Guitarists - Support Group

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by Sam, Feb 24, 2012.

  1. nintyplayer

    nintyplayer Valued Member

    Last night I had my first lesson in gypsi jazz style guitar.
    I've been playing for about 7 years, blues, rock and roll, and fingerstyle jazz.
    Now I'm literally down to basics. All of my previous experience is essentially useless. It's pretty mindblowing.
     
  2. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Think I'll join this discussion!

    I have decided to start playing guitar again. I can't train MA at the moment and I am getting bored. I used to play guitar a lot but hurt my shoulder, and playing seemed to aggravate it. Doesn't seem toooo bad now and I have messed around a little, now it's time for some proper practice. :)

    So, yesterday I went down to the shop, bought some new strings and restrung the guitars. I am going to tune up my girlfriend's guitar for slide. Bought myself a new slide too.

    I've just been messing around the past few night and playing this, one of my favourite bluegrass songs. Erm...the version I am playing is a tad simpler.

    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpYet4rFpu0"]Doc Watson - Little Sadie[/ame]

    Although I love my punk and hardcore punk, I don't really enjoy playing it unless it's with other people and you can feed off the energy (I used to sing in a band or three yeears back). I'm going to try and learn bluegrass and "roots" style stuff. If you have the skills to do that, punk isn't so hard.

    I am really quite musically inept and need someone to point me in the right direction. I contacted a guitar teacher and hopefully we'll meet up after X-mas when the world calms down. I was looking for a bluegrass, blues, folk player but it's hard to come by here. This guy is a rockabilly but plays country blues, folk and similar stuff too. I checked out some of the stuff he does with a rockabilly band and he's quite good. Hopefully he can teach me a thing or two.
     
  3. Infesticon #1

    Infesticon #1 Majesticon

    Lessons are probably a good idea, I'm sure I could do with some but have never had any.

    It's slightly the blind leading the blind here, but I've found a little practice and often to be more beneficial than occasional mammoth sessions.
     
  4. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Lessons kind of force me to do something and keep my motivation up.

    I used to just use books etc but found that i would get stuck and give up, or just go and play something I could already do and not progress.

    Same as anything really!
     
  5. Infesticon #1

    Infesticon #1 Majesticon

    What I used to enjoy most was the feeling of working something out for myself.

    Sadly all I do these days is play stuff I can remember, play blues clichés or improvise stuff badly. Really should practice more often!
     
  6. ned

    ned Valued Member


    Sounds familiar ! To shake things up it's a good idea to try different tunings;
    open E is great for slide and blues, "DADGAD"will inspire you to come up with all sorts of folkey stuff.An electronic tuner is helpful for this,I've got one called a snark that clips to the guitar head-not too late to put it on your xmas list !
     
  7. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    I can't learn anything by myself, playing music (refering to scales etc) is a total mystery to me....I just don't...get....it....all of it, any of it! It takes me ages to figure stuff out, so I appreciate someone getting me there a little faster.

    I picked up an app for tuning as my tuner seems a bit dodgy. For a few euros I got this extra pack with a whole bunch of different tunings.

    Might post later about that dodgy tuner. I've messed up the settings on it.
     
  8. Guitar Nado

    Guitar Nado Valued Member

    A few years back another guitarist in a band I was in turned me on to Guitar Pro. It's pretty great software for learning stuff, and really helps you drill scales, licks, certain parts of songs that are hard, etc.

    The guy who told me about it was one of the most disciplined guitarists I've ever met. Most bands I have been in, we will talk about the songs we will learn for next practice, and it is pretty rare that guitarists will show up having everything perfect. This guy would have everything note for note (even long solos), from practicing it with Guitar Pro. Of course he practiced 5 or 6 hours a day, but that is another story...

    Myself, I'm a pretty lazy guitarist. But I've been at it off and on for 30 years, so during that time I've had periods of hard practice, and some stuff stuck here and there.
     
  9. Infesticon #1

    Infesticon #1 Majesticon

    Back when I was practicing regularly I would often experiment with all sorts of tunings, really good fun. But that was like 8 years ago :eek:

    These days the only other non standard tuning I use is plain old Drop D.

    I think I have all my old tunings and some stuff I'd written somewhere in one of my massive piles of paper.

    Going to have a bit of a session tomorrow I think!
     
  10. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    sunfish.

    Yeah - I have used guitar pro, it did help. Need to think about using it again. I found something else on the interweb, I have to search for it and see what you people think. I think it takes your MP3s and gives you the guitar track and tabs and stuff. Or maybe i imagined it...It doesn't sound possible.
     
  11. Sam

    Sam Absent-ish member

    http://chordify.net/??

    My friend uses this a lot but I can't get my head round it, this isn't saying much as I can't even get my head around tab! :(
     
  12. matveimediaarts

    matveimediaarts Underappreciated genius

    This book will give you a solid grounding in basic technique and sight reading-http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Method-Guitar-Volume/dp/0876390130/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386097760&sr=8-1&keywords=berklee+guitar+method+1

    It was my primary textbook when I was a student, and I turned out quite well (as you'll notice from my recordings). :) Remember, as with MA, learning music is a lifelong task.
     
  13. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Nope. I can't figure it out either. I'll have to mess around with that and see what it's like.
     
  14. Wildlings

    Wildlings Baguette Jouster

    Maybe you just need a good old music theory book? :D
    Most find it boring, but still...
     
  15. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    I don't...find it boring that is. I have a couple of books and managed to locate them yesterday. Haven't had the chance to look at them yet. I don't think you need music theory but it does help and can open things up.

    It's been good to play again. As I mentioned, I am not training at the moment and hate being inactive, playing guitar gives me something to do.

    Today I have been messing around and trying to copy a song by a band I like but I am pretty bad at playing by ear, so I used the idea and wrote my own little song instead. Of course...it sucks but good practice.

    It's just a 3 chord punk riff followed by a "fill" (I think that's the word). I am trying to do different fills after I play each riff. Or is it 4 chords and the 4th chord I do different stuff???? I should learn the correct terminology too. :eek:
     
  16. matveimediaarts

    matveimediaarts Underappreciated genius

    Learning theory will give you a lot more tools for interesting composition and improvisation. :) When you learn advanced harmony you'll be able to imagine things that you never would have otherwise. Just practicing arpeggios of colorful chords (German aug 6, quartal/quintal, embellished diminished 7, etc) and progressions are a type of ear training and cultivation. :)
     
  17. Bozza Bostik

    Bozza Bostik Antichrist on Button Moon

    Besides the above mentioned stuff, any tips about how to train your ear?

    Obviously general practice and listening to a lot of music, trying to copy it etc...but anything else?
     
  18. matveimediaarts

    matveimediaarts Underappreciated genius

    Find someone to help you practice-playing chords, scales, notes, etc for you and have you guess what is being played. Or get a good ear training software program. I enjoy Ear Master 5. :)

    If you have a program that allows you to do transcriptions of your repertoire, try listening to it played in other (midi) timbres. It's a curious phenomenon, but the same note played on different instruments have a different "color".

    When you do practice with a live instrument, I suggest piano or guitar (or electric bass for lower notes). These instruments are easy to play in tune and are very versatile. Hope this helps. If I can help with anything else, just ask. :)
     
  19. Kurai

    Kurai Valued Member

    A good free alternative is TuxGuitar. Cross platform as well. Windows, Mac, Linux.
     
  20. Southpaw535

    Southpaw535 Well-Known Member Moderator Supporter

    I have a possibly silly question. I got given rocksmith for christmas so I've finally got back to trying to learn guitar but at the start it gives you a choice of whether to learn lead or rhythm and that decides which lessons and whatnot it has you do. Personally I'd prefer to learn lead but I would of thought rhythm was better for a complete noob. Am I right at all with that or am I being silly?
     

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