Bob Weir

There are so great many musicians of the past who lacked the type of conservatory training that is available today. It's really perplexing but I personally place a lot of importance in higher education. Also, AI seems to be getting to a place where it helps with composition and other aspects of musical development. So yes, there are ways of learning now that weren't available to us in the 60's and 70's. I played a lot when I was in my teens and twenties but I do other things now. 

@goofyfoot 

I know nothing about the Classical world but in terms of popular genres, you have many more people teaching with music degrees who are excellent players and can present, say, aspects of improvisation from both a theoretical and practical application perspective. Ideas about how to learn effectively are much more readily accessible than in the past. It seems we’re in a golden age of music instruction. 

I began playing guitar in ’73 but over the past year have to give it up due to chronic neck issues. For many years I’ve also engaged in other areas of creative expression (drawing, photography and creative writing) but I don’t experience the same sense of emotional release from them that music has always offered. I have a very fine acoustic guitar sitting in a closet. I’m really struggling with the prospect of selling it and officially saying goodbye to something that has meant so much to me for so long. I apologize if I’m straying into territory others may deem too confessional. I’ll leave it at that.

Phil Lesh past in ‘24 and   Donna Jean Godchaux passed in late November ‘25.  The only ones left are the drummers, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart.

Sad

@curiousjim -

Hope this doesn’t sound to morose- I find it "curious" how many members of the GD and their staff have passed because of cancer or are afflicted with it. Is it a "cancer cluster"? Weir; Hunter had a brain tumor; Phil had prostate; Donna; Bill the drummer has skin cancer; Ram Rod had lung cancer; Rock Scully had lung cancer; TC has lung cancer.

@wharfy - It's a real shame, indeed; I think the fact that most of these people smoked like chimneys, and not just cannabis, for decades had some affect, too. There have been a number of folks from that generation that succumbed to smoking-related illnesses (not just musicians either; David Lynch died last year from that). Bill lives in Hawaii; skin cancers tend to be more common in tropical environs, I should think.