What's Your Skill Level

[Plank_Spanker]

ah, you guys are too hard on yourself.


Plank and Ro3b, interesting answers regarding the transition from beginner to intermediate.

Thanks. Just my 2 pesos.


The fun factor is huge. As long as you're having fun, it's all good!

[mark wein]

I read a few pages before giving up...this is a LONG thread!

I would consider myself an intermediate level professional player. I've been playing 23 years, went to college for guitar and make a living playing music.

I've played locally for many years but no real touring. I have indie recordings and I do work for a friend who writes TV music so I get a small amount of session work but I am not at "that level"....

[Plank_Spanker]

I read a few pages before giving up...this is a LONG thread!

I would consider myself an intermediate level professional player. I've been playing 23 years, went to college for guitar and make a living playing music.

I've played locally for many years but no real touring. I have indie recordings and I do work for a friend who writes TV music so I get a small amount of session work but I am not at "that level"....

Mark,

You went to college for guitar and you make a living at it........................yet you consider yourself intermediate? Wow!

Your personal bar must be set fairly high!

It's great to have you, your experience, and your wisdom here. I'm sure that I can speak for the populace here when I say that we look forward to picking your brain from time to time.

[mark wein]

Mark,

You went to college for guitar and you make a living at it........................yet you consider yourself intermediate? Wow!

Your personal bar must be set fairly high!

It's great to have you, your experience, and your wisdom here. I'm sure that I can speak for the populace here when I say that we look forward to picking your brain from time to time.

There is alot I don't do very well...I do think I am a pretty good rock and blues player, though!

[Plank_Spanker]

There is alot I don't do very well...I do think I am a pretty good rock and blues player, though!

OK.................that's better.

Everyone has their specialty.

[just strum]

Mark,

You went to college for guitar and you make a living at it........................yet you consider yourself intermediate? Wow!

Your personal bar must be set fairly high!

It's great to have you, your experience, and your wisdom here. I'm sure that I can speak for the populace here when I say that we look forward to picking your brain from time to time.

I know, I saw that and thought 23 years and he considers himself an intermediate. I've been playing for about 20 months - just how long is this trip?

Oh, the humanity!

[Brian Krashpad]

I know, I saw that and thought 23 years and he considers himself an intermediate. I've been playing for about 20 months - just how long is this trip?

Oh, the humanity!

Haha, could be worse. I've been playing for 37 years and without going back and reviewing any of Mark's stuff I can say without hesitation I'm sure he's a much much better player than I.

But, anybody that saw my side band show's webcast Wednesday night can probably vouch for the fact that I still manage to have a great time.

[just strum]

...the fact that I still manage to have a great time.

that's my first priority and so far, so good.

[mark wein]

I know, I saw that and thought 23 years and he considers himself an intermediate. I've been playing for about 20 months - just how long is this trip?

Oh, the humanity!

Heh...you made me think of this stupid picture....I always get a chuckle from it....

I think that we all (no matter where we are on the "guitar developmental ladder") end up feeling like we are in the middle of the journey...you get to the top of one hill and you can see the mountain on the other side....there are days when I am very happy with my playing and then I'll go to the NAMM show (like I did a week or two ago) and see 10 players who make you feel like packing it in...

a guy who did a little of this and a lot of inspiring this time around was Josh Smith...check him out here: http://www.myspace.com/joshsmithguitar

I heard him jamming with another guitarist in a booth at the show and he sounded like I've always wanted to play...

[mark wein]

I still manage to have a great time.

...and that is really the only good reason to play guitar!

[pie_man_25]

...and that is really the only good reason to play guitar!

+1, why did we start with music in the first place, or drama, or any arts for that matter, besause we needed something to do on our spare time, and we just developed it, at first it was just some dude with a stick, a gourd and twine and look at what it is now, a glorified 2x4 with a some wire (if you want to dumb it down really, that's what it is)

[hazcat]

Yeah, dumbing it down, that's pretty much the level I'm at. I started playing in 1982. Started out with one term of beginning guitar class (where I learned words like "mixolydian," which I still remember but can no longer define, unless by some chance it has something to do with bartending). I do still know some basic chord theory, intervals and the like. Can't sight read at all. Learned the scales I use from Arlen Roth's column in Guitar Player. Wish I could break the habit of letting my hands find the same old patterns. This is what happens when you have no organized practice regimen.

I can play standard first position and E/A barre chords, movable chords like G-form, C7 form etc and a few oddball voicings I've picked up along the way. As I'm not a chord/melody player, this gets me by OK, but I still struggle with devising interesting rhythm parts (so, like, beyond power chording and shuffles). Leads...ehh. I can play short leads fairly fluidly, but have a hard time formulating longer statements. On the upside, I no longer feel the desire to play two-minute solos, although I like hearing them if they're good. Guess you could say I like to punctuate. I'm learning to play less.

To address strum's scale, guess I'd have to say struggling intermediate, keeping in mind that I think Robert is far beyond intermediate. With a slide, I play songs like Dark is the Night, Fred McDowell tunes and Leo Kottke's Broken Down Bicycle fairly passably, even though I am a sloppy fingerpicker. In standard tuning, I suck-diddly-uck, although I may not be quite as bad as I think I am. I can, however, play Pinball Wizard on the ukulele.

[Jipes***]

As for me I have minimal technique on the electric I use constantly the two pentatonic blues scales, I hardly know anything else. As for chords I can follow a jazz chart if there's not more than three chords per mesure

As for slide also minimal technique a bit of damping and licks but rather rural

For the picking that's maybe where I have more skills as I can play quite some intricate picking pattern but only the one I invent rather that trying to duplicate some artist stuff 'cause it's far too complicated for me (John Renbourn, Kelly Joe Phelps or Andy Mc Kee are good examples)

Jipes

[birv2]

I started playing about (wincing as I get ready to write this...) 40 years ago.

Took a long 20 year hiatus.

Just got back into it in the last 5 years, almost exclusively electric blues.

In the blues area, I would consider myself intermediate to moderately advanced intermediate (is that a real category?). I'm comfortable with pentatonic scales, am branching out to some other scales, but have a fairly good sense of timing and a lot of heart. Even getting some compliments when playing out at jams!

Of course, if I compare myself to Robert and some others, I feel very "lower intermediate". But I'm making progress a little bit at a time and having fun in the process. I'm not scared anymore to get up at a blues jam and don't panic when someone nods at me to take a solo, like I used to.

It's a never-ending journey, which is either maddening or lots of fun, depending on my mood that day!
:

Bob

[strumsalot]

I guess I'm somewhere between really sucks and just bad. I'm OK with that, because when I play, the stress and cares of this world disappear for a while. Scales...what are those?

One day I'd like to play the music in my head without thinking about it.

[KrisH]

It depends on which instrument I'm using. Electric bass is and has always been my main instrument, and I'd guess I'm somewhere at an advanced-intermediate/pro level. I'm fairly good at sight reading, even though I haven't really needed to do it for decades, and know my fretboard over all three octaves. (ok, the last fret on the G string only plays e-flat, but if I bend that note just right . . .). Anyway, I played professionally full and part time for 22 years -- and then set it aside for almost a decade. A funny thing: when the slap-and-pop technique started becoming popular in the mid-80s or so, I struggled with it. When I picked up the instrument again, it has come so much easier. (Maybe sobriety has something to do with that??) And because I spent so much time playing pop/top 40 music, I missed out on what many of the bass virtuosoes were doing -- like soloing with taps and harmonics. So I still have lots to learn, but I feel confident enough in my ability that I could hold my own with most other bassists out there. On the upright bass it's less so, simply because I came back to that instrument after a much longer hiatus.

The guitar is different, maybe an advanced beginner. I don't know the fretboard as well -- that B string throws me often. I know lots of alternate chord fingerings, but not much in the way of theory. I couldn't tell a "mixolydian" from a "mxyzptlk." My breakthrough moment was when I learned pattern picking on the acoustic. I can play and sing songs like Alice's Restaurant, Blackbird, some Jethro Tull acoustic tunes, lots of Niel Young, Beatles etc. But I don't yet feel good enough to play them out, even at an open mic. My confidence in my guitar playing ability is not at the same level as my bass playing.

And on the fiddle? Rank beginner!!! I can play a few tunes, but I'm mainly working on how to keep it from sounding like a catfight!

[street music]

I still consider myself in a beginner stage, I can play some slow stuff if I have the tab close by. I can play several riffs, and many chords. My best is playing the blues . I won't consider myself intermediate until I can play up to speed on a fast rock song. I try to keep it fun and switch from one guitar to another just to vary the whole practice.

[Cal]

Great thread Strummy... and lots of good info about existing Fretters for us newbs, thanks. :

About a month ago, my neighbor saw me doing some yard work outside and came over to talk to me. She asked me if I was learning to play the electric guitar .... guess my amp was louder than I thought

She went on to say that she has noticed my recent playing was better than when I first started......

So I guess my skill level is somewhere between not having the neighbors call the cops for disturbing the peace and having someone who does not play guitar being able to recognize that I am playing the guitar and not torturing my cats......

GG, I just love that post, thanks.


Speaking personally, I reckon I'm on about the second rung of the beginner's ladder.
Thing is, when I look skyward I can't actually see the END of that ladder.
But never mind, I AM moving upward and I AM enjoying it.

Happy playing everyone!

[mrmudcat]

Always learning..............the road goes on forever..............