O/T Guitar Players

I've been learning to play the guitar. I've learnt A, D, E, Am, Dm, Em, C and G chords. I've just started to put a up strum in my bars. Just wondering if anyone had any more advice? I've been using JustinGuitar.com

 

lots of practise really. practise chord changes - they feel awkward when you start out. bar chords (aka barre chords) worth making a start on too though others will offer opinions on whether you should be doing half bars.

try to work out the chords for songs. don't worry if they're not quite right. don't expect chords written on sheet music (or that you find on the web) to be exactly right. doesn't matter for now. keith richards argued with chuck berry about the music for a song that chuck berry wrote!

have a look at some scales and try to pick tunes out. if you're out and a song comes into your head, make a note and try to work out the tune when you get back to your guitar. doesn't matter what the song is.

maybe watch what guitarists play on youtube clips. if you like the beatles or even if you don't there's an american kid called nick martellaro who's done loads of beatle covers and others on youtube. he's a bit good and some of the time you see what he's doing with his hands. there are people on youtube who show you how to play particular songs or riffs. worth watching for the little tricks.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Grinch89?feature=watch

and ignore negative people!

 

Yes. Watch clips of the Bert Wheadon(the late BW) and Eric Clapton on you tube. Great guitar players.

I would also suggest that you study clips of Ritchie Blackmore on you tube. So many to look at. This guy is still playing guitar to an exceptional standard. Yes its the ex. Deep Purple and Rainbow Ritchie Blackmore. Nowadays he is with his partner Candice Night in a group called Blackmores Night.

 

As others have said, keep practising chord changes - don't worry too much at this stage about your right hand (assuming you are right handed ).

If you've already mastered the basic chords you can start to learn about the fretbroard and how chords can be played in different positions, for example
a G major on the 7th fret (in the D shape), etc.

And then the dreaded barre chords only joking - they're not that difficult to master really. It's all about the positioning, rather then pressure,of the index finger.

Good luck and keep going !

 

I would start playing some scales to get the relationship of the strings and the notes.

Then I would listen to some of the 60s folk singers who strum to try and get the hang of rhythms. Listen to early Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen's first 2 albums.

 

Thanks for the advice people.

I've been doing one minute changes what suggests on the website I'm using. All changes are 60+.

I've done a little bit of chord recognizing and recognizing chord pregressions.

 

Don't get too hung up in technicalities, as you've mastered a number of chords try playing along with songs that you like on CD to help understand the linkages and relationships of chords to each other. Don't try and emulate the song necessarily - I always found that playing along with something I enjoyed and felt would be a challenge would be rewarding. There are no real short cuts - I never learned to read music but over a number of years have got to apoint where I am pretty competent, although unlikely to develop further without taking on the dreaded music reading challenge.

Good luck & stick with it - it's worth it!

 

you'll notice as you play more that you get little firm "pads" on the end of the fingertips on your left hand. these'll mean the strings don't cut into your fingers so much, particularly if you're playing electric guitar. if you leave the guitar along for too long (probably talking weeks and months), these pads will go away.

 

Practice scales every day, most important thing. Play the minor, major and penatatonic scales for at least 5 minutes solid a day each making sure you strum up/down/up/down in that pattern. Start slow (even if it's deathly slow), always play it at a speed that flows and stays in time and slowly up that speed as you get more comfortable. Just make sure you keep it in a set tempo.

For some great beginner fun, drop your tuning into drop D, turn your gain and treble onto full, volume up and hammer away!

 

I would also like to add it is an advantage if you have long fingers, chords are so much easier whereas I have a small hand and some of the more demanding chords are literally out of my reach as is doing 6 and 12 bar chords for the likes of rock and roll. I have been reading Keith Richards autobiography and the different ways of tuning a guitar means in certain circumstances you can play a lot of chords with just one finger like a bar chord. But practice, as has been said, is the key even when the tips of your fingers are sore, rest them a while then start all over again. I must admit I despair at being a lead guitarist so I settle for rhythm most of the time and still experiment up and down the fretboard I also have a guitar chord book which I look at now and again.

I have a capo which I use sometimes but have been told that is a lazy way of doing stuff instead of just moving up a key or so, but there are some tricks that can give pleasant effects even when you are starting out like deadening the strings with your right hand, if you are a right handed player that is of course, when playing all it needs is to rest you hand on the strings as you strum, happy playing.

 

Palm muting, another great way of having fun when you've got your gain cranked up to full

If you struggle with lead, practice those 3 scales I listed over and over until you can play them up and down in a couple of seconds without difficulty, as pretty much all solos and riffs are built on the foundations of some variation of those scales. It may be really difficult at first but persistence and practice and it will come to you.

Also when your fingers get sore, keep playing through the pain until you literally cannot bare it any more (when they are about to bleed) then repeat the next day, its an important part of forming the calluses and if you don't get a strong one it will still hurt with prolonged periods of play ie if you were to ever play a gig etc. I can hold a naked flame to my finger tips and not feel it. Also make sure to use every finger from day 1, not just to get them callused well but also to avoid alienating any fingers and have a comfortable and even use of your whole hand.

 

I take your point about the sore fingers bullshit, I even put plasters on and tried to play LOL it don't work that way, I may also point out it pays to keep your fret finger nails short, the strumming hand finger nails isn't such an issue and long nails may even help is some forms of finger picking.

 

Long nails are nothing but a hindrance on either hand IMO. Mind I hold my pick very low so I can hit pinch harmonics sweetly every time.

 

a tip for would-be lead guitarists, especially if you don't need ever need to repeat a solo: it doesn't much matter what notes you play as long as you sound fluent and with the rhythm. there are that many scales you can claim to be using that if you're just playing random notes (but fluently), nobody will know.

 

i use those nearly triangular plectrums (gibson, hard). i find them easier than the tear-drop ones because if they slip in your grip there's another point not far away that you can use.

 

get a ruler and stretch your hand wide so (1) your thumb and little finger are as far apart as possible and then (2) your first finger and little fingers are as far apart as possible. don't injure yourself, but do these stretches from time to time (maybe measure the distances) as it'll help your reach on the fret board. I use the thumb to little finger distance (near enough 9") to estimate sizes of furniture and stuff.

 

That is quite simply not at all true, it has to be in key to the song or it will sound like a dying giraffe groaning over whale music. Hit any note in the scale in the key respective to the song, then you're alright. Try playing a scale in the B flat minor pentatonic scale to a song like back in black by ACDC which is played in E. It will sound just as horrendous as scratching your nails down a chalkboard.

 

Good post.

That's the single most important piece of advice, get your technique sorted now and the speed will come later, if you pick up bad habits now the chances are they'll stick with you and hold you back.

 

it works when I do it! but i'm not playing a b flat minor scale over a song played in e. that's not random. most of the notes fit in somewhere.

perhaps the notes are not as random as i think they are.