trying to learn guitar: help!

iAmNoKiller

i've been strummin here and there for the past couple of years on my guitar without accomplishing anything. A friend of mine recently gave me a book of chords, and while i've tried learning and memorizing some of them, it seems like an impossible task. Am I even going about learning the right way? I really don't want to have to hire someone to give me lessons, so if anyone has some advice, i am all ears. If learning the chords like i'm doing is the best way, then let me know, i'm just wondering if i'm wasting my time. thanks

sennin

I'd just start out with 5 or 6 of the major chords.

A, C, D, E and G is a great start. You can strum through many songs with just these chords. (Long Road being the easiest)

Here's the website that I started with.....it was a great headstart. I'm a beginner too.....I played around on some webites, and got a few tips from others players....for about 6 months. Now I'm taking lessons.

http://guitar.about.com/library/blguitarlessonarchive.htm

Good luck!

iAmNoKiller

thanks a lot for the tip. I visited the website and it's already got me moving in a better direction. thanks again for the reply!

satansbedbugs

If you can play long road. you can also play better man, let her cry by hootie, and corduroy..

Twigster

Get lessons.

I'd been playing for nearly ten years off-and-on before I took lessons.
The difference in improvement rate is incredible.
Gives you a good opportunity to expand your musical horizons as well (well it did for me).

MetalGod75

see above:)def get a tutor.a good one will show you the way;)

Drew263

Twigster wrote:

Get lessons.

I'd been playing for nearly ten years off-and-on before I took lessons.
The difference in improvement rate is incredible.
Gives you a good opportunity to expand your musical horizons as well (well it did for me).

I agree, i'm taking lessons and have a friend who is learning w/o lessons.

Difference in us is astounding. I blew his mine when I showed him 3 different Cmaj7 chords. lol

bostonlou

how much for lessons?

what should i look for in a teacher?

bostonlou

sennin wrote:

I'd just start out with 5 or 6 of the major chords.

A, C, D, E and G is a great start. You can strum through many songs with just these chords. (Long Road being the easiest)

Here's the website that I started with.....it was a great headstart. I'm a beginner too.....I played around on some webites, and got a few tips from others players....for about 6 months. Now I'm taking lessons.

http://guitar.about.com/library/blguitarlessonarchive.htm

Good luck!

i just don't get how to do/process it all

so you learn the chords.. then what

like strum and say in your head "A, C, C, D, D, G, A"?

i'm going to end up just smashing myself with the guitar

moster78

bostonlou wrote:

how much for lessons?

what should i look for in a teacher?

I pay $20 for a half hour, although it goes on for more like 45 minutes to an hour sometimes.

As far as what to look for in a teacher? Someone that you vibe with, that likes the music you want to play. Don't really know what else to tell you there. I just lucked out and found a good guy on my first wild stab in the dark.

sennin

bostonlou wrote:

i just don't get how to do/process it all

so you learn the chords.. then what

like strum and say in your head "A, C, C, D, D, G, A"?

i'm going to end up just smashing myself with the guitar

Believe me....I've thought about smashing myself too.

I've been working on Polly (Nirvana). Which is strumming the verse.....Em, G, D, C....then the chorus.....D, C, G, Bb. (I think those are correct) At first I just practiced one strum for each chord, to get the progression down....and to practice linking the chords together. The I practiced the strumming pattern.

Em (down, down, up), G (down, up, down, up), D (down, up, down), C (down, up, down, up)......something like that, you'll have to listen to the song for the timing.

bostonlou

sennin wrote:

Believe me....I've thought about smashing myself too.

I've been working on Polly (Nirvana). Which is strumming the verse.....Em, G, D, C....then the chorus.....D, C, G, Bb. (I think those are correct) At first I just practiced one strum for each chord, to get the progression down....and to practice linking the chords together. The I practiced the strumming pattern.

Em (down, down, up), G (down, up, down, up), D (down, up, down), C (down, up, down, up)......something like that, you'll have to listen to the song for the timing.

oh... simple



seriously though... thanks for that link and i'll let you know


i haven't even taken the guitar out of the box it was shipped in yet... so I haven't failed... yet

lucylespian

sennin wrote:

Believe me....I've thought about smashing myself too.

I've been working on Polly (Nirvana). Which is strumming the verse.....Em, G, D, C....then the chorus.....D, C, G, Bb. (I think those are correct) At first I just practiced one strum for each chord, to get the progression down....and to practice linking the chords together. The I practiced the strumming pattern.

Em (down, down, up), G (down, up, down, up), D (down, up, down), C (down, up, down, up)......something like that, you'll have to listen to the song for the timing.

Here's a tip, try singing along with the song as you strum. The natural rise adn fall in your voice ( meter) will prompt the strums, as well as help position teh chord changes.
There is no substitute for a METRONOME !!!!!
A metronome will not only teach you to play in time, but also to co-ordinate your left adn right hand.
A song like Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind is great, cos it is just so simple, and the lyric is easy to sing.
If you slow the tempo right down without changing the rhythm you can fit your chord changes in even if you are really slow.

BetterManningNYG

some people need to take lessons, others don't. there's a hell of a lot of information available on the internet these days. i think it really depends on your learning style.

i've been playing for a while and i've never taken lessons. i did take an intro to music theory course about three years ago, and it definitely helped my riff-writing. it allowed me to figure out where the logical progressions were instead of just stabbing around in the dark for them.

here's the best tip i can think to give a beginner: start to learn the pentatonic scale. it will allow you to solo a little bit, which is cool if you want to impress people with your skills. mike mccready solos in pentatonic all the time, so you can be cool like him. it'll take you years to master it, but you can learn the basic patterns in only a few minutes because the entire scale is comprised of just 5 notes.

here's a good pattern to start with:

E ---|-0-|---|---|-*-|---|
B ---|-0-|---|---|-0-|---|
G ---|-*-|---|-0-|---|---|
D ---|-0-|---|-0-|---|---|
A ---|-0-|---|-0-|---|---|
E ---|-0-|---|---|-*-|---|

asterisks (*) represent the root note.

familiarize yourself with this pattern. memorize the positions of the notes. you can play this pattern on any part of the fretboard, it will just change the key.

i hope some of you out there find this useful...

DOSW

BetterManningNYG wrote:

some people need to take lessons, others don't. there's a hell of a lot of information available on the internet these days. i think it really depends on your learning style.

Not really... I mean, you can get really good learning by yourself, but the process will be much smoother and faster if you get lessons.

I really need to start taking some. I'm very dissatisfied with my rate of progress.

BetterManningNYG

DOSW wrote:

Not really... I mean, you can get really good learning by yourself, but the process will be much smoother and faster if you get lessons.

you're right when you say that the process will probably be easier for most people if they take lessons. but a lot of us, myself included, just don't have the attention span for guitar lessons.

i don't think i would have been able to retain what i was taught if i had taken lessons, but at the same time i've always been fairly pleased with the progress i've made on my own. that's why i think it depends on your learning style to a certain extent.

but yeah... i guess there's really no reason not to at least try lessons if you're just starting out.

Twigster

One of the biggest things about getting lessons, I found, was that it gave me some direction - instead of just playing the same stuff every time I picked my guitar up.

As for what you should look for in a tutor, I agree with a previous post: phone a few and see what kind of feeling you get after talking to them.
A decent tutor would ask things like: what type of music you're interested in, what you hope to achieve, etc.

I was also lucky in that I found a good local tutor, who I really hit it off with (we became regular golf partners until I moved to Luxembourg in October).

The single biggest benefit of taking lessons for me, was that my tutor managed to completely de-mystify the guitar and showed me that it's ALL based on relentless logic.

satansbedbugs

I am a beginning guitarist as well, and Ive learned most of the chords from the internet. Although Im making good progress in sound and rythem, there is still a bunch that I dont know. I think getting a lesson can only teach you more, not saying youre playing will improve , but your knowledge about music will improve dramatically. sbb. It is up to you to trasform that knowledge into your fingers. sbb