guitar with harm and/or piano

bsjezz

I've dusted my acoustic guitar off for the first time in a few years, bought a set of replacement strings and a tuner and I'm ready to go again. I was never the best but I've remembered the basics at least (real basics - A,C,D,E,G) and I'm keen to learn more.

I need some advice about good stuff to learn, something easy enough, but I'm not scared of a challenge. There are some things I'd like to explore though so have a look and if you have any suggestions they'd be much appreciated:

- I'd like to learn a few pretty standard bluesy riffs, stuff that I can just jam with. I'm not much of a musician but I am a writer, so I'd love some tips on generic chord progressions that I might be able to put some lyrics down to.

- I have a harmonica. It's an A harp, and I've heard it's pretty easy to get a good sound out of it if you're playing guitar in the same key. Are there any good songs / riffs in A to play? I don't really understand how keys work but I'd love to have a play around with something that'll sound good with the harmonica.

- My girlfriend has an electric piano that she's not playing too much so I thought it would be nice to play some music together, simple stuff, although she's a much better pianist than I am a guitarist. Are there any good musicians or songs that will suit us? There must be a thousand guitar/piano combos around but it's hard to know what's easy enough but also sounds good and is a bit of fun.

So yeah, links are good, songs suggestions are good, anything's good - I'd love to buy a few music books too so if anyone knows an artist or an album with music that'll suit my situation, I'm all ears.

Organichu

Piano and guitar and easy a fun duet for two people is is is is... is specifically asking for, by name, Decatur by Sufjan Stevens. Guitar gets boring after some time, though.

wasted pixels

I can't recommend any specific songs (I've never played with a pianist, in spite of my girlfriend having mad ivory chops), but I can offer some vague, general advice.

Here's an okay site for some blues/rock licks: http://www.12bar.de/sololick.php . Just typing "blues licks" into Google will get you a glut of tabs, too.

Some generic chord movements: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_progression (though one of the editors of that article needs to be stabbed for injecting his bratpop musical tastes).

Get a capo. It will make your life so much easier.

zeppelin

bsjezz wrote: »

- I have a harmonica. It's an A harp, and I've heard it's pretty easy to get a good sound out of it if you're playing guitar in the same key. Are there any good songs / riffs in A to play? I don't really understand how keys work but I'd love to have a play around with something that'll sound good with the harmonica.

Any 12 bar blues in the key of A. Technically, 12 bar blues in the key of A. My music theory is dreadfully dusty, but you can generally throw the A harmonica into another key (I'd have to look it up). The great thing about 12 bar blues is, it sounds great on an acoustic, electric, distortion, clean, echo, wah... anything. Singing and adding harm into the middle is always fun too.

RNEMESiS42

If you want your harp to go along with the blues you're playing on guitar, you usually want it a fourth away from what's on the guitar. Zeppelin mentioned A is a common blues key, so you'd want a harp that is in D. Your harp is in A, so you'd want to play guitar in E.

lifeincognito

You asked about standard progressions for chords and while 12 bar blues has been mentioned you might want to try out 1 5 6 3. You hear this all the time, Under the Bridge is a good example. It pretty much means you'd play E major, B major, C# minor and then A major. There are many more of course, most of it you hear over and over on the radio as that comedian who sign about Pachelbel's Cannon would tell you. Really anything involving 1 4 5 is pretty standard, ACDC makes great use of these three chords on many songs. Of course you want to play things in the key of E on your guitar which might not be great for you (you didn't list that as one of the chords you knew) because you'd need to play a B barre chord to complete the 1 4 5 deal.

bsjezz

i know E, it's one of the easiest really. C, B and F i just always had trouble with because they seemed to span a wider area

good advice though, guys, i'm going to print off some stuff, listen to some sufjan stevens and have a whirl tonight.

DeathPrawn

As RNEMESIS said, if you want to play 12-bar blues with your A harmonica, play it in E. Even though B major is a barre chord, B7 is not; its easy to learn.

However, since it sounds like you don't really have experience with your harmonica, I wouldn't start there (disregard me if you have experience). You play blues in "cross harp", which is what it's called when you play it in a key a fifth up (i.e. playing an A harp in E). Doing it well requires being able to bend, which probably isn't something you'll be able to pick up right away. I'd start out doing some Bob Dylan-y stuff in A. If you stick to A, D, and E, you'll be golden. If you are just picking it up, you might want to find a friend who knows how to play or look on the internet for some basic instruction. Essentially, the first thing you want to do is work on playing only one note at a time by blocking off other holes using your lips, your tongue, or a combination of both.

Since it sounds like you want to play both together, you may want to pick up a harmonica holder (the metal rack that people like Bob Dylan use to play guitar and harmonica at the same time). They're only like 10 bucks.

bsjezz

yeah, i'm going to grab a holder (and a capo) as soon as i'm set up. i have a little experience with the harmonica and i'm not sure but i think i can bend notes a little bit at least - i'm a decent didgeridoo player (of all things) and some of the mouth technique translates. maybe.

but i'll look into some bob dylan stuff for sure