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Learning guitar!
Kate of Lokys
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
My boyfriend is a musician who had to leave his guitar back home when he came to stay with me. (If he had brought it with him, the border guards would have assumed he was a filthy long-haired draft-dodging music-loving hippie coming to Canada to steal our welfare and sleep with our women). He missed being able to play, though, so a week or two ago, we picked up another guitar for him to use up here. Just a cheap little Strat copy, for which we paid the princely sum of $100. He seems well enough content with it, even though we don't have an amp yet.
I, on the other hand, am thoroughly enamoured with the thing. It looks pretty and sounds nice and I want to learn how to play it. More specifically, I want to learn how to play it on my own - I'm sure my boyfriend would be delighted to teach me, but he's had bad experiences in the past with people who never practice or play unless he gently encourages them to, and I don't want him to feel like I'm only learning it to make him happy. I want to do it by and for myself.
How I learn guitar, H/A? There are literally thousands of "guitar for dummies" style websites out there - I took a preliminary look already - but I can't tell the good from the bad. Are there any sites that show me, step by step, how to play? I do have some background in music already, which I hope will help: I took piano lessons when I was a kid, and made it up to the grade 7 Royal Conservatory level. So, I can read music, I can figure out chords (with some trial and error), and I understand many of the underlying principles involved. I just don't know how to transfer my piano skills to a new instrument. Do guitarists practice scales and triads? Should I be working more on chords and switching between them, or on finger-picking individual notes? Are there any books or DVDs that are absolutely "OMG must have" resources?
Paying for lessons at this point is not feasible; I live in a college town, so all the music shops mark everything, including lessons, up by about 200% to take advantage of the "rich boys wanting to get laid with the power of music" demographic. Also, as soon as I start paying for something, it starts feeling like work. If left to my own devices, I am totally cool with practicing scales for half an hour a day. If I start thinking "I need to practice or I'll waste the $50 this week's lesson will cost," I get all stressed and I avoid the activity. I'm sure I'd learn more effectively with lessons, but I wouldn't enjoy it... so, I'm really looking more for websites, or maybe other types of instructional media.
I, on the other hand, am thoroughly enamoured with the thing. It looks pretty and sounds nice and I want to learn how to play it. More specifically, I want to learn how to play it on my own - I'm sure my boyfriend would be delighted to teach me, but he's had bad experiences in the past with people who never practice or play unless he gently encourages them to, and I don't want him to feel like I'm only learning it to make him happy. I want to do it by and for myself.
How I learn guitar, H/A? There are literally thousands of "guitar for dummies" style websites out there - I took a preliminary look already - but I can't tell the good from the bad. Are there any sites that show me, step by step, how to play? I do have some background in music already, which I hope will help: I took piano lessons when I was a kid, and made it up to the grade 7 Royal Conservatory level. So, I can read music, I can figure out chords (with some trial and error), and I understand many of the underlying principles involved. I just don't know how to transfer my piano skills to a new instrument. Do guitarists practice scales and triads? Should I be working more on chords and switching between them, or on finger-picking individual notes? Are there any books or DVDs that are absolutely "OMG must have" resources?
Paying for lessons at this point is not feasible; I live in a college town, so all the music shops mark everything, including lessons, up by about 200% to take advantage of the "rich boys wanting to get laid with the power of music" demographic. Also, as soon as I start paying for something, it starts feeling like work. If left to my own devices, I am totally cool with practicing scales for half an hour a day. If I start thinking "I need to practice or I'll waste the $50 this week's lesson will cost," I get all stressed and I avoid the activity. I'm sure I'd learn more effectively with lessons, but I wouldn't enjoy it... so, I'm really looking more for websites, or maybe other types of instructional media.
Kate of Lokys on
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Justin Sandcoe's got a great little online program that will help explain some of these terms and give you simple songs composed of these chords. Folsom prison blues is a good beginner song as is Brown Eyed Girl.
Just remember 15 minutes a day is better than 2 hours once a week at first.
-Terry Pratchett
Single best resource for guitar anything.
I tought myself how to play guitar using only that sight, and the occasional youtube video and yes, Justin Sandcore's stuff is awesome. I would just find a song i like, look up the tab/chords, and play it. Singing along is optional.
Learn chords. Cannot stress it enough. Learn them by name, and how to play them in a variety of positions eg, open d chord, 10th fret bar and 5th fret bar.
Bar (Barre?) chords are dificult to begin with, but still try them. The more time you spend trying to play them, you'll slowly develop the abillity to play them cleanly.
Once you have Mishra's list o' chords down (which is excellent in its progression, you definitely want to start with open chords, then minors, then barre chords, in that order), tabs will be next on the agenda. Here's a good introduction to tablature. While your existing musical background will help you tremendously as you progress (especially if you move toward jazz), it's important to remember that most guitarists cannot read music. Tabs are common to all types of rock musicians -- guitarist, bassists, and drummers. Even vocalists will frequently borrow their guitarists' tabs for memorizing lyrics and chord changes.
The best advice when it comes to picking out what tabs to study is to just play what you like for a while. Since I'm the boyfriend you don't want lessons from (:3), I can safely suggest The Thermals, Weezer, and Barenaked Ladies as some good stuff to play while you're first learning, and Dar Williams, Belle and Sebastian, Interpol, and The Wrens as good intermediate stuff. Picking up one of the Rock Band tab books would also probably be a sound investment, as they're songs you know the basic structures of, they offer a range of difficulties and styles, and you can even fire up practice mode and play the songs without the guitar tracks.
Also, I made you a guitar amp. Ask me about that later. >_>
So, I learned to tune a guitar (important), and then I learned simple powerchords. Through a process of listening and identifying the notes by ear, and attempting to play along, I learned a load of early Green Day songs as well as lots of stuff by my other favourite punk bands on Lookout Records and similar.
Because so many songs use similar chord structures, through noting where the powerchords are played on the fretboard, I unwittingly picked up the basics of song structure and composition. The fretboard also suddenly made a lot more sense to me, and changing chords felt a lot more intuitive. My rhythm, strumming and the quickness and strength of my fret-hand also improved.
I wrote simple songs and started a band with friends. Playing with a band/other people makes you improve drastically.
None of this felt like I was actually having to learn guitar, it was all just fun. I never bothered learning the names of any notes or chords but gradually realised that I was already playing major and minor chords without realising.
tl,dr: -- Basically, I learned to play guitar by just playing guitar, discovering things on my own, and just having fun.
Not the best way for everyone but I thought I'd throw that in there in case you struggle with the traditional methods.
(Also, to qualify, I've played hundreds of gigs, recorded albums, EPs, 7"s, toured overseas, had my band played on the radio, all at a very modest level, but still... you can teach yourself and still be making and enjoying music.)
Good luck & have fun. :P
I started out with a super basic beginner book on rhythm guitar which got me used to power chords and moving them around the fretboard and it may have covered a basic scale or two, I can't remember. After my fingers were just generally used to moving around on the fretboard and actually landing on the string and fret I intended, or at least somewhere near it, I started learning songs that I enjoy.
After getting a song or two I enjoyed down is when I decided to learn a couple proper chords, etc. That way I had something fun to mix in with the boring stuff, but I'll have those chords available to me when I need them... and I do use them now on some songs.
I initially started learning songs using tab while listening to the song. Most of the time you'll need to pull up 3 or 4 different people's version of the tab and piece together different parts to actually get the song right. After that I started listening to the song, getting it as close as I could by ear, and then looking at tab to see if what I was playing was close to what other people had come up with. After a couple months of that, I started trying to just go fully by ear - I'm still working on that, but I'm slowly making progress there. Power chord progressions are generally very easy to figure out now, leads and solos are quite a bit more work.
When picking songs, I usually pick one song that's a good bit above my skill level (my hard songs have been Anthrax - Madhouse, Metallica - Seek and Destroy, Megadeth - Skin O' My Teeth) while also working on simpler songs or parts of simpler songs. That way I can see and hear my progress on the hard song and really feel like I'm improving while also having simpler songs that I can play easily and other people can recognize and tell me how awesome I am.
I have nothing to contribute here, I just wanted to mention that I really, really like your work. :oops:
This is exactly how I learned basically. Tabs are pretty easy to learn and once you pick it up you can pretty much play whatever you want with enough time and practice. Of course the downside to this would be that your not learning how to read music or chords in the "traditional" manner. It's a great idea to learn the chords but this is a great way to get you started and build your confidence very quickly. Obviously start with the easy stuff first and get your hands/fingers used to playing. You will get calluses (sp?) from playing properly which only strengthens your hands.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Metronome Online Free online metronome, comes in handy when you start learning scales, also has a reference pitch for the A string
AP Tuner Great program if you find tuning hard, or just having an off day.
Guitar Pro Think of it as a very fully featured tab with timings. The Free trial only works for 15 days but it's worth it when you've got a couple of songs you like.
And I'll second the recommendation for Justin Guitar
I think the easiest way to learn this shit is to decompose it down as far as possible. There are only three fundamental types of chords: major, minor, and dominant. Just about any other "type" of chord is one of these chords with some adjustment. Look up some major chords and first try to move them around. For an example, play an open A major chord. Then move that same form up two frets. Get used to both strumming the full chord and picking notes inside of it. Once comfortable with moving different chord forms, try switching between them. For example, a teacher I had once liked to show intro guitar students "Hey Joe" because of its obvious open progression from C-G-D-A-E. The advantage of doing this is as you start moving the chords around and switching between forms, you can immediately start "writing" (read: jamming) on your own riffs at the level of your ability. As you do this, and THEN go to tabs, you will see what you practice and know reflected in the tabs, which helps you understand how to write similar music as well.
I would also consider sucking down the lesson money at some point. There are some things about form that just need to be explained to 95% of all musicians before they get it. Here's a trick about lesson attitude: go in there and explain to the instructor that you're most interested in understanding different forms and fundamentals. Nine times out of 10 in a college town, they're going to be teaching guys who want to learn DMB and Jack Johnson songs as fast as possible so they can serenade a drunk girl with them right before fucking their brains out. You go in there with the idea of actually understanding the instrument instead of a "get-rich-quick-i-want-to-play-this-song" attitude and you'll learn a lot more.
PSN: TheScrublet
so far i can sorta kinda play a few nirvana songs? well..nirvana songs where some strings buzz at times and where it's like a quarter of the actual speed...haha
i can't remember the site that i've been using, i'll look into maybe using these other resources instead or at least in conjuction..
Practice how long you need to as often as possible. Obviously the more you practice the better you become and eventually it won't even be "practicing" it'll be playing for hours just for fun. Trust me when I say that there will be times where it's frustrating as hell because you can't get a song right or you just don't understand how to play something. The answer to this is to put away for a while if necessary. I can't tell you how many times I swore I would never be able to play a song so I quit attempting for a year or two only to come back to it later with more experience and it comes so easy to me. Just keep at it and you'll def improve, also nirvana is a good way to start. Theyre songs are pretty simple/basic and theyre solos aren't that difficult to master with practice. Once you start building confidence you'll be amazed at what kind of music will come easy to you.
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