Tips for an old guy trying to learn guitar

[estricklin]

After careful consideration I take it back, I don't think we need to know the song

Let's just say I'm not proud of what I done, but I ask that the reasons FOR learning it earn forgiveness in anyone who may learn the truth.

 

[Homercidal]

Is it, The Weight?

 

[Ridire]

Took my first actual lesson last night (via skype). I'm excited to get someone who knows what they are doing to work directly with me to get me going in the right direction. I feel like I've moved forward by leaps and bounds over the past 7 months, but I feel like the progress is slowing greatly. I'm hoping lessons get me out of the rut.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I feel like I've moved forward by leaps and bounds over the past 7 months, but I feel like the progress is slowing greatly. I'm hoping lessons get me out of the rut.

Lessons, good ones at least, should get you out of a rut real quick.

I fall into periods where I just don't feel like playing. I've tried to force it, but that doesn't work. If I'm ever on the fence about playing and it's just not feeling or sounding right, I just put the guitar down for the day because otherwise I'll get frustrated.

Usually a glass of bourbon and a new variety of music gets me back into playing though.

 

[Homercidal]

I think I'm going to see if I can get a half day off this afternoon. Might want to try picking out a couple of Foreigner songs. Also want to pick out "Baby Blue". Good song to play and sing along with. Could be nice on acoustic as well as the excellent distorted sound on the album.

 

[Ridire]

Guy giving me lessons first told me to go back to square one on one thing...tempo. He told me to do 3 basic strumming patterns (which I already use every day), D,D,D,D....DU,DU,DU,DU...and D,DU,U,DU with a metronome set to a very slow pace. I was amazed at how poorly I did keeping time with the last pattern when I set it to a metronome. He had me do a few chords with those patterns and obviously heard a problem immediately and has me working with the metronome. That alone made that lesson worth while.

Another thing he showed me, which I cannot believe I did not know, was to alternate when string picking. I had been practicing a few string picking songs and using all down picks. He now has me doing drills to make the alternating string picking more natural...and also with a metronome.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

You know, I watched an interview of Keith Richards last week and he was talking about strumming. He said something to the effect that everyone gets caught up on what the chording hand is doing near the neck of the guitar, but the real magic is what your strumming hand is doing.

Of course, it depends on the style music you are doing, but it's definitely true. I took a song I've played for 1.5 years and changed the strumming on it and it was completely different.

 

[Ridire]

You know, I watched an interview of Keith Richards last week and he was talking about strumming. He said something to the effect that everyone gets caught up on what the chording hand is doing near the neck of the guitar, but the real magic is what your strumming hand is doing.

Of course, it depends on the style music you are doing, but it's definitely true. I took a song I've played for 1.5 years and changed the strumming on it and it was completely different.

Instructor played a few chords and asked me what the song was. I had no idea. He then played the exact same chords, but changed the rhythm...clearly some Skynard. He proved his point with that little demonstration.

 

[GrogNerd]

I do that with some songs

our band does MTB's Can't You See. (edit, wrong song)

somewhere along the way I'll change the strumming to reggae, just to see the reactions of the local rednecks. it's hilarious

 

[Homercidal]

I do that with some songs

our band does MTB's Can't You See. (edit, wrong song)

somewhere along the way I'll change the strumming to reggae, just to see the reactions of the local rednecks. it's hilarious

That would be AWESOME!

Also, you reminded me that I am supposed to be working on that song with my daughter, who plays flute. She's told me she knows the flute part. I guess I better get busy on the guitar. The picking is a bit challenging for me.

 

[GrogNerd]

Another guitar + flute song to consider is Colour My World by Chicago.

RIP, Terry Kath, one of my first guitar heroes

 

[Ridire]

This will sound stupid, but any songs that aren't super lame, are easy to play, and can be done as a guitar/clarinet duet? I have young daughters...don't judge me...

 

[1977Brewer]

This will sound stupid, but any songs that aren't super lame, are easy to play, and can be done as a guitar/clarinet duet? I have young daughters...don't judge me...

Well there goes Aqualung.

 

[Ridire]

Well there goes Aqualung.

Yeah...preferably no songs about pedophiles...

 

[1977Brewer]

Yeah...preferably no songs about pedophiles...

You say guitar + flute, I think Jethro Tull.

Ooh, Dirty Old Town by The Pogues. The melody would be perfect on the flute, and the guitar part is super easy.

 

[BrewinBromanite]

California Dreamin' by The Mommas and the Poppas?

 

[1977Brewer]

California Dreamin' by The Mommas and the Poppas?

Nice one.

 

[BrewinBromanite]

Growing up I played more bass guitar before I got into acoustic & electric guitar (which came more in my college years). Also played violin from 6 through 10th grade - and was pretty good. Another thing I wish I wouldn't have completely dropped. I remember I used to jam on the bass to this song, and then would pick up the violin and try to play along with the flute part. Was just fun messing around for sure.

 

[slym2none]

I kinda-sorta learned the guitar part to "Glycerine" by Bush. It's super easy. The other stringed instruments are what make that song sound so nice. Otherwise, it's mostly four chords using one finger formation.

 

[slym2none]

Pardon my back-to-back posts, but I really wonder if lessons would help me. I already have hand-eye coordination difficulties that make me rather proud to be able to play the guitar even poorly as I do, and the size of my hands seem to be a cause for concern, which bothers me. I am not a huge guy, and don't have huge hands. I see smaller women who can stretch their fingers & hit all the notes for some difficult chords, and chord-changes are a problem as well. For some chords, I am using my ring-finger instead of my middle finger like you are supposed to, because I can't make my hand do what it is "supposed" to do. Then, I see much bigger guys wailing on their guitar, they never accidentally mute strings or the like, where that is one of my problems as well. My hands aren't big enough, yet feel too big. I can't get past this, it's one of the two or three things really holding me back from playing better.

I will say this - once you start playing and build up your callouses, don't stop. You'll just have to go through the blisters & all the pain over again.

 

[estricklin]

I kinda-sorta learned the guitar part to "Glycerine" by Bush. It's super easy. The other stringed instruments are what make that song sound so nice. Otherwise, it's mostly four chords using one finger formation.

Yep all power chords, a fun one to play though. I really hated Gwen Stefani for a long time after they broke up. It's funny cuz now I couldn't care less if they ever put out another album or not.

I'm taking my guitar on a cruise in December, gonna do a little pickin late at night when I can get some time to myself.

Tip: If your fingers hurt, drink more beer!

 

[DrunkleJon]

Pardon my back-to-back posts, but I really wonder if lessons would help me. I already have hand-eye coordination difficulties that make me rather proud to be able to play the guitar even poorly as I do, and the size of my hands seem to be a cause for concern, which bothers me. I am not a huge guy, and don't have huge hands. I see smaller women who can stretch their fingers & hit all the notes for some difficult chords, and chord-changes are a problem as well. For some chords, I am using my ring-finger instead of my middle finger like you are supposed to, because I can't make my hand do what it is "supposed" to do. Then, I see much bigger guys wailing on their guitar, they never accidentally mute strings or the like, where that is one of my problems as well. My hands aren't big enough, yet feel too big. I can't get past this, it's one of the two or three things really holding me back from playing better.

I will say this - once you start playing and build up your callouses, don't stop. You'll just have to go through the blisters & all the pain over again.

I dont really have fat fingers, but have realized that when I am muting strings accidentally I can usually fix it by tilting the guitar away from me more. Apparently when I look at the fret board for finger placement I am making the angle for my fingers vs the frets to an angle where my fingers are hitting a neighbor string. In other words go ahead and get your fingers where you want them, then stop looking at the fret board and try it again.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Anyone going to buy anything guitar related for Black Friday? Guitar Center is going to have a couple things I may snag up, like a microphone, but nothing spectacular I need.

Recently I got into Blues music, so I've been playing around with some of that recently. I have a Tube Screamer pedal effect on my Peavey amp, and it's fun to play around with that.

 

[estricklin]

Anyone going to buy anything guitar related for Black Friday? Guitar Center is going to have a couple things I may snag up, like a microphone, but nothing spectacular I need.

Recently I got into Blues music, so I've been playing around with some of that recently. I have a Tube Screamer pedal effect on my Peavey amp, and it's fun to play around with that.

Do they have 58s on sale per chance?

 

[applescrap]

Smoke on water gnr knocking good advice! If you can sing you are golden if you cant you better be ready to a find a singer or b play your a.. off. Google is killer right now good lessons and learn to play. Creating is different weird kinda like brewing copying is copying creating is cteating. They require different skills.

Heres lesson one do this skill..
Go up and down each string one string at a time first finger second finger third finger fourth finger.....as in index middle ring pinky....fret 1 2 3 4 back 4 3 2 1 slow and in rhythm and i mean in rhythm. Low string to high and high back to low. Goal is dexterity and finger strength

Thumb should follow middle finger of left hand

 

[applescrap]

Here are dots you should play

View attachment 1448425035163.jpg

 

[Ridire]

New guitar teacher taught me something last night that was so embarrassingly simple I was blown away.

I never quite got the "tuned half a step down" thing, even though I've done it before. I have zero music background...but can point to each note on a piano and tell you what it is (but I have to start at the C and count up or down to identify the note).

Teacher put down the guitar and went to his piano to show me simple things, like the fact that there is no E sharp note. He then picked up the guitar and showed me what "half a step" really meant, with each fret being half way to the next note...but the E string, fretted at the first fret, was an F because, as he demonstrated on the piano, there is no E sharp.

Again, embarrassingly simple but something I had no comprehension of before last night because I have never been exposed to music lessons. What is funny is that I asked my 7 year old daughter a few questions to see if she understood what I had just been taught. She looked at me like I was stupid...she assumed everyone knew this ****.

 

[GrogNerd]

no B# either, and between that and no E# is how you can identify the C on a piano

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Do they have 58s on sale per chance?

No, they have the 48s though. I can't remember off hand but I want to say they are $39 or something like that.

 

[applescrap]

New guitar teacher taught me something last night that was so embarrassingly simple I was blown away.

I never quite got the "tuned half a step down" thing, even though I've done it before. I have zero music background...but can point to each note on a piano and tell you what it is (but I have to start at the C and count up or down to identify the note).

Teacher put down the guitar and went to his piano to show me simple things, like the fact that there is no E sharp note. He then picked up the guitar and showed me what "half a step" really meant, with each fret being half way to the next note...but the E string, fretted at the first fret, was an F because, as he demonstrated on the piano, there is no E sharp.

Again, embarrassingly simple but something I had no comprehension of before last night because I have never been exposed to music lessons. What is funny is that I asked my 7 year old daughter a few questions to see if she understood what I had just been taught. She looked at me like I was stupid...she assumed everyone knew this ****.

Fun. I want to grab a guitar and be happy! There is always a half step in music.(.infact my drill is written in half steps music experimentalists will play whole step scales to) but just not always a black key between if you get my drift. Two special cases e f and b c .... they will always be that way but note they will be written into music sometimes as sharp or flat. The other Black Keys can be called sharp or flat some are commonly called one or the other...cheers

 

[Homercidal]

Got into Black Sabbath and Ozzy a bit lately, and this weekend a few Joe Walsh tunes. Just about got Funk #49 down pat. Had to mix it up, so I jumped into Life's Been Good and Rocky Mountain Way.

Big one for Ozzy was Mr. Crowley. Other than the solo, It's been going pretty good.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

I'm sure this thread has had this answer many times.

But for me the biggest thing with guitar or any hobby is not giving up. I have been playing guitar for like 12 years or so and I haven't had one thing that sticks for me. No matter what you're doing not giving up is key. I taught myself to play insanely hard stuff like Master of Puppets, One, Root of All Evil, Technical Difficulties, and more and lost them by not keeping up with playing. If you play every day or nearly every day you'll improve. Like most things in life you'll pretty drastically improve when you start, then more incrementally.

The most important thing in my years is practice. I started with lessons and stopped because of sports and jobs, and got really good when I started just playing around. Learned songs and then kept improving.

 

[applescrap]

Yeah agree!
Same thing happened to me cant remember anything. I used to be able to chord solo some dificult tunes.i felt like i had improved when i could make music sound more like i mentally felt and heard it.

Nice jams homercidal

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

This reminds me: I sorta know a guy who has a couple really nice, expensive acoustic guitars. So we were at a party and I said to him, "hey, been playing guitar much lately?" Friendly small talk, just hoping to ignite a 5 minute conversation or something.

"No, it's too hard and once you quit you lose everything you had and I'm tired of it." *said in a very very angry and depressing tone*

Lesson learned: don't quit once you build up some talent? Or maybe don't ask someone how their playing is going if you aren't sure they have played much recently haha.

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

I got my dad a Slide for Christmas. Much to my surprise, he also got me a slide haha. I tuned to open G tuning and played around with it a tad yesterday, and it's obviously much different than I am used to. Going to take some time to work on that, but it will be a fun change.

I play guitar for church just about every week; half the time I am leading the music, but the other half I am playing along with a piano. The thing about piano players (and I grew up playing piano) is they tend to just run the show and hope you keep up with them. If you've ever looked at piano music for worship, it tends to be a lot of....difficult stuff: C#m7, F#maj9, G/\3 or something like that What it means is, I have to figure out how to capo and transpose realllllly quick, which is tough.

So, what I'm thinking of doing is using the slide when I am playing along with a piano. The guitar tends to get a little lost as a rhythm instrument when I'm playing with piano, so I am hoping the slide helps add another layer and depth to the music.

If anyone has any pointers on playing with a slide, I'd be all ears.

 

[applescrap]

Yes the fingers towards the head rest at least one anyways gently on string giving that smooth correct sound. You slide up to over fret metal and just play scale as you know them. Fun really! Playing chords and slide at same time is tough. Its been awhile though i could be remembering wrong however i doubt it

On a side of note C sharp to f # change easier at 9th fret e string the fourth is righg there dorian mode scale with your slide

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Yes the fingers towards the head rest at least one anyways gently on string giving that smooth correct sound. You slide up to over fret metal and just play scale as you know them. Fun really! Playing chords and slide at same time is tough. Its been awhile though i could be remembering wrong however i doubt it

On a side of note C sharp to f # change easier at 9th fret e string the fourth is righg there dorian mode scale with your slide

Thanks for the input. I had planned on strumming with the slide, just figuring it'd be easier. I'm not horribly comfortable at picking out notes while playing yet, unless I'm in the minor dorian scale. Really need to learn more scales - that's my goal this coming year.

 

[applescrap]

Strum with slide? Like in open tuning? I think the only time i have strummed with slide is really wild blues jam

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Strum with slide? Like in open tuning? I think the only time i have strummed with slide is really wild blues jam

Yeah, open G tuning. I was at a Blues bar in Chicago and there was a guy there doing that. I spoke to him afterwards and he was talking about the different songs you can do and different takes on songs. Sounded great.

Not planning to do it for solo stuff - this is to compliment a piano basically and differentiate what we're doing.

 

[estricklin]

I like to play with a slide sometimes, but a beer bottle works in a pinch too. My favorite slide is a spark plug socket, the rubber holds it on my finger easily. A butter knife will work when you can't find anything else though.

The whole thing works better if you have a guitar that's set up for it. You really need a high action, otherwise the slide literally bangs into the fret wire as your sliding. I like laying it in my lap and playing with the slide, just as much as I love holding it and using the slide with my pinky. My favorite song to play with a slide is "Four Walls of Raiford". You will find open D and E to be the most popular tunings, something to keep in mind if your trying to learn some songs by ear. E7 will give the "Hawaiian sound" if that's what your after, although I've never tried it on an acoustic guitar, only a steel/pedal steel. I do think there is some A major variation that can kinda give the same sound too, maybe even an E13, some of those tunings would be difficult to tune on a standard guitar, might have to piece together a set of strings that wouldn't break or vibrate from being tunned too low.