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Learning to play guitar
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Registered User regular
I have recently acquired a nice, little guitar. A few minutes ago, I managed to contort my fingers in such a way that it produced a "chord." Then I got a cramp in my hand and realized that this will be more difficult than I thought.
Is there a preferred website for "beginners" wanting to learn the guitar?
How many hours should I devote per day? Any other advice?
Thanks.
Is there a preferred website for "beginners" wanting to learn the guitar?
How many hours should I devote per day? Any other advice?
Thanks.
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http://www.justinguitar.com/
As many as you can is the only real answer to this. Just as long as you do it every day. It's better to practice for 15 minutes a day than it is to practice for 2 hours just once a week.
If your getting cramp, look up the correct finguring position onlnie. Could be that your holding the chord wrong, and that is what's leading to your pain.
And I find even 5 - 10 minutes of just noodling or practicing works. I write quite alot of music so sessions can vary between like half an hour to maybe like 2 hours (depending on how productive I'm feeling), but at least 5 minutes a day sounds good
My fingers were too short and stubby to play guitar.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
Other than that, I just watched random youtube videos when I first started. If something wasn't making sense or working well for me after watching one video and trying to do what it said, I'd search again and watch a few others to see if anyone explained it differently or had a different technique that would work. Videos from the previously mentioned justinguitar.com did come up quite a bit for me and they were very good.
To that extent though, you really want a teacher who has been playing for a very longtime. Some college student in a music program is less likely to have yet mastered proper posture.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Electric? Buy the thinnest gauge strings you can find, I use these. Some people might say this is crazy advice, but if you're starting out and you don't want your fingers to hurt insanely, play on a light gauge string for a bit, then once you can play well enough you step yourself up through higher gauge strings building up finger strength.
As always, you'll just need an insane amount of patience. I practiced about an hour a day plus for a few months straight when I started out.
Also it wouldn't hurt you to check out this.
Edit: Also I just wanted to add it sucks so hard when you are starting out, but if you really wanna play and are determined, that perseverance will pay you back 10 fold when you're tearing it up. Down the line you'll wonder what you did before you played guitar.
I've been a little worried about this, actually.
Don't be, because it's nonsense. It makes chording a little trickier at first, but it won't really affect the playability of the instrument. In fact, you start to find lots of situations where fat fingers are actually useful.
Like, say, this chord: x76779
It's probably bullshit. I've got shorter fingers than anyone I know and I've only encountered a single chord I wasn't able to stretch to hit.
I'm not kidding either, I have average-ish size palms for a guy, but my fingers are shorter than those on any woman I've ever dated. Having "small hands" is an excuse for "don't want to have to work harder". You'll just need a little more forearm strength and endurance than larger handed players but I doubt it'll ever completely prevent you from doing whatever you want with the instrument.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
If you're a teen or adult, your hands are bigger than this kid's. I've seen many videos of him, that's not him pretending while an adult really plays or anything like that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ow5Dyc8EF0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghYOW4eajjo&playnext_from=TL&videos=5ZlGBjkbTqo
Don't worry too much about picking something that you think might be too hard, either. I always make the most progress when I'm trying to play something way out of my league.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Well, there are physical limitations that pop up once in a while... like when I try to play the Am11 chord at 1:47 in this video
x79533
Don't try this at home kids.
Just seconding this - as soon as you can play ANYTHING, go and do it with other people. My girlfriend spent nearly 2 years in guitar lessons and carried a lot of doubt about her ability to ever get any good at anything until she actually sat down and had a jam session with a couple of workmates. Playing solo, she'd hit bum notes and miss notes and thought she sounded horrible - getting in amongst a bunch of other players and seeing that you don't have to be perfect 100% of the time (and learning to play through errors) will help immensely.
Also, she has about the smallest hands you're ever likely to see in a healthy adult (she's 4'11 and generally tiny in every way), and while she does get pain trying to do a few chords, small hands doesn't really hamper her at all.
Play with me on Steam
First. I am also just beginning. I began understanding that it would take a great deal of effort, and pain (I'm a mechanic so I'm already calloused up, but man, you use some muscles that previously didn't exist in your arm.) to become proficient at playing the guitar. I also believe playing the guitar, or any instrument is much more than learning notes and playing them in the right order so you sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn. Learning to improvise and adapt is really learning the fundamentals of the guitar.
Start with your major chords, then minors, then sevenths. You'll find that a LOT of songs use only 3 chords. Bad moon Rising is D A G D, for instance. There's more there, but that's a beginning. Learn the strum and you can play right along. Oh, run scales too. They help with accuracy with both your Fretting hand and your strum. Don't try to blaze through the chords or scales. Go for accuracy and a clean sounding note. Speed will come with time.
This guy is pretty neat, it's folk guitar, but he teaches a lot of good habits. http://www.archive.org/details/folk.guitar
I practice at least a half hour, each night that I'm home.
If you can type worth a shit, remember when you had to hunt and peck. Now you don't even look at the keyboard. It's the same with the neck of the guitar, you have to develop that feel for where you are, without looking. The only way you can do that is with a lot of practice.
Yep, this is always my advice to people wanting to learn to play guitar. Learn to read tablature (very easy), then find some tab of songs you like, learn them, then play the shit out of them. I started with lessons but got very bored with playing crap like Mary Had a Little Lamb. I wanted to rock! But buying tab books (in the days before the internet) is what kept me playing, and still playing to this day. Once you become familiar with the instrument, you can work on actually learning the finer points of it, and music in general. I also always recommend a chord book, one that shows you the fingering of the chords. I started with a Mel Bay book that would have the chord diagram and then a picture of a guy's hand fingering the chord.
The only potential pitfall is developing bad habits early on. If you have someone that can show you basic things like how to hold the guitar, it's a good idea. If not, taking lessons for a month or two might not be a bad idea either.
If you're not already, force yourself to use a pick. I know when I started, using a pick was cumbersome and it was much easier to just use my thumb, but you won't get anywhere without using a pick. Unless you grow your fingernails out and play classical, I guess.
I printed off song after song written in tab off the internet. Any song I thought sounded cool or that I liked I had the tab to play it. Eventually you realize what you are actually playing are chords and there are certain progressions of chords that sound good together and even in different combinations. I would recommend learning the open chords first and then the bar chords second. I also found it easier to use electric strings at first even if you have an acoustic guitar. Finding your brand of strings and what gauge along with what size pick is crucial. That can really only come with trial and error.
Learn how to string your own guitar if you haven't already. Buy an electric tuner at first but learn how the low E sounds and memorize it. Eventually you'll be able to "feel" when your guitar is in tune.
I may have rambled a bit. Basically, what worked for me was finding songs I wanted to play and learning how to play them off of tabulature. Keep at it everyday and build up those calluses. The more you play the easier it gets.
Once good habit that Guitar Hero/Rock Band actually teaches: you can't stop and fix mistakes when playing - just plow through and bet back on track as quickly as possible. It's a terrible thing to have to sit through when someone is trying to play a song and keeps stopping "whoops, whoops") and re-starting or trying to quickly play all the notes they missed and catch up to the other players.
Mart teaches Johnny B Goode
Mart teaches Johnny B Goode pt 2
Yeah, I was in a band in high school that would stop during practice whenever someone got lost. It was so infuriating.