[IMG]http://findsatan.com/images/fpgutair.png[/IMG]
So I was wondering if anyone wanted to tell some tales or share any resources that could help others and I to become better guitar players. And I also just wanted to see how many other FacePunch users actually played an instrument. Because I actually want to be good at something other than playing minesweeper, minesweeper never got me laid once.
This youtube channel helped me learn some basics.
[URL="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgRMHrtQpnhKHdsGiFQRyQ"]MartyzSongs[/URL]
We do have a beautiful guitar thread, and on the last few pages there should be some good stuff for that.
[url]http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1446284[/url]
[QUOTE=cpt.armadillo;47076671]We do have a beautiful guitar thread, and on the last few pages there should be some good stuff for that.
[url]http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1446284[/url][/QUOTE]
Shit. Why can I never find any of this shit? I hate the new organization. The Art thread got wiped out :c
This will sound cliche, but dont fucking give up
I have some friends who put work into something, only to give up afterwards, because its "too hard" or theyre too lazy. When i feel like i have no motivation to continue, i think back to what drove me to wanting to play in the first place. This is my motivation:
[video=youtube;0AdMKmVDXx8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AdMKmVDXx8[/video]
Dont forget to practice all the time. In any situation where your hands are free, pick up the guitar and noodle around with it. My only advantage is i already have experience with bass guitar, and can safely say im good at that. however, I really want to become a great guitarist, and i will not stop until this happens.
I'd say Rocksmith 2014 is worth a shot, you need a special cable for it though.
the best way is to get a guitar, and buy some music books with basic scales and chords + a book of songs you like to keep you interested.
Well, right from the start is hard for everyone, but the one big tip I would give you is to just have fun. Playing guitar is something that has a lot of feelings attached to it and not everyone gets that feeling. And being motivated to keep playing and becoming a better guitar player is something everyone wants, as there is no limit in creativity.
What type of music do you like?
follow the tutorials on justinguitar, play every single day even if its only for a little bit and you'll be jamming chords within 2-3 days at worst.
that was the case w me anyway
Guitar for dummies got me started. Gave me simple shit and taught me the basics in both fingerstyle and plectrum picking.
What music do you like? Do you think a electric guitar would suit you or an acoustic one?
learn how to play some songs you like, stuff like greenday and nirvana are reasonably simplistic.
learn to play chords, not just power chords, or tabs
I mean, I know a decent amount of chords I suppose. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, and minors.
I think a lot of the practice is quick transitioning. I guess to practice that is just simple as switching again and again.
I learned to play with Rocksmith, it's awesome and it is fun. It won't make you a pro but it helps you get going, also Justin Guitar is also good. After a while I also bought Guitar Pro 6 and started to play with tabs too. I don't play nearly as much as I would like to anymore. Need to start playing again this weekend.
Tbh you have to start out like you have no arms.
First teach yourself to strum. Are you strumming all of the strings? No? Then keep doing it over and over.
Then find two pretty simple chords. Em and G work. Keep switching between those chords over and over again until you can do it without thinking. Then add another chord, like C or D and just keep going.
Yep your fingers will hurt like hell, and yeah you'll sound like shit for a good month, but after that it's pretty much plain sailing.
- A hipster guitar player that knows more chords than necessary and can play any pop song.
I've been playing for awhile now, never really hammering into it hard though since guitar's not my primary instrument... but, I will say that as of recently, Guitar Tabs Pro on UG has helped me improve a lot in the past few months.
New members get a 3-day trial. It's worth checking out.
I just started playing when I got a guitar. Just an off brand 80$ electric from a pawnshop. Didn't know any basics or even proper technique. I used my index and middle finger to hold power chords, which is wrong, don't do it. However it helped me today because it extended my fingers further apart than usual on the fret board. I started out hitting random notes that didn't go together, I'd do this till I found notes that sounded good together, and slowly build songs like that. I learned totally on my own with my own technique for 2 years, made original songs that only I've heard from myself. It was by the end of those years that I could strum and hold multiple chords at once, still clumsy but a lot better. Nearing the end of this 3rd year of playing I've made a friend who is a lot better than me, I surprised him with what I knew, especially since I used an original technique. But, my technique held me back, as proper placement means everything to playing right and sounding good. He showed me the placement and names of chords, number of the frets. I played for 2 years and didn't know notes, frets, or anything. Just went my own way. If you just try you'll do good. But it will be hard breaking your hand in, like writing or drawing for a long time. Keep doing it even when you hand hurts. Never be embarrassed to play, almost everyone I know seems intimidated by a guitar. They lose the confidence before even trying. Just try and keep trying.
I started around 2002-2003 with a beginner's acoustic guitar and printed guitar tabs off of the shitty dialup internet we had. I would sit in my room for hours and try to learn them. I learned the intro to crazy train, which made one of my friends (who already knew how to play) jealous, so he started practicing every day so I wouldn't find out I was playing things he couldn't. Anyways, I wasn't getting anywhere past simple songs/power chords, so I got frustrated and my guitar sat in my room for 4-5 years.
during my senior year, my friends had a band and they would play at bars, which got me back into guitar. I started picking my guitar up again and this time started to learn actual chords. I messed around with it for a year or so before picking it back up and letting it sit in my room for another 4 years.
At that point, my best friend decided he was interested in actually learning how to play the bass, so I helped him pick out his first bass and we would get together every day and just play and try to learn new songs. By that point, I had gotten tired of my acoustic and went buy a cheap Ibanez electric. My playing improved a great deal, but it wasn't what I wanted. I kept it for 3 years, just playing and learning new songs.
Finally, a few weeks ago, I decided to go get a guitar that I actually wanted, a PRS SE Custom 24. Not a cheap guitar, but didn't cost a fortune. Now that the guitar isn't holding me back, I'm playing much better, more often, and progressing nicely.
I also recently bought Rocksmith 2014 because it looked interesting. It's fun to play, and does help once you know how to play, but it fails at many things. One of the major things it fails at is efficient hand placement. If you don't know any better, you WILL end up learning a robotic-like wrong way to play guitar. For example: The picking parts of Simple Man (like the intro) is much easier if you know that the notes are just picked chords with a few minor tweaks. Rocksmith will not show you this a lot of times and your playing will suffer because of it. I've also noticed that it moves you farther on the fretboard in some instances where it's much easier and quicker to keep your hand in the same area and move to the next string. But because I learned a lot of things before playing it, I'm able to avoid the bad techniques it ends up promoting and enjoy it as just a play-along.
That's my story. Take from it what you will.
I tried these.
[B]Chords[/B]
1. Play open chords (Major and Minor)
2. Learn to shift between any of these. This takes some practice.
3. Try a simple song like Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan. (strumming pattern in simple)
4. Try a level higher song then.
5. Start with your first barre chord
6. You should be able to shift easily between the barre chords now. Try Your Precious love by Ottis Redding for the barre.
7. Try shifting between barre chords and other chords. It will still be difficult but nothing that a goal oriented practice cannot achieve.
8. Try a song like Karma Poilce by Radiohead which is still fairly easy but you get to work out on barre to open chords shifting.
[B]Strumming[/B]
1. Learn the strumming patterns, DDD, DDU, DUU, UUU, UUD, UDD, DUD, UDU
2. Gain up speed and rhythm
3. Learn to strum blanks where you just keep your fret hand ever so slightly touching all string
As a celebratory occasion now you can play Two Headed Boy by Neutral Milk Hotel. And if you are skilled enough then go play Faith by George Michaels.
[B]Fingerstyle[/B]
1. Start with the basic fingerstyle practice. Thumb for the E A D bass notes, index for G, middle for B and pinky for e.
2. Practice on open string, thumb on E and then index on G, middle on, pinky on e. Change the variation where you strike E and G simultaneously, then B and e. Change to another variation, strike E and e simultaneoulsy, then G and B. Concentrate more on control than speed.
3. Try Romanza fingerstyle, try it really slow. And then Try Nothing Else Matters. It got reverse arrangement for fingerstyle.
4. Remember that shifting chords and fingerstyle picking coordination will take some time. Until then you just keep adding little challenges. Eventually you will be comfortable with switching chords and picking.
[B]Fast picking (using pick)[/B]
1. Learn to do alternate picking. It save a lot of effort.
2. Place your wrist over bridge to get your spatial orientation fixed.
3. Learn to pick various combinations. Increase speed gradually when you feel comfortable at you current level.
4. While doing solo, remember to utilize all your fret hand fingers instead of just 1 or 2 fingers. Makes you more efficient and works great for other techniques.
You should be able to play songs with solos and chord strummings. Try easier ones like December by Collective Soul, Kryptonite by Three Doors down.
Singing while playing guitar will take some time too. The three way brain coordination is not easy. Start with 500 Miles song. Train easy and then move to harder.
[QUOTE=fritzel;47091725]I tried these.
[B]Chords[/B]
1. Play open chords (Major and Minor)
2. Learn to shift between any of these. This takes some practice.
3. Try a simple song like Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Bob Dylan. (strumming pattern in simple)
4. Try a level higher song then.
5. Start with your first barre chord
6. You should be able to shift easily between the barre chords now. Try Your Precious love by Ottis Redding for the barre.
7. Try shifting between barre chords and other chords. It will still be difficult but nothing that a goal oriented practice cannot achieve.
8. Try a song like Karma Poilce by Radiohead which is still fairly easy but you get to work out on barre to open chords shifting.
[B]Strumming[/B]
1. Learn the strumming patterns, DDD, DDU, DUU, UUU, UUD, UDD, DUD, UDU
2. Gain up speed and rhythm
3. Learn to strum blanks where you just keep your fret hand ever so slightly touching all string
As a celebratory occasion now you can play Two Headed Boy by Neutral Milk Hotel. And if you are skilled enough then go play Faith by George Michaels.
[B]Fingerstyle[/B]
1. Start with the basic fingerstyle practice. Thumb for the E A D bass notes, index for G, middle for B and pinky for e.
2. Practice on open string, thumb on E and then index on G, middle on, pinky on e. Change the variation where you strike E and G simultaneously, then B and e. Change to another variation, strike E and e simultaneoulsy, then G and B. Concentrate more on control than speed.
3. Try Romanza fingerstyle, try it really slow. And then Try Nothing Else Matters. It got reverse arrangement for fingerstyle.
4. Remember that shifting chords and fingerstyle picking coordination will take some time. Until then you just keep adding little challenges. Eventually you will be comfortable with switching chords and picking.
[B]Fast picking (using pick)[/B]
1. Learn to do alternate picking. It save a lot of effort.
2. place your wrist over bridge to get your spatial orientation fixed.
3. Learn to pick various combinations. Increase speed gradually when you feel comfortable at you current level.
4. While doing solo, remember to utilize all your fret hand fingers instead of just 1 or 2 fingers. Makes you more efficient and works great for other techniques.
You should be able to play songs with solos and chord strummings. Try an easier one like December by Collective Soul, Kryptonite by Three Doors down.
Singing while playing guitar will take some time too. The three way brain coordination is not easy. Start with 500 Miles song. Train easy and then move to harder.[/QUOTE]
Nutshell by Alice in Chains is a good easy chord changing song.
I also also used Runaround by Blues Traveller to help me with getting faster at changing chords.
Also one thing you should do is start out with a decent guitar, not necessarily an expensive one, just something that would be headache free. If you can find a well-made Squier or find a Yamaha, those are good starter guitars.
I learned on a crappy $90 Jasmine by Takamine acoustic guitar and a lot of times I couldn't tell if the guitar was bad or my technique is bad. As soon as I got something else I noticed my playing was actually good.
[QUOTE=Rageblood;47092832]Also one thing you should do is start out with a decent guitar, not necessarily an expensive one, just something that would be headache free. If you can find a well-made Squier or find a Yamaha, those are good starter guitars.
I learned on a crappy $90 Jasmine by Takamine acoustic guitar and a lot of times I couldn't tell if the guitar was bad or my technique is bad. As soon as I got something else I noticed my playing was actually good.[/QUOTE]
HA! I still have my Jasmine! For some reason, mine plays pretty good. A friend of mine had one too, and his played like crap compared to mine. It's not the best, but I don't think I'll ever get rid of it....
I started with Rocksmith 2014, great way to get introduced into guitar playing in my opinion. I eventually started playing songs using tabs and it's only been improving since. to me, it's very important that learning doesn't feel like learning, but rather something you do because you want to have a good time. if I had been practicing chords for hours on end, followed tons of tutorials, etc, I doubt I'd be where I am today when it comes to playing guitar. I learned through casually playing, and while probably not the fastest way to learn, it works great and isn't as mentally tiring. once you feel comfortable, can play a riff here and a riff there, then tutorials could become useful as you won't be completely clueless when you go in.
only downside is that even though I can play guitar, I don't know a single chord at the top of my head. I exclusively read tabs which means I don't really need to memorize and learn them
Head on over to the Guitar thread in GD, loads of info and advice there.
One of the things that motivates me is a nice instrument, you feel like you want to do it justice and it sounds amazing when you play it, making you want to play more.
I'd advise getting yourself a nice Squier guitar. They're well made and affordable, perfect good sounding instruments for newbies. Don't bother with one of those no-name department store Chinese $100 things, they're basically toys.
Buy a guitar, learn how to read tabs and just pick songs you want to learn. That's how I learned how to play guitar. v:v:v
[QUOTE=PredGD;47093695]
only downside is that even though I can play guitar, I don't know a single chord at the top of my head. I exclusively read tabs which means I don't really need to memorize and learn them[/QUOTE]
I started remembering chords. It just went well with the habit of playing chords for the songs I liked. Smooth.
Agree that one learns better when one do it for enjoyment. I improved a lot when started playing songs I liked. Come to think of that, I started liking many more songs too because of that. Better way to learn chord shifting than just mindlessly practicing chords alone. Search over youtube for the tuts.
Rocksmith 2014 kept my interest alive but at the end of the day I realized that there was little to none info about the strumming and other things. Had to shift from there to learning actual songs after a while. No regrets so far :v: Rocksmith will see the day of light some day too when I feel like going back to practice what I learn from elsewhere.
Create a soundcloud account and record your progress too.
Looking to get a 7 string guitar down the line, i cant live without a low B string after playing 6 string bass for so long
Also, try to make practice fun. Find songs you really want to play and try to play them. If you are bored and arent doing anything, pickup the guitar and noodle around on it. My practice method for bass was to learn the hard stuff first, then easy, which is what im doing with guitar right now.
I learned bass pretty much by listening to songs on rockband and getting the rhythm. 2 extremely helpful things are to study the scales, and learn to listen by ear. Makes everything a cakewalk from there.
I learned everything I know from the internet
[video=youtube;aoRJ3oj778I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoRJ3oj778I[/video]
Might seem cheesy, but Wonderwall is a great beginner song to learn. You might also try stuff from Greenday :)
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.