..I am going to learn.
Basically, this thread is here for a reason. That reason is this; i'm learning guitar and have been for the last 3 weeks. I'm not very good, I know this, but, I do want to get better. I am going to write about my progress in here every so often, so I can compare myself to when I started to see if any improvement has taken place.
Another possible reason would be for you seasoned pro's out there to lend an ear, and perhaps a word of wisdom to new players, such as myself.
Thirdly, every week in this forum there is a thread (or ten...) about learning to play guitar. Which guitar to buy, easy tunes to start on, how to play a specific chord and so on. I would imagine most the problems would be common to all guitarists and this thread may answer many questions which people have when starting out.
So, without further ado, i'll tell thee a story.
3 weeks back I was on my Christmas break from uni, and had my girlfriend staying at my house. She is a nurse
p) in training. She had to come back here to Bristol 3 weeks before I had to start back at Uni. Naturally, I came back with her so she wouldn't be lonely. However, I had done all my Uni assignments, and would have had nothing to do during the day. So she bought me a guitar to keep me occupied. Isn't she lovely?
It wasn't a very expensive guitar. It was a learner acoustic kit from argos. I had a tinkle, and then as tactfully as I could mentioned I ultimately wanted to learn electric guitar. She suggested that I took the acoustic back and bought an electric. Which I did. I paid the difference and ended up with this:
Yeah, ok, it's nothing amazing - but it's probably not a bad place to start. From a purely novice P.O.V, it looks pretty nice, and it doesn't sound that bad I guess.
So here I am, I have my guitar perched on my knee, plugged in, and away I go. Actually, maybe not! I pluck the fattest string there, sound comes out of it, good to go? No! I was reading internet pages, and they said that string was the low E note. I play piano to grade 8 and knew it wasn't in tune. The guitar needed tuning.
So, I go down to the guitar shop and ask how to tune in my guitar (I had a go myself, it was as in tune as I could get it by ear, but wasn't tuned to guitar pitch) and they suggested I bought a tuner. I didn't, but I would suggest that people who don't have a musically background should invest in one - I, however bought a DVD.
This one :
The DVD was a tutorial DVD and had a quick tune track on it which allowed me to get it tune quite close to how it should sound.
Back with the guitar on my knee. Now in tune. Woo, lets go. *STRUM* yes, it doesn't sound bad. Now to learn some things.
Having a friend who is quite decent on guitar, I ask ' What are some good beginner songs to learn?' to which he replies 'Most people start with some Green Day, Nirvana etc Not too difficult on riffs, easy power chords etc other people prefer to start with 'smoke on the water'. It's entirely up to you.
'Ok', I say - i'm going to pick Green Day. Easily recognisable, and easy to play apparently.
Where to get the notes from? ARGH, is it always going to be this hard? I ask myself. Obstacles at every point.
So, whenever there's a question needs answering OcUK is usually the first port of call. (it would be Google for most, but I remembered the stickie here had some information in it regarding tabs) So I searched.
I read dmpoole's thread, which suggested this program. Guitar pro 5. I also noticed that dmpoole had been playing guitar for some time, and decided to trust his guidance. I bought guitar pro 5 from here! and found the tabs needed.
I knew a bit about reading tabs, but wasn't sure. I asked google! It gave me http://guitar.about.com/library/blhowtoreadtab.htm
which proved to be invaluable.
So, back to my guitar on my knee. I loaded guitar pro. I loaded the Green Day - Good Riddance (cliche yes I know, but it's quite recognisable) and set about learning the notes.
This bit came quite easy to me. I knew which note to play, and which string it corresponded to. What wasn't easy was trying to get my fingers in the right place at the right time, with no delay. Don't get me wrong, I managed to find the places, just not quick enough. Yngwie, Slash and Stevie need not worry just yet.
I practised for about 5 hours, spread out over 2 days. In those two days I flipped between many songs to try and get my fingers used to playing. I 'attempted':
Smells like teen spirit (don't really like the song, easy to play though)
Basket Case
Good Riddance
Smoke on the water
Otherside.
All of which sounded very slow, disjointed and rough.
Here is an mp3 of me trying to play Good Riddance (please bear in mind i'd been playing 2 days)
http://rapidshare.de/files/11618551/chrisispants.wav.html
As you can hear - not smooth, and barely recognisable. I was in for a bumpy ride.
Next time - lots of chords! "Wish you were here" and some more Green Day. Don't miss it. Hurrah!
Basically, this thread is here for a reason. That reason is this; i'm learning guitar and have been for the last 3 weeks. I'm not very good, I know this, but, I do want to get better. I am going to write about my progress in here every so often, so I can compare myself to when I started to see if any improvement has taken place.
Another possible reason would be for you seasoned pro's out there to lend an ear, and perhaps a word of wisdom to new players, such as myself.
Thirdly, every week in this forum there is a thread (or ten...) about learning to play guitar. Which guitar to buy, easy tunes to start on, how to play a specific chord and so on. I would imagine most the problems would be common to all guitarists and this thread may answer many questions which people have when starting out.
So, without further ado, i'll tell thee a story.
3 weeks back I was on my Christmas break from uni, and had my girlfriend staying at my house. She is a nurse
p) in training. She had to come back here to Bristol 3 weeks before I had to start back at Uni. Naturally, I came back with her so she wouldn't be lonely. However, I had done all my Uni assignments, and would have had nothing to do during the day. So she bought me a guitar to keep me occupied. Isn't she lovely?It wasn't a very expensive guitar. It was a learner acoustic kit from argos. I had a tinkle, and then as tactfully as I could mentioned I ultimately wanted to learn electric guitar. She suggested that I took the acoustic back and bought an electric. Which I did. I paid the difference and ended up with this:
Yeah, ok, it's nothing amazing - but it's probably not a bad place to start. From a purely novice P.O.V, it looks pretty nice, and it doesn't sound that bad I guess.
So here I am, I have my guitar perched on my knee, plugged in, and away I go. Actually, maybe not! I pluck the fattest string there, sound comes out of it, good to go? No! I was reading internet pages, and they said that string was the low E note. I play piano to grade 8 and knew it wasn't in tune. The guitar needed tuning.
So, I go down to the guitar shop and ask how to tune in my guitar (I had a go myself, it was as in tune as I could get it by ear, but wasn't tuned to guitar pitch) and they suggested I bought a tuner. I didn't, but I would suggest that people who don't have a musically background should invest in one - I, however bought a DVD.
This one :
Back with the guitar on my knee. Now in tune. Woo, lets go. *STRUM* yes, it doesn't sound bad. Now to learn some things.
Having a friend who is quite decent on guitar, I ask ' What are some good beginner songs to learn?' to which he replies 'Most people start with some Green Day, Nirvana etc Not too difficult on riffs, easy power chords etc other people prefer to start with 'smoke on the water'. It's entirely up to you.
'Ok', I say - i'm going to pick Green Day. Easily recognisable, and easy to play apparently.
Where to get the notes from? ARGH, is it always going to be this hard? I ask myself. Obstacles at every point.
So, whenever there's a question needs answering OcUK is usually the first port of call. (it would be Google for most, but I remembered the stickie here had some information in it regarding tabs) So I searched.
I read dmpoole's thread, which suggested this program. Guitar pro 5. I also noticed that dmpoole had been playing guitar for some time, and decided to trust his guidance. I bought guitar pro 5 from here! and found the tabs needed.
I knew a bit about reading tabs, but wasn't sure. I asked google! It gave me http://guitar.about.com/library/blhowtoreadtab.htm
which proved to be invaluable.
So, back to my guitar on my knee. I loaded guitar pro. I loaded the Green Day - Good Riddance (cliche yes I know, but it's quite recognisable) and set about learning the notes.
This bit came quite easy to me. I knew which note to play, and which string it corresponded to. What wasn't easy was trying to get my fingers in the right place at the right time, with no delay. Don't get me wrong, I managed to find the places, just not quick enough. Yngwie, Slash and Stevie need not worry just yet.
I practised for about 5 hours, spread out over 2 days. In those two days I flipped between many songs to try and get my fingers used to playing. I 'attempted':
Smells like teen spirit (don't really like the song, easy to play though)
Basket Case
Good Riddance
Smoke on the water
Otherside.
All of which sounded very slow, disjointed and rough.
Here is an mp3 of me trying to play Good Riddance (please bear in mind i'd been playing 2 days)
http://rapidshare.de/files/11618551/chrisispants.wav.html
As you can hear - not smooth, and barely recognisable. I was in for a bumpy ride.
Next time - lots of chords! "Wish you were here" and some more Green Day. Don't miss it. Hurrah!
Having them far away from the fretboard makes it much harder for me to play faster parts with lots of string changes.
