Hi Folks.

My son inherited his uncle's classical guitar, then left it here while traveling in India and Nepal. I figured, what the "hey", let's learn how to play the guitar; see if I can get good enough to jam with him by the time he returns.

I've attempted many times throughout my life to learn guitar, but could never get down a single chord. For my 60th birthday, I was laid off, so am in unofficial sabbatical mode. I'm doing some research and writing while I have some time, and figured I'd try a different approach to learning the guitar by applying a couple of concepts I use while teaching adults:

First, the brain is malleable, as long as we're alive we can learn; the inverse is also true, the day we stop learning is the day our brains start to die. A key to creative longevity is to push our brains through challenge and stress; keep learning, growing, problem-solving, calculating, socializing, developing new skills. Here's a good article on that:

"Best years ahead for the adult brain" http://donnach.com/index.php/en/explorations/learning/adult-development/161-best-years-ahead-for-the-adult-brain

Second, Fischer's Dynamic Skills theory, which provides a framework for learning complex tasks one chunk at a time, and accelerating learning by integrating new skills with existing skills. With guitar, that meant I would not attempt to master chords and songs until I had learned the notes, strings, and theory. Yes, arduous and maybe boring, but I labor through one note at a time, one string at a time, then connect the chunks together until I can play a picture.

Scanning the beginner books at Guitar Center and scouring programs on the Internet, most take the same approach that I had failed many times before. Start with playing chords and songs. To me, that's like trying to run before I can sit up.

I finally found a "Play Guitar Today!" book by Proline that seemed to take the approach I was looking for: one note at a time, one string at a time, with the underlying theory to help me understand the "why" of what I was doing.

Without killing you harshly with details, about a month into it I'm working on the Level 3 books. Nothing is smooth, but that will come with persistence, patience, and practice. Although I can be a driven, self-directed learner, I also understand the importance of social dimensions to accelerate and enhance learning. So, I signed up for guitar lessons at Guitar Center. That's mostly to give me more focus and a check to make sure I don't develop bad habits. Only one lesson so far, an introduction to pentatonic scales and the 12-bar blues in A7.

An important discovery while working on Pentatonic scales, the body of the classical guitar comes all the way up to the 12th fret. I used that barrier as an excuse to buy my own acoustic guitar, a Taylor 210e DLX. I'll probably just end up giving it to my son; but, meanwhile, it's a sweet box.

Feeling comfortable with the basics and working beyond the "blistah's in mah fingahs" stage, I decided to look again at the online training resources and decided to invest in Guitartricks.com. Glad to see others are on a similar journey. Just a month ago, these resources were useless to me because GT took the same "fly before you can walk" approach as others. With the basics in my fingers, I can derive good value from the lessons. But, I'm thinking GT might consider that many prospective customers might have different learning styles that require a more strictly scaffolded approach that builds skills one note at a time.

Glad to see other adult learners are taking the challenge to keep their minds growing by developing a new skill. In addition to enriching our lives, pushing ourselves through challenge builds and strengthens neural networks and protects our brains. Here's a good article on that:

Especially enriching: music that I had long ago put aside as old and tired is suddenly new because I'm hearing different dimensions. Opening my old tunes is like welcoming home long lost friends.

Although I will always have an audience of only one, this is a skill I plan to foster.

Thanks for sharing your stories. I look forward to hearing more about what you're doing and how you're growing.

Regards,

Brent