Discovered I'm still suffering from the...

[E-string]

...Keyboard Player "Security Blanket" mentality... :D

I can read music fine, and if it's not too complicated, I can sight read music at a keyboard. I came across this old hymn that I thought I'd try out on guitar. Don't have tablature. Can't play guitar from standard notation only, at least not well. Can play by ear, but don't really grasp how the song goes...

So after an hour of total frustration, I gave up and grabbed a cheap $30 Casio out of my closet, and found some batteries for it. Then I sat down with the music, figured out the song, memorized the melody, then went BACK to the guitar and taught myself how to play the same melody on that instrument.

I don't think I'm EVER going to totally be able to think as fluent in "Guitar" as I can in "Keyboard" :( ... Maybe it's time for me to at least work at learning how to play guitar from standard notation only.

[smfulla]

hey thats really cool that you can do that. And I think thats a pretty cool skill to have. You don't always have to rely on the guitar for reading music.

[E-string]

Originally posted by smfulla
hey thats really cool that you can do that. ...

Thanks, smfulla. :)

I guess I just get frustrated sometimes 'cause there's a part of me that thinks, well I can play THIS instrument without any struggle, so why can't I play THAT one, too?

The logical, practical side of me says, well I've been doing keyboards since I was a kid, so of course I'm more "fluent" as a keyboardist.

And I learned the hard way, that when I first took up guitar, I had to approach this new instrument as a total beginner, and forget thinking like a keyboardist, since the guitar simply isn't put together, played, or approached in the same way...

... and that's just the MENTAL part! Keyboard playing also uses different finger/hand/wrist muscles, and being coordinated to do one didn't mean I could automatically do the other...

Honestly, though, there are things in music (especially theory) that I never quite understood until I took up guitar, 'cause I was looking at music through new eyes, with a new language. :)

But I appreciate what you say, smfulla, 'cause sometimes it takes someone else to remind me that I'm doing okay with what I've got. I think I'm my harshest critic, anyway.

[smfulla]

if you want to get more proficient in guitar, then with each problem you face, you are going to have to figure it out with the guitar. But I mean music wise, you can just go back to another instrument to help out with learning and still do good on guitar. Thats cool. The only instruments I can play is the guitar and bass =] Adn well... yeah =] Not much difference.

[Soundman]

I started out on guitar, It felt natural to me and I picked it up easily. The piano in my moms house was a chalenge to me and I still to this day I have to watch my fingers on chord changes. I don't read music well (understatement of the year) but learn by ear better than most. I play keyboards in the band I'm in but that is not saying I'm good at it. I can play with one hand (right) and my left hand can only play single notes. I get by somehow but I need the guitar sometimes to figure out the chords in complex songs. The overall problem I've had over the years is the left hand direction is opposite from guitar. (up is down fingering wise on guitar). Still fighting it but I play 10 songs on keys with my band. So I guess I'm not as bad as I make it sound. You are lucky you can sight read, I rejected written music long ago, There is no chance I'll "get it".