Full transcript of “Learning Guitar After 60? 5 Things You Need to Know”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:01 [music] If you're learning guitar in your [music] 60s or thinking about starting, you may wonder if you've waited too long. You haven't. You absolutely [music] can learn the guitar after 60, but you may need to approach it a little differently. Welcome back to Relax, Learn Guitar. I'm Kevin and this is Miss Maggie May who is chomping down her treats. My wife Vickiy's behind the camera. >> Hello. >> Let's get started. I've spent years helping hundreds of older adults learn how to play the guitar, and I've seen the same few things make a big difference. So, here are five things I think every guitarist over 60 should know. Number one is that you may have to
0:47 learn differently, and that's okay. Because when we're learning guitar at 65, [music] it's a tad different than learning at age 15. It might take you a little more time and a lot more repetition [music] to get that C to a D chord transition down. Or it might take you, you know, a little while to get something like this, [music] you know, kind of a chugging country rhythm. It might take a while to get that to be automatic. the um but you know one thing I have seen with um our students is that we have [music] more patience. I feel like well on most days I feel like I
1:33 have more patience than I did when I was 15. Um I definitely have more discipline. I've seen um students have more discipline uh a stronger connection to the music that we grew up with. Mhm. >> Uh, >> not that like younger people don't have a connection to music, but I do think it's different. >> It's >> the way I approach it or our our members approach it. [music] Um, and I think that strong connection to music makes it uh even not easier but maybe a stronger drive to learn how to play. And I think older students also have a more realistic expectations. You know, when I was 15, I thought I'd pick up that guitar, plug it in, and just, you know, be a rock and roll star, but, you know, as you get older and wiser,
2:21 those things kind of come into light. Um, but different learning differently doesn't mean it's worse. It's something that, um, if it takes you, you know, 20 repetitions, >> it would [music] take me longer. If it takes you 40 or 60 repetitions, let's just use this as an example. This is a kind of a classic country strum. It's a very Johnny Cashlike. Big fan, not a big surprise here or a big secret. But you, as an older adult, you may have to really do a lot of repetitions on just that bass down and get that [music] where you need it. Then you might add in the upstrum. Then you might have to work on the palm muting. there's a, you know, a
3:07 progression. But [music] as I've seen, uh, older adults stick with it and actually get there. So, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if it takes you 20, 30 repetitions to get something down. It still counts. You You got there. So, it might take you a little longer and you might have had to learn a little differently, but the end result is you're doing it. Number two, decide what good at means to you. So when you're approaching things, you don't have to become a guitar expert and become completely proficient at it in order to enjoy playing the guitar. So you might just want to maybe you want to learn four or five of your favorite songs. [music] Uh maybe you want to just
3:52 be able to strum the guitar and sing along. [music] Maybe you want to learn a song to play for your spouse or your kids or your grandkids or, you know, at a family picnic. Maybe you want to learn some [music] That wasn't a great example. Maybe you just want to learn some blues licks. You know, maybe you're into that. Or maybe you just want to [music] have something to look forward to. It's been a crazy day. and you know when you get home you're going to get your guitar out and play and relax [music] some. That's that's really high on my list, but uh um or maybe you just want to keep learning something new. As we get older, it's important to keep challenging ourselves. So, you don't have to master the guitar
4:39 in order to play the guitar and enjoy playing it. Um and it doesn't have to be super complicated. Let's just take this example. We're going to play a G, a C, [music] and a D. These are all open chords that are not like super difficult. They might take you a little repetition to get there, you know, to get the shapes down and whatnot, but you could take something like that and just add a simple strum pattern [music] and then add one little thing that makes [music] a difference. We could like accent that third beat. >> [music] >> So, if you can sit down and play
5:24 something simple like that that sounds musical and sounds good to you and you enjoy playing that, that is a win. That is success in my opinion. And if your goal is to start playing more songs that you love, I've got a free song lesson bundle you can check out. A great place to start. I'll leave it in the link in the description. Number three is practice less but practice more often. This one's a big one. So, I'd rather see you spend 15 minutes a day. We're not talking a ton of time. Uh that that will actually give you results. 15 minutes a day for 5 days of the week rather than playing for like 2 or 3 hours on a weekend and then not touching the guitar anymore. Um, it's really something that
6:11 regular repetition is going to make a big difference and help get that muscle memory going and get that progress going so that you can move forward. It is not necessary to practice until your brain is fried and your fingers hurt >> and you feel like throwing the guitar >> and you feel like smashing the guitar and giving up. That is not necessary. So, one simple um kind of idea you can use when you're practicing the guitar is maybe the first few minutes is work on a finger exercise. [music] Get those fingers limbered up and ready to go. Then you maybe want to uh then spend, you know, five minutes or so on something you've been working on. [music] Maybe it's, you know, changing
6:58 two specific chords or three chords. >> [music] >> And then you always want to finish on a high note. So finish your finish up your practice playing something that you like or you enjoy. [music] Um even better if you can play something that kind of reminds you of why you started playing the guitar. So maybe you're ending that practice session with [music] something you enjoy. I I kind of default to CCR, Little Bad Moon Rising. So, say that's something you've been working on. I mean, you can insert whatever song you like, but if you end your practice session on something that [music] you enjoy, you're much more likely to go back. And number four is make the guitar fit you, not the other way around. It is
7:45 perfectly okay to make things easier when it comes to playing the guitar or more comfortable. And no shame in that. So, uh, big example, [clears throat] scary F [music] bar chord. the F bar chord that strikes fear into many hearts, including mine at one time. But you could take that and play an F major 7, [music] different chord shape, and it's totally fine to substitute an easier chord shape until you get to [music] the more difficult one, for example. Um, slow things down. So, learn things at a slower tempo and work your speed up. I say this all the time. Um, learn things correctly first and quickly later. The speed will happen as you
8:33 progress. Uh, that's a biggie. Or use a capo. I know that, you know, some folks are going to say using a capo is cheating and it's the easy way out. And I think the exact opposite of that. It's [music] a tool that's there, too. Um, it makes many things possible. You can use the same chord [music] shapes uh up and down the neck and change the key with a capo. You can use it to match your voice. There's a lot going on with that. I'll I'll leave a link in the description to um for a lesson I did about the capo that's much more in depth. Um or you might you want to use some lighter strings on your guitar. And another example, let's like use an A chord for example. Uh the thing with the guitar is there's many many different ways to play all different types of
9:19 chords. There's no one right answer, which is one of the reasons I love the guitar. But for example, you know, it might be you might play your A chord with three fingers. [music] You might bar those strings. You might, you know, play a different shape inside the frets. Those are all [music] A chords. Play the A chord that is most comfortable to you. I tell [music] our folks all the time, if it sounds good, it is good. I get questions like, is it okay to play with the A chord this way? Is it okay to play um an F major 7 here? Is it okay to use my index finger [clears throat] here instead of my ring finger? >> My answer always is if it sounds good, it is good. And number five is stop comparing yourself to players that have been playing for 40 years. And uh
10:07 fortunat Oh, unfortunately or fortunately, YouTube makes that really easy to do. It >> sure does. >> Yeah. You can watch videos and see folks and maybe think, "Uh, I'm done. Why am I even trying? Why am I even pretending? But don't compare yourself to folks who've been playing for a long time. What you should be asking yourself is things like, you know, can I play this C chord and does it sound cleaner than it did a week ago? Or maybe it could be, you know, maybe [music] I can change chords smoother now. [music] Maybe it's playing a rhythm that you've been working on and you finally get there. compare yourself to yourself and um >> what you've accomplished. >> Yeah, I know that sounds weird, but what
10:53 I do with our members is I tell folks to record themselves with and then a month later watch that video and compare those two things. Like compare the progress that you're making. You want to um you want to enjoy [music] what you're playing now um while you're working towards something to play in the future. [music] You know, don't let the fact that you can't do X keep you from enjoying playing Y. If one of the things you feel like you're missing is someone to ask questions to when you get stuck or trying to figure out what do I do next to get better at playing guitar, that is something that we do inside our Relax Learn Guitar membership. Uh we have lessons of course, but we also have an amazing group of
11:39 uh individuals. I can't brag on our members enough. I'll just say that. But I'm in there daily answering questions. If you would like more information about that, I will leave a link below for you to check out. So, if you're learning the guitar at age 60, 65, 70 and beyond, the goal shouldn't be to uh catch up to those folks that have been playing since they were five. Uh the goal should be learn some chords, [music] play them cleanly, add some rhythm, play [music] songs that you love. Keep picking the guitar up. That's important. Enjoy the music that you're able to make right now. So, you have not missed your chance. You can absolutely do this. You
12:24 don't need to learn everything. You just need to keep making small, steady progress. Up next is a bone for Maggie. Of course, up next for you guys, check out this lesson. I've got five songs for you to learn using just three easy open chords. It's a great place to start. Highly recommend it. Remember that Vicki and Maggie and I appreciate your views, your support here on YouTube, and we look forward to seeing you for the next lesson. Remember, you're never too old to learn. >> Take care. [music]
