Sixteen Million Took Up Playing Guitar In the Last Two Years

I beat the pandemic lockdown thing for summer 2019. Everything I bought I can make a profit on, but I won't sell any of it. Knowing that the inflation is what it takes to get back into the game later on. It's like selling a house really, prices went up, so while you're getting more than what you bought into, still have to have a home and it's just a horse trade. I right sized for any of it, so there's really no incentive to cash out & start over.

Article addresses demographics for age group. Really wish they didn't go there with race, especially since they made little to no mention of gender, that would've been just another bullet point addressing those percentages. Easier to see would've been a couple, maybe a few tables to demonstrate Race & Gender by age grouping. Age Group for rows, Gender for columns & Age Group for rows, Race for columns if they were going to make any race & gender diversity points. I think they should've just kept it simple for age grouping and then nobody feels like there's an undercurrent & nefarious plot to exclude anyone.

Agree with the points about the learning curve & the dropout rate in the posts. I think prices will stay inflated and the discounts for holidays are where you get that rock bottom new instrument. And now there are the instrument & gear flippers vs those that just want the clutter in their life gone. Here's another thing about a really affordable guitar, it's like a framed painting, only less expensive. Do you get tired of that guitar hanging on the wall ? Probably not if you're a true enthusiast.

 

hahaha Yeah

 

Yeah man, hardly used stuff @ bargain price... hopefully

 

"The guitar is dead..., Long live the guitar!"

 

Really? So....me playing lead guitar in gigging bands like 1-2 years after I ever picked up a guitar....is not normal? I always thought I was BEHIND the curve.....

I knew all the basic cowboy chords by like 2 weeks in.....

 

Bon Scott also sang;

"It's along way to the top, if you wanna rock'n'roll"

 

My 3 children have a band together going on 3 years. They’re like a unicorn in our area as if you go to a talent show or coffee shop, it is rare that you see a “band”. It is usually a singer with a backing track or a soloist. I think, at least some of it, has something to do with living on social media and computers and not living life interacting with their friends outside the home.

My kids are forced to live together at their ages, so they decided to make the best of it as we required each of them to take up an instrument until college.

 

Yes he did!

 

You're a quick study. Took me at least 4 weeks. The dreadnaught with high action and 13s might have slowed me down... never could handle bar chords on that one either.

In my experience it is pretty common for a guy to pick up a guitar at 16 and to be gigging at 18. That was all the musicians I knew when I was 18.

I touched a P-bass for the first time at 16 and was playing it in front of several thousand people at 17.

 

...with supply far exceeding demand. I have placed many on WATCH on Reverb, and NONE have sold. Better prices could be coming for those who wait.

 

It's like the mid 90's all over again. 16 million people bought guitars, that's what they really mean. The retail part of this business is not what it was in the mid 90's, so getting out of this used/new price corner will be tricky. Recall that the last super glut of guitars and guitar stores was followed immediately by the beginnings of the ends of most small rural and suburban guitar shops. The big guys brought this, they'll have to figure a way out of it.

rct

 

I love it, but I agree that in about two years, you'll be able to buy a barely used RV full of barely used guitars for a lot less than they're going for today.

 

I tried for nearly two years to get quotes for a new sound/video system at a church I was at in late 2018. We got a total of two bids. Most of the companies apparently didn't want to mess with it because we were shooting for something $100,000 or less. Crazy expensive systems they have at many churches these days.

 

The dropout rate on guitar (or any instrument) has always been high. I still find it encouraging that this many people are giving the guitar a go. It would seem then that a larger percentage than in the past will make music professionally so perhaps the pendulum will swing back in the near future.

 

That kind of motivation usually isn't visible from outside the social circles in which it exists. I don't think you can generalize and say it doesn't exist now, just because you don't see it. You're probably not hanging out with teenage musicians on a day-to-day basis.

My daughter was in the school band program until she graduated 3 years ago. Some of the other kids in her band--the ones in the rock band program and the jazz band--were obviously highly motivated and talented. Some of those kids were great! It was the same way when I was in high school. Obviously it's not everyone, it never was. But the ones who have talent and motivation have just as much as we did. Sometimes more.

We might ask @Dadocaster what kind of motivation he's seeing in teens these days.

 

They’re being told to play guitar?

 

From the article...

Out of the 16 million new players that emerged in the last two years, one in four have stagnated in their progress, proving that starting is hard, but continuing might be harder, so ongoing learning support is crucial to sustaining players.

I guess one of our jobs on forums is to provide some of that "ongoing learning support" instead of being our typical crusty curmudgeon guitar forumite selves.