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Help with getting back into guitar..


ChewisLewis

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Get a guitar, if you don't already have one, make sure it's set up correctly(string height and intonation correctly) and start playing. IF you don't think you know much about playing, you can go one of three ways; start taking lessons, purchase instructional materials(books, videos, CDs, etc.) or go with instructional videos on the internet, many of which are available on You Tube for free.

 

But the most important thing is just to start playing, and don't stop. The more you play the better you get. The less you play, the more you stay the same, i.e., the less you improve. You will likely have to eliminate some activities you currently involved with to have the time to practice, but if you really want to play, that won't be a sacrifice.

 

Welcome back to the six strings, and good luck with it!

 

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

 

 

 

 

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You don't necessarily have to take lessons long term, but it doesn't hurt to take a few early on so you can have an experienced player evaluate you and help correct any technical weaknesses before you ingrain some bad habits.

 

After that...do what the others said. Play as often as possible.

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You don't necessarily have to take lessons long term, but it doesn't hurt to take a few early on so you can have an experienced player evaluate you and help correct any technical weaknesses before you ingrain some bad habits.

 

After that...do what the others said. Play as often as possible.

 

+1!! If "want to be as confident as possible" then lessons with a qualified teacher who teaches the musical genres you desire to play will prove invaluable. As mentioned by Picker there is a vast amount of free information available and there are DVDs (JKLutherie.com is a good source for instructional DVDs) but they will not offer you subtle nuances such as finger curvature and things like that.

 

"PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!"

 

Good luck and let us know if we can help. There are a lot of very knowledgeable players on this site, all of whom are eager to help.

If you play cool, you are cool.
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I agree- I like YouTube, just be aware that for every good video, there are 5 bad ones. So you may have to do some digging to find videos that help you.

 

Good luck ! :)

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind"- George Orwell
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Screw genres and learn your instrument. Playing only what you like is what is wrong with guitarist in general. It is hard to find a good guitarist. We needed drummer about a year ago has 27 applicants in 2 days with some really good quailfied players. Vocalist are easy to find for us also.

 

Needed a guitar player last November. It has been harder than Hell to find one that can play and is willing to play our schedule. Too many are one dimensional and may shred some things like a mother hubbard but then can't play some other simple thing to save their ass. It is getting hard to find a guitarist that can cover all bases competantly in a professional / semi-pro working band.

 

We eventually went with a guy who could nail the Steely Dan's Josie and Kid Charlemagne but for something reason he can't play a New Country shuffle in E and it is kicking his ass. I don't get it.

 

Maybe it is because I have a formal music background and was taught to learn things whether I liked it or not but it has gotten my good gigs over the years whereever I moved to.

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Screw genres and learn your instrument. Playing only what you like is what is wrong with guitarist in general. It is hard to find a good guitarist. We needed drummer about a year ago has 27 applicants in 2 days with some really good quailfied players. Vocalist are easy to find for us also.

 

Needed a guitar player last November. It has been harder than Hell to find one that can play and is willing to play our schedule. Too many are one dimensional and may shred some things like a mother hubbard but then can't play some other simple thing to save their ass. It is getting hard to find a guitarist that can cover all bases competantly in a professional / semi-pro working band.

 

We eventually went with a guy who could nail the Steely Dan's Josie and Kid Charlemagne but for something reason he can't play a New Country shuffle in E and it is kicking his ass. I don't get it.

 

Maybe it is because I have a formal music background and was taught to learn things whether I liked it or not but it has gotten my good gigs over the years whereever I moved to.

 

Gotta give this a +1.

 

Nothing wrong with concentrating on the stuff you like the most, but you should also learn things in a variety of styles. Pick songs you like, or can at least tolerate, in these other styles/genres.

 

Learning scales and theory I believe is also important, but I'd advise against playing scales linearly for anything except warming up. Choose a scale and come up with a lick - something non-linear, preferably. Then take that same lick and transpose it to the other scales. Some of the notes will stay the same, others may be up or down one or two frets. For each scale version of the lick, choose a fairly quick tempo as a target and work towards it. This, I feel, is a better way at building speed than just playing up and down scales, which isn't very musical.

My ears are haunted.
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Screw genres and learn your instrument.

 

 

Maybe it is because I have a formal music background and was taught to learn things whether I liked it or not but it has gotten my good gigs over the years whereever I moved to.

 

Hey CEB,

 

I absolutely concur. I have also been formally trained and have been forced to play music I didn't like. It's good discipline and makes very good sense.

 

The only reason I strongly recommended finding a teacher who taught genres in which he had significant interest is because beginning students are more highly motivated to play and practice music they like. It sounds to me like Chewis is probably pretty far away from looking for a gig and playing music he likes will make practice seem more like fun and less like work.

 

I also agree with Hugo regarding the importance of practicing scales. I try to play scales/arpeggios for 10-15 minutes at the beginning of my practice session, to loosen up my fingers. It's good discipline and will reap huge rewards over the long run.

If you play cool, you are cool.
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<--- I posted this on another guitar thread but I think it can go on this one as well...just replace the cello with a guitar! You need to ask why you left and why you're coming back? I think it is an instrument that you fall in love with and want to make your companion. There are a lot of good comments coming your way.

 

I guess mine is to make the guitar your side kick. Have fun with it and enjoy it every day. Do what is most interesting for you and what will keep you coming back...I like scales and I like chords and I like good old rock and roll, country, jazz, latin and other mixed genres. Most important thing for me is to have my kind of fun with it! Good Luck and best wishes for a happy reunion...find a good teacher in the area you like best that will help you get started (whether it be acoustic, electric, classical, metal, rock, jazz, etc.)...

Take care, Larryz
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Work hard at timing and feel and phrasing, relative to the tempo and beat; practice simple things at first, simple but make them RIGHT. It takes time, don't get frustrated, keep at it, practice, practice, practice! :)

 

Then work hard on harmony, playing the RIGHT chords (when doing covers, it's surprising how often some guitar players will use a chord that seems to have the right highest note or lowest note, but ISN'T the actual correct chord), playing in key. Then you can literally FEEL confident as you play, alone or in a group setting.

 

With that firm ground to stand upon, work on melodic, leads and fills playing, which will be all the better for your grasp of timing and harmony; what you play in leads and fills must fit rhythmically and harmonically, right?

 

Practice and play with a metronome, or a drum machine or patterns and loops. If you have a delay/echo, play rhythmically around echo repeats as if the echoes are drumbeats or another player. This is surprisingly effective for tightening up your timing, feel and phrasing!

 

Get together with friends and jam, go out to open-mic jams; playing with and in front of others will improve your confidence immensely.

 

Be one of several people playing together interactively, not just playing their lines at the same time. This seems simple and subtle, but it makes an enormous difference in the end. And if you're that kind of a player, you'll be playing all the better and more convincingly, and thus, with more confidence and more at ease...

 

When playing in front of any kind of an audience, remember that the reason they're the audience and you're the performer is that YOU can do something that most of them CAN NOT! :D Play for yourself, they are, effectively, furniture. Eventually grow into interacting with the audience, feeling and using that energy to drive your playing, which will drive them, which will drive you, and so on. Enjoy the ride, take 'em with you, it'll energize itself and be all the better.

 

Get out of your comfort zone and stretch from time to time, as well! That is, play in different styles, and/or different places with different players. The more you pick up from other styles that you don't normally concentrate on, the fresher you'll be when you are playing your favorite main style of music, coming up with new ideas instead of repeating the same old thing that everybody and their monkey has been beating into the ground. Having an identifiable, recognizable sound and style of your own will really boost your confidence!

 

Overall, relax, enjoy playing, learn from making mistakes instead of feeling bad about them. When I accidentally hit a bum note in a solo, I find a way on the fly to repeat it in a phrase to right the bike and do an "I meant to do that!" move. :D

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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In Keyboard Land we had an interesting thread on introverts, which I am one. I was the shy geek kid that started studying piano when he was 6 going on 7.

 

When I play I appear to interact with the audience and act like crazy fool but..... I ignore the audience for the most part. For one thing with the lights in my face and the fact I'm as blind as a bat I can't see much. I don't think about it and am pretty much not phased but between sets or after a show being faced with actual conversation with strangers is scary shit.

 

I hate playing afternoon gigs. I do it better in the dark. LOL!

 

 

"It doesn't have to be difficult to be cool" - Mitch Towne

 

"A great musician can bring tears to your eyes!!!

So can a auto Mechanic." - Stokes Hunt

 

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Bro. Larry,

 

The cello piece was great! Absolutely loved it! :laugh:

 

Bro. Fred

 

Love it! I can relate...

 

In Keyboard Land we had an interesting thread on introverts, which I am one. I was the shy geek kid that started studying piano when he was 6 going on 7.

 

When I play I appear to interact with the audience and act like crazy fool but..... I ignore the audience for the most part. For one thing with the lights in my face and the fact I'm as blind as a bat I can't see much. I don't think about it and am pretty much not phased but between sets or after a show being faced with actual conversation with strangers is scary shit.

 

I hate playing afternoon gigs. I do it better in the dark. LOL!

 

Many, MANY years ago, I tried a sort of meditation/self-hypnosis thing, chiefly to stop profusely sweating from my forearms, wrists and hands when I'd play in front of anyone (regardless of temperature or humidity), and also to no longer be very nervous or tense when faced with playing before any kind of an audience, which doubtless played a part in the digital perspiration problem.

 

I had seen a television program where a person who had seemed to have cured himself of cancer via meditative self-hypnosis was interviewed, so I thought I'd give it a try. I laid down on a couch one afternoon, relaxed, closed my eyes, and focused my imagination on walking down a long dark corridor in search of the office where the control of said sweating and tension was managed, similar to how the former cancer-patient had described his experience, with the intention of ceasing the sweats and jitters. I slipped into what I can only describe as a trance-like sleep, gradually coming to some fair amount of time later- could have been fifteen or twenty minutes, could have been hours- with no memory of any details past going away in the dark and then coming to again.

 

 

It worked.

 

 

It really, REALLY worked. To this day, unless it's very hot and humid, while I'm playing my hands do not perspire excessively or even at all, remaining quite dry (back when they DID while playing, it was ridiculous- it looked like a cheesy magic trick, as if I had water-lines concealed under my forearms or something!), and I feel perfectly comfortable on a stage, in front of any audience, especially when wearing or playing my guitar. :cool:

 

True story! :wave:

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Thanks Fred & Caevan on the Cello video analogy...the lyrics (which you probably already know) to the song go something like: "Imagine me and you, I do, I think about you day and night, it's only right, to think about the one you love, and hold her tight, so happy together...If I should call you up, invest a dime, and you say you'll belong to me, I'll ease my mind, etc..." It just seems to describe how much I love guitars and how they have always been a companion to me. I hope the concept is helpful for ChewisLewis...
Take care, Larryz
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Screw genres and learn your instrument. Playing only what you like is what is wrong with guitarist in general. It is hard to find a good guitarist. We needed drummer about a year ago has 27 applicants in 2 days with some really good quailfied players. Vocalist are easy to find for us also.

 

Needed a guitar player last November. It has been harder than Hell to find one that can play and is willing to play our schedule. Too many are one dimensional and may shred some things like a mother hubbard but then can't play some other simple thing to save their ass. It is getting hard to find a guitarist that can cover all bases competantly in a professional / semi-pro working band.

 

We eventually went with a guy who could nail the Steely Dan's Josie and Kid Charlemagne but for something reason he can't play a New Country shuffle in E and it is kicking his ass. I don't get it.

 

Maybe it is because I have a formal music background and was taught to learn things whether I liked it or not but it has gotten my good gigs over the years whereever I moved to.

 

Where do you live :wave:

 

I did this benefit deal for a friend a couple of years ago and there was another guitar player that came in as well. He could play a hell of a solo, but when it came to playing rhythm and keeping a beat, it was a train wreck.

Les Paul Studio Deluxe, '74 Guild S100, '64 Strat, JCM 900 Combo, Peavey Classic 30 1x12, Peavey Classic 30 Head, CBG
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Pertinent to the good advice about practicing, and something that is bugging me-have a guitar in a place where you don`t have to move boxes, call ahead or reroute power from life support to play it. Ideally when you have a minute, ten seconds of it should be spent getting your guitar into your hands. Japan`s living spaces tend to be microscopic, which can mean a lot of junk piled up and a real pain keeping an open space for a guitar.

Same old surprises, brand new cliches-

 

Skipsounds on Soundclick:

www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandid=602491

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I take it back!

 

Not that all that followed my reply ISN'T good advice, but for Christ's sake, this poor guy just wanted advice for how to GET BACK INTO playing his guitar, and it's morphed into a preparation for CARNEGIE HALL!

 

Look, man, I don't know what level you were at before you let playing your guitar get away from you. But as it started out, just pick it up and PLAY! So it's not so good at first, so what? Once the calluses come back and the fingers limber up, it's just like riding the perverbial bike. What I discovered after a long, LOOONNNGGG layoff was that after that first barrier, I found myself playing better than I was when the lay-off started. You might surprise yourself as well.

 

Just pick it up. And PLAY!

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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Not that all that followed my reply ISN'T good advice, but for Christ's sake, this poor guy just wanted advice for how to GET BACK INTO playing his guitar, and it's morphed into a preparation for CARNEGIE HALL!

 

Just pick it up. And PLAY!

Whitefang

 

Reminds me of a joke; A guy is late for a concert and runs up to the nearest cabbie and gasps "What's the fastest way to Carnegie Hall?" and the cabbie thinks for a second and says "PRACTICE"...

Take care, Larryz
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Not that all that followed my reply ISN'T good advice, but for Christ's sake, this poor guy just wanted advice for how to GET BACK INTO playing his guitar, and it's morphed into a preparation for CARNEGIE HALL!

 

Well, the OP DID say:

 

Hey guys,

So I am looking to get back into guitar, and want to do it the right way. I want to be as confident in my playing as possible. What would you all suggest?

 

I'd say that easily warrants what you see as "preparation for CARNEGIE HALL". Perhaps I misinterpret your full intention, but your reply seems a bit of an overreaction.

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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@ Fang, ChewisLewis posted almost the same exact thread when he first came on the forum last September. He didn't get near as many responses last time around, so I for one am glad more people are responding with a lot of great ideas...after all, he did ask "what would you [all] suggest?"
Take care, Larryz
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, just play the silly thing. Play it long into the day and/or night, or play it when you just have a couple of minutes. Play it in your head when you don't have it in your hands. Play it, play it, play it! That's how you get better.

 

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

 

 

 

 

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, just play the silly thing. Play it long into the day and/or night, or play it when you just have a couple of minutes. Play it in your head when you don't have it in your hands. Play it, play it, play it! That's how you get better.

 

Yhup. :cool:

Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do?

 

~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~

_ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _

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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, just play the silly thing. Play it long into the day and/or night, or play it when you just have a couple of minutes. Play it in your head when you don't have it in your hands. Play it, play it, play it! That's how you get better.

 

IMHO "Just play it" in terms of constant practice while absolutely necessary, is no guarantee of improvement. It seems to me that playing the same stuff over and over again may result in becoming stagnant with no improvement in skill level whatsoever.

 

Playing music you already know is called "Playing". "Practice" means working on music and/or technique that you don't know. Just an opinion, but a reasonable one.

If you play cool, you are cool.
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The man DID say he wanted to get confident in his playing, true. He didn't, however, state just WHERE he wanted to take it. IF indeed, he wanted to take it anywhere.

 

There is really nothing new under the sun, just newer variations of what preceded. IMHO, it's much easier to do the "newer variation" thing when the same-old, same-old becomes second nature. "Just playing it" is a way to get there. The only shortcut to success is to be born into it, and you can't "get born" into musical competence or virtuosity. So it takes time. And it's scant been mentioned here, but another key ingredient is PATIENCE. One can spend MONTHS practicing, practicing, practicing and seem to get nowhere. But how many gave up just maybe TWO DAYS AWAY from making a major breakthrough? We'll never know.

Whitefang

I started out with NOTHING...and I still have most of it left!
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Hey, the more you play something, the sooner you get tired of it and want to learn something else, and learning something else gets you a little further down the road. I stand by what I said, play, play, play and play some more.after that. Of course, having a planned course of study is the most efficient way of amassing knowledge, I'm not running that down. But the best course of study in the world won't get you much if you don't PLAY...

Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

 

 

 

 

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