Give Me A 'Training' Program For Guitar.

Boom The Cat

Yeah, I figured if I'm gonna try stuff out in the store, I'm gonna have to be half decent. And besides, I need the practice. I have been having a recent 'rush' of self decipline, so I'll fit it in somewhere.

But yeah, if you could give me a good all round 'program' that will help me improve, like mabye 20 mins of scales, 20 mins of tabs, 20 mins of chords etc. whatever you think will make a me a good guitarist.

I'd love to get a good routine going so I can come back here in a month/week and tell you all how its going.

Thanks

xtremehardy388

Boom The Cat wrote:

Yeah, I figured if I'm gonna try stuff out in the store, I'm gonna have to be half decent. And besides, I need the practice. I have been having a recent 'rush' of self decipline, so I'll fit it in somewhere.

But yeah, if you could give me a good all round 'program' that will help me improve, like mabye 20 mins of scales, 20 mins of tabs, 20 mins of chords etc. whatever you think will make a me a good guitarist.

I'd love to get a good routine going so I can come back here in a month/week and tell you all how its going.

Thanks

Everyone is different. Personally, I can't be forced to play , or I'll begin to hate it. However, practice your scales and chords (along with progression) daily. Try to either learn or write a new song everyday too(you'll be surprised by the results if you record them with a little tape recorder. THis is a great idea for putting riffs together, they don't have to be long. Learn somthing new about the guitar everyday(type, pedals, settings, amps, ect.)Whenever I get pissed off or depressed, I play and it makes for some amazing tone and sound. I can't stress enough the importance of scales and chords though. I never learned mine and I am paying for it right now, three and a half years later. Also, I learned to play guitar using my thumb and DAMN, I had to learn guitar over. I still play with it somtimes but it's a bad habit. Technique is also somthing you should work on. Sorry for the ramble, K, I'm done

YeahThatRocks.com

xtremehardy388 wrote:

Everyone is different. Personally, I can't be forced to play , or I'll begin to hate it. However, practice your scales and chords (along with progression) daily. Try to either learn or write a new song everyday too(you'll be surprised by the results if you record them with a little tape recorder. THis is a great idea for putting riffs together, they don't have to be long. Learn somthing new about the guitar everyday(type, pedals, settings, amps, ect.)Whenever I get pissed off or depressed, I play and it makes for some amazing tone and sound. I can't stress enough the importance of scales and chords though. I never learned mine and I am paying for it right now, three and a half years later. Also, I learned to play guitar using my thumb and DAMN, I had to learn guitar over. I still play with it somtimes but it's a bad habit. Technique is also somthing you should work on. Sorry for the ramble, K, I'm done

Play along to the chorus on Alive.

E G D A

Or try Small Town

D C G C G

DOSW

xtremehardy388 wrote:

Also, I learned to play guitar using my thumb...

How so? On chords where the 6th string isn't played, I usually just mute it with my thumb and strum all six strings. I really hope that's not a bad habit, because it makes things so much easier...

moster78

DOSW wrote:

How so? On chords where the 6th string isn't played, I usually just mute it with my thumb and strum all six strings. I really hope that's not a bad habit, because it makes things so much easier...

I do it too, and I've seen video of McCreedy using his thumb to fret the bass E string, so it can't be all bad. I tend to just use my thumb to mute though, not fret.

lucylespian

BUy a metronome. I can't stress enough how important it is to play in time, plus you can learn a riff slowly, then gradually build up teh speed.
The best way to begin a practise session is to play something slowly wiht a metromnome, and get it dead accurate, teh slowly build up teh speed, making sure you can play it PERFECTLY several times in a row at each speed before increasing teh speed.
I have a very good Wittner metronome which allows you to adjust to quarter, eighth, sixgteenth and triplet figures as well as speed. It is small and easy to carry and 3 yra later I haven't needed to replace teh battery.
Metronome training is awesome for developing dexterity and strength.
MAster of Puppets and Seek and Destroy intros are great training songs, as they are played in a straight eighths pattern wiht no syncopation, so you can just concentrate on rhythm and speed.
Seek has a nice string skipping sequence which is SUPER training for your playing. Puppets is a hemiola with an accent on every third beat. Don't worry about trying to play it at full bicky too soon. Start slow, and you will soon be going quicker. Start quick adn you will get nowhere.
Eldery woman is a gteat strummer to practice, using a 4 finger G chord to start, as is teh chorus to Betterman, again usnig a 4 fingered G, so you don't have to move your ring finger when yuou change to teh D. This is a great trick, as leving that ring finger anchored makes teh change so much easier.

xtremehardy388

DOSW wrote:

How so? On chords where the 6th string isn't played, I usually just mute it with my thumb and strum all six strings. I really hope that's not a bad habit, because it makes things so much easier...

I learned power chords with the thumb. Using it to mute is fine but I first learned Nirvana songs and I used the thumb in place of the index finger

Boom The Cat

Power chords were easy for me, someone said, place your fingers as if you are flipping someone off, BAM I was a natural

Novawind

I play the top power chords (F, G, A etc) with my index over the low E string, and to hop down the power chords for B, C, D, and E all I do is move all my fingers down 1 string, and push up a little with my index to mute the low E string. Look mom, no thumbs!

KELLYS LEASH

YeahThatRocks.com wrote:

Play along to the chorus on Alive.

E G D A

Or try Small Town

D C G C G

If you look in the cd sleeve you'll find the whole song arrrangement for Small Town they should do that more often