Help. Is this a good gift for a guitar player???

[Stewie26]

I jammed with a few guitar players and drummer friend a few weeks ago. One of the guys, who I had never played with before, was a fairly decent player but did not know where the notes where on the fret board. When I tried to give the notes of a signature guitar riff on a song we were about to do, he got all indignant. Turns out he did not know where the notes were and I had to show him fret by fret to teach him. This probably took five minutes. Question is if I give him this teaching aid shown below as a gift, would that be interrupted as an insult. He is a friend of a friend and I don't want to stir things up. With that said, chances are I will never play with him again. What do you think?

 

[Gorn]

If he became indignant from you showing him what to play, I doubt he'd take this well at all. It's like giving deodorant to someone with BO. The intent is genuine but it'll be taken as an insult.

 

[Stewie26]

It's like giving deodorant to someone with BO. The intent is genuine but it'll be taken as an insult.

Very well put Gorn. My intent is to help him, but like you said it could backfire.
I think he might have become indignant because he was embarrassed in front of all that he did not know where the notes were. I am not sure about that though.

 

[Gorn]

Very well put Gorn. My intent is to help him, but like you said it could backfire.
I think he might have become indignant because he was embarrassed in front of all that he did not know where the notes were. I am not sure about that though.

Meh. I don't know. He's not really a friend right? Just an acquaintance? I'd leave him but alone with his willful ignorance, but that's me.

 

[rtslinger]

Ahhh no bad idea

 

[line6man]

This is not the kind of gift that would be appropriate for anyone other than a true beginner. And even then, it's kind of a cheesy gift that would likely be regifted, or just thrown away.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Find a good on-line source that you use when you are learning songs. Tell him to check it out, since you find it helpful.

 

[TOOL460002]

If you're never gonna interact with this person I wouldn't get them a gift. If you're hesitant enough to ask I say go with your instincts. I vote no gift.

 

[charlie monroe]

How about you offer him your time instead?

Teach him some basic theory, don't give him stickers.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

This "guitar player" who doesn't know where the notes are, knows that he should, but he's not motivated enough to learn it. I doubt that will change, but gifting him that will definitely make him more indignant.
If you gift him that right before you tell him to sod off home & learn his fretboard, well that would be appropriate.

 

[TolerancEJ]

You'll meet all types of musicians throughout your journey in music. Some only use tab, don't read music. And like you discovered, some don't know the notes of their instrument. While it is certainly beneficial to have this information at hand, you can still definitely enjoy playing with individuals lacking these skills.

In short, it's best to just let him be. If he wants to learn the notes later, let him approach the knowledge himself.

 

[petrus61]

Just get them a few packs of strings of their preference, a decent cable and maybe a clip on tuner. I haven't met a guitarist yet that wasn't happy with that. If they're going to be inspired to get better, it will be on their own volition. I agree that the beginner stickers might be taken the wrong way.

 

[T_Bone_TL]

I know some really good folks who learn everything by ear and can't read a note. Won't even try to look at sheet music. I know some who read chord symbols only and are not too sure what those squiggles are for. Some get interested in figuring out the squiggles, and do give it a try, others never do, and while it certainly limits what they can do while sight reading, it does not otherwise have any definite impact on how well they play.

Heck, one of the by ear folks is a bona-fide pro, though of course there's a literate collaborator when it comes to publishing sheet music...

Personally I know the F/Bass clef pretty well, at least for one ledger line below and 3 above, and suck eggs on the G/Treble clef, so I'm my own flavor of bad, limited musician. Not at all incidentally, that's also my trombone range. There's all sorts of frets on the G string I have no practical use for... Don't even get me started on all the other weird alto/tenor C-clef variations. I can slowly and tediously pick out where things are in G-clef by relating them to F-clef ledger lines for the bottom couple of lines, and then counting, but I can't just read it, or if I do, I slip into reading it AS F-clef notes, which is wrong. I cannot transpose on the fly, if you like. There are tricks that should work (imagine one less line on the bottom and one more on top) but I can't actually do those in real time.

 

[fhm555]

I run into this all the time, especially among country players. Mostly self taught and only know basic chords in whatever key they sing in, but can't tell you what those chords are. Having grown used to this I just follow them as best I can until I get the song down then we are GTG. The problem comes in when they are asked to follow someone else, or play a song they don't know. It's usually either a gracious response where we are thanked for the help or a passive aggressive response where a guy goes from confident, chatty singer to sulking shoegazer.

Either way it's a PITA if the object is to bring a band together. I am always glad to help when I can, but if there is a hard cutoff looming, it's time to separate the wheat from the chaff and get on with prepping for the upcoming job, not teaching basic fretboard 101. I occasionally need help on a key, but once I've got it I can pretty much follow on from there and a run or two through the tune and I'm GTG. Now if it's just for fun, I'm all about helping people along. Having learned so much from attending jams I am always happy to pay that back to those who are starting out. I'm no expert and I usually leave the technical stuff to the more educated musicians, but I can occasionally help and do whenever I can.