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Guitar: Learning and Playing
Alpine
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The guitar! Because no normal child grows up wanting to play the cello like Yo Yo Ma.
It's become the backbone of popular music of the last 60 years, and has remained one of the most widely played instruments in the world. Incredibly versatile, it does rock, it does country, it does blues, jazz, flamenco, and can sound completely different from one guitarist to another. It's also incredibly fun and rewarding to learn.
I bought a guitar to learn to play on about three months ago. It's a knock-off of an Ovation acoustic, but I only spent $120 on it so I don't really mind about its authenticity. I started taking lessons after discovering that I really can't teach myself. Turns out, the action of my guitar was about 1/4" too high, and I was using too high a gauge of string. Now I'm doing pretty well, and I'm trying to play for about an hour a day, playing through scales and chords. If I feel like I'm getting it, I'm gonna buy myself a good electric guitar so I can jam with my roommate next year.
So, who here plays guitar? Is learning guitar? Likes guitar?
What kind of guitar do you have? How long have you been playing for? Did you take lessons or teach yourself? Why is this a better instrument than the cello?
First serious D&D thread, bear with me.
It's become the backbone of popular music of the last 60 years, and has remained one of the most widely played instruments in the world. Incredibly versatile, it does rock, it does country, it does blues, jazz, flamenco, and can sound completely different from one guitarist to another. It's also incredibly fun and rewarding to learn.
I bought a guitar to learn to play on about three months ago. It's a knock-off of an Ovation acoustic, but I only spent $120 on it so I don't really mind about its authenticity. I started taking lessons after discovering that I really can't teach myself. Turns out, the action of my guitar was about 1/4" too high, and I was using too high a gauge of string. Now I'm doing pretty well, and I'm trying to play for about an hour a day, playing through scales and chords. If I feel like I'm getting it, I'm gonna buy myself a good electric guitar so I can jam with my roommate next year.
So, who here plays guitar? Is learning guitar? Likes guitar?
What kind of guitar do you have? How long have you been playing for? Did you take lessons or teach yourself? Why is this a better instrument than the cello?
First serious D&D thread, bear with me.
Alpine on
Posts
Hi5.
Yeah, definitely take lessons though, especially if you have no experience with playing with a mouthpiece instrument before.
I'm aim is to eventually get an electric. When would the best time be to introduce myself to an electric guitar?
In 6 months? After I can comfortably play a couple of songs?
Get an electric whenever you can afford it. There's no reason to hold off on getting one if that's the instrument you really want to play. They are, after all, the same basic instrument.
For myself, I've been playing bass for nine years and guitar for two. I've got two basses, and one guitar, all electric, and I plan on adding an acoustic guitar within the next week. Entirely self-taught. I'd say I'm pretty decent on bass, but not so much on guitar. Really need to go learn some actual theory though. Also, drums.
I personally own a Takamine acoustic, an Epiphone SG electric, and a brandless ukulele that I named the "Ukuladies."
At my uncle's house (recording space) we have a 70's Strat, an old Music Man StingRay bass, 1 old steel string and one old nylon string acoustics, and an old slide guitar. We collect old instruments.
My band/project has pretty much broken up now with one of our guys going to school in DC. Other instruments i've played are violin and cello (both of which i played when i was in elementary school, my first instruments), clarinet (which i played for about eight years), alto sax (which played for a year while i was playing clarinet), and of course guitar which i've only occasionally played on and off since 04.
Since i got my strat back from my bandmate who's in DC now im looking to get into chord theory with the instrument to help with songwriting and maybe become a competent rhythm player to boot (anyone can half ass lead playing when you noodle around with the fretboard long enough).
Edit- also shredding can go to hell, fuck you for bringing it up.
Right now I have
the blue one
A 1984 Gibson SG Speical
Crappy Ibanez AE acoustic
I've owned an ovation, les paul, start, squire, and some brand called hondo.
Don't make the mistake that a lot of beginning guitarists do. They learn to play songs and not the guitar. There's a pretty important difference.
Once you have at least a basic understanding of theory and how the guitar works, that's when you just start learning songs like crazy. Introduce yourself to a lot of techniques and styles, and that's how you get better.
^Click for my band^
Mother Fucker
I never really learned theory or went up and down scales. Just looked up tabs of songs that i liked and learned them. I started on a steel acoustic and just recently bought myself a les paul copy.
Does anyone else use this site? For me its a godsend. It takes a chord progression and calculates scales that "sound good" with it. It also works vice versa (scale to chords). Normally im too lazy to learn a songs solo, so ill just find the scale it uses and improvise something.
Alternatively, can anyone explain the theory behind this briefly and what other sites do fellow guitarists find useful?
As far as I can tell it just cross references the notes in a scale with the notes in those chords and eliminates the combinations that sound "bad", like minor seconds and diminished fifths.
I dunno, I gave it Am, F, C, and G, and it told me that A Minor was acceptable but not A Pentatonic Minor which makes no sense.
Maddie: "I am not!"
Riley: "You're a marsupial!"
Maddie: "I am a placental mammal!"
The trick to playing guitar is learning how to throw your instrument over your shoulder.
Exactly this. Learn your scales, learn to read music, learn what chords are. Learn how to play Am7 not because you know which frets and strings to press, but because you know which notes make up Am7.
Most importantly, learn the notes on the fretboard. If you do nothing else, do this. This is the single most important aspect of learning to play guitar. I absolutely cannot stress it enough.
I've made a mistake in the opposite direction, learning the guitar, but not songs. I'll start learning a song, then I'll be like "The top part of that chord is just an Ab major triad. Can I play it somewhere else?", then I find it, which leads to something else, and I forget about learning the song. It's not too bad, since it's starting to get easier to string together ideas in separate areas of the guitar. Knowing note names, chord spellings and intervals is definitely helpful, though. I'm trying to learn chord melody style jazz now, since it seems like the best way to get a good grasp of the neck ande further my understanding of harmony.
I'm also attempting to learn the bass. I took a couple lessons but it's hard to do now with school and stuff so I haven't had any for awhile. Do you have any recommendations for teaching yourself? I'd really like to improve but I seem like I never get anywhere.
I like laying down the thickness and thump, even though the you get a chance to make some really cool sounds and layers with the right effect on guitar, i'm not swayed.
I read somewhere with enough bass, you can kill someone. I want to be known for accomplishing that.
I'm pretty much self-taught, and every once in a while I got some pointers from my dad. I took a classical guitar class in my freshman year of high school.
My guitars include:
Left to right: Acoustic Ibanez PF, Fender FatStrat, Fender JagStang (Cobain's design), Cordova Classical.
and recently this '58 Gretsch Clipper I bought from Dustin Kensrue, who sings/writes/plays rthym guitar for the band Thrice.
I want to get back into it, though. I love fingerstyle stuff.
http://cache.gizmodo.com/images/2006/03/wave_guitar.jpg
My Band "The Wicked Girls" http://soundcloud.com/the-wicked-girls/sets
I would reccomend learning bar chords, especially on the accoustic guitar. Learn the power chords to your favorite songs, then extend them into A form and E form bar chords, it really fleshes out the music when you're just playing by yourself. Also, pick a few easy songs, and a few harder ones, so you have short term goals and long term goals. My long term was "Nothing else matters" by Metallica, and by the time I was 16 I could play that bad boy all the way through.
Also, get a lot of variation in style. Even if you don't like most punk, learn the one or two punk songs you don't despise. Same goes for country, blues, pop, metal, rock, etc...
Once you have a grasp on playing other songs, I'd reccomend writing your own songs or challenging yourself to improv on other peoples.
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By the way, I rock a Peavey Raptor - a Fender knock-off that I got in a kit years ago. Works well enough for my purposes though I'd love to get my hands on a Gibson - SG or a Les Paul.
I also own an Epiphone Les Paul that I bought from Musician's Friend. I've been playing for maybe 6 months. (most of that was on the Silvertone)
I will echo what others have said in that learning an acoustic makes switching to an electric much, much easier, but I think the most important thing is that you play the kind of music that you want to play. If you pick up an acoustic, even if it's cheaper or whatever, and you don't like playing acoustic guitar, then you will have a difficult time motivating yourself to keep playing.
I got lucky in that I got that Silvertone, and then it turned out that I ended up really loving playing fingerstyle music (I would say I still play that thing more than I play my LP). I haven't taken any lessons yet but plan to next semester in college.
Again, best advice, is to learn to play songs that you will enjoy playing, and do it as quickly as possible. I started out taking crappy online lessons and such on beginner guitar and really didn't enjoy it, because I just found the music damn boring. So I decided to just pick a song I wanted to play and sit down and learn it, as long as it took. I picked Classical Gas, and it took me 2 weeks of practicing for maybe an hour a day, but I was able to play it. Not perfectly, but it was enough to make me want to keep playing. Once you hear beautiful music being created by your hands, it's really addictive.
Yes, if you do that you might not have perfect form, and your theory might be majorly lacking, but the most important thing to do first is to make sure you're enjoying it, you can polish off the rest of your knowledge later.
I also think if you're starting to learn the instrument you should definitely try to learn songs by ear. It can be hard with lead guitar parts (at least for me), but you should at least try to pick up the chord progressions and basic stuff without resorting to tabs. I've met a lot of people who've never even considered doing anything but using tabs.
The one thing that bothers me most is guitarists that are insanely talented but don't play music. I mean I'd much rather you write something pretty and meaningful that expresses something instead of just sweep picking scales really fast.
Creating art takes real talent, playing fast takes practice.
In my humble opinion.
^Click for my band^
Mother Fucker
Probably way better than I deserve for my skill level.
I've been playing about 2.5 years. Lately between the new girlfriend and classes and work I've been neglecting it. I'm getting pretty good at rhythm though. I'd like to start playing with a band, but I'm not sure the best way to go about it. Craigslist never seems to get a response. I think the problem is most players my age have been playing since they're in thier teens. Not to mention out here in LA everyone wants to make it. I just want to play a gig or two of cover, and have my friends come watch.
-Terry Pratchett
You will hear some of the most beautiful melodies when playing in this style, but it comes at a price; you have to have long nails to play. There is no exception. You won't be picking up many chicks, I can guarantee that.
Recently I had to cut my nails due to work, and it's going to take about a month for them to grow back, but good things come to those who wait. The only frustrating part about this is that I really can't play my guitars period because of this.
EDIT: Also, if you're going to be playing electric, I highly recommend playing with a band or a group of friends, otherwise you WILL hit a wall if you just play by yourself. It's pretty much guaranteed unless you jam out with some friends.
Oop - only just seen this.
I would run blues scales until my fingers ached, changing the rythym/tempo that I was doing them at just to get myself used to working my may up and down the fret board (and getting used to where notes were) but the thing that helped me the most was to find a couple mates who were also starting out with instruments and we just picked a couple songs we wanted to cover and then just tried them over and over and over and over again until we nailed them.
I know you said that lessons are hard to do for you now, but seriously, even if you can only fit in one lesson a month or every 6 weeks then do it - having "someone who knows" watch you and point out the little errors you are making is worth its weight in gold.
Practicing alone, well, there is no magical secret. It *will* take you longer and you *will* need to put a shitload of time into it.
These days you have the intertubes as a resource for music, sheets, tips etc etc.
I've been playing for about 5 years on and off. I'm pretty crappy for the amount of time I've been playing.
But its fun, so it doesn't really matter.
Currently I'm finding songs on Classtab.org and learning to play them. Is this a good way of learning or should i get a teacher?
ps. just learned Whole Wide World, easiest song ever.
I started on a piss-ant squire and now use
The only thing that's been a problem for me is theory/scales. I'm too lazy to memorize scales and I tried a theory class in high school and definitely only barely passed (technically I failed one semester of it), I just kinda get bored and lost when we start going on and on about 7 chord inversions or some such.
Also I've been eyeing an Traben Array 4 string as my next bass, anyone have any experience with that make or even company? I'm not too well versed in different companies due to never using much variety and am a long ways away from buying my oh so sexy Rickenbacker and found the Traben line interesting.
Dustin hand delivered it himself. He petted my dog and talked music for a bit.
He lives a few blocks away, and the house they record at is down the street.
He sold a bunch of his stuff on eBay about 8 months ago, even his SG, which I would have killed to have. So much history on those frets ...
I just got lucky with the Gretsch. I happened to spot it right when he put it up, then bought it before anyone could bid.
Can I touch you?
Meeting him would just about be the greatest thing ever. Everything about him and his band has changed me for the better I feel.
Also, how do you guys feel about schecter guitars? For some reason I've been considering picking one up later in life.
Been playing bass off and on for about 20 years.
Learn hard songs, do a bit of theory and learn the primary scales as well as a few exotics to start. Don't just learn slap and pop, learn how to do it RIGHT.
The bass lessons on www.Harmony-Central.com really helped me out when I was getting serious in the mid 90's. I don't know if they're still there, but that entire website is pure gold for musicians.