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I've been teaching others to play on and off for the past 40 years. Started off with just friends and other band members, then friends of friends etc. Nowaday

I've been teaching others to play on and off for the past 40 years. Started off with just friends and other band members, then friends of friends etc. Nowadays mainly friends of my sons. I do see a distinct different in the motivation between then and now. Back then, the kids usually had a particular player they wanted to emulate, or an album of songs they wanted to learn. Yes quite a few of them found that they couldn't play like their hero straight away and gave up, but their motivation seemed to be different. Most kids I see today seem to want to do it because they just think it will be a 'cool' thing to do. Perhaps they think it is an easy way to pick up members of the opposite sex or something? A few of my son's friends see him play (my son is VERY good) and want to be like him, but when they realise how much work it takes (my son plays for 2 to 4 hours per day, every single day), they rapidly lose interest.

paublyrne 10y ago
Most kids I see today seem to want to do it because they think it will be a 'cool' thing to do. Perhaps they think it is an easy way to pick up members of the opposite sex or something? I would be pretty certain that has been the case since the the 1960s.
- cyberferret 10y ago
  On that, we can certainly agree! :-D
  - ptaipale 10y ago
    And it actually works -- being a mediocre guitar player is certainly much better in that respect than e.g. being impressively good at Counter-Strike.
qntty 10y ago
The world moves faster today. It's easier to get distracted.
toyg 10y ago
> Back then, the kids usually had a particular player they wanted to emulate Back then, they had less entertainment to get fixated on. When you only get one magazine per week and maybe a few releases to listen to over and over, it's easy to pick up the guitar and practice for a while. Nowadays, the entire knowledge of the world and legions of videogames and brain-candy are literally one tap away. It's the same for all activities requiring concentration or long practice, they are being phased out by the immediacy of electronic content. Similar cultural changes happened when people moved from complex poetry (scarce and expensive books, which you would analyze for months and would require extensive education to appreciate) to serialized novels (frequent updates on cheaper media, requiring less formal education to appreciate).

paublyrne 10y ago

Most kids I see today seem to want to do it because they think it will be a 'cool' thing to do. Perhaps they think it is an easy way to pick up members of the opposite sex or something? I would be pretty certain that has been the case since the the 1960s.

cyberferret 10y ago
On that, we can certainly agree! :-D
- ptaipale 10y ago
  And it actually works -- being a mediocre guitar player is certainly much better in that respect than e.g. being impressively good at Counter-Strike.

qntty 10y ago

The world moves faster today. It's easier to get distracted.

toyg 10y ago

> Back then, the kids usually had a particular player they wanted to emulate Back then, they had less entertainment to get fixated on. When you only get one magazine per week and maybe a few releases to listen to over and over, it's easy to pick up the guitar and practice for a while. Nowadays, the entire knowledge of the world and legions of videogames and brain-candy are literally one tap away. It's the same for all activities requiring concentration or long practice, they are being phased out by the immediacy of electronic content. Similar cultural changes happened when people moved from complex poetry (scarce and expensive books, which you would analyze for months and would require extensive education to appreciate) to serialized novels (frequent updates on cheaper media, requiring less formal education to appreciate).