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Guitar lessons! Tips and advice
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| Seventil |
Well, I never learned to play an instrument, and since I can't DJ where I am, I decided to pick up a guitar two months ago and teach myself. I like playing it, and I can use the skills to not only impress women, but maybe add some original content to some trance tracks.
I know there are some musically inclined persons out here on the forums - so I have some questions for the guitar players out there.
First off - I'm playing acoustic. I have a 6 string Gibson (not very nice, but good to learn on)
I know these chords:
G
D
Am
C
Cm
E
I'm currently trying to get the F chord down and also practice power chords.
Questions for the pros: How do you get proficient at a new chord? What I've done is just learn a song with the new chord in it. For example, my first song I learned was Green Day - Good Riddance. This taught my transitions between G, D, C, and E. After that was 3 Doors Down - Be Like That - to learn the Cm and Am transitions (still kinda working on them)
So, is my method ok? Any tips while learning? I can't get lessons (becaues of location).
Also, any songs that you think might be good beginners ones, let me know.
Just wanted to say I love playing - not as much as I love trance - but it's definately cool! |
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| KilldaDJ |
i play the guitar, cant say im too fond of open chords...
but with an acoustic, u can hardly play heavy metal (like me :p)
um, powerchords are pretty fun, but im lazy and cheat, so i put my guitar in drop d or drop c tuning to take advantage of the one fingered bar powerchord.
most of the punk stuff u listen to are in standard eadgbe tuning so i recommend working on finger excercises to train your fingers to move in a certain way.
my tip on learning a new chord is to play a riff that uses that certain chord, switch between strings etc.
also a way to pick things up a bit faster is to use 2 chords u dont usually use and switch inbetween them. |
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| pho mo |
That sounds like a good way to learn! Since being able to play chords on the guitar is about muscle memory, then all you have to do is practice. And playing songs is a good way to practice. The more times you form the chord F with your hand, the easier it will become.
For acoustic guitar tunes, I always loved learning Pink Floyd tunes, like Wish you Were Here etc. Dunno if you like Pink Floyd or not, but what they play is usually really nice + simple. Just lay off the David Gilmour lead breaks until a bit later ( it's hard to do his trademark super-bend on an acoustic ;) ) |
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| DjSimonB |
Just try playing songs with more and more different chords, each time you learn a new song challenge yourself.
Oh and learn your barre chords - not just fifths/powerchords, although they're always useful to know, but the full major, minor and 7th chords. They might seem tricky at first but get good at them and they'll make your life easier :)
By the way, do you not know Em yet? It's a pretty basic chord, I thought you'd use it in playing Time Of Your Life (when I play that song I use Em7 and C7 chords instead of the Em and C chords, I think that's what Green Day use and it makes the chord changes easier in my opinion, but it sounds fine with regular chords...
To the person talking about playing powerchords in Drop D, I don't like drop D that much unless I'm playing something really fast. The normal 2/3 finger shape works fine for me, and it means I can use the same shape when I'm playing with the root on the A string, because its annoying playing some powerchords with one finger and some with 3 fingers (an example is Jack Off Jill - Fear Of Dying... a lot of people like to play that in drop D but I don't, it just feels messed up when I get onto the chorus and play the C5 chord. Of course you can still play that chord and the high D#/D on the bottom strings, but meh. |
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| DJDREO |
| I have been playing Guitar for over a year now. The first 10 months I just tryed teaching my self. I learned a few songs here and there, very simple. But now my instructor Barry Bannedetta. Personnaly to me is THE best guitarist I have ever met. Btw he Toured with Ozzy(Black Sabbath)& Motley Crue In the Bark at the moon and shout at the devil tour. He also played in that old 80's band Cinderella and he plays in a band named white fox now. I really suggest you get a guitar instructor. I learned stuff in 2 weeks that would of took me over 6 months to learn. |
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| Derivative |
hi, ive been playing guitar for about 8 years but im not actually that good considering how long ive been playing. thats mainly cuz when i started guitar i got into a lot of bad habits and i spent a number of years getting out of those habits. i hope you find some of these tips helpful cuz if you follow them you will have an easier time of it in the long run even if it seems like its harder at first.
if you want to play chords that span 3 or 4 frets you have to remember this rule. 1 finger, 1 fret. always. this applies when you are playing scales across 3 or 4 frets, or trilling notes.
this is an F chord:
e---1---
b---1---
g---2---
d---3---
a---3---
E---1---
you play this by barring the first fret. that is, resting your index finger on the first fret, pressing down fairly hard and evenly (actually its not that hard at all, but it seems like you have to press really hard if you are not in the habit of barring often). your middle finger should be on the 2nd fret of the g string and your 3rd finger and little finger on the 3rd frets of the a and d strings respectively. thats the correct way to play barre chords. move all the notes 1 fret along and you have an F#. move it all along 1 more fret and you have a G chord. yep you guessed it - you can play all basic chords as barre chords.
a g chord is:
e---3---
b---3---
g---0---
d---0---
a---2---
E---3---
but it is the same as playing this:
e---3---
b---3---
g---4---
d---5---
a---5---
E---3---
(actually the are very subtly different - the notes are the same but the 2nd G chord rings out more because of the open d and g strings - it has a more resonant feel)
another tip. if you are not strumming these chords but finger picking them, ALWAYS try to pick with all your fingers. lets say your fret hand is in the shape of an F chord and you want to pick the strings E, a, d, g, b then go back up and play g, d, a, E. you would play the top string with your thumb, the a string with your index finger, the d string with your middle finger, g string - 3rd finger, b string - little finger. by doing this all the time you are required to finger pick you will make all your fingers more dextrous. if you want to play guitar to a high level, if if you want to play complex solos or flamenco this is absolutely necessary. if 1 or more of your fingers are less dextrous than the others then you will have serious problems playing scales fast, or changing chords rapidly.
try to be consciously aware of what notes you are playing - this isnt always possible if you are playing fast but if you know what the key notes of an a chord are it makes it easier to understand how to make that chord a minor. or major. how to augment that chord, suspend it etc etc. this in turn means that your vocabulary of chords increases dramatically (if you learn how to augment chords you will be able to play any chord you want without having to memorise finger positions), which means you have more techniques, progressions, more ideas to throw in your tunes than you had before. its not a good idea to just memorise a bunch of chords. or get a chord library and look up a chord if you are stuck. what you need to do is figure out what you need to do to augment chords. this is actually alot easier than it looks. the key notes of an a chord are the root note, augmented 5th and perfect 7th. i cant do all of them cuz theres a crazy amount of chord augmentations. for this ill just focus on making chords minor. there are online resources which tell you how to, for example suspend chords too, and its worth taking the time to read them and learn them.
for example:
an a chord is
e---0---
b---2---
g---2---
d---2---
a---0---
E---x---
the root note is the first note - 0 on the a string. that note is A. hence it being the root of the chord. if you change the root note you change the root of the chord. lets say you move your index finger up 2 string to play this
e---0---
b---2---
g---2---
d---0---
a---0---
E---2---
you change the root note to the 2nd fret of the E string. E, F, F#
that chord is actually called F#/a. easy. go back to the A chord...
e---0---
b---2---
g---2---
d---2---
a---0---
E---x---
lets turn it minor...we do this by flattening the last key note. to suspend a chord you double flatten the last key note (cant remember whether this is a sus2 or a sus4 - i think its a sus4 though). therefore an a minor would be
e---0---
b---1---
g---2---
d---2---
a---0---
E---x---
a b chord is
e---2---
b---4---
g---4---
d---4---
a---2---
E---x---
therefore, if you flatten the last key note of the chord triad, a b minor is
e---2---
b---3---
g---4---
d---4---
a---2---
E---x---
also i recommend everyone learn music theory. im not kidding - you can learn it pretty much in an hour. its just as easy as learning tablature and its more useful because musical scores tell you note duration and tempo as well. you only need to know that bass clefs are for scores below middle C on the piano and treble clefs are for scores above middle C. you need to know that the bottom line on a musical staff represents E, the top line represents F. you can extrapolate all the notes in between. other stuff about music theory you can figure out as long as you know these basics and basic time signitures. time signitures relate to the number of notes per bar and the legnth of those notes. its like calculus - you only need to learn a few tiny things and you can use them to build enormous complicated equations (er, songs). it is totally logical and knowing it makes it easier to organise your own songs, easier to keep track of multiple scores. this will be useful to anyone here that produces trance because all trance producers are effectively writing music for, typically 5 or more instruments, in many cases alot more (lead instrument, bass instrument, rhthym section, percussion to name just a few essentials). also, you will begin to notice musical patterns in alot of other people's songs. patterns of notes and chord progressions which appear everywhere. this in turn makes it easier to dissect other people's songs and figure out how they work, which in turn can help you to build your own tune from the ground up.
if you do all that and stick to it and keep trying to figure out more about chords, how to augment chords that have more than 3 key notes for example you will not only be a better guitarist but you will be a better musician overall so all your trance productions will benefit from what you learn on guitar. thats one of the beauties of music, it all makes complete sense. |
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| jacheatamobits |
WOW much props Derivative... i wish i had the time to write a post like that!
Seventil, whats that in your avatar?!?! |
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| Seventil |
| quote: | Originally posted by DjSimonB
Just try playing songs with more and more different chords, each time you learn a new song challenge yourself.
Oh and learn your barre chords - not just fifths/powerchords, although they're always useful to know, but the full major, minor and 7th chords. They might seem tricky at first but get good at them and they'll make your life easier :)
By the way, do you not know Em yet? It's a pretty basic chord, I thought you'd use it in playing Time Of Your Life (when I play that song I use Em7 and C7 chords instead of the Em and C chords, I think that's what Green Day use and it makes the chord changes easier in my opinion, but it sounds fine with regular chords...
To the person talking about playing powerchords in Drop D, I don't like drop D that much unless I'm playing something really fast. The normal 2/3 finger shape works fine for me, and it means I can use the same shape when I'm playing with the root on the A string, because its annoying playing some powerchords with one finger and some with 3 fingers (an example is Jack Off Jill - Fear Of Dying... a lot of people like to play that in drop D but I don't, it just feels messed up when I get onto the chorus and play the C5 chord. Of course you can still play that chord and the high D#/D on the bottom strings, but meh. |
Yeah I do play Time of Your Life with Em7 and C7. They are much easier to swap in between. I'm not too comfortable with a C yet, I think it sounds like (might be my guitar or my fingering), not sure. I have a bad habit of replacing C with C7 in any new song I try to learn, heh. |
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| Seventil |
| quote: | Originally posted by jacheatamobits
WOW much props Derivative... i wish i had the time to write a post like that!
Seventil, whats that in your avatar?!?! |
I got it from theonion.com - it was an article about how Americans are forcing democracy on Iraqis. (it was satire).
Found it fitting since I'm over here now! |
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| Seventil |
| quote: | Originally posted by Derivative
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Thanks for the tips Derivative. I've found myself getting into bad habits - like muting strings when I play G, C7 and D (Too much Greenday!). I'll try to learn from some of your mistakes!
I can't play without a pick yet - it just sounds horrible. I try everytime I play, but I just get tired of it. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong or something.
Thanks for the info on the barre chords - I didn't know most of that. I'll do some reading on music theory.
Thanks again! |
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| Derivative |
cool. glad some people found it helpful - if you are new to guitar and want to learn how to read music and how to avoid getting into bad habits this book is really helpful:
Terry Burrows - Total Guitar ISBN: 1-84222-837-4
it costs £20 which is fairly steep but it has a no nonsense, no jargon kind of approach. alot of music theory resources on the net have a habit of making music theory look so much more complicated than it really is. this book has alot of tips also on how to set up a studio workspace to record guitar hooks and looks at things like room ambience and speaker setups to achieve different sounds. for producers and guitar players i think its a cracking good read. |
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| Seventil |
Hmm...
When playing an E, everything I find says to use your 3&4th fingers on the 2nd fret. It seems more natural to use your 2&3 on the 2nd fret and put your index on the 1st fret. Any reason for this? Can I use the same fingering while barring later or something?
Also, I can't find a good way to play a B. I tried the "official" way (barring the 2nd fret with index, 2, 3&4th fingers on the 4th fret) - but I just can't get it down. I'll keep trying (and probably will get it once my hand gets stronger) - any tips for this chord (and other bar chords as well, I guess) - or just keep plugging til I get it? Might be a while! Heheh..
I have infinite more respect for guitar players out there, it's pretty damn painful starting out! Having a blast though.
Oh, got Oasis - Wonderwall down + Eagles - Take it Easy. Strumming patterns were a bitch, but it's great practice... |
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