Quitting McDonalds

several things-

1. you must realize that when i wrote those comments, i was angry at my bosses, to say the least. None of my friends work, and i envy them, for that reason.

2. It is buddha, in question. however, buddha is just what they called him, its not like that was his born name.

3. Five days of school, 7 hours a day, then working eight hours a day on saturday and sunday drives you nuts. That is pretty close to equivalent to working seven days a week, so you can see my frustration.

Again, i don't want to argue points about this or that, its all about how you feel on the issue. to me, guitar isn't work, its play. and when i get paid for it (as i was two weeks ago, did a little party, got $50 bucks, which i bought pizza for everyone, since im a nice guy.

again, im young as hell and somewhat naive, im not your twenty year old cousin, if you know what i mean.

Originally posted by Incidents Happen
... again, im young as hell and somewhat naive, im not your twenty year old cousin, if you know what i mean.

.. heh, but you're learning fast! :)

Originally posted by Incidents Happen
...you must realize that when i wrote those comments, i was angry at my bosses...None of my friends work, and i envy them...Five days of school, 7 hours a day, then working eight hours a day on saturday and sunday drives you nuts...

I don't know about where you from,economic background and stuff,but there's something here that I quite don't get.You sound(to me,at least) as though you wouldn't work if you didn't have to(like your friends,whom you envy).On the one hand.On the other hand,you're definately happy(proud,even)of the things working has enabled you to do,your age and all considered.Now,my mind can't quite resolve those two things.I think some spark plug somewhere is loose.I'll have a mental mechanic check it out.

...i don't want to argue points about this or that, its all about how you feel on the issue. to me, guitar isn't work, its play. and when i get paid for it (as i was two weeks ago, did a little party, got $50 bucks, which i bought pizza for everyone, since im a nice guy.

Mountain climbing is fun,to those who are enthusiasts.Fun in the real sense of the word.Now,do you want to argue about the ability to exhaust of climbing the Everest?Forget the Everest,Mt. Whitney?(There is a mountain called that in America,right?)Forget Whitney,that hill you see when you look out the window?
When I was starting out playing guitar,my(and everyone's) fingers hurt as hell.That was not fun.You'd be lying to me if you said you enjoyed it.Unless you're S&M and stuff like that.Learning to move from A to Bm was not easy at first.And it wasn't fun,either.But I learnt,and now I don't even think about it.And now,you're right,it is fun.
My point here(you must be wondering by now,huh?) is that the process of learning guitar to the point where you enjoy it is definately work.Effort.Fun stuff doesn't require effort!!And once you're an(relatively) accomplished guitarist,that's when it stops requiring effort.And starts being fun.
As for making money,$50 is all good.But you gonna do this for the rest of your guitar-playing life?Doing $50 gigs?Liike you said,it's all about personal preferences.$50 thro' and thro' definately isn't mine.

...im not your twenty year old cousin, if you know what i mean.

I don't.
That spark plug.

My point here(you must be wondering by now,huh?) is that the process of learning guitar to the point where you enjoy it is definately work.Effort.Fun stuff doesn't require effort!!And once you're an(relatively) accomplished guitarist,that's when it stops requiring effort.And starts being fun.

For quite a while now most of my learning has been by rote. I know this constant learning of shapes and actions and repetition ad nauseum would bore most people silly but for me it can be fun. But I wouldn't say that it gets fun when it's effortless. It's not rewarding for me to do something that's effortless except for the residue of pride from the fact that it has become effortless. I constantly set myself learning tasks like writing some chord progression (usually in weird scales these days). If I feel like what I'm doing is mega hard I love it! Otherwise I'm just spinning my wheels.

Now I wish I'd learned how to read music instead of just shredding. Damn. Now learning is an effort but it's nearly fun. Perhaps soon I will enjoy it?

Forgot to mention that I think all this talk of Buddha is wierd! Didn't Buddha believe we all have to divorce ourselves of desire to escape Karma? That guy did have kids but he never had a guitar. Maybe history would have been rather different had he spent his time learning new chords? If he was breaking strings would he say it didn't matter and he doesn't need a new set?
Still, it's good that he was happy leaving all that wealth behind and finding some kind of inner peace sat under a tree while people moulded china to look like him!

Originally posted by u10ajf
If I feel like what I'm doing is mega hard I love it! Otherwise I'm just spinning my wheels.

Very true, it's possible to do all that effortless fun stuff but eventually you'll get to burn-out and feel bored as hell doing it. I remember a friend of mine telling me 'a day is only as boring as you make - try and challenge youself every day.' And I do....the guitar is one way of doing that....although I can still feel like throwing the guitar at the wall if I attempt something out of this world and cant get it after ages of practice.

Mount Mckinley.

Don't question my future, as far as 'gigs' goes. It was a friend's party, and $50 is far better than nothing, and it's value is irrelivent to any future gigs, since this was independant.

First things first:
Mt. Whitney:
There is a Mt. Whitney in America.If(like I did)you type the words Mt. Whitney in the google search,a link to something like this will come up:

Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states, rises like the phoenix from the western rim of the Great Basin Desert of California. At an elevation of 14, 495 feet, Whitney looms high above Death Valley, the lowest point in North America at 262 feet below sea level, less than 100 miles to the east.

Located within the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range of Sequoia National Park, Mt. Whitney is situated on the east side of the Great Western Divide, a chain of mountains that runs north/south through the center of the park, and is therefore not visible from any of the roads to the west.

But Mt. Whitney can be easily viewed from nearby Lone Pine, California on U.S. Highway 395, which runs north/south along the eastern foot of the Sierras. Highway 395 can be reached via Interstate 15 near Victorville, California, over Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park (summer only) or by coming south from Reno, Nevada. There are no roads across the Sierras in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Now,about the gigs;
You have to look at everything [U]in the context[/U] it was said.You're the one who insisted that it's not arguing about this or that point,but to you guitar is fun and when you do get paid....(you didn't even finish about what happens when you do get paid)...and went on to give that$50 example and what you did with the money(bought everyone pizza) and why you did what you did(you're a nice guy).
Here's where the context thing comes in:
I said that to make a career out of playing guitar(making music,generally speaking) is work.To counter that point(from your point of view),you brought up the $50 thing.In that context,$50 gigs are not a career.
A friend can ask you to play at their party.Just like that.I mean,you're friends,and you happen to play guitar,blah blah blah.A record company,on the other hand,will not swing you a deal just like that,as easily as a friend would swing you a gig at their bash.
You'll have to go through the stages other people go through in their careers,you can't escape it.And it has always involved hard work.Loads of it.And if you've got some sort of "anti-establishment" tricks up your sleave,I reckon pulling them off will even be more work than the normal path many musicians take(getting signed by some label,making records,touring,stuff).
Basically everyone who plays guitar plays,and will tell you,for fun.
Which is all true.And is one thing.
A career out of it is another thing.And that's totally different.
There's plenty of ballers who are better than many of the guys in the NBA right now.But the difference between the former and the latter is that the latter put in the extra effort needed to be a pro(outside of being able to ball),while the former just balled(and still ball,perhaps in those street games I see about on movies and NBA Action stories)for the sake of balling.And nothing else.

[Edited by kingdavid on 11-12-2002 at 03:16 AM]