Learning guitar.....................
lucylespian
Posts: 2,403
..................for Jeanie.
I always start people with NEM. This is because there is no fretting in the intro passage. It is just all open strings played fingerstyle. Tihs teaches you how to voice a note, and emphasises that music is all about intervals. From your vocal work, you know that phrasing is crucial to how it sounds. This is why a guitarist uses their stupid hand for the fretting, and their smart hand for the picking/strumming. The fretting hand actually has less work to do ,and it is less precise, at least until you get to more advanced lead playing. The two hands need to work together too.
If you can grab a copy of the printed tab, you can read the note timing off the treble clef, and teh note position off the tab.
Gotta go, dins is ready. more soon
Ken
I always start people with NEM. This is because there is no fretting in the intro passage. It is just all open strings played fingerstyle. Tihs teaches you how to voice a note, and emphasises that music is all about intervals. From your vocal work, you know that phrasing is crucial to how it sounds. This is why a guitarist uses their stupid hand for the fretting, and their smart hand for the picking/strumming. The fretting hand actually has less work to do ,and it is less precise, at least until you get to more advanced lead playing. The two hands need to work together too.
If you can grab a copy of the printed tab, you can read the note timing off the treble clef, and teh note position off the tab.
Gotta go, dins is ready. more soon
Ken
Music is not a competetion.
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Cool!! Thanks Ken.
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Steak !! I am a red meat -a-holic. Hey, how did the wedding gig go, have you done that yet, what did you sing ??
I was thunking about guitars for you. I really like electrics for girls, cos they have dainty little necks, and the guitar amd amp does a lot of work. Acoustics can be really nice, but teh necks are bigger and they make you work harder. That can be good in the long run, but as in your case, can sometimes be a hurdle to getting started.
I don't like them for myself, but Fender Telecasters have a nice small body, and a nice fine neck. They are not expensive either, esp in teh Squire ramge. The pick-ups in those aren't anything to rave about, but that is not important in the beginning, and they are dirt cheap to upgrade later. They have also become a bit of a PJ staple over the lst few years, and a lot of people on this forum love em.
Another good exercise to do is the caterpillar, or just playing 4 frets in a row using all 4 fingers on one string, then moving to the next string, and doing this in all positions on the neck. Tihs builds co-ordination and strength and you can start to play littel melodies, and varying the timing a bit. You can do this using a pick to learn to voice a note with pick as well as fingers.
Yeah, I do love my porterhouse!!
Nah, haven't done the wedding gig yet, not til St Patricks Day in March! Great day to pick hey?!
So the caterpillar would be a bit like doing scales on the piano?
So how much do you reckon this electric and a basic amp would cost?
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Yeah, the caterpillar is really just a chromatic scale. Itis a very basic excercise as far as thinking about what notes you are playing, ie you don't really think, but it is a basic foundation, much like the C scale on piano.
Basic amp and guitar rigs, you can get new for $300 to $500. A better idea is to scab around e-bay for a second hand guitar, save heaps, get a better instrumnet. You can pick up cheap amps there too, but you have to know what you want first and how much to pay for it. It's always a compromise between spending too much but a nicer guitar will sound better, and be more inspirational to play. If you have friends that play a bit, try taking one to a shop to look around a bit and try differnet thing. It is really bewildering teh first time you walk into a guitar store. They all look kinda the same but the prices range from $200 to $10000 and it's hard to see why. Salesmen should be good at demystifying it all, but they are too often useless. Hunt around til you find someone who will talk to you. If you are near Melborp, Billy Hydes is a good place to start as they have a big range, including Maton, Taylor and Cole Clark acoustics as well as a lot of electrics.
My first acoustic was relatively expensive at the time, but always did and still does sound magic, so I was able to get sweet music from it easily.
Don't discount the aesthetic value either, it is just as important as function, so if you think it is ugly, then diss it. I always take my wife with me, and she picks the pretty ones, which is why mine are so nice. She picked my amp, and Lucy with me. I have a coulpe more to show yet, which she had a lot to do with choosing. Don't rush into it, take your time to play some different things. Trying acoustics with lighter guage strings is important too. They always put really heavy ones no in teh shops to make the tone louder, but I can never make em sounf any good. There have been a ton of good threads about learner gear on here, and everyone will fall over themselves to help. This is the highly friendly, no pissing contest section of the forum.
If you can borrow something for a bit, do that too, just make sure you get a tuner, out of tune is horrible, and tunigin is an acquired skill. The guy at teh shop tuned my BFG the otehr day by ear, and when I came home and checked it, it was a quarter tone out all over the shop. Yuk !!
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Hi lucy,
Went to my friends house Friday, the one who's getting married, anyhoo, her partner was playing his electric for me, and said he wanted to sell. So, I confess, I kinda got caught up doing make up trials on the bride, but I'm going to find out more about the guitar and amp that he's got for sale and get back to you. Is that ok?
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Absolutely, virtual shopping, costs me virtually nothing !!
Get some pics and send em over, I use photobucket, so you can just post a link here or PM me.
I finally got in touch with a friend in LA today, and it turn sout he is now playing in a band, still using the same Fender guitar and amp he bought in like 1964, really valuable vintage stuff. He has been thinking about buying some new gear, so I am virtual shopping with him now too.
I will take some snaps. Should have when I was there. He works shift though and so didn't want to keep him from his Nana nap!!
I'll probably pm you because I tried playing photo bucket with the dial up and it's no fun at all. But I think broadband is coming soon. Won't that be a whole new world for me! hehe!
How cool is that!!
I really miss my band friends. :( Used to be so cool to hang out and talk tunes, listen to them play. Good to be able to chat with you actually. Thanks for that!
So how's the weather in your world today?
I got S&M on.
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Weather here was very wet this morning, much like a Goldberry's washing day (Lord of the Rings, Tom Bombadil's wife), went to Kingscliffe for lunch, took the pooches for a maddie on the beach, has fined up this arvo, so am going out to be a poison fairy and murder some undesirable grasses, then some mowing.
Sounds exciting I know, but this is grass growing time, and if I don't stay on top, we just get drowned.
My wifelet is shopping amazon for winter boots in teh US end of winter sales, we just love net shopping, so much fun !! Great boot at great prices. We need em here cos it gets wet and cold in winter, and lots of horse care in winter first thing in the morning.
Hey, a hint for the pics is to use your camera phone, the files are really small and upload quick.
I have been listening to De Stijl a lot the last few days, I really love it. MIght put S&M on later when I go to play guitar. No Leaf Clover needs some work!
Cheers