said that i was quite talented with it. So he gave me the worst notes (Classical music of the 20th century) and i tried it... and almost broke my fingers. I´m a metal musician, but i somehow liked the diffiulty of these pieces. And most of all - it improved my play a HELL OF ALOT! In 3 months or so i got better at aprox 100%.
Well.. he always told me:
"It does not depend on how many hours per day u practice - the cule is to practice smart and with a good plan. You can play 7 hours a day withoutknowing what u do and learn nothing. But if u are smart and practice with brains you will be able to learn 10 times as much in only 2 hours"

*L* and he was right! :D

Another important lesson i learned is about shredding:
I always wanted to be the mega-shredder. But with the time u discover that shredding is only a matter of practice and has very little to do with musicality. A song does not always require a mega-fast solo. If u wanna impress peeps then it´s ok, but not necessary if u wanna point out the compositoin of a song. I only play fast when i run out of ideas. ;)

Cheers
-=[Azrael]=-

too old.. as long as you can still do it :D

Two words

LES PAUL

- still doin' it at god knows what age.


Lots of blues guys didn't "get" famous till they were almost 3 time your age. I'm 35, feel 90 and act 12, most youngsters can leave me standing for speed but for tone and eccentricity of sound i'll whip 'em :) This isn't anything against youngsters, just my biased observations:D

I don't think there is an age that's too old. I'm 31 and have been playing since I was 13. I went through a period of 7 years where I didn't touch the guitar, mainly due to the bitching of my ex wife everytime I thought about picking one up. I'm not the greatest and I admit it is depressing to run across someone who's significantly younger and can really shred. I have noticed a big difference between younger guitar players and older ones though.

When I first started playing, all I wanted to do was play songs. I had no interest in chord progressions, modes, I,IV and V chords etc.. I just wanted to play Ozzy, Metallica etc.. As I got older I realized that I could play a song note for note but I didn't have a f#$king clue as to why songs were structured the way they were. I also realized that although I could play them note for note, if I had to improvise I was totally lost. So I went back and starting learning the theory of playing guitar. Instead of being Jimmy Page, Randy Rhoads, EVH etc.., I started developing my own style which combined all my influences. I'm not as fast as I used to be by far, but when I play now, I put more feeling and emotion into it. Now, for all of those of you that are younger, I mean no disrespect. This is a generalization. I'm sure there are younger players out there who have already developed their own style, but most guitarists I run across these days between the ages of 15 and 25, most are just copying other players note for note.

I guess the bottom line is, it doesn't matter how fast you can run up and down the fretboard, use a three fingered technique or thrash with the best. What matters is do you invoke emotion not only from those who are listening but in yourself? That's the true soul of a guitar player and his/her instrument. Steve Vai can run circles around Eric Clapton when it comes to speed, but who do you think more people will list as an influence now and twenty years down the road?

im 17.5, playing for 3.5 years.
i cant say im the god of the guitar, but im doing quite ok..
anyway i dont think you can realy find a teenager who is a realy good guitar player... well maybe in rock and metall you can but not in blues and jazz..
it takes years to learn how to play those styles + it requires certain maturity to play jazz or blues.
another problem with people who dont play many years is that most of them know nothing about sound..

This sounds like the ole farts thread! -lol-
After looking at the calander I've come to realize that I'm now 31, don't know how it happened, and still don't feel any different then when I was 18.
I guess I ended up taking the guitar way too seriously as a kid, ended up getting both my BA and Ma in music. I'm fortunate enough to make my living in music, by playing professionally and teaching music courses part time at a High School. It's nice to have a job you look forward to going to each morning, I spent enough years at the other end of the spectrum. I hope to have a cd out soon, plan to start recording in late spring or early summer, as soon as I get soom bills payed off.
I think the kids have better educational resources today thanx to the internet, dvd and video. When I was starting out I had to pull the stuff off of a record or converse with friends and other musicians for info. I see students progress in 6 months what it took me 4 or 5 yrs to learn.
Plus..music dept. at unv. have drastically raised there standards for incoming students, so kids who want to pursue music related degrees are forced to get more serious about it at an earlier age.
The down side w/the kids today is that many of them don't have the time to practice 2 or 3 hrs a day like I had when I was a kid (I was much like Incidents growing up as far as practicing went).

you are never too old to enjoy playing and listening to music. its one of the few things that keep the old and the young talking to each other. i am 51 this year and i still get a tingle down my spine every time i hear led zep. i still wet myself when i hear alright now. no not with incontinence. too old you are only too old when they close the lid and even then who knows. so keep on rockin old timer,