Beginner Guitarists Sticky?

dceire

I am currently learning the guitar, for the third time :rolleyes:. My first attempt was at 8 when my parents bought me a guitar & I went to about 3 lessons before I stopped & sold my guitar. My second attempt was about 3 years ago when I bought a cheap guitar & a 'teach yourself guitar' DVD. I didn't have a clue what I was at and gave up shortly afterward. A month back I finally bit the bullet and started getting one on one tuition & I'm determined to make it work this time.

I was looking on the net for some tips to help me with various aspects of playing and began to wonder if it were possible for a sticky to be created for use newbies to the guitar world. I know there already is a sticky with links and what not but this would be different. This would allow people learning how to play share their tips and give encouragement to each other.

For instance I was becoming frustrated with hitting an apparent wall after only a few weeks playing and having no feeling left in my fingertips on my left hand. After reading some threads on other sites I gained some encouragement from people saying that this is completely normal and to stick at it as taking the next step is the hardest.

I'd love to hear if anyone has any other ideas along these lines and what the mods make of the idea.

Cheers

Guitareaxe

Hi, Your private tutor should be the person giving you all the advice and encouragment you need, afterall what are you paying them for?
If they are not giving you what you need and leaving you confused most of the time then I suggest finding a better tutor.

Ive been playing over a decade, I started when I was 14. The first 8 years I never had a lesson and thought myself pretty much everything.

Its a long hard slog through pain and fustration learning the guitar if you want to be able to play to a professional standard.

Your fingers will hurt, your hand will cramp, you will be fustrated, you will get the occasional cuts or nicks on your finger untill they harden up. you will feel like giving up regularly. Its all down to the burning desire to be a guitarist, thats what keeps you going.

Now your doing the right thing by getting a teacher, self thought has its advantages though, usually self thought players develop a more individual playing style and sound but the trade off is that they also develop crippling bad habits that may take years to get rid of.

I began taking lessons after 8 years, by this time I was already playing regularly in a covers band, having gigged for 5 years in an originals band before that.

At the time I thought I was the Business but looking back is cringeworthy :P

There is no substitute for standing on the shoulders of giants as they say, Find the absolute best teachers, and I mean the people who amaze and astound you, and learn from them as much as you can.

Video lessons and tab etc are no substitute for a good teacher sitting in front of you and drilling and correcting everything you do.

A good teacher in my mind to the aspiring professional guitarist is a ruthless teacher, who will make a pro guitarist of you if it means pushing you out of your comfort zone.
Someone who clearly explains not only what to do but WHY, the Theory behind it.
The best teachers dont teach songs, they teach the fretboard and techniques and how to play improv and pick up anything you want to play by ear. A good teacher Demystifies The great guitar players.

A bad teacher is a teacher who teaches you songs within your grasp already and doesnt push the limits in order to make the lessons drag on for months and years sometimes with very slow improvement. You finish the lessons knowing very little of the theory behind it but having a whole bunch of standard 3 chord songs under your belt and still confused about how the greats of guitar do what they do. Although for some students this is all they wanted to achieve in the first place and these teachers are fine for that purpose.

So the question to ask yourself is "how good do you want to be?" you wanna be able to jam a few chords out and sing some favs at partys? You want to be able to play the blues like the pros? Or you want to be able to shred like Malmsteen or Satch?

Find a teacher that is as impressive to you as your favourite guitarists and dont settle for anything less, Money is hard to comeby dont waste it on the wrong teacher.

No matter how good they are, even the greatest guitarist in the world were once like you, and It was as hard and fustrating for them to learn as for you. Only the most dedicated, obsessed guitarist will perserver untill they are at world class standard, and usually they are never satisfied with what they have achieved, they just keep striving to be better and better. Because no matter how good they get, there is always someone who seems to be better. It takes a few months to be able to play a few songs , but it takes a lifetime to master the instrument. 6 hours a day is a normal practice session for the most dedicated guitarists, but even 20 minutes a day will pay off in the end.

And one final peice of advice,
The attitude that got me where I am as far as proficiency goes is that When I look at the most amazing guitarists in the world playing, I always say, well if he can do it, so can I. Dont let amazing players make you feel inadequate, rather, realise that they have the exact same tools you have, 2 hands and a brain, and if one human can learn do it, almost any one can.

dceire

Thanks for the response.

I completely understand where your coming from when you say that its more important to understand the fundamentals of playing guitar as opposed to just a few songs. In fairness to my teacher, he put this on the table at the start of the first lesson. He's a full time guitar teacher and has been playing for over 25 years so he knows what he's at.

As for me, there's few things I love more than music. Artists like Neil Young, the Beatles, Fleet Foxes and many, many more have had me yearning to play for years now. To be honest, I have no real aspirations to be one of the greats, or even in a band but I would like to become a proficient player. Purely for my own amusement and the possibility of recreating some of the music that has brought me so much joy over the years. I've been playing for all of 3 weeks now and have managed to do, at very least, the bones of an hours practice every night. I cant say its been easy, in fact, frustration is the one word that springs to mind. Frustration with myself mainly and the drastically polaric sounds that I force my poor labouring guitar to produce.

The only thing that keeps me going is the hope that one day I will be able to strum out a song like 'Harvest Moon' within the confines of my room. It may not be a guitar classic by any means but it would mean a lot to me if I could play songs like that and not make a dogs dinner of them in the process.

Again thanks for the reply, your input is most welcome.

ednwireland

theres your prob, 3 weeks

took me longer than that to get the C, keep practising it WILL come

i'm 5 months in and just managing the F (cleanly i hasten to add)

yes you hit walls all the time and sometimes time is what you need - funny every time we have a break from lessons i seem to come back and have cracked some problem or other - learnings just weird sometimes.

dceire

ednwireland wrote: »

theres your prob, 3 weeks

took me longer than that to get the C, keep practising it WILL come

i'm 5 months in and just managing the F (cleanly i hasten to add)

yes you hit walls all the time and sometimes time is what you need - funny every time we have a break from lessons i seem to come back and have cracked some problem or other - learnings just weird sometimes.

Yea, I know, you're completely right. I need to stick at it. I actually had a great lesson today, even managed to play a bit of a duet with my teacher. I didn't think I had it in me.

Over the last few days I was struggling with a piece he gave me to practice but I woke up this morning and everything just seemed to click. I can't explain it, but it just worked. Anyway, I had a good chat with him & he was saying that I need a good 3 years of practice/playing to get to a good level. So after a month now I can hardly complain about my progress.

Guitareaxe

Its very easy to explain why you improve over time even without practice sometimes.

Its sleep, you can sit up all night trying get something down and fail, then you sleep ,wake the next day and you can pick up the guitar and play it first time.

Training your muscles to do new things involves motor memory, this involves your brain laying down new neural pathways . This happens in R.E.M sleep, your brain files it away and sets down the neural pathways allowing your body to repeat the motor movements much easier.

This is why good sleep is essential to learning new skills. It must be where the phrase "let me sleep on it" comes from

dceire

WOW! Guitareaxe, you are so wise. Like a miniture buddah, covered in hair (probably )

If there's one thing I can do well its sleep, so I shall thoroughly enjoy and excel at this aspect of my learning

Guitareaxe

dceire wrote: »

WOW! Guitareaxe, you are so wise. Like a miniture buddah, covered in hair (probably )

If there's one thing I can do well its sleep, so I shall thoroughly enjoy and excel at this aspect of my learning

haha thanks man, Enjoy your intense sleeping regime:P

Ostrom

I'm in the same position now, on and off attempts over the years, finally started lessons four weeks ago. I'm changing open position chords - hitting a fair few bum notes - and still a bit loose with my bar, but they seem to gradually be falling into place (no fluency yet). What are you working on at the moment? Had a great moment earlier playing (very very slow and simple!) pentatonic improv over three-chord blues. One of few little moments through all the pain and frustration so far where it almost came together

-=al=-

Just stick at it, for some reason i was much more adament about learning and sticking at it for hours, lately, ive been playing less

really is just a case of practice and playing, we all learn it our own way

dogbert27

One thing I've found is that to have realistic expectations of your practice.

I used to sit down with a song and say "right I'm going to learn this" and end up either playing the whole thing really crappy or else playing a small bit well and not getting the rest at all and leave the practice frustrated.

It slowly dawned on me that I should have been happy that I got the small bit down well and stop. Then next practice session learn the next part of a song and slowly piece it together.

I bet you're like I was in that you want to play a song from start to finish as soon as possible but it's important to take one song and break it down over a few days or weeks even. It's a slow process but worth it in the end.

dceire

efla wrote: »

I'm in the same position now, on and off attempts over the years, finally started lessons four weeks ago. I'm changing open position chords - hitting a fair few bum notes - and still a bit loose with my bar, but they seem to gradually be falling into place (no fluency yet). What are you working on at the moment? Had a great moment earlier playing (very very slow and simple!) pentatonic improv over three-chord blues. One of few little moments through all the pain and frustration so far where it almost came together

Hey, yea he has me working on playing rhythm for the past few weeks. I'm now working a bit on structure for when playing with lead & vocals etc. I also have some blues to work on as well. I think he said we're going to do a bit on finger styles next week.

How are your fingers holding up? They seem to be the only thing holding me back from practicing as much as I would like, well them and work.

Ostrom

dceire wrote: »

Hey, yea he has me working on playing rhythm for the past few weeks. I'm now working a bit on structure for when playing with lead & vocals etc. I also have some blues to work on as well. I think he said we're going to do a bit on finger styles next week.

How are your fingers holding up? They seem to be the only thing holding me back from practicing as much as I would like, well them and work.

Third finger is in a bad way from bending

I probably should give it a rest, my shoulder is killing me and I'm sure its from playing. Rhythm is proving difficult, how are you getting on with the changes?

Guitareaxe

IMPORTANT ADVICE ON BENDING STRINGS!

Never bend with one finger, use 2 or 3 fingers on the same string or else you can severely damage you finger.

-=al=-

unless you're iron man

Guitareaxe

-=al=- wrote: »

unless you're iron man

In that case disregard my advice, and make sure your well Earthed :P those big amps can pack quite a whollap.

dceire

efla wrote: »

Third finger is in a bad way from bending

I probably should give it a rest, my shoulder is killing me and I'm sure its from playing. Rhythm is proving difficult, how are you getting on with the changes?

Haven't been introduced to 'bending' as of yet, no pun intended.

I found changing chords a bit slow and awkward at first but I think I'm improving, slowly. I think the biggest improvement for me came when I realised that if you work out how to move your fingers from one chord to the next in the least amount of movements, its a lot quicker. I also found this page on the 'Top 10 Mistakes' very useful.

Ostrom

My tutor mentioned taking the grade exams. I had a look at the book today, it seems like a good way to focus down. If anyone can answer this for me - i find playing open position chords much easier with a capo. They are messy without it, and near spot on if i capo second fret or higher. Is this the same for everyone because of the lowered action or is it just easier to play a guitar with a thinner neck?

-=al=-

Id actually like to take some of those grade exams and have some sort of proof of my level of playing, theres no cons to having it anyways, must look into it

thin necks dont make it easier, depends on your hands and what you like, i hate thin necks really, like a good shaped strat-y like neck with nice think pointy fretwire and a smallish scale... everyone likes different things

Ostrom

Question for the more experienced... How do you cope with string muteing when playing riffs? I'm playing on a very cheap beginners guitar at home, my tutor lets me use his strat and i dont notice this as much so maybe its the guitar... (hopefully ) When playing riffs, without touching them, other strings begin to vibrate. Is there a knack to single string muteing i have yet to learn? Not sure if i'm explaining this properly

strobe

I know what you mean Efla, this was probably the one thing I struggled with most when I started out playing, probably because no one I asked could really explain how exactly to go about it. I'd love to say that I found a really clear explanation of how to go about muting the strings you aren't playing but I don't think there is one out there man.

It is more something that you kind to learn to do without thinking about, sort of from instinct, and I find that everyone goes about slightly differently.

If it helps I tend to mute any strings above the string I am playing (so if I am playing the g string, I mute the E, A and D, or sometimes just the A and D) with the palm or heel of my picking hand, and I mute the strings below (so the b and e, if playing the g) with the any part below the tip of the fingers on my fretting hand. It takes a while to get used to doing it but eventually will just do it automatically without needing to think about it. Try out different things and see what works for you. Fo instance I know a few people that will use their index finger on there fretting hand to mute the E, A and D when bending the G string, where as I always just use the heel of my picking hand, or sometimes even my arm or wrist.