Anyone Self taught?

Self taught. I haven't taken lessons but I have mined a lot of great stuff from here, Justinguitar, Threechordguitar and others on the internet.

How long. Two years tomorrow. I have had a guitar a year longer than that but had to create a way to play. I was 50 when I started BTW.

How good. A long way to go but good enough to play in public. Led the Worship team at church for a year or so playing singing and playing racked harp.

Barre chords are my next hurdle and Noteboat has given me some great direction so maybe after that finger picking, any body got extra fingers laying around. :lol:

Jack

I think every one is self taught, and every one has learned from some one else; just because you didn't take formal lessons doesn't mean you didn't pick up information from other guitarists.

Watching a video of your favorite guitar player can be just as informational as sitting down for a lesson, i never understood people that made the claim to be self taught.

I learned to play via a course on the internet, plus visiting lots of sites, so i suppose you could class me as self taught,
I have been strumming along for about 4 years now, but was to be honest starting to get slightly bored, then i thought i would have a go at travis picking, and it has opened up a whole new avenue for me, learned a few different patterns and play lots of songs using that style, but it also gave me confidence enough to try, fingerpicking, as in bass and melody, now i am rekindled :D

I took about a half dozen lessons, but am pretty much self taught. The cool thing about the guitar is that you can learn the basics, and just go for it! I watch lessons and videos online, and read alot of stuff on theory. Everything is there a click away. If you have the patience, you can teach yourself to no limit

Im self taught, apart from loads of help from this site which i owe a lot to!

how long have i been playing?
3 1/2 years

how well do i play?
after 3 1/2 years obviously not very well. However, i do play play better than i thought i would when i started.

lessons?
i have too much going on to take lessons im afraid, with work, family, guitar practice with the band, and my running, i just couldnt fit lessons in. i would love to get a teacher soon though.

good thread!

self taught, to me, means working everything out from first principles - and I don't think there's a person on this site who can truly say they've never been taught anything! We've all asked for help - we've all been shown certain chords, riffs, runs, licks and the best way to play them....

but self-taught in the sense of having to work everything out for myself, from song books and so on - well, yeah, I've worked a lot of stuff out for myself over the years.

Hmm....so this is an E chord....and this is an F chord - so if I move that same shape up a couple of frets, it'll be a G chord? - That's the way I've always worked - take a basic principle and then try and work things out for myself. Then I'll get stuck on something, and someone'll suggest something.....

How long have I been playing? Hmm, well over 30 years now since I started - but with a few long hiatuses.

How good am I? Nowhere near as good as I should be, after all these years - but then again, there's always room for improvement. I'll be better tomorrow......promise!!!!

:D :D :D

Vic

self taught, to me, means working everything out from first principles - and I don't think there's a person on this site who can truly say they've never been taught anything! We've all asked for help - we've all been shown certain chords, riffs, runs, licks and the best way to play them....

Stole my post didn't he....

Oh well here goes.

Can anyone truly be self taught. Everyone learns stuff from other places, being taught without realising it. For example this forum and lessons on this site, awesome source of teaching.

I am what you are reffering to as self taught. I have never had lessons as such, just jammed with friends to start off with, and they showed me things as we went along. I was shown how to read tabs, some chords i struggled with, and some easier variations of chords. Certain strumming patterns i had to be shown as well, the celtic ones mainly.

Since i have been with my girlfriend, her dad and herself have taught me some piano and how to read music (He used to be a music teacher beofre he retired. And i only read music slowly atm) But still no formal lessons, just people showing me things.

I have been playiong for just over three years now, and i would say i play to an intermediate level. That meaning, i have more or less mastered the basics, with maybe a few bad habits built in, and i am starting to progress through slightly harder stuff. Moving from rhythm guitar, where im comfortable, and trying to learn lead, and different arpeggio styles and the like. All very interesting and exiting, keeping me hooked on the guitar.

I probably would have taken lessons if i could have afforded them. I would have progressed a lot faster then, but i seem to have gotten by ok as i have, all be it at a snails pace, but i am happy with the way i have learned and am eager to keep going.

I'm not entirely self-taught, but only took lessons for about a year after I had been playing about two years. I've been playing for over 40 years. Never really stopped playing, but was less serious about it from time to time. Starting out without a teacher helped me to develop a good ear. Taking lessons kept me focused and taught me to read music. I would have liked to take more lessons way back then, but didn't have the money. Now I have the money and haven't found a suitable teacher. I consider myself to be an advanced player. I live kind of in the middle of nowhere. Since I'm not willing to drive about 100 miles each way for lessons, it's probably not going to happen.

Since retiring a few years ago, I have lots of time to devote to guitar and other musical things. I started playing fingerstyle in that time. I'm completely self taught on mandolin, but had a hard time ever calling myself a true beginner. I could already read music. I had the basics of strumming and picking techniques and how to press down on the strings, etc. So to translate to being self taught on guitar, if you have some musical background, it's a lot easier to teach yourself another instrument.

Having sites like this is a great help at any level.

Off topic, but nice to see Coolnama back here. Hope you recover from the surgery quickly and get better soon. It's been a long time in the hospital for you. Hope you get to keep the rest of your parts.

Taught myself to play about 22 years ago.
My brother bought a copy of "the Beatles Complete" song book.Picked up the book and his guitar at the start of the summer holidays and taught myself some beatles songs.

Been playing in bands on and off for the last 20 years or so and can hold my own as a player,but "technically" I'm a bit of a caveman.Any Chords,Scales,Theory I've picked has been coincidental and not something I've tried to learn.

I Have always wanted to learn to play the Blues properly.So this year I bought my first ever instructional book,"Blues you can use" awesome book.Wish I'd done it 22 years ago!

My son also plays and has pretty much taught himself also.
He was looking for a teacher recently as he wanted to learn some classical styles but the cheapest he could find locally was £20 per hour.So lessons are pretty much out of the question.

Cheers

Bob

Sorry, by self taught I meant no formal lessons... :) Not sure what the proper term is :wink:

That is the proper term! :D

Sorry, by self taught I meant no formal lessons... :) Not sure what the proper term is :wink:

In that case then yes, I am "self taught"

We're all self-taught. Some of us have just had the benefit of having a teacher that showed us things that we can use while learning.

Whether the teacher is formal as in a tutor or bandmaster, or another musician, it's still a lesson. In the old "big band" days, you learned by sitting third or fourth trumpet, trombone, or sax and learned from your mentors. Stan Getz learning from Lester Young is a great example. You combined that with what you learned elsewhere.

But to stick to your definition of formal (which isn't wrong, just restrictive -- and it has to be to ask this kind of question)

But since you asked, I've had formal eduction on sax, drums and music theory, taught myself flute and wind synthesizer, and learned bass, guitar, and keyboards by having more experienced musicians show me the way. I've supplemented all of the above with books, videos, Internet and self-discovery. Plus being in bands almost all my life and networking with other musicians has always been a great way to trade tips and tricks. I call it the school of the road.

I highly recommend having an experienced teacher help you along the way. It's a short-cut.

Insights and incites by Notes

I would like to say I'm self taught but truth be told I gleened a ton of knowledge from my GN brothers and sisters, esp, King Patzer who opened my eyes to many things a few years ago.

"Self-Taught" is such an odd term. How could someone be entirely self taught unless they had never seen or heard a guitar or even someone playing one before touching one and toying with it? I mean the guitar method books we buy are written by somebody aren't they?

Now I do suppose you probably mean "Self-Taught" more along the lines of whether or not we or somebody we know has shelled out money for lessons. While I am just at the beginning of learning, I don't really have the kind of cash it would probably take to get lessons, not to mention I have been learning from the book I got with no problems thus far. Of course, it probably helps that the musical knowledge I obtained from 4th grade recorder, 5th grade piano, and 5th through 10th grade band class (I played Alto Sax and Bari Sax intermittently.)probably has helped loads since that means all I really need to know is strumming patterns and the finger positions and get those down to the point where I can play really smoothly. I suppose you could say I am being self-taught as I do not have any "instructor" or "teacher" to look at the way I am holding the guitar and say "You're doing it wrong. This is how you hold it, this is how you position your fingers." I have to use trial and error to see what works and so far I'm learning.