Anytime. I got real good help from other guys online over the years, lot of good advice on how to use arpeggios for soloing over changes. I'm still too slow to figure out how to do that and actually know what I'm doing, but I hope it'll sink in eventually.

Got any recording gear?

Listening to Andre Segovia's "My Favorite Works" this morning inspired me to take my Tele and Vox amp to the Guitar Center and trade them in for a classical guitar. Now excuse me while I go rewire my brain destroying bad old habits for the next 50 years of my life.

Hopefully it works out for you, id personally kill for a good tele though. I went through a similar phase a year or so ago after listening to some christopher parkening records i think, though i love listening to classical guitar i ended up finding out that i hate playing it. My music reading ability improved though which is something that i dont regret.

well its so fucking hard, especially if you take it seriously and maintain your fingernails and so on. but on the other hand everyone should have a nylon string guitar lying around

i hope you got a pretty good guitar in exchange for that tele, droo.
and "my favorite works" is a beautiful bunch of choons, indeed!
what bad habits are you talking about?

This is what I got. Not an amazing guitar but I couldn't get any more than $300 for my Tele and to be honest I couldn't care less about it anyway; just hated seeing it in my room and didn't even like its sound anymore. Once I can play "Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring" all the way through on this one I'll reward myself with something that wasn't made in a factory in China.

As for bad habits, where to begin. Goals: Learning songs all the way through rather than just the cool parts. Memorizing songs. Not making a bunch of dissonant noise when I'm done with a string. Actually learning how to make big changes in the position of the left hand fingers gracefully rather than just getting immediately frustrated when there's a difficult switch and going right back to playing some song I learned when I was 13 really loudly to work out aggression before going to the bathroom to masturbate and fall asleep instead. I've always been pretty good at having a feel for the range of tone, dynamics, and timbres I can create with my right hand, but I really just need to master what's going on with the fretboard...

That looks like a decent instrument. I've always loved my classical guitars, even the cheapies. The pleasant feel of the strings, the sound, especially the different qualities between nails, fingertips, and picks. At one time, I did make an honest attempt at learning classical pieces the 'correct' way, but since I couldn't grow nails well, not to mention lacking the discipline required, I quickly gave it up and just played whatever sounded good, in whichever way felt more useful.

Those bad habits you mention, I think they're fairly common. Some do it that way because they're lazy, others because they can't focus despite earnest efforts. I think the best thing to do is just to learn as much as you can whenever the mood strikes. Push yourself, make the best effort you can while you still feel like playing, and you should benefit from practicing. Oh, and make yourself a practice regimen, that might help you get things down quicker than if you just noodle without much structure.

nails aren't a requirement to play classical, though.
tarrega played without them. in fact, the idea of nails is mostly a 20th century idea, i believe.

hmmm... i've learned to play "jesu joy of man's desiring" (the rick foster arrangement, which is a left hand marathon), but i still play on the same plywood student guitar i started with... maybe as a reward you could send that guitar my way after you upgrade... that looks like a very fine first instrument, indeed, droo :-D

actually, i've mentioned this to rv already... the next instrument on my to-buy list is a lute, which is found relatively very cheap online... http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... CFwQ8wIwAA

Once you get it, try to get to Julian Bream and ask if he wants to see your lute.

touche!

A lot of Dreww's issues apply to me. Especially this one:

Even in the last three days my musical life has totally changed. It's amazing what even the smallest amount of real determination or discipline can do. It's very satisfying being forced to put my stamp on a piece--even something as sing-songingly simple as Carulli's "Country Dance"--through subtly shifting the tempo, tone, and dynamics of my playing rather than fiddling with amp settings for years on end.

Nope.

Well, if you wanna record yourself, I suggest getting a used Line 6 Toneport UX1 or UX2, some cables, a decent microphone, and a mic stand. The programs you need for recording can be found online. Me, I've used Adobe Audition(formerly Cool Edit Pro) for years. It's not the best, but I know how it works, and it gets the job done. With your microphone, you can record both guitar and vocals, either at the same time or separately. If you use a webcam, you can do both and get a fairly good sound if you have a good cam mic.

Recording yourself is the best way to learn, because you can then document your progression each step of the way.