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Topic: How well do "guitar" skills transfer to other guitar-like instruments?

Just curious how much "guitar-fu" transfers over to other instruments in the family, e.g. bass, mandolin, banjo, uke, etc. Not that you'd necessarily gig with it, but that you feel you can say you "play" it passably.

I'm just a guitar beginner myself. But in a similar vein, I play wind instruments, and trumpet transfers pretty easily to most other valved brass, though of course the further you get away from the trumpet (e.g., tuba) the harder it is to master a truly good sound without a fair amount of concentrated study.

Re: How well do "guitar" skills transfer to other guitar-like instruments?

I don't know, but one day I would like to play bass guitar, so hope it would be easier than learning guitar.

Imagine if the words of Imagine ever came true.....

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Re: How well do "guitar" skills transfer to other guitar-like instruments?

Hmmm, interesting question. I played guitar for a couple of years before learning to play bass so there was an obvious advantage. I think the fact that a bass is tuned to the bottom strings on a guitar makes it easier to learn as well, as opposed to other string instruments which are tuned differently. I remember reading an interview with Billy Sheehan (of Mr Big fame) years ago where he was saying that he thought all bassists should be able to strum a few chords on the guitar before learning the bass.

That's what I think anyway.

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Re: How well do "guitar" skills transfer to other guitar-like instruments?

I used to play Bass in a band which i found it resonably easy (Once I found the groove), granted 15 years away from playing didn't help, but electric git playing is coming along faster than I thought. I find myself listening to songs (ex. Nutbush City Limit), which I heard on the radio today and straight away was analysing it to see if i could play it!!!
Oh how the mind works!!!

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Re: How well do "guitar" skills transfer to other guitar-like instruments?

Playing the guitar does help in playing all types of string instruments, even the koto  default/smile

my lyrics, my guitar and my imagination

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Re: How well do "guitar" skills transfer to other guitar-like instruments?

The only other stringed instrument I have tried is the bass - and I think that any guitarists should be able to play the bass with the skills they learn on the guitar - though mastering the bass is something completely separate.

I guess the whole left and right hand coordination you learn with guitar makes it easier to go to another stringed instrument and give you an advantage over someone that has picked it up with no prior experience