Level1 Musicians

This is actually really good.

Given enough time. An idiot can stumble into something ?

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A little bit of knowledge of music theory also plays a part.

Iā€™m gonna drag this back from the dead. Because itā€™s a cool thread. I was hoping to hear from previous posters as to what theyā€™ve been up to recently. Thereā€™s some cool original music going on here.

I wanted to ask a question. Iā€™m have zero musical experience and have never played an instrument in my life (I faked playing the violin in middle school for a while, so that doesnā€™t count). Iā€™m in my early thirties now. I listen to a lot of music, and feel like I want to try to learn the electric guitar. Is this viable at this late stage in life, not having any musical background whatsoever? How should I go about starting this endeavor? Just buy a cheap guitar and start fiddling with it?

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Itā€™s never too late to start learning.

Yeah thatā€™s one way to do it. Iā€™d also recommend learning some tablature for songs youā€™re interested in. Youā€™ll pick up techniques, learn chords, and figure out how to transition between things. Nowadays a ton of tab sites prefer using guitar pro files, if youā€™re like me and donā€™t want to spend money on that bit of software, you can get Tux Guitar to read the files, it wonā€™t be as robust but itā€™s free and does what it needs to. If you want to learn some theory, then Bill Edwards publishing has an excellent book series called Fretboard Logic I got the SE book and it helped me tremendously.

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As @ThatBootsGuy said, itā€™s never too late to start.

Everyone has their preferred learning style. When I started, that I did was go to YouTube and look up how to play x song, y scale, or z chord. If this is your preferred method, then I highly recommend checking out this YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/pegzch

A lot of his stuff has to do with music theory, but you can learn a lot from this guy.

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Totally viable at any time in your life. Yes. Purchase a cheap starter electric and practice amp and go to town. Iā€™d suggest starting with finding some very basic videos on the main chord forms (C A G E D) and learning to strum those chords in their ā€˜firstā€™ position. Then jump into learning to read tablature, find some tabs of songs you like and try your hand at playing them. If youā€™d like to get really invested and put some pressure on yourself to keep practicing/learning, Iā€™d also suggest looking into lessons. Videos are great and thereā€™s a wealth of information online, but sometimes getting hands on time is very helpful. However, you need to make it clear to the teacher what your goals are, your tastes in music, etc before jumping in. I took several months of guitar lessons in 4th grade and we started out learning little diddys and jingles almost like nursery rhymes while I was like ā€œI want to play metallica!ā€ so I quit. In hindsight, I wish I would have made things more clear with my teacher and stuck with it.

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I wouldnā€™t knowā€¦ I had like 4 lessons, then stopped getting them because he was teaching me Johnny Cash, which isnā€™t bad but it wasnā€™t what I wanted. Also, I surpassed him in skill pretty quickly. Tough to find good teachers out here in the sticks. Maybe Iā€™d hold a pick right if I had proper lessons though :thinking:

Agree with that. The teacher I was referring to was a multi-instrumentalist, who mainly focused on jazz/blues brass instruments, so we didnā€™t really have the same sort of passions. Then thereā€™s also the problem I had with wanting to skip all the basics and run full speed into hard rock and play my favorite songs, which isnā€™t usually the way things works.

Thanks guys. Iā€™ll get a cheap-ish beginner guitar and amp. My brain is hung up on the process of converting ā€œtabsā€ into finger placement and which string(s) to manipulate. Maybe itā€™ll make more sense when I have a guitar in my hands. If you guys donā€™t mind, suggestions on a beginner guitar?

Wow, letā€™s seeā€¦ Iā€™ve been playing Piano since I was a kid. I then learned guitar and drums, but piano is still my strongest instrument. As I got older I learned to make beats, record, mix, and master music. Once I learned to write lyrics, rap, and singā€¦ Thatā€™s when I considered myself a producer, not just a musician or beat maker. I opened a music studio in the mid 2000s and now in my 30s I produce about 14 genres of music including scoring for indie films and video content creators. I also own a small indie label with less than 10 artists. I love music. I love making music.

Itā€™s nice to see Iā€™m not the only geek who also makes music haha

Hereā€™s what I use:

2017 iMac 27" (Upgraded base model)
Native Instruments Kontrol MKI 49 Key
Native Instruments Maschine MKI
Universal Audio Apollo Twin Duo MKI
Universal Audio 710 Vocal Preamp
AKG C414 Microphone
Yamaha HS7 Studio Monitors
Logic Pro X
WAVES Gold Bundle
Native Instruments Ultimate
SoundToys Ultimate

And a bunch of other plug-ins. I have slowly upgraded and added to the collection, but Iā€™m proud to say I own everything now. I used to download cracked versions of programs and plug-ins, but eventually itā€™s good to support the people who put in the work to help you create.

Holy shit, dude. Thatā€™s amazing.

I actually recommend against cheap starter guitars. The action and intonation are often really bad on them and it will just not sound very nice. I would look at what your local pawn shop or craigslist has for starter stuff around the same price. Alternatively you could spend some time learning to tweak your starter guitar for a nicer sound. There are plenty of people on youtube who go over doing it but it can be a bit overwhelming your first time. It might be worthwhile paying someone to have it set up properly. Others might think Iā€™m being a bit of a guitar snob and they might be partially right, but when I first started playing I knew nothing about how a guitar was supposed to be set up and when I started on bottom dollar equipment it was hard to figure out why I just couldnt get it to sound good. It can be a real detractor from practice when you hate the way you sound.

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A good setup makes all the difference, can make a cheap guitar feel like a much more expensive one. You can still get a cheap guitar, just get it set up well. I think itā€™s around $80? Idk because I just do it myself.

Yup, I have a bad cable atm and while it gets some sound through, itā€™s as if you cranked the volume knob down on the guitar and I canā€™t stand playing it. Since I have a light touch the sound just doesnā€™t get through.

So, hereā€™s some stuff Iā€™ve been working on.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19R6_D8ZVI2HyNjqTfwdZxKBVoO_UV-_f/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13b8I-qI_tTLWdet2oFldo0lWT5_YD-iH/view?usp=drivesdk

Theyā€™re just demos for now.

Thanks! Iā€™m an IT guy by day, and music creator by night haha

Itā€™s not letting me play them.

I think itā€™s because the files are too large. Just download them.

While I agree with what some other folks have said about the sound quality and playability of cheap beginner guitars, I still recommend going that route. Unless you have cash to blow, spending more than you need to on something that you might not even end up enjoying (you never know until you start playing) is not a great idea imo. Plus, Iā€™d recommend spending a bit more on the amp side than the guitar side any day if you did want to invest extra.

Also, Iā€™d strongly recommend against ordering a guitar blindly from the internet. Are there any music shops nearby that you can visit? Most times it is really helpful to hold the guitar or a similar guitar in your hand, sit with it, stand with it, etc before you purchase something. While it is not as easy to recognize as a beginner, neck profiles can vary widely and some may be much more comfortable than others for you. I always recommend going to a store like Guitar Center to play something similar and then buying whatever you actually want online.

In the case of the Schecter that you linked, it has a string-thru system instead of a locking nut/bridge system which is good, especially on low cost guitars. Iā€™m not a big schecter fan as they definitely used to be synonymous with producing really low-quality instruments, but they have really improved things over the past 10-15 years.

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