Guitar!anyone play?

[CKY_Alliance]

Anyway i was wondering if anyone that plays the guitar aroudn here could give me some advice.Ive been playing for a few months and im taking lessons..that i dont seem to be getting anything out of except learing to play some songs..so ive been teaching myself some chords and stuff.But my question is what should i practice so i can just pick up the guitar and play like i have been playing all my life? (i dont know any other way to explain it) i want to eventually write some of my own songs so i know i need to learn all the chords or atleast the basic ones. But for you expierenced guitar players what do you do for practice?

[Jakedubbleya]

Fret progressions mostly at first then just lots of practice with the advanced techniques like hammering.

If you really want to learn guitar tho, and not just plunk out power chords and a couple of memorized picking patterns you should seriously consider doing this:

Learn classical/spainish guitar first.

Get yourself a nylon and get that fingerpicking/music reading and rythym down man and you will be able to pick up anything. I made the mistake of starting with learning the chords and its been hard for me to do picking patterns when i can just go the easy way with chords or texas finger picking.

plus, when you are sitting around the campfire there is nothing hotter than plunking out a spainish ballad with GUITAR PICKING FURY man, trust me on that one.

Good luck and keep at it, its the most awesome and fun instrument ever. Dont worry about tearign up your hands BTW, the more you trash them the tougher they will get

Plus, its an awesome base for jazz or blues guitar (unlike powerchords lol) which are the most awesome of the solo guitar sounds imo.

[CKY_Alliance]

thanks man. Yea i dont worry about my hands...

any other input its greatly appreciated so keep it coming!

[gimp]

Just keep playing. You can try to learn all sorts of fancy things, but your not gonna get any better unless you just keep playing. Focus on how the guitar sounds, so you can listen to music and then play it. Reading tab is fun, but I don't really get any better by learning how to play someone elses songs. I really improved when I just started to make noise.

[InfinatyBPS]

What I do is I just go look up tabs for songs that I listen to that like I could possibly play then and go try, if I can I learn them, if not then I practice until I can play them, or if they're like super hard, I just ignore them and come back to them a month later or so and its a little easier to play it cause I'd been practicing.

[SpecialBlend2786]

automaggot68 is damn good at guitar

[Jakedubbleya]

Yeah, looking up songs then playing/practicing till you can play them is pretty much the way everybody goes (including me).

I think that if you are going to go into a band though, that the classical backround will give you the skills to create truly innovative sounds, while also establishign you as a good sheet-musician/songwriter, i was always jelous of the guys who could do classical techniques. Plus, like i said, being able to go classical on a Pop piece sounds just amazing on solo guitar.

Obviously i really recommend it. That is what you should have gotten lessons for though lol, contemporary music is a sinch to progress into thanks to the internet and taking lessons in it is sort of a waste of money. But theres a lot of technical stuff if you go right into the classical and jazz sounds that you will want to get the basics for from a teacher.

Do you sing btw? if you sing its a lot more fun to practice imo and makes the whole experience a lot easyer, a few voice lessons wouldnt be a bad idea.

Again GL

[Chipper]

Yeah, you have probably hear this a thousand times, but.....

PRACTICE (tends to) MAKE PERFECT

But, make sure you are practicing the proper way or you will find yourself messing up on simple pick patterns.

[CKY_Alliance]

Yeah, looking up songs then playing/practicing till you can play them is pretty much the way everybody goes (including me).

I think that if you are going to go into a band though, that the classical backround will give you the skills to create truly innovative sounds, while also establishign you as a good sheet-musician/songwriter, i was always jelous of the guys who could do classical techniques. Plus, like i said, being able to go classical on a Pop piece sounds just amazing on solo guitar.

Obviously i really recommend it. That is what you should have gotten lessons for though lol, contemporary music is a sinch to progress into thanks to the internet and taking lessons in it is sort of a waste of money. But theres a lot of technical stuff if you go right into the classical and jazz sounds that you will want to get the basics for from a teacher.

Do you sing btw? if you sing its a lot more fun to practice imo and makes the whole experience a lot easyer, a few voice lessons wouldnt be a bad idea.

Again GL

Na i dont sing. Yea i got lessons but the guy just wants to teach me songs and stuff and i dont really feel lim learnign much other then how ot play other peoples stuff i guess it helps a little with patterns and such but yea im just gonna practice and shizzle...thans everyone.

[ascetic1]

OK i have been playing guitar for about 3 years now, and i took lessons as well...What it did was burn a hole in my pocket because i felt, same as you, that i wasnt learning anything. Basically lessons just teach you chord progressions and rythme, which you can learn on your own...If you want to learn ANYTHING while taking lessons, I highly suggest that you learn SCALES!!!!!! It sounds so awesome when you can jam with other guys and do some solos and stuff, other than just playing a variation of the chords they are using. Also, even if you dont sing, or cant for that matter, try to figure out the chords to a blink 182 song(yeah they are easy) and sing along with that, its alot harder to do 2 things at once, and it definately helps you progress with your strumming and timing. Finger picking and Classical stuff would be better off after you learn scales and basic chord progression/strumming..Practice, Practice, Practice! good luck!

[Jakedubbleya]

You dont sing? hogwash! everybody sings, and if you play guitar girls are gunna want to hear you sing so youd better learn eventually or ull embarass urself heh Just take a few lessons, ud be stunned at what somebody who thinks they cant (or wont) sing can do.

Also as ascetic1 said, it is sort of necessary in learning rythym (singing that is) at first. And learnign to play/sing is the first big step to playing pop guitar.

Scales was sort of the reason i thought he should get tutored in classical off the start aescetic. Its part of the whole classical instrument curriculum, you know, half music theory half playing. Its not just mad fingerpicking skills heh, thats just the base for it which from what ive seen gets students hands more dextrous faster, which is the real challenge along with muscle memory.

If you can find a local band member (try asking around at bluegrass concerts, a lot of those guys know many styles) or somebody that knows classical and wont rape you out the bum cashwise to teach you, its worth it, especially if you are just starting out. I actually ended up getting tutored in it myself from a friend because its such a pain to try to learn on your own.

If you insist on just learning guitar yourself heres an awesome site you should check out run by david hodge, with a very thorough lesson plan from begginer to intermediate, ive had a lot of friends whove had great sucess with the site. And dont worry, its not classical guitar

Guitarnoise.com lesson homepage

[ojhspyro89]

Yeah i play to, i havnt been playing years or anything but i play. The worst thign about guitar is learning out of songs to learn. Thats where im stuck. Its so hard to play a song that needs acompanies by other instruments or people. Im trying to learn some classical stuff now but it gets pretty fast and i cant keep up. Ill prolly just keep playing it until i can get up to speed.

If your playing acoustic, look into some of the metallica songs like nothing else matters, and fade to black. I know them they arent to hard if you know pull offs and hammer ons. Only thing is some of thier pull offs are really complex, so just simplify. Its fun to play too and lots of people like to listen to it.


GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh and if you have yahoo, there is a chat called Acoustic (something) thats really nice. Just go thru becasue they like to change the name very often. Its pretty cool people play guitar over the mic and u can get ideas what to play.

[The JOE]

My advice would be to learn the scales until they are second nature (something I have yet to do...), understand their relation to chord progressions and whatnot (I dunno how to explain that better - for improvisational and solo purposes), and learn to play as many songs as you can (in addition to trying to create your own stuff.) The guy at the lessons is teaching you to play other people's stuff probably because it will give you an idea as to where to go with your own, when you get around to it.

Oh and if you want to be able to pick it up and play like you've done your whole life, then you're probably going to have to play for your whole life. You just have to absolutely keep practicing.

[psychoreaper_666]

What I do is I just go look up tabs for songs that I listen to that like I could possibly play then and go try, if I can I learn them, if not then I practice until I can play them, or if they're like super hard, I just ignore them and come back to them a month later or so and its a little easier to play it cause I'd been practicing.

same here