Chords for The 4 Stages of Guitar Store Playing (which one are you?)
Tempo:
115.05 bpm
Chords used:
Bb
C
G
Db
Tuning:Standard Tuning (EADGBE)Capo:+0fret
Start Jamming...
What's up everybody it's Mike here from the art of guitar here to talk about kind of a funny thing, but it's true
I guess you could say it's sad, but true, but it's actually not that sad
It's the four stages of guitar store playing and my original article is just called the four stages of guitar center playing
But I know there's not guitar centers everywhere
So there might be and you go into a guitar store and you hear people playing
it's usually one of four people four kinds of people at four different types of levels and
When I first started guitar remember walking in so this would be stage one
You're totally new to it and you walk in and you look at that huge wall of guitars
and it's just really intimidating and you're afraid to touch them even though sometimes people do anyway and
You walk by and everybody who's playing guitar seems to be way better than you
Just because you're starting out, but everybody's amazing
you know you're looking over there and the guys playing smoke on the water and it's just
Sounds so professional even if he's not playing at the greatest
So it kind of blows your mind everything's new everything's exciting
You're not sure, you know what you're really looking at what to what to shop for you
Just kind of in awe the whole time
so that's stage one and that's a totally innocent stage and I love that stage because everything's brand new and exciting and
The world of guitar seems so gigantic and then comes stage two and this is after you're playing for a few months
something really weird happens, you know, you learn a couple riffs maybe off YouTube or something and
You grab a guitar usually, you know
Expensive guitar I noticed and the guys working there are always kind of freaking out because you're they're afraid you're gonna drop it or bang
It against another guitar or something and then you plug it in and almost all the time
you'll they'll turn on the amp and you'll just hear this raging feedback through the whole store because
When you're at that level, you really don't know what to look for when it comes to amp settings
So the master might be cranked all the way up
That's kind of a mean trick that some people do they'll turn up the master volume and then shut off the amp
So the next unsuspecting person if they're at level one or two will turn it on and just feedback city
So that could be kind of freaky that happened to me
So over time though, you learn to check that master volume before you turn it on and at this level level two
People they're not good yet.
You know, they can play a handful of riffs
Maybe they always seem to be out of tune because when they pick a guitar off the wall
They're not really sure how to tune it by ear quite yet.
And so I don't know
I'll just put my guitar a little bit out of tune.
You'll probably hear something like this going [G] on
[Bb] [C]
[Bb] [Db] [C] [Bb] [C]
[G]
[N] Probably hear that like 20 times in a row and it's always at a very loud volume
So what's funny is they're not really that good yet
But because they know a handful of riffs they kind of want to show people, you know, hey, I can play something
I'm no longer that level one person that knows nothing about guitar.
So check this out and they'll play something.
It's always too loud
So what I recommend to people at this level, I mean you have to go through that level, you know
But if you're conscious of it, and you know, you're not the greatest go ahead and keep that volume down a little bit
You're going to not annoy as many customers or employees and you know
You could still play the guitars and have fun
But try to keep the levels down a little bit just until you get a little bit better
And then you'll see by the time we get to the last level that won't be an issue
Okay, so what's level three?
Level three is where most people get to that I noticed and it's not that you can't get to level four
But level four has a lot of obstacles to get to so that's why a lot of people are stuck at level three
So I guess if you wanted to compare it to martial arts like jiu-jitsu
That level would be like being at the blue belt level where you're decent, but you still haven't really tested yourself out yet
So that's just kind of the analogy
I like to use level three You're good
And you can play and you could probably play in bands if you wanted to
And you could solo a little bit too, but your riffs sound really good and you're flowing and you still have that
Part of you that wants everybody to hear you play
So you'll still turn up that amp loud and you'll play but this time you're actually in tune and
People are starting to kind of look over and they want to come over and next thing
You know you look up and there's maybe a little group of people watching you play
It's kind of a cool level to be at and your ego feels really good
She's like, okay all this work and I'm finally being heard.
This is great
I'm out of my basement, you know
But it's easy to get stuck in level three because you feel good every time people acknowledge that you're playing well
And you feel good already because you are playing well
But you sort of live off that attention a little too much and you're kind of satisfied sometimes there
So that's where a lot of people get stuck.
Also, you haven't played many gigs yet.
That's a level three
Characteristic right there is that you play a lot in your basement
You play a lot at the guitar store to kind of show off but you haven't been on stage and truly tested yet
So you don't really have that humbling experience of failing on stage
So you kind of want to just stay where you're comfortable, you know
Hey, I can do this tapping lick and everybody thinks I'm great
but once you get on stage and you get surrounded by other musicians who are as good as you or better and
Maybe you're nervous.
You're not so great on stage at first
It's a very humbling experience and it makes you feel worse at first even though the excitement of playing live
Should be enough keep you want to keep going but sometimes it scares people
So to get to level four typically it's a level three person who just goes out and cuts their teeth on playing live
Experiencing a lot of failure
but also experiencing a lot of growth and
Before you know it you've played, you know a handful of shows
Maybe a whole bunch of shows and people have you know clapped for you.
You've played for the big crowds
You've also played in front of just the sound man and the waiter or something
That's happened to me many times and then after you do that for a long time
You've kind of earned your wings to go to the next level level four and it's a strange level because now you know
You've gotten enough of that energy out on stage
You know, you've had enough people tell you that you're decent and you've had enough failures and come back from them
Hopefully to to be at a certain level now and all of a sudden you walk into the music store and you don't even want
To play in front of people anymore.
It's it's almost like it's become your job in a way and you know
You're more professional about it
So you don't have to pull a guitar off the wall and show everybody that you're good
And so typically you just buy a set of strings or something
Maybe you'll see a guitar on the wall that you think looks kind of cool
Try it out
but the strange thing is you'll take it in the back room and
Maybe turn down and play just for yourself
and the strangest thing is somebody will walk in and you'll actually kind of be annoyed by you be like
Oh, I kind of wanted to be alone in here to try this guitar out
So a very strange switch happens when you get to level four when you no longer need that attention
You don't crave it anymore.
And then before you know it you just experience this feeling of feeling great
Just playing on your own.
You don't have to show off to anybody
so I guess you could think of level four as maybe the black belt of guitar and
Everything else you're sort of working your way up to the point to where you don't even care if anyone's hears you play anymore
It's not that you don't want to play in front of audiences anymore.
It's just that you'll have a bigger
Arena in which hopefully an arena but you'll have a bigger
Platform in which to perform and you will no longer worry about impressing people in a music store
So that's going to be the four levels of guitar store playing
I'm just curious how many people think they're at a certain level
I know I was stuck in level two for a long time
Level one was great, but it went by quick because I dove right in you know, I started playing I started
Taking lessons and I really dove deep into guitar.
So I think I went into level two quite fast
There was a Schmidt music in a mall called Northtown where I used to live
And I annoyed so many of those guys that work there.
I'm sorry guys
Funny thing is I ended up working there eventually and then I got kind of got paid back by other
Up-and-coming guitar players playing out of tune.
Alright, so that was kind of just a short sort of a funny thing
But I also wanted to teach a lesson through it because there's a lot of truth in the four stages of guitar store playing
So leave me some comments and let me know where you guys are at
It'd be interesting to talk
I guess you could say it's sad, but true, but it's actually not that sad
It's the four stages of guitar store playing and my original article is just called the four stages of guitar center playing
But I know there's not guitar centers everywhere
So there might be and you go into a guitar store and you hear people playing
it's usually one of four people four kinds of people at four different types of levels and
When I first started guitar remember walking in so this would be stage one
You're totally new to it and you walk in and you look at that huge wall of guitars
and it's just really intimidating and you're afraid to touch them even though sometimes people do anyway and
You walk by and everybody who's playing guitar seems to be way better than you
Just because you're starting out, but everybody's amazing
you know you're looking over there and the guys playing smoke on the water and it's just
Sounds so professional even if he's not playing at the greatest
So it kind of blows your mind everything's new everything's exciting
You're not sure, you know what you're really looking at what to what to shop for you
Just kind of in awe the whole time
so that's stage one and that's a totally innocent stage and I love that stage because everything's brand new and exciting and
The world of guitar seems so gigantic and then comes stage two and this is after you're playing for a few months
something really weird happens, you know, you learn a couple riffs maybe off YouTube or something and
You grab a guitar usually, you know
Expensive guitar I noticed and the guys working there are always kind of freaking out because you're they're afraid you're gonna drop it or bang
It against another guitar or something and then you plug it in and almost all the time
you'll they'll turn on the amp and you'll just hear this raging feedback through the whole store because
When you're at that level, you really don't know what to look for when it comes to amp settings
So the master might be cranked all the way up
That's kind of a mean trick that some people do they'll turn up the master volume and then shut off the amp
So the next unsuspecting person if they're at level one or two will turn it on and just feedback city
So that could be kind of freaky that happened to me
So over time though, you learn to check that master volume before you turn it on and at this level level two
People they're not good yet.
You know, they can play a handful of riffs
Maybe they always seem to be out of tune because when they pick a guitar off the wall
They're not really sure how to tune it by ear quite yet.
And so I don't know
I'll just put my guitar a little bit out of tune.
You'll probably hear something like this going [G] on
[Bb] [C]
[Bb] [Db] [C] [Bb] [C]
[G]
[N] Probably hear that like 20 times in a row and it's always at a very loud volume
So what's funny is they're not really that good yet
But because they know a handful of riffs they kind of want to show people, you know, hey, I can play something
I'm no longer that level one person that knows nothing about guitar.
So check this out and they'll play something.
It's always too loud
So what I recommend to people at this level, I mean you have to go through that level, you know
But if you're conscious of it, and you know, you're not the greatest go ahead and keep that volume down a little bit
You're going to not annoy as many customers or employees and you know
You could still play the guitars and have fun
But try to keep the levels down a little bit just until you get a little bit better
And then you'll see by the time we get to the last level that won't be an issue
Okay, so what's level three?
Level three is where most people get to that I noticed and it's not that you can't get to level four
But level four has a lot of obstacles to get to so that's why a lot of people are stuck at level three
So I guess if you wanted to compare it to martial arts like jiu-jitsu
That level would be like being at the blue belt level where you're decent, but you still haven't really tested yourself out yet
So that's just kind of the analogy
I like to use level three You're good
And you can play and you could probably play in bands if you wanted to
And you could solo a little bit too, but your riffs sound really good and you're flowing and you still have that
Part of you that wants everybody to hear you play
So you'll still turn up that amp loud and you'll play but this time you're actually in tune and
People are starting to kind of look over and they want to come over and next thing
You know you look up and there's maybe a little group of people watching you play
It's kind of a cool level to be at and your ego feels really good
She's like, okay all this work and I'm finally being heard.
This is great
I'm out of my basement, you know
But it's easy to get stuck in level three because you feel good every time people acknowledge that you're playing well
And you feel good already because you are playing well
But you sort of live off that attention a little too much and you're kind of satisfied sometimes there
So that's where a lot of people get stuck.
Also, you haven't played many gigs yet.
That's a level three
Characteristic right there is that you play a lot in your basement
You play a lot at the guitar store to kind of show off but you haven't been on stage and truly tested yet
So you don't really have that humbling experience of failing on stage
So you kind of want to just stay where you're comfortable, you know
Hey, I can do this tapping lick and everybody thinks I'm great
but once you get on stage and you get surrounded by other musicians who are as good as you or better and
Maybe you're nervous.
You're not so great on stage at first
It's a very humbling experience and it makes you feel worse at first even though the excitement of playing live
Should be enough keep you want to keep going but sometimes it scares people
So to get to level four typically it's a level three person who just goes out and cuts their teeth on playing live
Experiencing a lot of failure
but also experiencing a lot of growth and
Before you know it you've played, you know a handful of shows
Maybe a whole bunch of shows and people have you know clapped for you.
You've played for the big crowds
You've also played in front of just the sound man and the waiter or something
That's happened to me many times and then after you do that for a long time
You've kind of earned your wings to go to the next level level four and it's a strange level because now you know
You've gotten enough of that energy out on stage
You know, you've had enough people tell you that you're decent and you've had enough failures and come back from them
Hopefully to to be at a certain level now and all of a sudden you walk into the music store and you don't even want
To play in front of people anymore.
It's it's almost like it's become your job in a way and you know
You're more professional about it
So you don't have to pull a guitar off the wall and show everybody that you're good
And so typically you just buy a set of strings or something
Maybe you'll see a guitar on the wall that you think looks kind of cool
Try it out
but the strange thing is you'll take it in the back room and
Maybe turn down and play just for yourself
and the strangest thing is somebody will walk in and you'll actually kind of be annoyed by you be like
Oh, I kind of wanted to be alone in here to try this guitar out
So a very strange switch happens when you get to level four when you no longer need that attention
You don't crave it anymore.
And then before you know it you just experience this feeling of feeling great
Just playing on your own.
You don't have to show off to anybody
so I guess you could think of level four as maybe the black belt of guitar and
Everything else you're sort of working your way up to the point to where you don't even care if anyone's hears you play anymore
It's not that you don't want to play in front of audiences anymore.
It's just that you'll have a bigger
Arena in which hopefully an arena but you'll have a bigger
Platform in which to perform and you will no longer worry about impressing people in a music store
So that's going to be the four levels of guitar store playing
I'm just curious how many people think they're at a certain level
I know I was stuck in level two for a long time
Level one was great, but it went by quick because I dove right in you know, I started playing I started
Taking lessons and I really dove deep into guitar.
So I think I went into level two quite fast
There was a Schmidt music in a mall called Northtown where I used to live
And I annoyed so many of those guys that work there.
I'm sorry guys
Funny thing is I ended up working there eventually and then I got kind of got paid back by other
Up-and-coming guitar players playing out of tune.
Alright, so that was kind of just a short sort of a funny thing
But I also wanted to teach a lesson through it because there's a lot of truth in the four stages of guitar store playing
So leave me some comments and let me know where you guys are at
It'd be interesting to talk
Key:
Bb
C
G
Db
Bb
C
G
Db
What's up everybody it's Mike here from the art of guitar here to talk about kind of a funny thing, but it's true
I guess you could say it's sad, but true, but it's actually not that sad
It's the four stages of guitar store playing and my original article is just called the four stages of guitar center playing
But I know there's not guitar centers everywhere
So there might be and you go into a guitar store and you hear people playing
it's usually one of four people four kinds of people at four different types of levels and
When I first started guitar remember walking in so this would be stage one
You're totally new to it and you walk in and you look at that huge wall of guitars
and it's just really intimidating and you're afraid to touch them even though sometimes people do anyway and
You walk by and everybody who's playing guitar seems to be way better than you
Just because you're starting out, but everybody's amazing
you know you're looking over there and the guys playing smoke on the water and it's just
Sounds so professional even if he's not playing at the greatest
So it kind of blows your mind everything's new everything's exciting
You're not sure, you know what you're really looking at what to what to shop for you
Just kind of in awe the whole time
so that's stage one and that's a totally innocent stage and I love that stage because everything's brand new and exciting and
The world of guitar seems so gigantic and then comes stage two and this is after you're playing for a few months
something really weird happens, you know, you learn a couple riffs maybe off YouTube or something and
You grab a guitar usually, you know
Expensive guitar I noticed and the guys working there are always kind of freaking out because you're they're afraid you're gonna drop it or bang
It against another guitar or something and then you plug it in and almost all the time
you'll they'll turn on the amp and you'll just hear this raging feedback through the whole store because
When you're at that level, you really don't know what to look for when it comes to amp settings
So the master might be cranked all the way up
That's kind of a mean trick that some people do they'll turn up the master volume and then shut off the amp
So the next unsuspecting person if they're at level one or two will turn it on and just feedback city
So that could be kind of freaky that happened to me
So over time though, you learn to check that master volume before you turn it on and at this level level two
People they're not good yet.
You know, they can play a handful of riffs
Maybe they always seem to be out of tune because when they pick a guitar off the wall
They're not really sure how to tune it by ear quite yet.
And so I don't know
I'll just put my guitar a little bit out of tune.
You'll probably hear something like this going [G] on
[Bb] _ [C] _ _
[Bb] _ [Db] _ [C] _ _ [Bb] _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[N] Probably hear that like 20 times in a row and it's always at a very loud volume
So what's funny is they're not really that good yet
But because they know a handful of riffs they kind of want to show people, you know, hey, I can play something
I'm no longer that level one person that knows nothing about guitar.
So check this out and they'll play something.
It's always too loud
So what I recommend to people at this level, I mean you have to go through that level, you know
But if you're conscious of it, and you know, you're not the greatest go ahead and keep that volume down a little bit
You're going to not annoy as many customers or employees and you know
You could still play the guitars and have fun
But try to keep the levels down a little bit just until you get a little bit better
And then you'll see by the time we get to the last level that won't be an issue
Okay, so what's level three?
Level three is where most people get to that I noticed and it's not that you can't get to level four
But level four has a lot of obstacles to get to so that's why a lot of people are stuck at level three
So I guess if you wanted to compare it to martial arts like jiu-jitsu
That level would be like being at the blue belt level where you're decent, but you still haven't really tested yourself out yet
So that's just kind of the analogy
I like to use level three You're good
And you can play and you could probably play in bands if you wanted to
And you could solo a little bit too, but your riffs sound really good and you're flowing and you still have that
Part of you that wants everybody to hear you play
So you'll still turn up that amp loud and you'll play but this time you're actually in tune and
People are starting to kind of look over and they want to come over and next thing
You know you look up and there's maybe a little group of people watching you play
It's kind of a cool level to be at and your ego feels really good
She's like, okay all this work and I'm finally being heard.
This is great
I'm out of my basement, you know
But it's easy to get stuck in level three because you feel good every time people acknowledge that you're playing well
And you feel good already because you are playing well
But you sort of live off that attention a little too much and you're kind of satisfied sometimes there
So that's where a lot of people get stuck.
Also, you haven't played many gigs yet.
That's a level three
Characteristic right there is that you play a lot in your basement
You play a lot at the guitar store to kind of show off but you haven't been on stage and truly tested yet
So you don't really have that humbling experience of failing on stage
So you kind of want to just stay where you're comfortable, you know
Hey, I can do this tapping lick and everybody thinks I'm great
but once you get on stage and you get surrounded by other musicians who are as good as you or better and
Maybe you're nervous.
You're not so great on stage at first
It's a very humbling experience and it makes you feel worse at first even though the excitement of playing live
Should be enough keep you want to keep going but sometimes it scares people
So to get to level four typically it's a level three person who just goes out and cuts their teeth on playing live
Experiencing a lot of failure
but also experiencing a lot of growth and
Before you know it you've played, you know a handful of shows
Maybe a whole bunch of shows and people have you know clapped for you.
You've played for the big crowds
You've also played in front of just the sound man and the waiter or something
That's happened to me many times and then after you do that for a long time
You've kind of earned your wings to go to the next level level four and it's a strange level because now you know
You've gotten enough of that energy out on stage
You know, you've had enough people tell you that you're decent and you've had enough failures and come back from them
Hopefully to to be at a certain level now and all of a sudden you walk into the music store and you don't even want
To play in front of people anymore.
It's it's almost like it's become your job in a way and you know
You're more professional about it
So you don't have to pull a guitar off the wall and show everybody that you're good
And so typically you just buy a set of strings or something
Maybe you'll see a guitar on the wall that you think looks kind of cool
Try it out
but the strange thing is you'll take it in the back room and
Maybe turn down and play just for yourself
and the strangest thing is somebody will walk in and you'll actually kind of be annoyed by you be like
Oh, I kind of wanted to be alone in here to try this guitar out
So a very strange switch happens when you get to level four when you no longer need that attention
You don't crave it anymore.
And then before you know it you just experience this feeling of feeling great
Just playing on your own.
You don't have to show off to anybody
so I guess you could think of level four as maybe the black belt of guitar and
Everything else you're sort of working your way up to the point to where you don't even care if anyone's hears you play anymore
It's not that you don't want to play in front of audiences anymore.
It's just that you'll have a bigger
Arena in which hopefully an arena but you'll have a bigger
Platform in which to perform and you will no longer worry about impressing people in a music store
So that's going to be the four levels of guitar store playing
I'm just curious how many people think they're at a certain level
I know I was stuck in level two for a long time
Level one was great, but it went by quick because I dove right in you know, I started playing I started
_ Taking lessons and I really dove deep into guitar.
So I think I went into level two quite fast
There was a Schmidt music in a mall called Northtown where I used to live
And I annoyed so many of those guys that work there.
I'm sorry guys
Funny thing is I ended up working there eventually and then I got kind of got paid back by other
Up-and-coming guitar players playing out of tune.
Alright, so that was kind of just a short sort of a funny thing
But I also wanted to teach a lesson through it because there's a lot of truth in the four stages of guitar store playing
So leave me some comments and let me know where you guys are at
It'd be interesting to talk
I guess you could say it's sad, but true, but it's actually not that sad
It's the four stages of guitar store playing and my original article is just called the four stages of guitar center playing
But I know there's not guitar centers everywhere
So there might be and you go into a guitar store and you hear people playing
it's usually one of four people four kinds of people at four different types of levels and
When I first started guitar remember walking in so this would be stage one
You're totally new to it and you walk in and you look at that huge wall of guitars
and it's just really intimidating and you're afraid to touch them even though sometimes people do anyway and
You walk by and everybody who's playing guitar seems to be way better than you
Just because you're starting out, but everybody's amazing
you know you're looking over there and the guys playing smoke on the water and it's just
Sounds so professional even if he's not playing at the greatest
So it kind of blows your mind everything's new everything's exciting
You're not sure, you know what you're really looking at what to what to shop for you
Just kind of in awe the whole time
so that's stage one and that's a totally innocent stage and I love that stage because everything's brand new and exciting and
The world of guitar seems so gigantic and then comes stage two and this is after you're playing for a few months
something really weird happens, you know, you learn a couple riffs maybe off YouTube or something and
You grab a guitar usually, you know
Expensive guitar I noticed and the guys working there are always kind of freaking out because you're they're afraid you're gonna drop it or bang
It against another guitar or something and then you plug it in and almost all the time
you'll they'll turn on the amp and you'll just hear this raging feedback through the whole store because
When you're at that level, you really don't know what to look for when it comes to amp settings
So the master might be cranked all the way up
That's kind of a mean trick that some people do they'll turn up the master volume and then shut off the amp
So the next unsuspecting person if they're at level one or two will turn it on and just feedback city
So that could be kind of freaky that happened to me
So over time though, you learn to check that master volume before you turn it on and at this level level two
People they're not good yet.
You know, they can play a handful of riffs
Maybe they always seem to be out of tune because when they pick a guitar off the wall
They're not really sure how to tune it by ear quite yet.
And so I don't know
I'll just put my guitar a little bit out of tune.
You'll probably hear something like this going [G] on
[Bb] _ [C] _ _
[Bb] _ [Db] _ [C] _ _ [Bb] _ [C] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _
[N] Probably hear that like 20 times in a row and it's always at a very loud volume
So what's funny is they're not really that good yet
But because they know a handful of riffs they kind of want to show people, you know, hey, I can play something
I'm no longer that level one person that knows nothing about guitar.
So check this out and they'll play something.
It's always too loud
So what I recommend to people at this level, I mean you have to go through that level, you know
But if you're conscious of it, and you know, you're not the greatest go ahead and keep that volume down a little bit
You're going to not annoy as many customers or employees and you know
You could still play the guitars and have fun
But try to keep the levels down a little bit just until you get a little bit better
And then you'll see by the time we get to the last level that won't be an issue
Okay, so what's level three?
Level three is where most people get to that I noticed and it's not that you can't get to level four
But level four has a lot of obstacles to get to so that's why a lot of people are stuck at level three
So I guess if you wanted to compare it to martial arts like jiu-jitsu
That level would be like being at the blue belt level where you're decent, but you still haven't really tested yourself out yet
So that's just kind of the analogy
I like to use level three You're good
And you can play and you could probably play in bands if you wanted to
And you could solo a little bit too, but your riffs sound really good and you're flowing and you still have that
Part of you that wants everybody to hear you play
So you'll still turn up that amp loud and you'll play but this time you're actually in tune and
People are starting to kind of look over and they want to come over and next thing
You know you look up and there's maybe a little group of people watching you play
It's kind of a cool level to be at and your ego feels really good
She's like, okay all this work and I'm finally being heard.
This is great
I'm out of my basement, you know
But it's easy to get stuck in level three because you feel good every time people acknowledge that you're playing well
And you feel good already because you are playing well
But you sort of live off that attention a little too much and you're kind of satisfied sometimes there
So that's where a lot of people get stuck.
Also, you haven't played many gigs yet.
That's a level three
Characteristic right there is that you play a lot in your basement
You play a lot at the guitar store to kind of show off but you haven't been on stage and truly tested yet
So you don't really have that humbling experience of failing on stage
So you kind of want to just stay where you're comfortable, you know
Hey, I can do this tapping lick and everybody thinks I'm great
but once you get on stage and you get surrounded by other musicians who are as good as you or better and
Maybe you're nervous.
You're not so great on stage at first
It's a very humbling experience and it makes you feel worse at first even though the excitement of playing live
Should be enough keep you want to keep going but sometimes it scares people
So to get to level four typically it's a level three person who just goes out and cuts their teeth on playing live
Experiencing a lot of failure
but also experiencing a lot of growth and
Before you know it you've played, you know a handful of shows
Maybe a whole bunch of shows and people have you know clapped for you.
You've played for the big crowds
You've also played in front of just the sound man and the waiter or something
That's happened to me many times and then after you do that for a long time
You've kind of earned your wings to go to the next level level four and it's a strange level because now you know
You've gotten enough of that energy out on stage
You know, you've had enough people tell you that you're decent and you've had enough failures and come back from them
Hopefully to to be at a certain level now and all of a sudden you walk into the music store and you don't even want
To play in front of people anymore.
It's it's almost like it's become your job in a way and you know
You're more professional about it
So you don't have to pull a guitar off the wall and show everybody that you're good
And so typically you just buy a set of strings or something
Maybe you'll see a guitar on the wall that you think looks kind of cool
Try it out
but the strange thing is you'll take it in the back room and
Maybe turn down and play just for yourself
and the strangest thing is somebody will walk in and you'll actually kind of be annoyed by you be like
Oh, I kind of wanted to be alone in here to try this guitar out
So a very strange switch happens when you get to level four when you no longer need that attention
You don't crave it anymore.
And then before you know it you just experience this feeling of feeling great
Just playing on your own.
You don't have to show off to anybody
so I guess you could think of level four as maybe the black belt of guitar and
Everything else you're sort of working your way up to the point to where you don't even care if anyone's hears you play anymore
It's not that you don't want to play in front of audiences anymore.
It's just that you'll have a bigger
Arena in which hopefully an arena but you'll have a bigger
Platform in which to perform and you will no longer worry about impressing people in a music store
So that's going to be the four levels of guitar store playing
I'm just curious how many people think they're at a certain level
I know I was stuck in level two for a long time
Level one was great, but it went by quick because I dove right in you know, I started playing I started
_ Taking lessons and I really dove deep into guitar.
So I think I went into level two quite fast
There was a Schmidt music in a mall called Northtown where I used to live
And I annoyed so many of those guys that work there.
I'm sorry guys
Funny thing is I ended up working there eventually and then I got kind of got paid back by other
Up-and-coming guitar players playing out of tune.
Alright, so that was kind of just a short sort of a funny thing
But I also wanted to teach a lesson through it because there's a lot of truth in the four stages of guitar store playing
So leave me some comments and let me know where you guys are at
It'd be interesting to talk