Why I Didn’t Play Guitar for 25 Years 

Haha!

Older Ricks are great if you can get past the skinny neck (no offense Rick)

@@RickBeato Hey Rick, what are your thoughts on putting out a solo album? I'm sure I wouldn't be alone in welcoming that as a possibility. With your reinvigorated chops and musical experience & maturity, it seems like it could be a good time to consider. It would be nice to hear what you would do with the sheer diversity of influence you've had and the in built production advantage. A guitar centric album of jazz, classical and rock influenced originals and / or standards would get my pledge. Thanks for what you do Rick, really appreciate your enthusiasm, passion and generosity.

r0bophonic get a younger 660 Rick. With the wider neck. Just as good as older Rick. Especially with the vintage Pickups that older Rick has. 😃.

Gary NU-man (born 8/3/58) is in fact two weeks OLD-er than Gary OLD-man (born 21/3/58)

don't forget Mike Shinoda... he's great too.

Anant Agarwal I’m not familiar with him yet! Rick has achieved such a high level of success despite huge challenges and obstacles, that it should motivate anyone who thinks they can’t be successful to keep working!

@@anant8884 Totally agree! One of the most underrated songwriters imo

Rick when you talk theory I have no clue what you're on about but I love it

"Billy, we need more background lights and a spotlight on my RU-vid Play Button. How's the coif look today Billy?"

wow, that's lit.

Jerry Garcia basically had to do the same thing. It's entirely possible.

I'm happy your husband recovered from his injury! You and your husband may be interested in knowing (if you don't already) of the story of Pat Martino. Martino started as a jazz guitar virtuoso. He was absolutely brilliant, and unique among guitarists. Then he had a brain aneurysm which incapacitated him, and caused him to forget how to play the guitar. He had to listen to his own records to relearn the guitar. He went on to become an even more brilliant and innovative guitarist, and developed a unique system of music theory specific to what he calls "The Nature of the Guitar." He even applied the principles of the I Ching to the guitar, with astonishing results. I had the honor of participating in a master class he held in New York City. The concepts he introduced us to were so heavy that now, 25 years later, I'm still unraveling the mysteries encoded within them! Please extend my well wishes to your husband.

your husband should really start jamming to some Django Reinhardt. the dude lost 2 of his fingers in a barn fire and still went on to be one of the most influential musicians of the time

@@bogmanhimself4656 Minor correction the fire took place in a Caravan not a barn but you make an excellent point with Jango being a great source of inspiration for many players with and without disabilities notably Tony Iommi but in terms of overall influence the list would read like a who's who of guitar Before he had a chance to start with the band, however, Reinhardt nearly died. On the night of 2 November 1928, Reinhardt was going to bed in the wagon that he and his wife shared in the caravan. He knocked over a candle, which ignited the extremely flammable celluloid that his wife used to make artificial flowers. The wagon was quickly engulfed in flames. The couple escaped, but Reinhardt suffered extensive burns over half his body. During his 18-month hospitalization, doctors recommended amputation for his badly damaged right leg. Reinhardt refused the surgery and was eventually able to walk with the aid of a cane. More crucial to his music, the fourth finger (ring finger) and fifth finger (pinky) of Reinhardt's left hand were badly burned. Doctors believed that he would never play guitar again Reinhardt applied himself intensely to relearning his craft, however, making use of a new guitar bought for him by his brother, Joseph Reinhardt, who was also an accomplished guitarist. While he never regained the use of those two fingers, Reinhardt regained his musical mastery by focusing on his left index and middle fingers, using the two injured fingers only for chord work.

Beautiful. Music is indeed powerful.

Very honourable for you to sell your instruments to cover costs like that. I hope you have a half decent guitar nowadays. They all have strings and frets anyway, and bring the joy of playing music.

@@goodpeopleoftheworldunite I appreciate you saying that. I was an adopted only child that had a pretty magical childhood with two loving parents, so I saw it as an opportunity to give back. I just wished I had saved more money at that point in life, but what are your 20s for if you don't make a few mistakes? As for what I have as my current guitar....I got what I had been dreaming of since I was 10 years old and heard the Cream Farewell concert and saw pictures of Clapton with the 335. I first got a decent Gretsch Streamliner, then saved for a year and bought an ES-335 Figured Top in Antique Walnut, and I'd literally wanted that exact guitar and color for almost 20 years and finally pulled the trigger. Then it took me another year, but I found a neck Dearmond Gold Tone Humbucker and the ever elusive Gibson 4 Conductor 57 Classic in uncovered black to put in the guitar. I had that exact pickup combo in my SG, and I'd always loved the semi feel of my ES-139 but wanted the pickups and fret access on my SG in a Gibson semi, it was just so much money and those guitars were great as is. Well, now that the pickups are in the guitar sounds even better than I expected. On top of that, I was able to find another Laney AOR Pro Tube 50w on Craigslist in my area for $400. I'd had a 50w AOR head before I sold everything that was pretty great, but this one had been modded with a better FX loop, a higher quality transformer replacement (the OGs usually die), less hissy than any other, and they had taken it out of the combo and put it in a custom build hardwood chassis with a Mesa style cloth and a natural stain finish *that perfectly matches my 335* The only thing I couldn't sell before was a mid 70s Ampeg 4x12 that I'd put 2 Celestion Vintage 30s in the top and 2 G12-100ks in the bottom. Basically I lovingly call it my "Rig of Regret" because it's the culmination of everything I learned, wanted, and miss from my life as a musician. It sounds so much like *me* that all of my regrets wash away when I hear it. Especially on a studio playback🤗

mlm

Shawn McVey All the best to you.

🔥🔥🔥

I meant college teaching :)

@@RickBeato This IS college, but the Learning doesnt END!!

This is better. Less gatekeeping, just spreading knowledge

Your book is still cheaper than a college course, so like, i agree. Keep this up, you might see it as “not college” teaching, but I think our generation has become bitter at the gatekeeping of knowledge on colleges (fucking paying for access to peer written paperwork is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard) so, appreciate this!

@@jacktravis2718 College is still incredibly important from both a learning environment and for the college experience as well as for making friends and contacts for life. It shouldn't bankrupt you to go there though and they should be about education instead of shareholders. Affordable college run for education over profit is a great experience that I wish for more people. My four years of undergraduate a few decades ago cost me less than $4000 in fees.

Good for you and good luck.👍

Much respect to you sir!

👏

God bless you ... I also find the love of the music is what drives me. It's what got me there in the first place.

Wow, excellent! Keep on trucking!

Wow! That's great, congrats!

That's so inspirational..

That's a lot closer to my story of 6 years of just picking at a Sears 'Bluebird' acoustic, having my son in '82, selling my gitfiddle in a garage sale and getting the bug now that I have arthritis at 60! Two years of being serious about it now and still loving it! Of course now I have two guitars, an acoustic and an electric. :)

Cherry Picker Guitars What state are you in Cherry Picker Guitars?

I wanna be you when I grow up

Keep rockin....

Awesome!

Hear, hear!

Had a somewhat similar situation. Had played for 20 years then didn't touch it for over 15. Only picked it up again a couple years ago. Discovered Rick and a bunch of other guitar playing RU-vid creators and - similarly - have learned so much in such a short time. So happy I've picked it up again!

That's funny. I stopped playing because I got tired of the band thing around 30. Had great chops and feel and little actual knowledge. Started playing again at 50 when I had my first child. Want to learn more to pass on to him. He love's the guitar. Thanks to Rick and others for making it easier to re-learn and improve later in life. Maybe I'll even start recording again with my son someday.

He is finding that out and loving it, like that! :>)

Knowing and mastering all elements of grammar, orthography, and story building techniques doesn't necessarily make you a good author of novels or poems. It's a different skill still. There are great songs out there which lack all music theory aspects. I think Rick found his perfect place in working with other musicians and in teaching of course. But I might be wrong. I'd be happy to be surprised 🙂

@@alfeberlin He obviously possesses the skills to write amazing pieces of music as he's demonstrated in various videos here and there over the past few years.

@@alfeberlin what is good or popular music is subjective to all people. There is a lot of amazing classical music produced that is listened to by almost no one except a small community into that. While a 4 chord progression with simple loops and lyrics will become extremely popular and win a Grammy. There are many songs I've heard more meaningful to me than any popular song and I'm sure would touch many others, but are limited by luck, money, marketing, and timing. And there are many famous songs that bore me. I have no doubt he could make good music to some, not everyone.

​@@onikin When I mentioned “great songs” I was only referring to their popular success which is an objective measure to find out whether they emotionally touch really many people. (Not a perfect one, but still.) When you mention “amazing classical music” you talk about a completely different thing. To _you_ (and the “small community”) it is amazing while lots of (less educated?) people just shrug and might find it boring, too complex, not touching, whatever. Of course, writing a piece _you_ find amazing requires specific skills (musical education, for instance) and then it can touch people like you. But to write a piece that touches millions, in the end wins a Grammy - that requires different skills. I have the impression they are not as easily taught. Rick often falls back in such occasions on just calling a melody or a chord progression “beautiful” without being able to pin it down _why_ it is so beautiful. Music theory can explain only a part of it. Stick to the rules most of the time, bend and break some. But why these and exactly there? To me, Rick seems to have mostly the first set of skills. He explains great songs using these aspects. But I always felt that isn't really what the greatness of these songs come from. That isn't _really_ what made them great. It is something of the _other_ skill set which made them great in the Grammy-meaning. Rick's skills brought him so far in the business (we know his successes). But it also left him unfulfilled, it seems. Had a #1 song, nice. Had a golden record, well. What's next? To him these were milestones, items on a bucket list he wanted to achieve and when he did, he went on looking for other things to do next. To a guy like Kurt Cobain such things didn't mean as much, I assume. He concentrated on transporting his emotional state, often using way less complicated and way less education-based techniques. But he transported it so well that he is way more famous than Rick.

Exactly my thought as I watched this and recalled all the other stuff I've learned through this channel. If there's a renaissance in popular music in the offing, it will be due in no small part to Rick's enthusiasm, knowledge and monumental contributions, and those of other fine folks like him.

"once a teacher, always a teacher" is a perceptive saying i remember from when i was a teaching-school librarian

😝👍🏼

The very best music professor I’ve ever had the pleasure to learn from in my opinion

And he's teaching SO many people now

Ditto. I think Rick inspired me the first time I saw one of his videos about 4 months ago

No, the real deal is Rick Beato

100% agree just a Beautiful soul of ahuman being up top for my full reason tolove him as a good humble gifted man.

Don't worry about being a better "player" -- just learn to be more "musical"

Don't worry about your vocabulary - just your elucution. You don't need to know every scale under the sun - it's about how well you play what you do know. Some of the greatest pop and rock songs have been sung by people who are tone deaf. It's all about feel and atritude. That being said, thank God for virtuosity.

@@Strange_Club Truth spoken here. I rarely hear a great vibrato anymore from the modern players. Gotta go back to the roots players for that. It's ashame too, that so few modern technical players are ignoring that expression and only presenting vocabulary and speed.

"itch"

@@natural1952 ok thanks lol

@@GuitarLessonsBobbyCrispy sup

I learned many guitar tricks from your channel. Thanks!

@@stomp4tm971 Thanks for watching! :-)

I still own two foot stools 🙂

Kids (anyone under 50) ask me "Why do you strap the guitar that high up?". Everyone my age and older give a knowing look and mutter something about Hal Leonard.

@@rmassman2 also - arthritis.

jgrossma Truth.✨🎼🙏🏼🎼✨

George Harrison

Diddo!!!! I'm glad I'm not alone. 🤯

You gotta keep in mind he went to school - the guy was a professor! He did all that during his formative years. It's so much easier to learn these things when you are young and have access to the proper resources.

It’s something you slowly build on. Don’t expect for it all to makes sense overnight.

Mine cant either. I just play my guitar and enjoy it very much.

Someone in an audience I was in asked Andy McKee how to get really good at guitar. He said "practice." A few people in the audience laughed. Andy didn't. Smart/talented doesn't guarantee success. Hard work is always the answer and that's available to everyone.

Rick, I had given up on myself as a guitarist and almost even thrown in the towel as someone who wanted to see himself as a musician. Your teaching and enthusiasm have given me a tough love smack in the head to keep reaching to grow and learn. You lend new life to a kind of mysticism of rock, blues, and jazz to which I subscribed in my youth but in which I more recently-quite foolishly-had started to lose faith. Thanks for the smack in the head. 🎸🙏🏻

Rick really dissects music to its core values (building blocks). Think of it as the science of music and using the science to create the magic of music. He’s in the league of a David Foster, or a Burt Bacharach. We’re privileged for him to share the knowledge

My analogy would be with adults and non-native language learning. The same practice and usage rule applies and you lose vocabulary very quickly without it. Your range diminishes. I have experience with both, unfortunately. Lol

Jason LaMar That is a great example, language that is non-native and isn’t routinely used also goes away.

Dude had a full beard at 15 lol god damn

At 15 year old I was benching the bar and getting out of the whole “eye liner, emo phase”.

IKR? Pretty badass if you ask me.

It's that Italian blood I guess.

I just watched this video and the second I saw that pic of him at 15, thought the same thing !

Me too. Started in '78. Still can't pick a real lead to save my soul. I just tell everyone I am a reasonably competent strummer. I haven't touched my electric in years. I have been practicing to be a better singer, because I can practice when driving my car. I can sing as loud or as soft as I want, go over a phrase multiple times etc. I do play almost everyday, but I haven't improved my playing, I have just expanded the number of songs I know to about 70. Cheers

Same. I would never seriously refer to myself as a musician. I played from 14-24 then quit. Picked it up again at 41. That was 7 years ago. I am still working on playing a "note". Not just a fretted note - a properly *musical* note with all the appropriate nuance, feel, and context.

I did much the same. I grew up playing music, but it was gospel music for the church my grandpa was the pastor of, which was mostly just simple chord strumming. Once I got good enough to do that, I never progressed. I would tell people I "played some guitar," never that I was a guitar player. And after some personal losses I put down the instrument entirely for probably 15 years. Only in recent years since I bought my classical guitar and learned some music theory and fingerpicking have I dared call myself a guitar player

Yes that happened with me after a 4 or 5 year break

I've only been playing (at least 5 days a week for at least 40 minutes) for about 14 months... and I do find that an occasional 4-5 day break sort of refreshes me. I focus better and have more patience for repetition after taking a break.

Absolutely. Took a long break and found that not only my playing, but also my taste in music changed quite a bit.

I find that even after a week of not playing. It's so refreshing to know that you don't lose everything after being away from the guitar for a long time

I don't know about 5 or 10 years but a weeks-plus break can definitely help. Not only with guitar. There is some science behind this, something about letting neural pathways grow. I can't find the research right now but it is indeed a real phenomenon.

I agree. I was lucky to find stuff as I went along to give me something else to learn even when "life happened". Music has always been my thang, and throughout there have been triggers to get some new stuff into my head, and new ways of hearing it. Stay cool Bro.

That’s the way!

Same age….. let’s keep going

My take-away as well...

Well, it didn't help that he named his video "Not Playing" :-)

Yes ! I stopped playing 13 years ago . No luck for me .

I agree. He meant he wasnt practicing just playing things he already knew.

fewwiggle I meant to include that tidbit and totally forgot!

I was going to say this- I swear I saw live footage of Rick Beato on this channel playing guitar with his band Billionaire which was dated 1999. Did I dream it?

Ty Alex, for me I couldn't hardly listen to music for my 27 yr hiatus. It'd just wreck me inside. But: like you, once I got back to listening closely again to all my old favorites bands & players, that was the begining. Then back up playing everyday now retired, skills again then bam!! The internt commuinty, All the new kids, music, elders, many snobs. Then the legions of slackers who'll likely never invest the work & time just to get fairly good. I'm lazy & stupid theory wise but even I know this hobby is alot of work!!

Haha! I’ll dial back the distortion :)

Lol no doubt!! That’s not the wa my I play Cm dude!!

I just noticed a tear coming out of my eye and I was like, “Why am I crying.” True story.

Cm11, sounds better undistorted

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition scale Bring out ... the comfy guitar

Ha ha ha.... I’m cracking up... the Spanish Inquisition Scale.....I can’t stop laughing...

This just reminded me of the Mel Brooks Inquisition skit too, lol!

The chief weapon here is surprise.

There was some interview with Kirk Hammett (I'm a fan of his, not a hater, and I *like* his wah-wah solos!) where we mentioned not really practicing at all but at a certain level, if you're playing technically difficult music, it is a form of technical practice. But then check out the Larry Carlton interview with Rick - he still works on his chops.

It should be noted that "practicing" and "playing" are not necessarily the same thing. "Practice" is defined as a predetermined routine of training for a specific function; "playing" is just the act of making notes on the guitar. Playing along to a song you've played a million times, jamming the same pentatonic riffs you've played for the last 10 years, slamming some power chords down isnt "practicing". Its essentially using muscle memory to produce an effect. We dont "practice" walking when we are in our 30s; we just "walk". We dont "practice" going up stairs, we just go up them. Same is true for musical expression. So yes, its entirely feasible to be "playing" without "practicing".

@@spiderbabybill "technically difficult" is purely relative to the skill level and muscle memory to the individual deciding it. Playing Van Halen songs is not a "technically difficult" thing for me, but could easily be for others. Whereas playing Jazz? Yeah that would be EXTREMELY difficult for myself; but others could probably play jazz in their sleep. And as I mentioned in the other comment; using your muscle memory to play things 2nd nature to you is really not "practice" of any form; at best it can be construed as some form of upkeep routine, but youre not going to "improve" by playing the same stuff over and over; and thats perfectly fine. I dont specifically WANT to learn jazz, so I certainly dont practice it for example.

@@JgHaverty Practice doesn't have to be about improvement. If you're at the top of your game and you don't practice, you won't stay there. Again, if you're playing technically difficult music (see below), it is a form of technical practice regardless of how often you've done it before. You can retain muscle memory even when you don't play (it comes back when you start playing/practising) but you'll lose some coordination if you take long breaks. In short: i) there's a difference between muscle memory and fine coordination. My fingers will find pentatonic licks under them easily if I haven't played in a while but what I'll play will be sloppy if I don't practice; and ii) when I say "technically difficult" I am talking purely about mechanics and technique - any combination of play fast, play clean, play with feeling - and not about musicality or theory. I probably muddied the waters by mentioning Carlton because he's a master of all of the above.

Hah. When I was a young kid, dad sold his beloved Gretch Country Gentleman for $400 so he could buy bunk bedding for me and my brother who at cos at point in the very late 1970s the whole family where basically sharing a bed the family was so poor. To this day I tell the old boy he should have kept the guitar and made us sleep on the floor lol. One of these days when I find a good one, I'm gonna get the old man a Country Gentleman. Repay the debt or something.

@@shayneoneill1506 amen bro, that’s what’s up

The longest I went was 6 years without playing. At the time my former wife asked when I was going to sell my guitars and amps? I said I'm not doing that. Her response was"then get back to work with your talent and develope it". Two days later I had a new guitar and recording gear from her for my birthday. Since that point I've never looked back. I'm not the greatest or worst but I can hold my own. I started writing my own compositions, opening up to smooth jazz, jazz fusion, classical and going back and rediscovering some of my favorite guitar players like Hendrix,Clapton,Beck, Satriani,Vai-,Malmstein and country players as well like Vince Gill, Jerry Reed etc. By remaining open minded it has really helped my playing and writing.

@@petebrown3715 and that's how you know she's a keeper!

It can happen. See my post above.

He played/noodled, he just didn't practice.

Neither could I. But stuff happens in life.

It's because your brain is refreshed. I had some troubles with tendons so I can practice only hour a day, yet I'm better than I used to be when practicing 4 hours a day. Less is more I guess.

Luminous Brilliance not even afrocuban jazz? Big band bebop like Dizzy Gillespie’s “Things To Come” (which is basically metal)? Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”? I know, I know, I’m sorry. There’s just so many different flavors, _something_ is bound to resonate with someone who loves music.

@@johnfrenette I like salsa. Don't like most jazz. But exactly.. the afrocuban type jazz resonates with me.

I hear that brother

Haha!!!

Same here. I just fake my way through it ;)

Yeah, that statement made me laugh out loud. Yes, I have the book - but owning a book and understanding what is written on its pages are two very different things.

yeah my circle of fifths is still kinda egg-shaped but I am working on it

10min30days you are not alone on this exact timeline

Scarily similar

10min30days I want to fly

I started playing guitar when i was 16, i stopped a year ago because of depression coming back to me the same way it existed when i was 14. But now i picked it up again, i dont practice regularly, but i missed fiddling around

Started playing punk guitar at 14 in high school, then my friends stopped wanting to play after college, when I had just finally spent money on quality gear. I haven't picked it up seriously since and I'm now 33...