Learning to play the guitar

[Vader]

Second...watch yourself strum..do it soft, easy, slow, relaxed...when you look at this, there should be very very little up/down motion in the elbow/forearm

My teacher always said:

"Keep your arm still and just move your wrist until you learned it. When you can play you can rotate your arm on stage like a helicopter for all I care."

And I secon the question "Why so anti-pick?". I'm a bass player and always use plecs (obviously I'm not into funk )

[Sunbaneglasses]

I play a Black Paul Reed Smith Tremonti with after market Seymour Duncan pickups, or an almond Mexican Strat through a Fender Hot Rod Deville amp. I love my amp, every guitar that I have ever plugged into the thing sounds great in spite of me.

[dANdeLION]

Do you have the 2-12 DeVille, or the 4-10? Those 4-10's are great sounding, but loud as hell. Three guitarists I've worked with use one. I've yet to have one show up with the 2-12, though.

[Sunbaneglasses]

The 2-12 version, and it's pretty damn loud. I would hate to hear the 4-10 version if it's louder! If I turn the clean channel up to about 5, reverb about half way and floor the presence knob I get some great Stevie Ray Vaughn-ish sounds. The overdrive channel is great for crunchy tones ala ACDC or Led Zeppelin, but lacks sustain.

[stonemaybe]

Not sure how to describe this, but....

Pick A-string (open), A-string 2nd fret, A-string 3rd fret, D-string open, then strum open D chord. (all very quickly)

What's next?

[Vader]

D string 3rd, D-2nd, D- open, A-open and then C-chord

[stonemaybe]

Definitely A-open?

[Krazy Kat]

Hi Stonemaybe,

Is this what you had in mind?

Here's a little chord progression I was playing around with last night.
The tempo is Andante - at a walking pace.
Read the chords from left to right, and strum three beats per bar. Once you get to grips with the chord changes you should find the groove.

INTRO:
This plays off the E and A7.
You don't need to move the index finger until you play the A7.
Don't use the index finger on the second line. Use the ring finger and put the pinky to work - there's a good reason for this!
There's no hard and fast rules to how many times you play the intro. Let the groove decide.

OUTRO:
The song finishes with one beat for the last E chord.
The last three chords at the bottom of the page are optional as the Cmaj b11/add D can be a little tricky. But slowing down to the finish gives a little bit of time to grab the chord.
As with the intro, let the groove tell you how to wind down to the finish.


There's no middle section to the song. That's for you to find for yourself!

BTW, to help with strumming a tambourine is very useful. Or you could put some rice or dried lentils in an empty plastic container. It's all about finding the right rythm <sp?> for the tune.

[stonemaybe]

(see PM, KK)

That's a loverly piece for me to mess around with! The end of intro is playing havoc with my memory! After just a couple of goes, it's suggesting Julian Cope or for some reason I keep thinking Jethro Tull too.

The very last chord of the outro - eh????? Which finger's supposed to go where?

not sure?

[Krazy Kat]

The last chord should have been written as:

Cmaj7 #11 add D.

The #11 is F#.
You mentioned that you were a beginner so to keep it simple I left out all the chord names and chose those that would give the least amount of finger movements. By that I mean, changing from one chord to the other should be more of a sliding action than having to adjust all the fingers to find the chord, which can break up the rythm. Vraith touched on this earlier about open chords running the length of the fretboard.

The second last chord is called Asus2 - the index finger is on E, and the middle finger on A.

Playing Asus2 as mentioned - the index finger stays on E,
the ring finger and the little finger can move to C and D respectively, leaving the middle finger to find F#.

- see ya later -

[stonemaybe]

Playing Asus2 as mentioned - the index finger stays on E,
the ring finger and the little finger can move to C and D respectively, leaving the middle finger to find F#.

Ok, that works (just! ).

Byebye guitar, for 3 weeks now.....

[Menolly]

G-dspeed, Stone.
Log in when you can.

[Krazy Kat]

Guitaria

I'm just testing out the link to a music hosting site. The tune is a bit boring, and the
drums seem to have packed up before it finishes .
It's all I have for now - hope you enjoy!

[stonemaybe]

Does anybody know of something online, that I can play while practicing, that just counts out the beat? 3 4, 4 4, 6 8 etc?

[Vraith]

the graphic is silly, but this should do what you want.
just click the meter you want of the 3 choices, then click the tempo on the circle, and off you go.

www.skyleapmusic.com/MetronomeBot/click ... eters.html

[stonemaybe]

the graphic is silly, but this should do what you want.
just click the meter you want of the 3 choices, then click the tempo on the circle, and off you go.

www.skyleapmusic.com/MetronomeBot/click ... eters.html

That looks great (edit you know what I mean!) Thanks!

[stonemaybe]

Proud new owner of a proper guitar

[dANdeLION]

Everyone should have a proper guitar.......

[stonemaybe]

Hints and tips time again, please!

Getting on fine, having weekly lessons and making progress, BUT!

Barre chords - grrrr! I can manage E ones not too bad, but my teacher wants me to practice A ones, using first finger and third finger. I just don't seem to have the strength (or dexterity) to hold down the B G D strings with the third finger. i can just about do it with little finger, but as I may need that finger to improvise, I'm not allowed to do it that way. (My guitar tearcher is obviously alot more optimistic than I am! )

So, are there any exercises (maybe?) that I can do to build up strength in 3rd finger to be able to do this? Or is just about practice?

[Vraith]

It's mostly a practice thing.
Thing that helped me you're likely already doing
....I called it a "hand push-up." When you watch yourself
do it, you'll see why.
On the first fret, just switch back and forth
between F [the e-barre] and Bb [the a-barre], one strum each.
Start medium speed...speed up when you stop hearing clunker notes. Some things about it:
1) It's boring.
2) Your index finger should not move/lift. Your middle and pinky shouldn't move around, only lift enough to be off the strings.
3) I'm sure your teacher said, but your thumb should be under your ring finger [so if you were playing the a-barre and the neck suddenly vanished, the tips of thumb and ring would meet.]
4) You can do it with shifts between the strums...you'll start accidentally "discovering" famous rock tunes when you do, probably...
But the first fret only, in sets of 10 or 20, will increase strength the fastest, cus the hardest [and bad thumb placement will make it twice as hard...the thing is at least as much position as strength.]