Learning to play the guitar

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I have always wanted to play a musical instrument and have now decided to actually do something about it. I would love to play the piano but for now a guitar is more convenient.

 

From googling, youtubing and asking a friend I have the impression that the best route is to get an acoustic guitar. The electric guitar requires too much paraphanalia so I will only go down that route later if I really get into it.

 

The main pitfall is the risk of getting frustrated and giving up. The next will be having nothing to show for it (ie not being able to actually play a tune). I have heard that although many guitar players cannot read music, it is better to be able to, so I will need to learn to do that as well.

 

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to share them.

 

I have purchased an Aria dreadnought to start with

[MedicSN6]

I have always wanted to play a musical instrument and have now decided to actually do something about it. I would love to play the piano but for now a guitar is more convenient.

 

From googling, youtubing and asking a friend I have the impression that the best route is to get an acoustic guitar. The electric guitar requires too much paraphanalia so I will only go down that route later if I really get into it.

 

The main pitfall is the risk of getting frustrated and giving up. The next will be having nothing to show for it (ie not being able to actually play a tune). I have heard that although many guitar players cannot read music, it is better to be able to, so I will need to learn to do that as well.

 

If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to share them.

 

I have purchased an Aria dreadnought to start with

Take lessons in person. I am having trouble learning by watching videos and reading books. They can never answer my questions! You also don;t get any feedback for whether you are doing something right or more importantly, wrong.

Take lessons.

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

My dad had some records he used for learning, withe the appropriate book next to it it's good to do.

I had lessons for about 8 years but never got to practise much.....

every now and then when Is ee a nice Gibson on ebay my fingers itch.....

oh and for the guitar get a good tuning device (thing with a microphone in it that tells if you tuned properly)

Good luck!

[MH6~SPARTA~]

I've been wanting to learn to play the guitar too, and can already play the piano. Let me know how it goes for ya, I may be trying this myself in the future.

[DrNo~SPARTA~]

I play the guitar alot and if anyone wants some info or tips send me a pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I bought the complete beatles collection of music sheets. I also bought a guitar tuner.

 

I had my first practice today, basically training my left hand fingers working through the top 4 frets on all six strings, one note at a time.

 

Then I tried to play one chord - E major.

 

For the next few weeks I will practices running through the notes then finish with a chord. I had trouble with the chord because my fingers are short and fat, so its not easy to press down on one string without interfering with another. Also the top of my palm hits the lowest string (the high E string).

 

The tips of my fingers hurt because this is a folk guitar with steel strings. If I had gone with a classical guitar this would not have been a problem. But with time the finger tips will develop callouses so it wont be so painful.

 

I am using a couple of you tube guides initially, if I can master this very basic stuff I may get a teacher.

 

Great pics Dr No, any advice will be more than welcome. I intend to train a little every day, I will be patient as I am sure there is a very steep learning curve.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[MedicSN6]

I bought the complete beatles collection of music sheets. I also bought a guitar tuner.

 

I had my first practice today, basically training my left hand fingers working through the top 4 frets on all six strings, one note at a time.

 

Then I tried to play one chord - E major.

 

For the next few weeks I will practices running through the notes then finish with a chord. I had trouble with the chord because my fingers are short and fat, so its not easy to press down on one string without interfering with another. Also the top of my palm hits the lowest string (the high E string).

 

The tips of my fingers hurt because this is a folk guitar with steel strings. If I had gone with a classical guitar this would not have been a problem. But with time the finger tips will develop callouses so it wont be so painful.

 

I am using a couple of you tube guides initially, if I can master this very basic stuff I may get a teacher.

 

Great pics Dr No, any advice will be more than welcome. I intend to train a little every day, I will be patient as I am sure there is a very steep learning curve.

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

Very cool. Good luck P

[Kavlarakos~SPARTA~]

First of all I would suggest you to make yourself familiar with the strings. As far as I know the strings of the guitar are:

G - D - A- E - H - Fis

 

You see that there is a kind of logic system behind that. The distance of each note is always exactly 7 half tone steps higher. I.e. from G to D the steps are G-Gis-A-Ais-H-C-Cis-D. These 7 half tone steps are called a Dominant.

 

As your G string is your lowest tone on the guitar I would suggest to start playing chords on that G string.

 

G Major = G-H-D

G Minor = G-b-D

 

And again there is a logic system in playing chords.

 

A chord is always a mixture out of at least 3 tones.

A basic major chord is always a big third and a small third. I.e. G-H (big third) H-D (small third)

A basic minor chord is the other way round, small third and big third. I.e. G-b (small third) b-D (big third)

 

I hope this was not too complicate. But I think to have a good understanding for the basic rules makes making music much more easy. And music is very logical and has quite a lot to do with mathematics.

 

And needless to say that it needs a lot of practice and patience

 

 

[DrNo~SPARTA~]

A few items:

 

Biggest problem for beginners is:

 

- Strings are hard to push down for a while

- finger tip pain - This will diminish and go away over a few months with lots of practice. Watch this as it can be very discouraging if you let it go too far. When it hurts stop and let em rest. Avoid a blister. They can take over a week to go away. I use a lag screw 3/8 x 2" for wood with an aggresive thread pitch and press my fingers into the threads for hours to maintain my callouses between shows.

 

- Wrist pain and finger joint pain. More so for those of us that are in our mid life. (This may or may not completly go away. I drink only water before and during a show and take a couple of advil so I dont cramp up) Id expect it to lesson though (a guitar is one of the most un-natural position instruments to play and hold and you may think you have a stong arm, but the angles cause some problems) as you get used to it and your arm gains strength in that position.

 

- If you have the original strings on the guitar, Id replace them with a good set of strings. (factory ones are the cheapest piece of wire they can find) Strings are avail in many different thickneses, you can even put electric stings on (tone will suffer alot) if you require a light set to start out with. (see next paragraph) Then as finger strenght and callouses develope and pain starts to diminish, change em up back in to the acoustric range for good tone. Like most things in life, you crawl, walk, run, ect in that order, this isnt that much different.

 

- I use Fender Phosphor Bronze Wound Ball End: .013 .017 .026 .036 .046 .056, which is a pretty heavy set, on my Ovation acoustic. I do this for tone and I dont do that much string bending on it, a bit but not like an electric. Strings are like Beer. There is alot to choose from, in many different strengths and flavores (tone) and it ussually comes down to personal choice based upon experimentation. If you have finger strenght issues for awhile, try a set of lighter strings, .010 .014 .022 .030 .040 .048 which are close to an electric range but should still have brass windings on the D,A,E strings. (4,5,6.) for good low end tone.

 

Re guitar tuner:

Use it to learn how to tune by ear. Please learn how to tune by ear. Dont get caught in the rut by having to rely on the tuner. There is a pattern to use based off of the # 6 E string where you tune the next string and then the next so on. If you dont have this info let me know and I can send you a link. Later on you should learn to tune with harmonics listining for the variation in the waveform. lol, dont worry about that till much later.

 

Lessons:

As Medic said, I also agree. I never took lessons. I really should have all those years ago. I may not have had to have a real job for the past 29 years....... but then, I dont have any chemical or herbal dependancies either lol. Anyways, take em if you can get em. Try to get a teacher with some guitar maturity. I dont think learning to play slayer or metalica right now will keep your interest.

 

Guitar:

Make sure it is one that will stay in tune. (weather changes can cause a guitar to be grumpy, this is different than not staying in tune.) A guitar that dosnt stay in tune needs to be gotten rid of or used for fire wood.

Always buy an instrument that is way above your ability. If you buy one that is equal to you or below your skill youll hate it as it wont do what you are capable of. Again, get rid of it or use it for fire wood and get something that exceeds your ability by alot. Youll never regret this.

 

Teaching aids:

Buying the beatles book is fantastic. I taught myself out of a Rush for begginers music book.

 

Learn Chords first:

Dont worry about scales till you can play all of the basic chord forms in maj, min, 7th and 9th, dim forms. Learn scales later. Focus on chords in the same key ect. Learn the root, 4th, 5th, then the minor, and youll be playing the Beatles in no time.

 

Thats all for today.

 

 

[DrNo~SPARTA~]

Re guitar and standard tuning especially if you want to play anything written in popular music from the last 100 years,

Std tuning is: Fr the top to the bottom: (top = largest string, bottom = thinnest string unless your Jimi Hendrix who played em upsidedown.)

6 - E

5 - A

4 - D

3 - G

2 - B

1 - E

 

There is no H note. From what I can remember in Bazzentine times or something like that H was written in German music for B natural. But I dont know too much about real old classical methods.

 

Link to basic musical iformation;

How Music Works

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Thanks for your excellent input.

 

The Aria is a chinese guitar that costs around $600, I bought it from a reputable music shop in Lausanne, it wasnt the cheapest so I hope it will do the job. If I actually get proficient at it I will spend the money to get a really decent guitar, by then I hope to know the style I would like to play. But for now that is far away.

 

All I will do is practice going up and down the scales and learn to play the chords. If I manage that then I will take it a step further and get a teacher.

 

 

[DrNo~SPARTA~]

My first electric guitar was an Aria Pro-II I recived from my Dad in 1981 for passing grade 10. I was 16 at the time and thats when I started to learn how to play. I was a big Rush, Nazareth and Led Zepplin fan back then. (This is the wierd part... lol,) I had a dream one night that I got the job to replace Manny Charlton on the guitar in Nazareth. I played a whole gig in that dream. Anyways, next day I started teaching myself. In the band I play in today we do Nazareths Razamanaz, man what a fun tune to crank out. Always reminds me of that dream.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I always wanted to play something, but fixated on the piano. There are many reasons why that is no good for me at this time, so I did nothing. I am clearly not passionate as I wouldnt have waited until I was north of middle aged to do something, but better late than never.

[andrewman~SPARTA~]

Zeno,

 

My Connor is learning at the moment - he doesn't like reading music - instead opting for TAB music which shops which finger goes where - defo learn cords - Connor plays some neat things after a weekly lesson for the last couple of months but is lazy and doesn't practice much between sessions, but at least he can get a tune going and it doesn't take the skill of finger picking. Wear timbles on you fingers LOL

 

Good Luck

[Halli~SPARTA~]

This will take time..............Then it will take time...................

 

Don't give up and learn only simple stuff first.

 

I do not play I plink but grew up with the damn thing in my ear every night since I was 12 and can tell ya my brother of whom I shared a room with would drive me nuts cause it sounded like crap and he would play over and over and over the same crap but today he can listen to any music and play it as it sounds and could go pro if he wanted but he enjoys the Engineering production side now days and has a home studio that he enjoys.

 

 

Have fun.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

I am older now so much less impatient, I will do like your brother and keep practicing notes and chords. I hope eventually to be able to play something. If I learn how to read sheet music on the way so much the better.

[Kavlarakos~SPARTA~]

As I said before. I am not an expert about the guitar, Not at all. But the only thing i can tell is that the biggest killer of playing an instrument is Inpatience. I thing there is nothing in the world which needs more practice until there comes something quite productable out of then music. I mean take for instance a combat sport like Karate. After one year you know alot more than only the basics. But after playing for one year the piano on the other side you still don´t know the basics. It just needs a lot of patience and this is the killer nr.1 for learning an instrument.

 

I know a lot of people who played and practiced for a long time but then finally they gave up because they couldn´t handle it. They just expected too much.

 

Here I will post now a video of a guy playing Franz Liszt´s Ungarian Rhapsody No2.

 

 

 

This guy is really good as I have seen some professionals playing this live . But what I want to say is what do you think how many years of practice this young fellow needed to play this...

 

Never give up just practice. There is nothing more beautyful in life then music (just my opinion)

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Good advice Kav, I am jealous of you guys that can play.

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

I'm not gonna spoil you with videos of good guitar players, it only makes you (and me) see there is sooooo much to learn.

When I took lessons my teacher tried to teachg me a Harry Saksioni song, and for that I had to tune the guitar different, it took me at least an hour to re tune the guitar, let alone learn that darn rigs.....

I only play classical guitar never had the money and the guts to buy electrical, or country.

But when you can play classical all the rest is a lot easier...

My most important lesson was that its fun to play together/with music so you sound better and get motivated....

I hope my kids will take up the flute fast (thats were you learn rithm and reading music notes) so I can start playing together again....

[SkeleTele~SPARTA~]

Zeno! Its great you want to learn to play. Some advice it's cool that you want to learn to read but you should be concentrating on finger strength and proper technique and playing songs you love. If your not going to take lessons using youtube is fine. Its recommended to build your ear by learning songs by listening but that might be hard at this stage in the game i would get guitar pro 5 it's a program that shows you where to play and how to play songs that you DL from TAB sites such as ultimateguitar.com Good luck you will get completely frustrated and thats normal but keep chugging along preserver Zeno!

[SkeleTele~SPARTA~]

one more thing, google Danny Gatton, Brent Mason Chet Atkins, ;) Fucking monster Guitar players, be warned these guys will make you cry and just want to put the guitar down.....you've been warned ;)

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Thanks Skele

 

Still practicing chromatic scales, I can just about play E major without fumbling one of the strings and can pick "let it be" from memory (badly). Fingers still hurt but seem to be toughening up. I do about 20mins to one hour a day. Once my left hand fingers a toughened up I will practice chords much more.

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

That's awesome Zeno. I tried back in my early college days to learn how to play, just to see if it actually did get chicks, and had fun doing it. My main problem was my small hands couldn't properly stretch and press the strings down that I needed to.

 

The biggest hurdle is getting those fingers hardened up, then it'll be easier. Good luck!

[SkeleTele~SPARTA~]

no pain no gain ;) i forgot to mention, practice with a metronome this will greatly increase your ability and sense of timing. It's a great tool.....