Guitarist Levels, Your path to 1000 hours Options

[DarkWaveRiffer]

I think its safe to safe if you have a 1000 hours under your belt, you have a good understanding of what you are doing. I am going to be using this for my progress. I have come up with a fun way of reaching goals. I would like to invite the instructors to give their input, but I have come up with dividing up the hours from 0-1000 into 7 levels.

Hours Title
0-10 Guitar Hero Defector
11-50 Air Guitarist
51-100 Guitar Not A Zero
101-300 Ax Grinder
301-500 Shred N Butter Man
501-750 Guitar Virtu-So-So
751-1000 Guitar Hero

What I would like to know is given the average person what things should the know at the various levels? Do you think we could quantify? I like the idea of having a measuring stick to strive to meet, and beat. I have made the hours not to be too long between titles. People can get to Ax Grinder pretty fast. We could create a chart to show what kind of techniques, scales, chords, songs would be equivalent at this level. We could take this beyond 1000 hours, if others who are past this want to develop this further.

To me, its about the practice time, the good practice time. I can riff away aimlessly and not get better. I think if we record, observe, and evaluate our practice time. We will see great strides in progress. We all know its not how long you have owned a guitar, or had access to one, but how long you have been playing, and pushing yourself to get better.I would like to hear your thoughts. I think this could be a lot of fun.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[DarkWaveRiffer]

Hey! This initiative sounds really good! It's always useful to set short and long term goals when we are talking about guitar playing. However I also think that we need more than 1000 hours of real practice to reach a top level. By the way you will notice a big improvement if you practice 1000 hours in 1 year.

Guitar Hero is not top level. Its just top level in what I have come up with. Your journey has really just begun by 1000 hours, but by the time the 1000 hours comes up you will be well on your way. When they look back at where they started, and where they are in 1000 hours they will be amazed.

Sirjams, Thanks for the link!. I have seen mention of this 10K hours, but its not practical for people just starting. 10k hours is very daunting, and you can be very good long before 10K hours. You can be very good at 1000 hours. Can we safely say you will be an intermediate, or even advanced player will 1000 hours under your belt?

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by DarkWaveRiffer: Apr 8 2012, 07:15 PM

[SirJamsalot]

Guitar Hero is not top level. Its just top level in what I have come up with. Your journey has really just begun by 1000 hours, but by the time the 1000 hours comes up you will be well on your way. When they look back at where they started, and where they are in 1000 hours they will be amazed.

Sirjams, Thanks for the link!. I have seen mention of this 10K hours, but its not practical for people just starting. 10k hours is very daunting, and you can be very good long before 10K hours. You can be very good at 1000 hours. Can we safely say you will be an intermediate, or even advanced player will 1000 hours under your belt?

Well, I guess it depends on our definition of good then
If we're talking in terms of "able to do a lick at 200 bpm", then sure, you can probably manage that. But if you mean "good all around player" in only 1000 hours of practice, then I'm going to be the protagonist ~ show me the money! 1000 hours divided by 4 hours a day is 250 days ~ that's about a year. I know of no guitarists who have been playing a year who are "good" ~ all the ones I've run across are just getting to the point where they are able to inject "feel" into what they are doing, Their vocabulary is minimal at best, and ability to bend with control, weak.

In my experience, the mind must absorb information. You can throw a 1000 hours worth of information at the mind in a month, but the mind needs the full 1000 hours to make sense of it, and the body needs 1000 hours to burn whatever physical motions are required to play it, into muscle memory.

Anyways, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade ~ you should always strive for the hours, but I think you run the risk of going into depression if you set yourself up the expectation of becoming "good" in only a year's time. Everyone I've ever encountered has gone through some form of "I should be better by now ~ they've usually been playing about 2-5 years. I just think you run less risk of giving up if you know at the outset that you're in for the "long haul" when you pick up your axe. I know of no short-cuts. Discipline, long-term goals, patience, understanding that it's going to take you years, not months, to get into a reasonable sense of self-worth in your guitarmanship.

Focus long-term! Chip away at the block! Nothing wrong with counting hours, but remember the old saying "a watched kettle never boils". Record yourself always, and look back at how far you've progressed when you get frustrated.

Rock on!

p.s. I know you understand long term ~ and you're just looking for a short term- indicator since 10K hours seems too far in the distance. I think what I'm getting at is that people don't judge their ability in terms of time ~ they judge it in terms of ability to play to their own satisfaction, and our own satisfaction is very hard to accomplish. If you really want to find a meaningful guage of how good you are in terms of your own expectations, then pick a song you consider to be "good playing", then learn it! See if you can play that song "well" enough, to your definition of good, then you'll have reached your goal. I think that is much better guage than hours played and it gives you meaningful feedback! AND it will pave the ground for learning to compose your own songs because you will begin to expose yourself to song structures that you like (since you picked the song!).

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by SirJamsalot: Apr 8 2012, 08:50 PM