The next step

Charlie3dan

I've been trying to learn guitar for the past few months and I've gotten to the stage where I'm pretty comfortable playing most chords and changing chords. I can play a small handful of songs fairly well.

However, I'm still just playing chords and I'd like to start working on picking/ strumming. I've looked up tabs but I can't seem to get the correct sound from them. I can do some basic ones but anything complicated doesn't seem to work at all.

I can't listen to audio when watching videos so trying to follow stuff on you tube etc is very difficult. (I can either see the the frets or the picking but not both at the same time).

So my question is, what's the best way to move to the next level?
Are there basic tabs I can try out to start with?
Do I have to get lessons?

I have to confess I haven't had proper lessons, I bought some books and got some friends to help me when I got stuck.
I'm not looking to be an expert I just want to sound less crap:D

Thanks

Charlie3dan

Can anyone tell me......

When you are picking, do you use chords and a strumming pattern

OR

Are the tabs normally different to the chords?

Blackhorse Slim

I wouldn't use a strumming pattern when picking...

Your left hand holds the chords as if strumming, and your right hand plays one note at a time. I usually listen to the song for the picking pattern, but sometimes get chords from the net. Picking is often more complicated than that, but it doesn't have to be.

Start off with something simple - learn the chords, so you don't need to think about them, then concentrate on picking one string at a time and keeping your chords changes smooth. Then you can experiment with adding extra notes to the chords.

slipss

Hi Charlie, I'm not sure I understand where you are having problem but I'll try to help.

Here is the tab for the intro to House of the Rising Sun by The Animals and the youtube link to the song.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/a/animals/house_of_the_rising_sun_ver4_tab.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C86oH5RwyJg

So if you were playing that, the idea is that for the picking bit you would hold the chords with your left hand as they are tabbed out above and then pick each string individually at the same speed and order they are picked in the song. It can take a while to be able to do that and change chords smoothly at the same time but just practice doing it very slowly and then gradually try doing it faster.

If you can try and be a little clearer about where exactly you are having difficulty I could probably help a bit more. (maybe suggest a song you are trying to play and how exactly it sounds different when you play it to how the song should sound).

Charlie3dan

Hi thanks for the replies.

Basically, I've been playing chords for the past few months and I want to move onto picking. I've printed tabs to songs but when I follow the tabs, I'm not actually playing the chords I'm doing something completely different with my left hand.
I think I may just be struggling to work out the picking pattern.

I was at a house party a few weeks ago and 4 of us ended up playing guitar, however, everyone else seemed to use picking and play the song exactly while I was playing the chords which sounded fine but not as good as the picking. So I want to move onto picking but so far I've just been able to figure a few intros and stuff from tabs

slipss

Ahh so you want to be able to play solos and riffs? Lead guitar parts? If so then it's pretty much just a matter of practice man. Lots and lots of practice. Find some scales online and a few of the easier solos like, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Californication, Come As You Are, practice playing them up and down, over and over and over. That's really all there is to it. Make sure you're holding the pick properly, hold it near to the point that makes contact with the strings and practice like crazy. Do you know how to read tabs properly? What 12p10, 14B, 8h10 mean? Do you know what a bend, pull off, slide and hammer-on are and how to do them?

Charlie3dan

Ok thanks, I have a book of scales so I'll start practising some of those and print off some tabs to try out.

Yea the book I'm using has some tabs that I can follow and I've printed off some tabs and been able to play them (intro to come as you are, intro to Hallelujah, couple of easy solos). Other times I try to work out tabs and it doesn't sound right at all.

I know what hammerons and slide etc are but I haven't tried much of this yet.
I'll keep at it anyway, if you have any more suggestions of tabs that are easy to start with please let me know and for the moment I'll try out the ones you mention above.

Thanks again.

padraig_f

Some books I've found useful are the Hal Leonard Guitar Play-along books.

They take some well-known songs and get a session guitarist to play it with provided tab/sheet music. The benefit of this (over the original version of the song) is there's no vocal so you can clearly hear the guitar. They also they provide the same track with the guitar part taken out, so you can play over it yourself as a backing track.

Another good thing about these is you know the music on the CD exactly matches the sheet music (a lot of internet tabs get things wrong or are approximations of the real song) which is a big help for a beginning player, as it's not so easy for them to recognise mistakes in the tab.

Banjo

You may benefit from trying to learn a bit of music theory at this point - for example, part of what's stopping you with the picking-versus-strumming thing may be that you're looking at tab, seeing individual notes and not recognising, say, an Amaj9 'cause it's not a chord you've played before, so you're working your fingers like crazy to fret each individual note as you play them instead of fretting the chord and plucking away. If that's the case, you can benefit greatly from understanding how a chord is constructed, different voicings and fingerings and an expanded repertoire of chords - even if it's just so you look at tab and see where your whole hand goes instead of individual fingers.

In the short term, when you see individual notes being played, stop and think about the positions on the fretboard and the most effecient way of fretting them - are there repeated passages of notes that you can play without unfretting notes? Could you make life easier by barring?

If your finding your right hand is hitting the wrong strings when picking individual notes, you might use your little finger as an anchor on the body or bridge - as you move your hand to pluck the strings you'll eventually get a feel for where it is in relation to the strings based on the position of your little finger, making your picking more accurate over time.

Listen to the song you're playing - if you can't keep up with a pick, it may be that the song uses finger plucking or hybrid/chicken picking. If so, you're going to need to practice those techniques. Or pick a different song

With scales and soloing, it's worth googling the CAGED method - it's a great way of learning how to play in-key at various positions on the neck (relatively) quickly, but also how to move up and down the neck while staying in key. It's not a substitute for knowing your scales and modes and theory but it can be a gentle introduction to them (Once you're more comfortable on the neck you can delve deeper into scales and modes to give you more flexibility in expression. Learn to walk before you start running in 9 inch Lydian heels!).

Obi-Jim

i know you said you find it hard dealing with youtube videos, but i have to recommend this site: www.justinguitar.com (it uses text lessons and lots of videos) I honestly cannot recommend it enough.

theres a great sequence of lessons to explain all about the CAGED system and keys and scales and strumming patterns and picking patterns, everything really. Then theres some good songs on there i think, some vids, some text.

I'm not associated in any way, i just wish it had have existed when i was starting out.

Oh and you don't have to pay for anything... none of that rigmarole.

Charlie3dan

Thanks for the replies all.

Banjo wrote: »

You may benefit from trying to learn a bit of music theory at this point - for example, part of what's stopping you with the picking-versus-strumming thing may be that you're looking at tab, seeing individual notes and not recognising, say, an Amaj9 'cause it's not a chord you've played before, so you're working your fingers like crazy to fret each individual note as you play them instead of fretting the chord and plucking away. If that's the case, you can benefit greatly from understanding how a chord is constructed, different voicings and fingerings and an expanded repertoire of chords - even if it's just so you look at tab and see where your whole hand goes instead of individual fingers.

I've printed off tabs but I'm still having the problem above if I try anything but the most simple tabs.

I've bought a few books and I think I will try to learn a few scales and maybe the CAGED method as suggested above. Those Hal leonard books look good, I haven't bought any yet but it will be the next music book I buy once I've put a bit more time into the ones I have.

Lots of people have suggested Justin Guitar and it's definately helped me but I get frustrated when I can't watch the videos.
(Althought I watched a tutorial of "More than Words" on a different site without sound and it helped me learn to play it).

I have managed to work out some tabs, I'm trying a few RHCP songs at the moment with varying success. Basically I'm just going to keep practising. I have a few buddies who play guitar so I'll get them to help me along.