53 year old VIRGIN

played drums for 20 years nad always wanted to be a frontman. Grohl.....

learned so much in 3 weeks i cannot believe it. Just following lessons and practicing at least 2 hours 6 days a week. Cannot wait to see where I am at in 49 more weeks

Feelin' your excitment. Well said.

Originally Posted by: garysbraccia

played drums for 20 years nad always wanted to be a frontman. Grohl.....

learned so much in 3 weeks i cannot believe it. Just following lessons and practicing at least 2 hours 6 days a week. Cannot wait to see where I am at in 49 more weeks

Drummers make good guitar players. I remember Nuno Bettencourt saying that to be a great guitar player, spend some time on the drums...or something similar that.

Funny, I (sorta) am going the other direction. Out of need for my church, a coupla years ago, I jumped on the kit to fill in the spot, figuring it would be temporary and my rudimentary sdrum skills would be soon left to die (rightfully) on the vine...Two years later, I still sit behind the three Sunday's a month and realizing I have a pretty good groove. One Sunday monthly, I play bass...Long story since I'm a guitar player...though even then, for our Christmas service, we're doing a duel acoustic guitar.....Was there a point? None really..other than any exsperience you have in music helps the other things you do.

Good luck!!

Thanks for the anecdote Jeff.

I tend to agree. In my experience, all musical experience contributes to the whole in playing any instrument.

Taking the decision to actually do something about learning to play guitar last year was inarguably down to the wealth of the internet and interactive publishing today having available so many tuition sources. Ultimately, committing to Guitar Tricks which is easily the equivalent and in many ways better than a personal tutor one day a week, [u]importantly,[/u] without the frustration of trying to do it on your own, or less clearly defined or honest motivation or other competing pressures intervening in younger years has really kicked off interest in that whole for me.

Very focussed on guitar for the moment, but I can perceive that expanding. So far I have resisted temptation to other distractions, notably bass, keyboard, drums. That said. I do have a 'confession'. I just bought a diatonic harmonica in C. No self imposed pressure. Just curiousity. Couldn't help it. More on my prior association with wind instruments some other time. Suffice to say for now I'd had a year trying to learn and play cornet as well back than, albeit with less than stellar results. In truth, that lacklustre performance was down to my disinterest at the time, as unlike playing percussion which I was drawn to and self-motivated to do, I was pushed into the cornet at a point in time which coincided and competed with the usual other emerging interests one has at that age when hormones are raging. Back to harmonica. I'd yet have to check the key The Beatles played this song in, and if C is Lennon played the harmonica part in, but I'll find out. Yes aware the harmonica being used here is chromatic. So many pretty harmonica fills in early Beatles music. You can see the motivational driver here can't you?!

[br]It's all so affordable and accessible today, whether a drum set or a keyboard. Don't get me started on my curiosity about learning keyboard. "Focus!. Be strong! One thing at a time".

manX, I know...focus and be strong...Ha!!!

I guess I could say that after playing with reasonable skill for a few decades, I can afford to experiement. Mostly I'm piCking up other instruments to suss out musical ideas (when I actually have time). In addition to drums, I am doing a (very) little bit of keyboard and mandolin. In a way, mandolin is easy; it's tuning is G, D, A and E low to high. If you can think upside down, you already know the positions. At least enough to get an idea out.

The one thing I'll never be able to do; harmonica. Yep, tried and just can't quite get it. I get how it works and all but I sound like a dying goose. You shoulda heard when I tried saxaphone when I was a kid. Oh wait, you couldn't hear me, I could get it to make noise!!!!

I do think that drumming experience you had when you were younger probably helps a lot. You hear where a beat is. I mean, I've always been a drum oriented guitar player. Heck, I used to go to drum clinics! It did help me now. It's funny, our church band (we call ourselves The Soggy Wafers ..hehe) seems to have started gelling. Previous drummers seemed to just play what they were in the mood to play. I listen to the song. I couldn't tell you the time signature I'm on any song, I'm just playing what is needed. Rarely am I ever 4/4 or 2/4..Rare might be a strong word but lots of songs have a heavier hihat. Also, I like a nice pocketed groove. I like to fall back in to the song if I can..So there's that.

We've hijacked a welcome thread but hey, never can hurt to hear what's goes on in other people's musical heads.

Hey boys, or girls... I joined and just started with guitar fundamentals 1 with Lisa Mccormick but I noticed there are other instructors with beginning material. who did you use and why