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My first day of playing. OUCH!!!


Carbonite

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Down here most people tell you when you start playing you should start with a nylon string acoustic.

 

At first (25 years ago, when I was a kid) I didnt undesrtand that... (didnt make any sense, I wanted to play electric!). But then it made complete sense: your fingers will most surely bleed if you start off with steel strings/electric (nylon strings are softer on your fingers). And, considering you are just learning, it doesnt matter anyway if you are playing a cheap nylon acoustic or a gibson r9 through an orange amp, you can learn chords and some scales with an acoustic anyway, then move to electric when your fingers are a little more prepared to it.

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when you feel that you can't play anymore, just leave it alone, take a break. In the first days it's good to practice for about 10-15 minutes every 2-3 hours (if you really can't stop)

In about a week your fingertips will be better and you'll be playing better! hung in there, it will get BETTER!

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Can't.........

 

Stop..........

 

Playing......

 

Guitar........

 

Fingers......

 

Actually......

 

Bleeding....

 

 

Took my first lesson today. Got three chords to learn and transfer through without hesitation. Have a Pentatonic scale to get myself through. He also wrote down the opening lick of Sweet Child O' Mine because I love that song.

 

I have been practicing the chords since I have been home. I can go through them OK atm. Not very smooth yet' date=' but I can do it without looking now. He has me doing A -> D -> E -> D and repeating it.

 

The pentatonic isn't bad, but I find myself fumbling a bit on the picking end, so I have been practicing double picking each string without looking, which is helping. The only other thing about the pentatonic is the fact that I have to use my first and fourth finger on the E string at 5 and 8. I am finding it difficult to get my hand in that position without rocking from 5 to 8. On the e I don't have that problem, but on the E its terrible. Getting better though.

 

The opening lick of Sweet Child O' Mine doesn't seem to hard, but the transitions are a bit tough for me as a beginner. For one, once I learn the notes I will need to clean it up big time as the notes are bleeding into one another, so I need to practice raising my fingers up at the proper time and to the proper tension to get them to mute. Using my index finger on the 4th note in and raising my middle finger off in order to play the proper fret is proving a bit of a pain, but I will get it. For those not familiar it looks like this:

 

---------------------15------14----------

------15----------------------------------

-----------14--12------14------14-----

--12--------------------------------------

-------------------- ----------------------

--------------------- ---------------------

 

Sounds like this:

 

That 14 to 12 fret is raising my middle finger up so that I can bring my index finger down and strum the 12th fret. Its causing me trouble. lol I will get it though.

 

Anyways, I can't stop. My index finger is now bleeding a little. The muscles in my forearm have never been worked this much. I mean, they have but its the angle that is causing me to use different muscles I guess. Got a kink in my back from hunching over to look at my music. (Which reminds me, I need a stand, and possibly one of those things you put your foot on.) Going to be a crazy week. I fully intend to have the chords and pentatonic scale I have down to a science by next lesson. On the GNR song I don't know, but I will do the best I can there.

 

So there it is, my first day of truly doing something meaningful on the guitar in order to learn.

I am hooked already, and I mean I'm really addicted to this. Didn't expect my fingers to feel like they do, but its really worth it to me.

 

Just thought I would share my first day with everyone. [/quote']

 

doesn't it hurt?

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Down here most people tell you when you start playing you should start with a nylon string acoustic.

 

At first (25 years ago' date=' when I was a kid) I didnt undesrtand that... (didnt make any sense, I wanted to play electric!). But then it made complete sense: your fingers will most surely bleed if you start off with steel strings/electric (nylon strings are softer on your fingers). And, considering you are just learning, it doesnt matter anyway if you are playing a cheap nylon acoustic or a gibson r9 through an orange amp, you can learn chords and some scales with an acoustic anyway, then move to electric when your fingers are a little more prepared to it.[/quote']

 

i learned that the hard way.

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I almost did start with acoustic at the advice of others. I kept trying them out and what I found out is a normal sized acoustic sat under my arm just wrong and kept making my strumming hand fall asleep. Didn't feel to good. I don't mind the pain of the metal strings and am enjoying playing.

 

I can transition the chords now really well. Don't even have to look at my hands at all. Where I have trouble still here is I can hear my transitions, and I know I am not supposed too.

 

The A Pentatonic Minor will take a bit longer to get it going fast, but I can go through it pretty fast without any mistakes. Still have to rock my hand a tad on the E string.

I can do it about as fast as the first set in this video. The second time he does it is beyond me at this point, but I am getting there.

Here is the vid: http://guitarsecrets.com/video/am%20pent%205th.mpg

Found that video on this page: http://guitarsecrets.com/a_minor_pentatonic_scale.htm

 

I looked it up because I wanted a reference as to how fast I should be going.

So again, I can go as fast as he does it the first time with no mistakes. Working on making it faster. I really want to get it going as fast as he does that second time. Maybe faster if possible.

 

Looks like by Saturday I will have this stuff down really well though. I have normalized my schedule a bit. When I sit down I only sit there for a while, then come back again a little later and do this all day. I found the little breaks help me come back stronger and better for some reason. lol

 

So that's where I am now. Wonder what I will be doing next week.

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I woke up today and and practiced my chords and the scale again and am getting better, but the purpose of this post is about Sweet Child O' Mine.

 

I CAN PLAY IT.

 

Just yesterday I would have said it was going to be a long time before I could even play it so that it sounded proper.

Now, I am playing it. Albeit not as fast as it is supposed to be, but more than half of the speed. So very close to full speed and I can do it cleanly. I am so psyched right now you have no idea. I was ready to put it on the back burner until I had a bit more experience.

 

My problem was so simple.

A) I was trying to play it while keeping my fingers held down on the first three notes and then raising them afterwords.

:o I was looking at my picking hand to much.

 

Once I realized I was looking to much at my picking hand, when with all the other stuff I do I haven't had to look it was all downhill from there. So I start watching my fret hand and what do you know, all I did was kept my fingers above the strings and started playing the notes. Watching this hand full time allowed me to correct some things I was doing wrong and BAM. I started playing it.

 

Now I just have to raise the speed up to full and I will be set to learn the other transitions he does in the opening.

Then maybe more, who knows. Don't worry though, I haven't forgot about my chords and pentatonic scale practice. I am doing just fine on those.

 

OMG, I am playing the opening lick for Sweet Child O' Mine. I feel like a kid in a candy store I am so excited. I guess I am ranting like one too. ROFL.

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