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Old 04-26-2024, 01:15 AM
Sadie-f Sadie-f is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2022
Location: New England
Posts: 1,075
Red face

Some thoughts for both of you.

I picked up guitar in my mid teens and sandbagged myself between youthful expectations, and feelings of inadequacy. I had a probably sears bought lowest end Yamaha, gravitated to my own version of self taught fingerstyle, and gave up by my early 20s after plenty of working hard .. with unrealistic expectations. I bought sheet music, and worked on poor covers of Beatles, Grateful Dead, old and in the way ..

My immediate family was as non musical as one could ask, lessons weren't an option, I couldn't have gotten from the farm where I grew up to a teacher. That Yamaha was given to a troubled adopted brother in law who went on to gigging as his day job. It was an awful guitar, by then, it had a twist in the neck, terrible action, yet it served a purpose.

Fast forward 35 years to pandemic, I was locked out of the labs, paid but couldn't work and beyond stir crazy in the isolation of spring 2020 bought an ovation that didn't fit well, but was fundamentally sound, played it hard, immediately gravitated back to my self taught fingerstyle.

Making some progress, and knowing I would stick with it, I bought my first Martin, the guitar I'd lusted after in my youth, and long after, when I had friends who had cherished Martins. Now I've built a couple of electrics, an OM acoustic, and have begun cutting parts for two more OMs. I'm becoming fluid with improvising, which is the main thing I ever wanted.

I have a lot more discipline as an adult, and having taken on many skills at professional level over the years, I've also learned to respect my own ways of learning. Which is where I come to you and your kid (remembering to remind my daughter that my ovation remains on offer, she now has a place with enough space to own an instrument larger than her uke :-).

I don't think we can push much on our kids. I set the seeds of both baking and blue water sailing for my daughter, never knew she'd go farther than I ever did with both. We also share deep appreciation of the same musicians. They pick up what they do, and **** if she isn't better than her mom at lots of things. My other daughter came to being a professional user of technology on her own, and knew where to come for specific advice.

With regard to your own playing, there's nothing wrong with the occasional buzz. One of our amazing local guitar gurus recorded the demo of a prewar Martin, probably the best guitar I've ever heard in person, there's a buzz in his pink Floyd cover, that's reality, when we push our limits there are more mistakes than when we play inside safe limits.
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