Learning Guitar

[Slowtrain]

Okay sounds good.

 

I know my time is bad on a lot of stuff, because I am slow on chord transitions and whatnot. Though some early songs I do feel better with.

 

One I play a lot is Leaving on a Jet Plane, and singing seems to help me keep time.

 

 

Its better to try playing slowly and cleanly rather than fast and sloppy. Fast and sloppy just creates bad habits. Set your metronome to as slow a speed as you feel comfortable with. The speed will come all by itself as your body physically trains itself in what needs to be done. Learning to play an instrument is just as much a physical skill as playing a sport, and, just like a sport, practice is needed to allow your body to learn what to do.

 

ANother helpful thing is to record yourself playing as much as possible. The quality of the recording doesn't matter. Even just a handheld recorder placed near the guitar is good enough. When you listen to the playback, you will really become aware of the weaknessess in your playing and what you need to work on. At first just work on keeping the tempo consistent and allow the notes to be full and smooth.

[alanschu]

I have indeed been playing slowly hahahaha.

[thepixiesrock]

What do you want to do with your guitar? What kind of music do you want to play and what not?

[alanschu]

I like alternative rock. Foo Fighters and stuff like that.

 

But I'm keen for anything really. It's fun!

 

 

 

I am guessing a good drill is literally to do scales to a metronome for like 10-20 minutes, isn't it?

[Tigranes]

Heh. When I learnt by myself I just set myself on learning songs, skipped every single sensible thing imaginable (including learning scales, practicing to metronomes, hell, knowing how to palm mute or change strings!) and just learning songs from Amazingly Easy (...Linkin Park) to Easy.

 

But then I started playing very regularly with other people, and I could play other instruments before, so I picked up keeping in time and other such things as I went. If I didn't do that I would be one of those Teenage Horrors.

 

I dunno alanschu. It *is* important to do scales and stuff but it's also important to keep yourself motivated, so maybe do half and half. Most Foo songs, esp. their older ones (Colour and the Shape, etc) are pretty easy once you can move around the frets relatively quickly, but you can find easier ones to start off with.

[thepixiesrock]

I mean really, there's no reason for you to feel obligated to learn scales or read music, or anything like that. If you just want to play then you should be fine with just practicing the chords and whatever little melodies you want. Actually, what would be interesting is if you learned from this guy

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/robbourassaguitarist

 

If you start with his first lesson and keep doing those, I think that would actually be the best thing you could do. Like, if I could go back and relearn guitar, I would deffinetely use this. Basically, if you follow his method, ideally you'll be able to hear a melody, and then be able to immidiately play that melody harmonized within chords. Like, seriously Alan, you should really consider throwing out any other possible route to learning how to play guitar, and just focus all of your guitar time and attention on this method. Do it for me. Do it for yourself.

[alanschu]

Oh, I certainly don't plan on doing JUST scales Tigranes

 

 

I would like to be good at guitar though, and I do about 5 minutes of scale practice to warm up. I haven't done it with a metronome though, so that will probably be helpful.

[alanschu]

Hehehe, Chromatic scale at 60 bpm with metronome

[Checkpoint]

Hey Allan, those suggestions about learning to read notations are a NO-NO. It's way too complicated at an early stage and will most likely only slow you down. Notation for a beginner is about as healthy as a fork in the toaster; I have played for 13 years and never learned anything more than basic notation. People say I'm pretty good, so DON'T DO IT.

 

Notation won't give you good technique, it won't improve your rhythm and it sure as hell won't be as fun as just sitting down strumming away on one of your favourite songs, singing at the top of your voice. When it's fun, you learn. Otherwise it'll quickly become a chore and you'll lose interest. At least that's my belief.

 

I remember getting a Beatles song book and just learning to play them and sing. In the beginning a technically more complicated song like Norwegian Wood wouldn't be too much fun, since you'd only strum one chord not being able to do the finger-work, but after a while you become confident and start looking at tabs so that you can learn to play the song properly. This will in turn expand your guitar world further and open up so many more possibilities.

 

Hope you're making progress!

[alanschu]

Define "notation" haha.

 

I do the scales to warm up. Progress is going pretty good I think. The pinky is still weak

[Starwars]

Notation = reading notes. As far as learning it, it just depends on what kind of person you are. I know people who've dived right into it, found it enjoyable and learned reading it at an early point in their playing.

But yeah, for me it was definetely better to hold that off until I could play the guitar decently. I made the connection between notes on the paper and actually playing the guitar much easier then, but yeah... It's subjective.

 

Pinky is usually "overlooked" by many players, at least in the beginning (since it's hard to use at first). It's great if you're trying to train that little guy right off the bat also. Building strength in all of your fingers is good. Also, don't forget your thumb also (on your fretting hand). You can bring it over and get some bass notes, and make some fingerings a bit easier to play. It isn't the "correct" way of playing according to classical guitarists, but hey... It's there, I say make use of it if you can make your playing flow better. Tears in Heaven is a piece that most guitarists starting out eventually runs into, and using your thumb there can be a great help.

[alanschu]

Yeah I've seen people hit the 6th string on open G and whatnot with their thumb. Feels awkward to me :\

 

 

As for reading sheet music, don't care so much for that. This is mostly for fun (and any women that get impressed along the way...lets be honest here )

[Meshugger]

Yeah I've seen people hit the 6th string on open G and whatnot with their thumb. Feels awkward to me :\

 

 

As for reading sheet music, don't care so much for that. This is mostly for fun (and any women that get impressed along the way...lets be honest here )

 

You're on the right track. That's why we do it at first, chicks simply dig it

[alanschu]

That's why my Dad did it too actually haha.

 

Turns out he's quite the rock star and I didn't even really know it until I was 20 years old. Watching him start playing All Along the Watchtower was pretty cool! Haha.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Yeah I've seen people hit the 6th string on open G and whatnot with their thumb. Feels awkward to me :\

 

 

You need really big hands and a thin-necked guitar, most people cant do it.

[alanschu]

My Dad says a lot of people do it cheat, and mute the 5th string with their thumb, so they only need to use their fingers for the 1st string 3rd fret (for the open G anyway)

[Slowtrain]

My Dad says a lot of people do it cheat, and mute the 5th string with their thumb, so they only need to use their fingers for the 1st string 3rd fret (for the open G anyway)

 

 

Its not cheating. You can voice chords in many different ways all along the neck. Changing your voicings will change how the chord sounds.

[Meshugger]

My Dad says a lot of people do it cheat, and mute the 5th string with their thumb, so they only need to use their fingers for the 1st string 3rd fret (for the open G anyway)

 

Nah, i do that myself, but i huge hands to boot. I am more accustomed to play on my 7-string, since it fits my hand more naturally. 6-strings usually feel to tiny.

[alanschu]

Well, "cheating" in the sense that it's not the standard full open G chord. It's still a legit chord obviously.

[Checkpoint]

Yeah I've seen people hit the 6th string on open G and whatnot with their thumb. Feels awkward to me :\

 

 

You need really big hands and a thin-necked guitar to be Jimi Hendrix, most people cant do it.

Yeh, I hear ya.

[Krookie]

I bought a Macbook the other day and just realized there are free guitar lessons built into GarageBand. I completed the first two (learned to play E, G, and C chords). Having never played guitar I don't know how good the lessons are but it's fun. Now my fingers hurt.

[Guest The Architect]

What's that? Your fingers hurt? Oh, well, now your back's gonna hurt, 'cause you just pulled landscaping duty. Anybody else's fingers hurt?

 

I didn't think so.

[alanschu]

Haha classic.

 

 

Got in some good practice today.

[Llyranor]

Whatever you do, don't follow pixies' advice. He sucks at guitars.

[thepixiesrock]

That isn't what your dad said last night.