Help me learn guitar through Pearl Jam songs

mjd327

I have mild guitar experience over my middle/high school years but very mild. I know music theory as I've played piano for years, but I'm not very good at guitar. I know chords but I can't really play anything and make it sound good. There's not one song that I can really confidently play.

I've become pretty obsessed with Pearl Jam over the last year, to the point where they're really the only band I would say I love (since I've never been TOO much of a music listener, but Pearl Jam really has captured me.) As it's my senior year of college I figure it's about time I finally learn how to play guitar.

I do have the game Rocksmith which helps, but I wanna play the songs I listen to.

So my question is this: What's the best way for me to tackle this? Is there a good way to get accurate tabs? And does anybody want to tackle tiering these songs and giving me an order to try to learn stuff in?

I realize this would probably be annoying to figure out but figured maybe there's somebody there who plays the songs on guitar and stuff and can give me a good order to try to learn the catalog in or at least parts of it.

CanNotStay

This site should be what you're looking for

http://giventowail.com/lessons/pearl-jam-for-beginners

mjd327

Haha that's actually a site that exists? That is pretty much what I'm looking for.

Well then...anybody have anything to add to what's already there or comment on it? Should I find power tabs or something? Those seem hard to read. Is there a good source for better tabs?

nothingman203

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/pearl_jam_tabs.htm

this is the site I use. Easy to read. Also, you can YouTube instructional videos for songs you re trying to learn, either chords or in tab.Obviously not every song will be on there, but its worth doing a quick search there as well. Good luck with it!

mustbechris

It's funny, I'm 6 years older than my brother, who is in high school now, and though we're sort of close in age we grew up in very different times of the internet. So I started playing when I was about 10, and I learned through rewinding cassettes and watching music videos and reading tablature in magazines like Guitar World, whereas he learned almost solely through instructional YouTube videos and tablature on ultimate-guitar. My youngest brother, who is 10 years younger than me, has "mild" guitar experience as you said, but he owns Rocksmith. Our means of learning are of course juxtaposed with our dad, who learned by playing along to Zeppelin and Ozzy songs on vinyl over and over again 'back in the day'.

The details don't help your cause, but I think the point I'm trying to make is that there are many ways to skin a cat. The first Pearl Jam song I tried to tackle was Alive, and I was playing along more to the melody than to a part that either Mike or Stone were playing, and it wasn't until years and years and years later that I went back and learned the parts the right way (and in fact found out that what I was playing doesn't actually resemble parts that they play)...but learning the wrong way was still crucial to my development as a guitarist, even if it was incorrect, because I suppose it was a building block or something to knowing chords and progressions and how to translate things I was hearing into noises my guitar could make solely through interpretation. Eventually the same went for the solo - though I had that one right - and eventually again for the various live versions of it on the bootlegs I've collected over the years.

From there, I'd dip my foot a bit deeper in the water, and maybe spent hours just learning a full song part by part - Jeremy I remember doing that for, and I remember spending a whole day on all the solos on Vs., and eventually I ended up at songs like Sleight of Hand and Inside Job that are a bit more layered, and of course went back and did maintenance on things I learned years before to see if maybe I had missed anything the first time around, like Go and Why Go and Alive and Light Years and Given to Fly. Once I had some electric stuff in hand, I made a foray into the acoustic stuff, starting on the more simple end with Small Town and eventually making my way into songs like All or None.

So find out what works for you. The instructional videos never worked for me, and the tab never worked for my brother, yet we're on pretty even levels of ability these days. You should know your own comfort level as you go along. First and foremost, try songs you like, move on from them if they're above your capability, and keep an open mind to revisiting them eventually once you have some experience under your belt and develop your own style.



And as a fellow senior in college who is finding it increasingly difficult to keep my eye off the eventual prize and in my books...godspeed.

thefin190

I've learned quite a bit of guitar through learning PJ songs, and here's a quick guide.

Ed's songs/parts - Easy to Intermediate

Stone's songs/parts - Easy to Intermediate (with some difficult parts)

Mike's songs/parts - For the most part, I've found it quite challenging. Took me the longest time to learn 'Given to Fly' and get the riff down, not to mention it has funky tuning so I never play it anymore. Several of Mike's songs have odd tuning so the songs are less accessible. (Faithfull is another one).

Easiest way to learn some songs, check out the songs Ed has written, Elderly Woman and Last Kiss (I know not a PJ original but Ed inspired) are fairly simple to learn.

Good luck!

JM44800

mjd327 wrote:

Haha that's actually a site that exists? That is pretty much what I'm looking for.

Well then...anybody have anything to add to what's already there or comment on it? Should I find power tabs or something? Those seem hard to read. Is there a good source for better tabs?

Given to Wail is the site i go to all the time for PJ tabs, although they don't have Lightning Boilt or backspacer tabs up. Another great place to check out would be youtube. Just type in the song and add "cover" and you will usually see a bunch of different people playing it and someone typically will provide instruction.

mjd327

So is it best to just play along with the chords even if the structure isn't exactly what they're doing?

For example I looked up a tab for Last Kiss. The chords are easy but I find it very hard to get the exact structure of the notes being played....For some reason I just can't ever strum the specific strings I dunno why I have a ton of trouble with it unless it's power chords when it's easy to block out the rest.

So far Satan's Bed seems really easy if I just play the main riff and the four power chords in the chorus. But is the tab right? It says it just goes between 5 on the E-string and 4 on the A-string for the main part, but then why does it sound so funky on the album? It sounds like there's something else going on there to me.

I wish more of these had power tabs which tell you exactly how to play everything with rhythyms and a score as well. Some of these are ambiguous about when you strum stuff which I guess is how it is.

tribejammer05

http://www.songsterr.com/ is a fun site - tabs that play the harmony along with it.

I started out learning the easy ones - Lukin is 3-4 chords - same fingering position, just moving up and down the frets. RVM sounds funky, but is really easy to play. Have fun!

FrankieG

Stay inspred.

Find something that will make you pick it up often and practice.

I go through spells where I will play ever day/every other day for a month. Then nothing for 4 months. :fp:

mjd327

tribejammer05 wrote:

http://www.songsterr.com/ is a fun site - tabs that play the harmony along with it.

I started out learning the easy ones - Lukin is 3-4 chords - same fingering position, just moving up and down the frets. RVM sounds funky, but is really easy to play. Have fun!

This site seems really good. I think Lukin and Satan's Bed will be my first two, they seem the easiest. (On Satan's bed that's leaving out the lead parts, and just playing the main riff and background chorus chords, not Mike's doodling around up there)

fox_mulderX

I bought Touring Band 2000 and re-taught myself watching them play.

Gremmie03

It takes time.
Pick a song thats easy (last kiss, ederly woman)3-4 chords and practice till
Your fingers bleed.

Learn these chords G. D. A. C. Plenty of songs w those chords

I learned to play while sitting in a wheel chair w 2 broken heels well
into my 30s

GTW helps a bunch. Wish they would catch up w the album tabs

Good luck

jwillmo

Gremmie03 wrote:

It takes time.
Pick a song thats easy (last kiss, ederly woman)3-4 chords and practice till
Your fingers bleed.

Learn these chords G. D. A. C. Plenty of songs w those chords

I learned to play while sitting in a wheel chair w 2 broken heels well
into my 30s

GTW helps a bunch. Wish they would catch up w the album tabs

Good luck

Definitely start with Elderly Woman. Easiest song in the PJ catalog, and the Vs booklet even has handy chords for you!

fox_mulderX

Gremmie03 wrote:

GTW helps a bunch. Wish they would catch up w the album tabs

Yeah, what's up with that? Logic would tell us that someone who takes the time and effort to make the most accurate PJ tabs around would be involved in the 10c in some form or another... but no one here seems to know what's going on.

rickp

fox_mulderX wrote:

Gremmie03 wrote:

GTW helps a bunch. Wish they would catch up w the album tabs

Yeah, what's up with that? Logic would tell us that someone who takes the time and effort to make the most accurate PJ tabs around would be involved in the 10c in some form or another... but no one here seems to know what's going on.

I have been slowly working on tabs actually for newer stuff. It's just been a busy few years...

dmaradona10

Try this guy on youtube. He is awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLhj-YuLBJA

Last-12-Exit

given to wail is a great site. Marty Schwartz on YouTube has very good videos on teaching not just pearl jam, but anyone. Learn In Hiding. Pretty easy and a fun song to play.

dmaradona10

This guy is good too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAcbfcp1TSQ

fox_mulderX

Last-12-Exit wrote:

given to wail is a great site. Marty Schwartz on YouTube has very good videos on teaching not just pearl jam, but anyone. Learn In Hiding. Pretty easy and a fun song to play.

You think In Hiding is easy? It's not the most difficult song to play, but Stone's guitar in the verses and leading into the chorus isn't the easiest lol especially for a beginner.
I remember reading an article on here a few years back where Mike stated the the song he has the hardest time playing live is In Hiding. YOU'RE BETTER THAN MIKE MCCREADY!

Last-12-Exit

fox_mulderX wrote:

Last-12-Exit wrote:

given to wail is a great site. Marty Schwartz on YouTube has very good videos on teaching not just pearl jam, but anyone. Learn In Hiding. Pretty easy and a fun song to play.

You think In Hiding is easy? It's not the most difficult song to play, but Stone's guitar in the verses and leading into the chorus isn't the easiest lol especially for a beginner.
I remember reading an article on here a few years back where Mike stated the the song he has the hardest time playing live is In Hiding. YOU'RE BETTER THAN MIKE MCCREADY!

Kind of a silly thing to say. But I will assume you are being sarcastic because I'm a hack. That being said, I found in hiding to be relatively easy. one of the easier songs in the catalog. But what do I know?

dmaradona10

Last-12-Exit wrote:

fox_mulderX wrote:

Last-12-Exit wrote:

given to wail is a great site. Marty Schwartz on YouTube has very good videos on teaching not just pearl jam, but anyone. Learn In Hiding. Pretty easy and a fun song to play.

You think In Hiding is easy? It's not the most difficult song to play, but Stone's guitar in the verses and leading into the chorus isn't the easiest lol especially for a beginner.
I remember reading an article on here a few years back where Mike stated the the song he has the hardest time playing live is In Hiding. YOU'RE BETTER THAN MIKE MCCREADY!

Kind of a silly thing to say. But I will assume you are being sarcastic because I'm a hack. That being said, I found in hiding to be relatively easy. one of the easier songs in the catalog. But what do I know?

I find PJ's early songs like Alive and Evenflow, learning the entire songs are difficult.

mjd327

Lukin is really fun. I can play it but it doesn't sound good. The chords never come out right or strong or anything...Same with Satan's bed. But I'm having fun with them anyways.

mustbechris

The difficult thing is that all three of them write songs in a sort of nonlinear fashion. Stone writes really funky riffs that sort of fly in the face of what you're taught when you're taking guitar lessons in grade school. Mike writes riffs with weird tunings and is obviously the more proficient of the three. And Eddie writes from what I would say is a somewhat less technically educated point of view - a lot of his riffs seem to stem from just playing around with a few chords, and they often involve hand positionings that don't feel natural. I find that Jeff's songs are the most straightforward, even though he dabbles in weird time signatures. Matt's riffs like Evacuation and The Fixer might actually be the most surprisingly difficult to grasp, despite sounding rather simple, because of his style.

mjd327

Im finding that Corduroy seems pretty straight forward which is awesome because I love that song!