On playing guitar

Spackle · February 2007

Hey my thread is still here!

Don't get a silvertone. At least get a Fender Strat Squier starter pack. I have a cheap silvertone and hate it. Awful to learn on.

I've actually been playing almost daily for at least an hour since I made that post, so I've defintely made progress.

Take it slow. You'll probably find the pick a bit wierd at first so when you sit down to play, spend 15 minutes on excersizes for the sole purpose of picking.

something like

e|--------------------------------------------------------------
B|--------------------------------------------------------------
G|--------------------------------------------------------------
D|-------------------------0-1-2-3-4-------------------------
A|-------------0-1-2-3-4-------------0-1-2-3-4------------
E|0-1-2-3-4---------------------------------------0-1-2-3-4

nice and slow, down up down up. Good picking developed early on will be very beneficial.

I doubt you'll have to 're-learn' everything but you will have to adapt. The first thing I did was look up tabs for popular Metallica songs on the 'Black' album and tried to replicate them. I think "Enter Sandman" was the first thing I learned. It actually turned out to be a fun lesson in power chords, hitting single notes cleanly without bumping others, and palm muting. Intro to Metal, if you will.

The rest is just practice, daily if possible. But you knew that already

Mitsuhide · February 2007

Oh, good. I thought the thread died! :wink:

So yeah, fuck the Silvertone, now I want to get an Ibanez starter. Just wanted your guy's input.

Also, thanks for the tab.

Spackle · February 2007

Mitsuhide wrote: »

Oh, good. I thought the thread died! :wink:

So yeah, fuck the Silvertone, now I want to get an Ibanez starter. Just wanted your guy's input.

Also, thanks for the tab.

I used to have a ton of excersise tabs that I used to develop metal playing.

Playing what I have above gets boring REALLY fast, so alternate picking scales can be used as a good excersise as well. What kind of metal do you want to play?

Mitsuhide · February 2007

Well my favourite guitarist is Yngwie, so you get the picture. Yeah, I know I'll never get that good, but I guess I primarily want to learn power metal.

Spackle · February 2007

Ah, you want to shred, more or less. Speed just comes with time. Practice practice.

Mitsuhide · February 2007

Spackle wrote: »

Ah, you want to shred, more or less. Speed just comes with time. Practice practice.

:wink:

The Partisan · February 2007

S'up.

I'm a beginner myself who's really starting to get serious. Aiming for three hours everyday for practice. I found this thread and I figured this would be as good a place to just chill with some more experienced players.

Anyway, for the longest time I've been practice while sitting down. It gives me more control when learning the fingering and let's me get up close to see where I need correction. This is what I'm most comfortable with and I can actually get some good speed out of my scales when I'm practicing.

The problem is you can't rock a concert hall by sitting on your arse the whole time. You gotta' stand up and move. However when I try to play standing up with the strap, it just feels really uncomfortable. I can't really see where I'm playing on the fretboard which lowers my accuracy and I can't bend my fingers all the way around so I lose control (and also makes my wrists sore). It just feels really weird and unnatural.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? Guess I'm just wondering if there are any proper methods or formalities for playing while standing up.

Mitsuhide · February 2007

The Partisan wrote: »

S'up.

I'm a beginner myself who's really starting to get serious. Aiming for three hours everyday for practice. I found this thread and I figured this would be as good a place to just chill with some more experienced players.

Anyway, for the longest time I've been practice while sitting down. It gives me more control when learning the fingering and let's me get up close to see where I need correction. This is what I'm most comfortable with and I can actually get some good speed out of my scales when I'm practicing.

The problem is you can't rock a concert hall by sitting on your arse the whole time. You gotta' stand up and move. However when I try to play standing up with the strap, it just feels really uncomfortable. I can't really see where I'm playing on the fretboard which lowers my accuracy and I can't bend my fingers all the way around so I lose control (and also makes my wrists sore). It just feels really weird and unnatural.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? Guess I'm just wondering if there are any proper methods or formalities for playing while standing up.

Oh man, I have the same problem! I have all the 'symptoms' you listed.

Gawd, I wanna get my guitar fixed NOW!

EDIT: YouTube; search for Yngwie Malmsteen's "Evil Eye." It's gotta be my favourite song of his. I'm listening right now. :wink:

Spackle · February 2007

regarding the standing up issue, I have the same thing. I actually was able to remedy it by simply playing stuff I knew quite well standing up. Forcing myself to do this for a good few weeks got me more and more comfortable.

Unfortunately I've regressed back to sitting down but what I described above does work.

The Cheese · February 2007

Just practice standing up. Adjust your strap so it's at a comfortable level, don't hang it low because you want to look like Slash (you can lower it later on)

You really shouldn't be looking at the fretboard to see where your fingers are. Try to break that habit. Sight-read some simple stuff and keep your eyes on the paper the whole time.

rabbalian · February 2007

This question may be completely unrelated to some discussion going on in here at the moment, but...

I'm playing through a D pentatonic scale (major or minor) with the root on the sixth (thickest) string. To my knowledge, there's five phrases to a pentatonic scale. Going through the D scale, though, I can only finish four phrases.

So I figure the fifth phrase (a repeat of the first phrase but, here's the problem, usually higher on the neck) to be then...lower? Do I play that fifth phrase, where? Like, do I play it with open strings?

The D scale starts like half-way up the neck already, so it doesn't seem right that according to the pentatonic scales I'd have to ignore the other half. Does anyone understand what I'm asking?

Please help:(

Spackle · February 2007

When you say phrase, do you mean shape? Check out this page:
http://www.guitar-school-online.com/scale13kdmmo1accsharps.html because I count 5 distinctive shapes on the fretboard that you could play starting from the 6th string, almost like a box. Why wouldn't you play it with open strings? They are notes, after all

The reason that D scales starts halfway up the neck is because you are playing the root note on the 6th string.

--d minor pent--
D F G A C D
(R) means root note, in this case 'D'
e|

10(R)-13-
B|

10-13

G|

10-12

D|

10-12(R)

A|

10-12

E|-10(R)-13

Look familiar? Construct this same scale elsewhere on the fretboard, using the root note somewhere. For example
e

1-3--
B

1-3(R)

G

0-2

D

0(R)-3

A

0-3

E-1-3

So looking at the open d string, you can create the scale using the Pentatonic shape. But if you extend the scale out for all the strings, you'll get a different shape, if you choose to start the scale on the 6th string. Make sense? I haven't had a lot of coffee so my explanation may be a bit off. I think the latter tab is the 5th phrase you're searching for, if I understand your post correctly.

Sorry if I explained stuff you already new :S

Edit1: erg it's all messed up, will adjust after conference call

Edit2: Ok just not going to use bbcode. Hope the tabs are clear.

Spackle · May 2007

Whats your secrets for learning new scales across the fretboard? I would like to learn other scales but after learning the obvious shape starting from the Low E I find myself just memorizing the other shapes starting at the Low E which doesn't seem like a good way to learn scales.

Ideas?

Zombiemambo · May 2007

This thread me to pick up my guitar and actually learn to play it. I've been trying to practice daily, and I'm going to have a teacher pretty soon. I have a question though: how does one go about learning to play "clean" notes? I realize that I won't be capable of it in an less than an hour's worth of practice, but right now my notes sound very...err, poor.

Filler Inc. · May 2007

Press hard and keep your fingers as close to the fret without being on it.

Retarded_Turkey · August 2007

So, I want to get a guitar because I'm sick of playing my friends...At Wal-Mart they have an amp and electric guitar bundle for like $150. Would that be okay to learn on?

Mitsuhide · August 2007

Retarded_Turkey wrote: »

So, I want to get a guitar because I'm sick of playing my friends...At Wal-Mart they have an amp and electric guitar bundle for like $150. Would that be okay to learn on?

Sorry mods for ressing an old thread, but...

I believe I asked this same thing in a similar thread, but I was advised agains't getting a cheap bundle like that (unless it's a Squire, they're fine) is because it really is the worst quality possible for the money.

It would be okay for learning, but just make sure you buy something better within a few years, or else you may end up breaking it with regular heavy usage. :lol:

HoberShort · October 2007

I picked up a similar starter pack (This one, in fact) which I've been very happy with. As I understand it, Epiphone is basically Gibson's discount manufacturer. But that guitar, aside from having one set of tone/volume knobs for both pickups (instead of a set for each pickup) and not having little metal plates over the pickups, seems to be the same as a Gibson of the same model. I've been teaching myself on it for three or four months now with no complaints.

So what I'm saying is, look at the brand of the guitar. Heck, I would look at Guitar Center's website and see if you find anything satisfactory there. If their numbers are to be trusted, they're essentially selling a $415 package for $200, which is a hell of a bargain. I also had a short run-in with their customer service and came out very happy.

EDIT: Dang, sorry for the thread necromancy. Forgot to check the last post date. >.>

Fiziks · February 2008

Anyone who is interested in learning the heavy blues style of Stevie Ray Vaughan, definitely check out Stevie Snacks.

Started a few months ago, but the guy who runs it has built up a library of almost 30 lessons. He posts free versions of all of his lessons, but if you want to spend the extra 2-5 bucks, you can pick up the extended versions with tabs. The lessons are extremely well done, especially the lesson on the 5 Blues Boxes, which changed the way I look at the fretboard. Before a lot of Stevie's stuff had me scratching my head, but because of this website, I'm starting to slowly starting to get it.

Penny Arcade

On playing guitar

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