The "All-Things-Guitar" Thread

This is really tough! I can't get my hand in a nice shape to play a simple D chord. I keep touching the strings and I have to bend my hand into weird claw shapes to try and keep my fingers clear of the strings. Will need to keep practicing. A lot.
 
It will come :)

Hey, Dimple - been meaning to ask you...

I know you perform with two bands, one as a singer and the other as guitarist. Can you sing and play guitar at the same time? It seems to me to be one of those "rubbing your belly and patting your head" sort of things. It's totally beyond me :D
 
RationalGaze said:
This is really tough! I can't get my hand in a nice shape to play a simple D chord. I keep touching the strings and I have to bend my hand into weird claw shapes to try and keep my fingers clear of the strings. Will need to keep practicing. A lot.
Click to expand...

Pay attention to where your elbow is on your fretting arm, depending on how near or far it is to your body it will affect the angle of your fingers.
 
Snograt said:
It will come :)

Hey, Dimple - been meaning to ask you...

I know you perform with two bands, one as a singer and the other as guitarist. Can you sing and play guitar at the same time? It seems to me to be one of those "rubbing your belly and patting your head" sort of things. It's totally beyond me :D
Click to expand...

Yeah no problem but I've been doing it for 41 years.
I had to play lead guitar for my 'singing' band last year and there were 3 ACDC songs I couldn't play and sing the verses at the same time so the rhythm guitarist had to be on his own until the chorus came along.
The songs are Highway To Hell, You Shook Me All Night Long and Back In Black.
There isn't a hope in hell I could play the lead intro to Thunderstruck and sing at the same time so we skipped that one.

There are some old videos of me singing & playing before we went on the road here with my other band - http://www.mistreatedrock.co.uk
(Just noticed I'm not playing guitar on a couple but I do now).
 
Sorry guys! Another video to bore you with.

Here's me with my rendition of The Verve's unbelievable song 'The Drugs don't Work'

 
I have been loving learning to play songs using tabs, there are so many riffs I want to l learn, but do you guys think this is really a good way to learn to play? I don't know whether I should be spending my time going through justinguitar doing all the lessons and learning chords, or if I will learn to play just as well by learning to play tabs. I am afraid if I learn to play tabs I will just be OK at playing those particular songs, but not be a particularly good guitar player.

What do you more experienced guys think? Is it just a case of "play whatever you think is fun"? I'm trying to become as proficient as possible in the short time I have to practice every day.
 
One of the best ways is Guitar Pro with files from Ultimate Guitar.
If not Guitar Pro then get the free Tux Guitar with the Guitar Pro files from Ultimate Guitar.
 
Best to mix it I think. There is stuff in the justinguitar lessons that are absolutely vital for becoming a better guitar player which you won't learn from just trying to play your favourite songs from tabs. On the other hand, let's not kid ourselves, playing your favourite songs is why we all start to play guitar. Although important, learning scales and performing exercises along with a metronome can be quite tedious so taking a break to learn some songs is a way of keeping yourself motivated.
 
Dimple said:
One of the best ways is Guitar Pro with files from Ultimate Guitar.
If not Guitar Pro then get the free Tux Guitar with the Guitar Pro files from Ultimate Guitar.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's what I do now, tux guitar + ultimate guitar. I watch the justinguitar technique vids to learn about hammerdowns, palm muting, pull offs etc. I am still trying to get my fingers reaching the strings properly, since I have quite small hands, so getting my first finger in fret 1 and pinky in fret 4 is really tough and I have to bend my fingers and hand in a weird way to stretch there.
 
Dimple said:
I'd have trouble with that down the bottom end, what are you playing?
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Oh it's actually frets 2-5. Trying to play Stinkfist by Tool. I'm practically playing the chords using the sides of my fingers since I cant stretch enough to play the strings straight on.

Watched youtube vids of it and the guys seem to have bigger hands since they are able to play straight on.

Edit: Here is the tab for the intro I am trying to play:
e|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
b|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
g|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
d|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
a|-------------5------------------5-------------5----------------5---|
D|-2---------------2-b---(2)----------2----2--------2-b---(2)--------|
 
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RationalGaze said:
Oh it's actually frets 2-5. Trying to play Stinkfist by Tool. I'm practically playing the chords using the sides of my fingers since I cant stretch enough to play the strings straight on.

Watched youtube vids of it and the guys seem to have bigger hands since they are able to play straight on.

Edit: Here is the tab for the intro I am trying to play:
e|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
b|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
g|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
d|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
a|-------------5------------------5-------------5----------------5---|
D|-2---------------2-b---(2)----------2----2--------2-b---(2)--------|
Click to expand...

It took me about a minute to realise why my playing didn't sound the same as Tool and it's because it's in Drop D tuning :D
The clue is in the tab.
 
Might have an evening on jamming on my guitars, been a few weeks...Used to have a nice collection of around 12-14 guitars now only have 4.

Gibson Tom Delonge ES 335
Fender Tom Delonge strat
Taylor 114CE
Fender Mark hoppus precision/Jazz bass

Marshall amps on its last legs tho :(
 
Dimple said:
It took me about a minute to realise why my playing didn't sound the same as Tool and it's because it's in Drop D tuning :D
The clue is in the tab.
Click to expand...

Hehe, yeah one of the reasons I am trying to learn that song is I only have to drop E to D, whereas other tabs I downloaded have every string dropped down and I'm not sure what gauge the default strings are on the guitar. Apparently you need thicker strings when you drop the tuning a lot. I bought a pack of super thin Elixir strings which are 0.009, will be interesting to see how they handle unusual tunings.

Do you see what I mean about the stretch for the first and last fingers? It's made worse by the fact the strings are the top 2, so I have to stretch my hand right around to get my fingers high enough. Perhaps this is where the thinner neck of the Pacifica would have been an advantage... :p

Cosmic182 said:
Might have an evening on jamming on my guitars, been a few weeks...Used to have a nice collection of around 12-14 guitars now only have 4.

Gibson Tom Delonge ES 335
Fender Tom Delonge strat
Taylor 114CE
Fender Mark hoppus precision/Jazz bass

Marshall amps on its last legs tho :(
Click to expand...

12-14 guitars! :eek: Where did you keep them all?
 
RationalGaze said:
Do you see what I mean about the stretch for the first and last fingers? It's made worse by the fact the strings are the top 2, so I have to stretch my hand right around to get my fingers high enough. Perhaps this is where the thinner neck of the Pacifica would have been an advantage... :p
Click to expand...

I was playing it on an acoustic but I've been doing those stretches for 4 decades.
A good riff to learn would be the opening riff to Led Zeppelin's Rock N Roll to get you going from the 2nd fret to the 5th.

12-14 guitars! :eek: Where did you keep them all?
Click to expand...

I keep mine at other peoples houses :)
I now only have 5 guitars in the house plus 2 in the attic.
I have at least 6 with other people and I haven't seen them for years.
Plus I've recently sold a Yamaha SG2000 and Gibson Les Paul Standard because I had no use for them anymore.
 
I guess once you are at a certain level you get the itch to buy more guitars for a different sound and maybe of a higher quality. I would like to get a PRS around the £700 mark for my next guitar, they look amazing.
 
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RationalGaze said:
I guess once you are at a certain level you get the itch to buy more guitars for a different sound and maybe of a higher quality. I would like to get a PRS around the £700 mark for my next guitar, they look amazing.
Click to expand...

I've gone completely the other way, don't regret it for 1 second and sold my Gibson Les Paul and Yamaha SG2000 to finance it since they felt like toys compared to this beast.
This is the best thing I've played in 41 years - JTV-59 - http://tylervariax.com/

I ended up buying two of them -

tyler twins.jpg
 
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