• Been trying to learn guitar for a few months, Any seasoned guitar players have solid advice to a beg
    12 replies, posted
So what would you guys recommend to a beginner guitarist? I've been trying to learn for about 2 or 3 months and I generally play for an hour or 2 sometimes more than once after work and a little on the weekends. I'm 25 and learning has been slow, I've felt like if i had started this when I originally wanted to do it at 16 I'd had picked it up a lot quicker but I never had the opportunity and other priorities got in the way. I was stuck for a few weeks and didn't feel like I was improving at all (I actually felt like i was getting worse again) Then I decided to change the way I was learning since I was basically bouncing around different types of songs and never learning more then just a riff or two from a song and not the actual song, right now I'm trying to learn my first song (fat lip by sum41, Buddy said a lot of people learn it first so i figure why not) Right now I'm using a borrowed Laguna guitar that I'd like to replace and I've had my eyes on a Schecter C-1 Platinum for about $450 that I like the feel of and its more comfortable to me, I also like the fret board way more. I like playing heavier music similar to Machine head and Devil Driver but I'd also like to be able to play progressive metal like dream theater, But I like all styles of music so anything fun to learn really. I use a Focusrite 2i2 Interface right now with guitar rig and a cheap ibanez aca15t acoustic amp for effects and such, It's not the most Ideal setup but it works and doesn't sound terrible (although at times i do wish i could get a little better sound out of it but i think it has to do with the cheap pickups on the guitar and the small amp i'm using) Later on i'd like to get an eleven rack. I can play a few little riffs that i figured out on my own and a few small sections of some songs but sometimes when i'm reading tabs i feel like either the tab is wrong or something just isn't right, I've wanted to look at signing up for a website with how to and teaching videos so any recommendations would be great. My friend that lent me the guitar originally learned about 6 years ago on this same guitar, since then he's got a pretty large guitar collection with a few music mans and a nice joe satriani signature guitar just to name a few, he's been telling me that I should fork over a little more money for a Schecter C-1 hellraiser, and he's highly recommended to stay away from floyd rose's (I want to be able to change tunings whenever without having to setup the whole damn guitar again anyways) Without him I probably would have never actually started. Would it be worth it to get a slightly better guitar at the $750-850 range? or stay with my $500-600 budget? the platinum has EMG-85's and I like the feel of the schecters I've picked up so i'm sure i'd like the hell raiser but i'm not sure if it'd be waste to drop that much on a guitar I can barely play. How can I enforce good habits? is there a good go to guide for things I should try to do or avoid when first picking up this skill?
Guitar is just staying at it and practicing every day really. I've been at it for about 7 years and I'm only really decent. You'll just want to do a lot of everything, scales, trying songs with different tune-ups, write your own stuff, learn by ear, learn by tab etc. Also, really the guitar player makes the guitar. Make sure you stick with it too. Honestly if you want to upgrade though, just give it a wait to make sure you're 100% into it. Don't want to waste money on a waste of time for your person. Do some basic stuff, power chords and things like that easy songs like "Dead or Alive" and just go from there pal. My two cents at least.
I've been pretty good at sticking too it, First thing I do when I get home from work is plug in the guitar and try out some things, but right now it's just not very structured so I'm hoping to get a good practice regimen going that's more helpful than me just screwing around on it, yea it's fun but it's not really teaching me anything. On the plus side I really haven't missed a single day of practice during the work week outside of when I had to go out of town for work and a few days I didn't play because I was practicing to much and my joints were getting sore. Things that seem like they're important to me right now that I try to work in at some point are general techniques, mobility and finger exercises and picking. And right now I want an upgrade because I don't particularly like the sound of this guitar and the neck just isn't as comfortable as i'd like it to be, most of the ESP and Schecters I've picked up I like the feel of of, there's other mechanics at work here that I don't quite know well enough to judge for my self like Pickups and quality tuners (I do know that I hate the tuners on this laguna) I don't have an ear for music and I lack rhythm so this has been a challenge but it's something I've always wanted to learn since I was in middle school. [editline]13th March 2014[/editline] Here's a quick practice session to kind of give an idea where i'm at. [media]http://soundcloud.com/charles-r-schlue/practice-session[/media] This is one that I was screwing around with editing and when I sped it up i thought it sounded pretty cool, by no means can I play this fast though lol [media]http://soundcloud.com/charles-r-schlue/itworkedfordragonforce[/media]
I think you need to put your shitty laguna through some hell before upgrading. I'm not sure why but starting off on it just seems right and buying a nice guitar at this stage seems snooty. But of course it's up to you. And don't worry about your age. The only difference from playing at 16 would've been your free time available to practice. Some bad habits to watch out for, make sure you aren't pulling on the neck. When changing your strings, don't take all the strings off. Take one off, replace it take the next one off replace it and so on, the tension release of cutting/unwinding all of the strings is bad for the neck. As far as playing- buzzing of the strings. It's one of those things you can't really hear but everyone else can, and it sounds awful. Put Focus on that. Playing an acoustic guitar really strengthens your fingers and IMO would be better to learn on. I say that because of the buzzing issue, it's kind of magnified by an acoustic. Playing an acoustic will also strengthen your fingers a lot. Plus strengthen your senses for tonality, strum technique(soft strum, hard strum, exactly how to brush the pick across the strings to make a decent sound as opposed to an ugly sound) there's a lot more to guitar than scales and knowing chords. That's why some songs have like 2 chords to them but can still sound beautiful. Learn your chords. Test yourself. Learning and playing chords and scale; things start to kind of unfold, like make sense. I didn't really have the patience to understand theory reading it in a book, but just practicing and fooling around has showed me a lot. Try not to get caught up in effects and gear and equipment. People that get all fancy effects before having much technique is like a fat girl with tons of make up. That's another reason I recommend starting on acoustic. It's just pure guitar. I don't know if I recommend lessons or not, it's up to you. I didn't take any, and I'm told that I have a unique style of playing, but at the same time I'm unable to play "classic"(not classical) guitar as well as my friends who took lessons.
[QUOTE=pakadots;44221027]I think you need to put your shitty laguna through some hell before upgrading. I'm not sure why but starting off on it just seems right and buying a nice guitar at this stage seems snooty. But of course it's up to you. And don't worry about your age. The only difference from playing at 16 would've been your free time available to practice. Some bad habits to watch out for, make sure you aren't pulling on the neck. When changing your strings, don't take all the strings off. Take one off, replace it take the next one off replace it and so on, the tension release of cutting/unwinding all of the strings is bad for the neck. As far as playing- buzzing of the strings. It's one of those things you can't really hear but everyone else can, and it sounds awful. Put Focus on that. Playing an acoustic guitar really strengthens your fingers and IMO would be better to learn on. I say that because of the buzzing issue, it's kind of magnified by an acoustic. Playing an acoustic will also strengthen your fingers a lot. Plus strengthen your senses for tonality, strum technique(soft strum, hard strum, exactly how to brush the pick across the strings to make a decent sound as opposed to an ugly sound) there's a lot more to guitar than scales and knowing chords. That's why some songs have like 2 chords to them but can still sound beautiful. Learn your chords. Test yourself. Learning and playing chords and scale; things start to kind of unfold, like make sense. I didn't really have the patience to understand theory reading it in a book, but just practicing and fooling around has showed me a lot. Try not to get caught up in effects and gear and equipment. People that get all fancy effects before having much technique is like a fat girl with tons of make up. That's another reason I recommend starting on acoustic. It's just pure guitar. I don't know if I recommend lessons or not, it's up to you. I didn't take any, and I'm told that I have a unique style of playing, but at the same time I'm unable to play "classic"(not classical) guitar as well as my friends who took lessons.[/QUOTE] Appreciate the input, And i'm looking at a new guitar mainly because this one does belong to a friend of mine and it's got sentimental value to him so I'd like to return it to him some time soon, but to do that i need a replacement and I'd rather pick up something of good quality rather than just getting some cheap guitar I'll hate, Plus the pickups are all a little rusted out on this one too. Basically I borrowed it to see if i would even enjoy it, turns out I love it. My room mate actually has an Acoustic I play around with from time to time since he bought it and never used it. as far as gear and stuff go guitar rig is enough for now but later on I'd like to get an eleven rack, plus my buddy has one so we can trade tones. That's a while off though. I've thought about lessons, but i'm not really sure where to go or how much it would cost.
I've been, and currently am in your exact situation, but i have been playing for nearly 3 years, but semi-seriously, i take a week off at times due to boredom or frustration. When it comes to learning a song, set goals, try to learn everything by deconstructing the song into parts, get as perfect as you can get with a part, then move on. After enough, start practicing the song as a whole. Also start slow on everything, you want to be perfect, not sloppy. Use a metronome and start as slow as you can bear, then work your way up to even faster than the song plays. With buzzing, don't press right in the center of the fret, but at the bottom, this means you need to use less force. With reading tabs, use them as a base for learning, not to rely entirely on. Use them to understand the song, then adjust to fit the song by playing alongside it. One key thing to know when buying a guitar is to never go cheap. You'll regret it later. By this, i mean stay away from anything under $500 brand new, except for certain brands like Ibanez, so with your budget, look for a used high end guitar. And yes, avoid Floyd Rose Tremolos if you don't want a massive pain in the ass to work with. The worst part really is when you change strings, it takes me a week to get mine broken in and working properly after a change. [editline]nope[/editline] If you want a decent guitar that works well and won't let you down, go with Ibanez. I bought the ADX120, and aside from minor gripes like the tuning keys are kinda shit and the neck is very touchy, it's a nice guitar for $320 in Like New condition that i grabbed from a music store not too far from here. Another little tip, work on proper muting techniques, they give a much cleaner sound. Many people use their spare finger and lay it over the not-currently-in use strings. I personally use a combination of that and picking in a way that my picking hand thumb mutes the lower strings when i play. There's palm muting as well, which may sound self-explanatory, but there's even a proper technique to palm muting, which i had to figure out on my own.
Grab 'Guitar pro 5'.. it is the most helpful program you will install in regards to guitar (and many other instruments). You can do timed practice of phrases. Repeat phrases, and it increases the tempo each time. Also, you have the Library of Alexandria of music in tablature form to draw from..
learning to play for the first year or so felt really slow to me. It was pretty much just drilling the basics ie learning new chords by strumming slowly and practicing switching on time, basic strum and picking patterns. But all that drilling pays off in the end, after a while learning new chords becomes piss easy and keeping time will become second nature. As blitzown said you just have to keep playing and practicing; you'll start getting better and better without even realizing it. imo it's better to learn your chords before you start trying to learn songs. Print out a chord chart and start by practicing switching between major chords in 4/4 time (get a metronome) and do it [i]really[/i] slowly until you can play them without any dead strings and on time. Try to do so in key while using a chord progression such as I IV V I . Then you can move onto your 7s, minors, sus' and so on. Once you've got your chords down it's a whole hell of a lot easier to learn songs. I also recommend learning how to finger pick. It's a great skill to have from the get go if you have the resources to learn how to do it. It's hard [sp]for me[/sp] to explain how to practice doing so in so few words, so I recommend that you look elsewhere to learn. I had a guitar teacher for a short while when I began playing so that's how I learned, I don't really know of any other resources. After a while, you'll simply be a better guitar player, and naturally you'll want to learn more. At that point, you'll have the basics down and it'll be a lot easier to learn the intermediate stuff. tl;dr: perseverance is key, structure your practice [editline]diggernick[/editline] oh yeah and as someone mentioned above you should definitely learn with an acoustic. After learning on an acoustic an electric guitar's strings feel like silk and puppy kisses. Plus you'll have a better ear for music without all the distortion and effects. It's great that you've got your power chords down, but you should definitely start practicing bar chords (on an acoustic) to strengthen your hand. It'll hurt like a bitch for a while, but taking short breaks to play other chords and then going back to bar chords helps alot. vvv really digging that sublime man. A lot of their shit sounds great on acoustic.
I've been playing for 10 years now, my sole advice is keep practicing. It's going to sound like shit in the beginning but eventually it will start sounding less shit and that's when it starts to get fun. Find songs you enjoy but don't set the bar too high, have realistic expectations in the beginning. [media]http://soundcloud.com/robin-hofstr-m/smartphone-session-2[/media] recorded in a hurry on my phone so the quality sucks.
Appreciate all the input guys, any songs you'd highly recommend learning first?
Considering you like stuff like Machine Head you could learn a bunch of Sepultura stuff, most of their songs are pretty simple
[QUOTE=Luc1f3r;44224139]Appreciate all the input guys, any songs you'd highly recommend learning first?[/QUOTE] Learn and play whatever YOU like. That's the point of playing guitar for me. It should be fun, not some strict routine of pre-chosen compositions. The thing I'd highly recommend doing first for you at your level is learning the pentatonic scale. A LOT of riffs and solos are based on it, especially in the stoner/sludge scene. Basically almost any modern rock song with a guitar solo relies heavily on that scale. When you'll get good at it, you can come up with cool riffs on a whim and improvise good sounding solos. For example, this song is 99% pentatonic stuff. [video=youtube;EEX0sbrm8yw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEX0sbrm8yw[/video] Google it or check out this guy for example, he has great tutorials. [video=youtube;Lf_2eodyR_0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf_2eodyR_0[/video]
My first and foremost piece of advice is to ignore any elitists who may or may not get you down. There are people who will tell you things you don't know to help you, but then there are also elitists who will act extremely snooty and really discourage you. Don't let them discourage you.
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