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A comment on It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar.

Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by cousin_it on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:11AM (#15008658)
Warning! If you're middle-aged and thinking of picking up the guitar, you should realize that the public image of guitarists has shifted from "sexy gods" to "annoying hobos" sometime in the last two decades. If you are at least partly motivated by popularity (and who isn't), maybe pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now, not in your imagined past. So in a sense, yes, it is sometimes too late :-(
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by StevePerkins on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:24AM (#15008744)
If you're middle-aged, and still all that "motivated by popularity", then you're not doing middle-age right.

A 50-year old playing guitar is 1,000x cooler than a 50-year old mixing EDM tracks on Ableton, because he thinks it'll help him score 20-year old chicks or impress HN.

No matter what age you are, "adulthood" is pretty much another word for finally having enough self-confidence to do your own thing. It's pretty much always better than "childhood", which is the lack thereof.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by ntumlin on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:56AM (#15009021)
>A 50-year old playing guitar is 1,000x cooler than a 50-year old mixing EDM tracks on Ableton, because he thinks it'll help him score 20-year chicks.

Corollary: A 50 year old mixing EDM tracks on Ableton because he likes it is just as cool as the first guy.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by ams6110 on Monday August 14, 2017 @12:47PM (#15010143)
A 50 year old mixing vinyl with turntables and an analog mixer is cooler.
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by beobab on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:33AM (#15008808)
Agreed. My dad (70) says he's too old to be "young at heart" any more. He says he's going to try "immature at heart" for a bit.
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by hood_syntax on Monday August 14, 2017 @11:41AM (#15009459)
Hah, your dad sounds like a cool guy. Taking everything dead serious and weighing it on the outcome and effort required is a quick way to a boring existence.
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by eggpy on Monday August 14, 2017 @01:56PM (#15010821)
Tell that to EOTO[0]! Two of the guys from String Cheese Incident have a pretty killer EDM band that I've seen melt the face off 20 year olds.

[0] - http://eotomusic.com/

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by JoelMcCracken on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:44AM (#15008906)
Honestly, I think if you're looking for popularity, you won't keep up with guitar. It is too hard for that. I think the main motivator needs to be an inherent interest in guitar.

If you're worried about being unpopular at all, my advice would be to not start trying to learn.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by macleodnine on Monday August 14, 2017 @11:19AM (#15009258)
^This exactly
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by fotbr on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:34AM (#15008826)
>If you are at least partly motivated by popularity (and who isn't), maybe pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now

There's a hell of a lot of people doing a hell of a lot of things for hobbies that aren't motivated by popularity at all.

For example, reading for fun wasn't a way to be popular growing up - your peers expected you to be involved in sports, or be doing the garage band thing. Being a bookworm was like hanging a "bully me" sign on your back. But I'd wager that many on HN did (and still do) read for fun.

I've learned to play a few instruments, although I was never successful with the guitar (no one wants to teach what I want to learn - they all assume I want to play rock or gospel and are incapable of teaching anything else, and I want to learn flamenco guitar). The only people who have ever heard me play anything are my teachers, and my immediate family.

I suppose, if I decide to give the bagpipes a try, that the neighbors might have to hear me as well. I expect that won't improve my popularity, but I don't, and never have cared about that.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by croon on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:18AM (#15008701)
Great! Now I can feel less guilty about not having picked up any guitar in the last 10+ years after playing for 15 years as a youth. Although it was never about external adoration as much as one possible tool for music creation.

Much like programming, or any form of writing, it's not as much what language or style you choose, but enabling you to express or create something in a space.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by mikestew on Monday August 14, 2017 @02:24PM (#15011097)
If you're middle-aged and picking up the guitar for the first time in the hopes of getting chix, you've got other issues that need to be addressed first. You can still learn the guitar, but hopefully your therapist can help steer you such that you're learning it for the right reasons.

If you are at least partly motivated by popularity (and who isn't)

Umm, me? I picked up the mandolin in my 50s because I wanted to learn how to play it. To date, I've not had one woman throw herself at me as a result. I'm perfectly okay with that. That brief flirting with the hammer dulcimer wasn't any better. Perhaps I'll try accordion next.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by NikolaeVarius on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:38AM (#15008855)
I only think this applies if you start playing at social gatherings unprompted.
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by 1337biz on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:21AM (#15008730)
"pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now"

For example?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by cousin_it on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:24AM (#15008747)
The most obvious examples are becoming a star on youtube or instagram.
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by verandaguys_alt on Monday August 14, 2017 @11:09AM (#15009139)
That's not a hobby -- that's a job that requires you to shill out to brands while being as loud and obnoxious as possible...

A hobby isn't usually about being popular, it's just something you like doing on your spare time. I'm fairly sure nobody on here who codes in their spare time does it to get laid, but because it's just an interesting way to fill out spare time to them.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by amelius on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:31AM (#15008799)
By playing what instrument?
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by NikolaeVarius on Monday August 14, 2017 @10:47AM (#15008926)
Electric Triangle
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by 1337biz on Monday August 14, 2017 @11:29AM (#15009363)
I googled Electric Triangle. Urban Dictionary did not leave me dissapointed.
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by yladiz on Monday August 14, 2017 @03:28PM (#15011922)
The Theremin is probably really Instagram friendly (not sarcastic).
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by jdietrich on Monday August 14, 2017 @01:23PM (#15010477)
MicroKorg, probably. Maybe an Ableton Push.
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by jdietrich on Monday August 14, 2017 @01:21PM (#15010463)
Rock music is profoundly uncool, but the guitar is having something of a resurgence amongst young people thanks to Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift. Their signature model guitars are selling like hotcakes.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by johnohara on Monday August 14, 2017 @11:45AM (#15009488)
Far from annoying, I am reminded of Seasick Steve.

href='https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a33sB3ck28A'

Edit: url

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by gmarx on Monday August 14, 2017 @11:01AM (#15009072)
My guitarist's 14 year old daughter refers to his heavy metal as "old man music".
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by dionidium on Monday August 14, 2017 @11:01AM (#15009073)
"maybe pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now"

I'm trying to learn to unicycle, so I'm definitely doing this wrong.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by eggpy on Monday August 14, 2017 @01:52PM (#15010763)
Eh, I've been playing guitar for a decade and I have no desire to perform. I largely play on my own, and occasionally with friends. So any semblance of public persona or what I look like playing guitar has zero relevance to a hobby that I greatly enjoy. But I guess I'm somewhat opposed to picking hobbies based on "how cool" they are. Hobbies should be fun.

Also, "sexy gods" generally applied to 20 year old guitarists anyways. The middle aged guitar gods didn't _start_ as middle-aged. Their fame carried them.

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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by cylinder on Monday August 14, 2017 @02:31PM (#15011184)
what an odd comment.
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by ibn_ibid on Monday August 14, 2017 @11:00AM (#15009057)
It's never too late to not give a fuck what people think
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Re:It's Never Too Late to Learn Guitar by graphitezepp on Monday August 14, 2017 @01:06PM (#15010334)
Or too early!
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