NEW PLAYER.

[AUBMOR]

IDEALLY AS A NEW GUITAR PLAYER WHAT SHOULD I START ON FIRST AND HOW MUCH TIME I SHOULD SPEND PRACTICING DAILY ?

[gtrmac]

Get a good teacher to show you basic technique and correct playing positions, scales etc. This way you'll have the use of all your fingers, not like a lot of players that seem to have forgotten that they have a pinky on their left hand. Warm up with some scales and chords to limber up and then play music. Play along with CD's that you like and try to learn riffs from them, it will develop your ear. I would avoid spending too much time on scales and excercises and concentrate on playing music instead. Jam with other people especially players that are better than you, it will make you grow faster. Get some song books with chord charts and tablature so you can see how the original music was really played. Almost everyone learned by copying from music that they liked at some point or another. Try to start making up your own songs as soon as possible because you will need to have music of your own. I think the main thing is to always play music instead of excercises. Seems to me that people that spend too much time on technique end up sounding like they are playing scales when they improvise. You should practice from when you wake up until you go to sleep in 45 minute sessions with 15 minute breaks and take a break for meals. If you actually do this you will probably become famous as a virtuoso guitarist in a fairly short time, maybe three to five years. I'll be waiting to hear your debut CD!

[KHAN]

Great post Mac. And welcome AUBMOR. Please feel free to ask ANY questions you may have. There are many talented guitarist who post here regularly.

 

and yeah, I post here too.

[Chip McDonald]

Spend some money on trying out different guitar teachers...

[dansouth]

Originally posted by gtrmac@hotmail.com:

Get some song books with chord charts and tablature so you can see how the original music was really played.

 

AUBMOR,

 

Next time you're in the city, go to a store called The Colony at the corner of Broadway and 49th. They have a lot of books like this. Ask the guys who work there if you can't find what you need.

[Emperator]

FIrst you've come to the right place. Always excellent opinions. One of the most important things to know is to be engaged in the process of HOW TO LEARN to be a better player. So here's one of the many possible ways to learn to be a better player.

How to figure out songs by ear.

Guitar in tune (standard tuning to start E, A, D, G, B, E low string to high string ). Guitar set up properly (obvious), Music setup with headphones for playback of music. Put on a song you would like to learn. Put the headphones on just one ear (left ear if your right handed), leave the other ear exposed. Put the guitar on your knee. Put your chin on the upper bout of the neck (electric guitar without amplification sounds natural and uncolored; perfect for our use, but not very loud). Now turn the volume of the headphones to be just loud enough to be balanced with the acoustical sound of the guitar. OK. First play one note at a time fretting up and down on the lower strings of the guitar until you find the root note (lowest note) of the chord you're hearing played in the music. You'll know when you find it because it will sound correct. You are finding the base line or what is the tonic (root note) for the chords. Later after your comfortable doing this. You can write the lyrics down first and write over the top of the syllable the particular tonic note for the chord. The beginning of your first cheat sheets.

One potential snag. What if the recording is not tuned to standard pitch or they had tuned the guitar down a half step from standard tuning, etc. You need to listen for the root note of the main chord that starts the piece of music. You can bend the string slightly as you search the frets until by bending it will sound correct. Now it might be for example close to the 3rd fret of the 6th string (low E string) a G note. If you have to bend it up. Then you could retune the string higher so that you don't have to bend the note. Then tune all the strings relative to that string.

or you could... Record it in your computer use some pitch change software to bring it in tune to your guitar. or a DJ CD player with pitch bend (what I use). I believe their are practice cassette decks with pitch change for guitar players at the stores. All kinds of practice aids at the stores. Earlier in the days of record players they usually had a pitch change (faster/slower) feature. You learn to drop the needle where the riff was. Overtime we would scratch the hell out of the records. Hendrix, Clapton, John Mayall etc. scratched to hell by crazed teenagers.

So this is a quick immediate and inexpensive way to work on your ear training by playing music that you like. Just guitar, headphones, and music source.

[dansouth]

Sounds like a good idea, but it's easier with speakers than a headphone draped over one ear. Just my two cents (and ears).

[Emperator]

It's something I learned as a kid. 'Cause I could do it without disturbing anyone or in the middle of the night without waking up the parents. Also the acoustical sound of an electric guitar is very neutral (but also to quiet). The natural acoustical sound of the electric is very flexible to play anything, kind of like how a piano is compared to keyboards. Always found amp sounds hard to match up song to song at the time I'm trying to figure them out. It all seemed a little to noisy and confusing. The method seemed a lot more intimate to me, that helped. It's good that their are all these opinions. Each person making their own path.

DanSouth, just got DSL modem finally so I've been listening to MP3's. Checked your stuff out. Very nice.

[Emperator]

I don't know if it was clear. Basically put the headphones on then move the right one off forward over your temple.