wanting to be a muscian and the steps that need to be taken?

Been playing guitar off and on for a few years. Stopped for a long time but I picked up an Epiphone Les Paul Special I P90 Electric Guitar to learn on again. Whats my best bet? private lessons? I should be shot but I bought rocksmith with just cause I love guitar games, I will say my hand speed has gotten FAST quick, but I need theory to go with it. What say's you my friends? All advice is considered.

 

1.buy instrument
2.play instrument
3.???
4.be musician

 

Rocksmith is fun, and I have it.
Really helped me out with basic chords.

That game deserved some accolade, it was really well done

 

..........damn brown belt.... *bows*

 

yeah I was amazed on how well it's done. The sequel should be amazing

 

I play every free chance my fingers are peeling like an uncut c***

 

same here, I'm a tab reader while playing to the tune to get strumming and what not down. It's a bitch to find a teacher around here. *no clue fucking why*

 

you havent been playing enough if your fingers are peeling, guitarists fingers should be tough as old leather.

keep playing, youtube has alot of tutorials.

and be realistic, you probably wont ever become a pro or ever scratch a living from music, but you can have a lot of fun trying.

i play guitar in a punk band, we used to play gigs every week but people got used to us playing that often and wouldnt make the effort to come along, now we play every 5/6 weeks, we fill a local venue easy enough, and we've been out on tour a few times, hitting mainland europe next spring, and we wont be making any money from it, but damn its fun

 

As far as mastering the instrument - unfortunately the answer is hours of practice. Lessons are good to at least have someone guide you through the fundamentals. Having good fundamentals makes you do everything else better in imo. After that I think you can learn whatever way suits you best. Just pick up the guitar every day and do something. One thing I definitely recommend is daily dexterity exercises to a metronome. It's boring but it gives you strength and agility in your hands, which opens up a lot more options.

As far as making good art of your own - smoke weed.

 

Just keep playing. Youll get better. Write a few songs, record, and play shows. That simple.

 

A healthy drug addiction seems to work for a lot of musicians.

 

Truth, no good music came out of content people. All good music comes from tragedy, even the happy songs.

 

dump the guitar, get fruity loops

 

play until your fingers bleed or get a macbook and a rhyming dictionary. you said you wanted to be a successful musician right?

 

if you book them, they will come

 

Theory bro, learn it.

 

Practice a lot. If you want to get good you have to sit down with a metronome and work on things. I know a lot of people hate metronomes, but they are one of the best tools a musician has. Although it's true that you can get good without using one, it can only help and it can save you some embarrassment down the road. Also learn to read music. I know it seems like a pain in the ass, but it's really helpful later on and will end up saving you time and money. Another helpful thing is to learn many different styles of music. Not only can it be fun, but if you want to work as a musician you can't always play exactly what you want. You don't want to lose a high paying gig because you never practiced playing funk before. There is a lot of specific advice I could give you, but the best thing I can say is, take it seriously because other people are and if you don't they're going to take your gigs.

These people are your competition

 

dont post on sherdog.

 

I played drums for 8 years, Don't need no metronome. I would recommend playing along with songs. That's what I used to do and really enjoy when I started.

Stuff like sunshine of your love. Easy guitar riffs. Smoke on the water. Saturday night. Then move on to stuff like sweet childe O'mine. Songs that have nice stuff in it allready but leave room for improv. Perfectly good guitar from john hiatt is a really good beginner tune. Just play solo in E minor petatonic.

Still know this solo by heart.

 

I'll give you a clue. I have been a guitar teacher for several years. Here's my take on it: no more than 1 out of 10 students really want to play music. The others just want to impress their friends, hit on girls, be the live of the party or just learn one or two songs. Once they understand that the process is not as simple as they though (most of them hit that wall at one month mark), they quit and never call you again.

Now, when you finally find a committed student, you will sometimes keep him for years. Since your job is to teach him to be independent, you work against your own good: if you're a good teacher (I think I am), it wont be long before your star pupil doesn't need you anymore.

So you come before a choice: will you teach him everything you know and watch him ride into the sunset? Or will you hide some secrets so you can blackmail him into calling you back? As you might have guess, none of these solutions work.

The only way to make a living out of it is to work for a music school and take students by the dozens. Once again, when you do that, you get all the "daddy's kid" who got a guitar for X-mas and quit before Easter. You must forget about it, do your job and never, ever take it personally when a student leave or never calls you back...

Not the best of jobs, I only do it for dedicated and committed students now. No more daddy's kid even if they are the ones with the steady "paycheck" (if you want to call it that). Most committed music students are poor as hell so you must be ready to work way below your usual fee...

It's a calling, not a job.