If you could change what you know now.

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After playing 20 years now i feel i should be a much better musician than i am now. Mainly how i have practiced and what i have practiced are the main topics in question.

I wish i didn't spend years just trying developing technique and practice and spent more time on working things out by ear, ear training, playing more styes, building up repertoire.

Whats your experience and knowledge, if you could turn back the clock what would you do and tell younger musicians on the forum? There can be a lot of time spent on things "the internet tells or a book tells" 
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Comments

  • Learn to sing!
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  • mellowsunmellowsun Frets: 2422
    Learning to play the piano a bit (say to Grade 5 standard)

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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    Learn to sing!

    Spot on.
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  • TeetonetalTeetonetal Frets: 7801
    I wish I'd spent more time on technique and dedicated practice, then trying to work out songs by ear, ear training, playing more styes, building up repertoire.
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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    I'm glad I sacrificed my practice time for a life of debauchery. I might be a crap guitar player but it was worth it.
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  • 57Deluxe57Deluxe Frets: 7329
    /\ Old Blues Player=Respect  /  Old Lech=locked-up!

    <Vintage BOSS Upgrades>
    __________________________________
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  • I'd change nothing...after 40 odd years playing I'm still having a blast. 

    I never set out to achieve anything, or sound like anyone, and can confirm I've been 100% successful. 

    I'm the only player in our house, and still not the best....

    Boom Boom....
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  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9552
    I learned the minor pentatonics quite early on and then, because I could play reasonable licks, spent years believing I could play. Actually, I think that minor pentatonics held me back in the sense that, for a long time, I didn't feel the need to learn much more. Well, I knew it all didn't I?

    If I could have those years again I would definitely go beyond the pentatonic earlier on, and would also concentrate much more on my phrasing and timing (which I feel are still quite weak). Also, simpler but more effective licks.

    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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  • RavenousRavenous Frets: 1484
    ...building up repertoire.

    The three most important words.

    I wasted years learning a few intermediate classical pieces. Instead I should have wasted those years learning a larger number of pieces to a lower standard.

    Fortunately I probably have a few decades left to do the "lower standard" bit... :)

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  • underdogunderdog Frets: 8334
    I wish I still believed the moon followed me, that when we died we went to live in the clouds with our loved ones we'd lost, that love was forever.

    Musically nothing really, I can sit in my basement and play along to some mp3s so I'm happy. 
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  • StevepageStevepage Frets: 3040
    Sight reading. I'd love to be able to sight read but I don't have the patience that I used to have.
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  • Ancient_MarinerAncient_Mariner Frets: 24
    edited April 2017
    Interesting comparing this to the 'how did you learn to play' thread. There's not much I'd do differently really in terms of learning, but I wish that I'd played out more, got involved with more bands & stuff especially during the 80's: except that I had a young family, really demanding job & was doing part-time study.

    Oh well, guess I did it right after all.

    But for the poster who said 'learn to sing' - if I could have, that would have been incredibly useful.
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  • spark240spark240 Frets: 2073
    Learning to read music really....I play by ear which can be great, but it means you don't put any effort into learning to read...and hence I never learnt scales, modes and all that.
     I played 2 riffs for about 6 months......Caroline by Quo and Rock bottom UFO...didn't think I'd need anything else !


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  • RabsRabs Frets: 2602
    tFB Trader

    Ohh man..  Yes I think I would totally change the way I learned if I could....

    I started when I was 11 but at that time didn't want to actually play.. I was forced to by my mum who wanted me to learn an instrument..  I learned to read at that time and was playing stuff like Greensleeves (I can still play that :) )..   Then I stopped for a few years and then I started getting into music and started playing again a few years after that..

    Now having that early start really helped me learn how to play (even though id forgotten most of what I had learned by then) and I found that I was better that most people around me who were just starting out.. But I think that made me a bit lazy when it came to learning technique.

    I am a by ear player which means I can work almost anything out BUT I am like the least technical player ever....

    Then it was only about 6 years ago (im over 40 years old now )when I joined the Gibson forum when I started learning all of the technical details about guitar playing from the set up to technique...  So ive only been practicing stuff like pentatonic scales for this last period of my playing.  And what I have found is that while I am a pretty good rhythm player, my lead sucks balls...  and it just doesn't seem to be getting better because im so stuck in the way I have been playing most of my life. I even tried lessons a few years back and hated it.. He started to break my playing down and I just felt like I was getting worse so I gave that up.

    So yeah, I really wish I had not been so lazy and had bothered to find out more..  Even though I guess in my defence finding out about all this stuff is easier than ever today cos of the internet.. its all up there and I wish I could have had that much info in my teens.

    But hey ho.. it is what it is and I have accepted that I just wont ever be that great as a lead player..

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  • JeremiahJeremiah Frets: 631
    Don't bother learning to play slap bass.
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  • VimFuegoVimFuego Frets: 15477

    playing by ear. I can kinda sight read (well, upto the 5th fret area) and can generally pick out rhythms OKish, but really suck at picking out melodies by ear.

    And my rhythm playing really sucks, so I wish I had spent more time (and should spend more time in the furture) on my timing etc.

    I'm not locked in here with you, you are locked in here with me.

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  • mudslide73mudslide73 Frets: 3049
    I just wish I'd learned more songs and got in bands earlier. I thought I was well short of the required standard. I've always been ok technique wise and should have been reaping the rewards a bit earlier. 
    "A city star won’t shine too far"


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  • richardhomerrichardhomer Frets: 24793
    I'm pretty happy with where I'm at. Compared to a lot of people on here, I'm not great - but I can make a guitar make a sound which pleases me. That's enough, most of the time.

    I could have learned more - but until I drop, I'll probably continue get slightly better with the passing of time.
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  • Had drum lessons. It's all about the timing 
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  • blobbblobb Frets: 2914
    Keep it simple. Simple sounds good to the people listening to you. Complex only sounds good to you (or me in this case).

    Also, when people say they want to get involved in a project, don't be surprised when they actually aren't that interested, Spend your time on people who are actually interested.


    Feelin' Reelin' & Squeelin'
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