Beginner tips

[guitboard]

Hello everyone,

 

I stumbled across this forum a few weeks ago and have been reading a lot of what you all have been posting. Since you all seem very friendly/knowledgable I thought I'd post.

 

Anyway, I'm just starting to pick up the guitar now (I'm 23..so I'm getting a later start). Anyway I started taking a 30 minute lesson one a week for the past few months, which has been helpful, but I still feel like there is only so much I can learn in a half hour, and a lot of times I'll run out of things to work on in the week between my lessons. Do you all have an tips, or books you would suggest for someone just starting out? While I've got some past musical knowledge (piano ~8 yrs) I've forgotten a ton and I'm basically starting out from scratch, so I just wanted to hear what some of you found helpful when you were just starting out.

 

Thanks in advance.

[stamplicker]

Welcome to the forum, and the guru's will shuffle in shortly

[Squ]

Well, there's an endless amount of things to do. Learning theory is very important. If you know theory you'll be able to remember the licks and songs that you learn. If you rely on memorizing fret numbers, it's very easy to forget. So: learn how to make chords (as in, stacking thirds and what that means), learn your intervals, which chords are diatonic to the major & minor scales. You should eventually be able to play any major & natural/harmonic/melodic minor scales. Probably more importantly is to know what note you're playing on the fret board. (For example, go to the guitar and play every "g" on the neck usually totaling for 11 different string/fret combinations) There are tons of different exercises you can do to build up your chops, and you could use a metronome to do so (it doesn't need to be fast!)

 

But also you need to learn songs that you like and use the theory you know to figure out why the guitarist played what he did. You can do this by ear or you could get a book of tab/sheet music for an album you like. If you tell us what type of music you want to play, that'll probably help us help you.

[Dr. Ellwood]

Welcome to the best and brightest Guitar related Forum on the entire internet!! We are glad you are letting us in on the beginning of a fantastic love/hate relationship with your closest friend..YOUR GUITAR!!, and I'm only half kidding too! First off..excellent choice taking instuction from a pro teacher! there are many great instruction books and DVD's or combinations of both,but nothing is better than what you are doing right now with your teacher. I will suggest the Mel Bay course or jazz and theory (becase you have played piano) but I also caution you to NOT use any books without your teachers buy-in! If you are running out of material to work on during the week just tell your teacher and he will add more to you lesson and study for the week, don't leave him in the dark about your practice time, if it is going along too fast, he will add for you! One last thing, I hope your teacher is working with sight reading standard notation with you, there is no reason why you should learn guitar any differently than you did piano (I also started on piano and still play) ...Let us know how we can help you...Lee in Detroit.

[GuitarPlayerFL]

Welcome.

 

Never play faster than you can play something smoothly.

 

Work your speed up with a drum machine or metronome.

 

People build up speed by practicing slowly and smoothly and then building up from there.

[guitboard]

Great! Thanks for the replies guys. Your comments so far have been helpful. I feel like I've known some people who mess around with the guitar, but can really only play tab, and may not understand too much of the theory behind whats going on. Since it's all new for me anyway, I wanted to really try to understand the theory and learn to sight read as well. I know these will take a long time, but I know it's worth working hard to learn everything correctly the first time around.

 

Anyway, I've got a pretty eclectic taste in music but I would eventually like to learn to play classic rock and blues. So far in my lessons, my teacher has taught me several different modes and scales along with some drills to improve my speed/coordination. He's also taught me how to name chords using the 5 forms, and several songs/drills that incorporate what we've gone over. I think your suggestions to okay books with my teacher are a good idea. Are there any theory books that you found extremely helpful or well organized that I should bring up at my next lesson?

 

Btw, I took a look at the theory thread, and it looks like a great place for me to start learning!

[Dr. Ellwood]

Yes our Theory Thread is excellent and it is a work in progress, we will keep adding elements to it as we think of them. Feel free to print the theory thread if you wish and share it with your teacher, he may be able to use it with you or other students, or he many want to add something to it that you can bring back to us!! Either way we all win!!

[trader56]

Fish, welcome to the board!

 

Another resource that might help is Fretboard Logic.

 

I'd taken decades off, so pretty much figured I'm starting all over. Between the guys here, and Fretboard Logic, there's been a bunch of time and errors avoided.

 

The advice from the guys here - Ellwoood, mdrs, and everyone else too numerous to name - is worth it's weight in gold! Plus, they seem to tolerate just about any level of newbie question - they've certainly been tolerant of mine, LOL!

 

Dave

[Megiliel]

In the words of Jimmy Page, "use lighter strings." It works. But be careful when you're changing strings or whatever- the little ones are very easy to impale oneself with. Welcome to the Forum!!!!!!!!

[guitboard]

Hey Trader,

 

Thanks for the tips. I actually just picked up the first two Fretboard Logics and I'm starting to work through them! It's good to know I've already got a good resource to begin with.

But again, thanks for the suggestions...now all I need to do is practice...a lot.

[Gruupi]

I think that scales, modes, chords, theory, lessons in general, are only a supplement to your learning the guitar. I'm not saying don't learn what your teacher is teaching, but theres alot more to be done. You should be working on songs, with or without your teacher. Learn songs both by ear and with tab/ music. Even if you are only to at this point to play 3 chord folks songs, play them in time and in tune with good tone.

 

You need to learn the theory, something I negelcted that has caught up with me after playing for 30 years. Tell your teacher you need more material, even if its something he doesnt specificly have time to cover in the lessons. I'm sure its hard to cover much in 30 minutes. But don't let him hold you back. If he tells you NOT to learn more, find a new teacher. But I think any good teacher likes students who take the initiative and learn more than what is in the lesson plan.

 

Buy some song books and start picking out tunes you like that sound easy. Theres lots of classic rock tab out there now so you should have no trouble finding material. Also its never to early to start improvising. Take those scales and modes and play them over some blues chords, either record some or play with another student. Plus theres alot of jam material available these days, check out the free jam tracks at the top of the page. Maybe play some blues scales over one of Elwood's Band's blues tracks. It doesn't have to be hot licks, but even playing the scales over changes will start to give you an idea of how music sounds.