best practice for a newbie

[thewarriorpope]

ok, im a bit of a guitar playin noob so i wanna hear what some veterans do to practice, and what are some good beginner blues songs to try and play?

[smips65]

Try this one. It's a great song, and not to hard to learn.

 

[YOUTUBE]

[/YOUTUBE]

[TWANG]

book/cd

try to read reviws.. and listen to cd if any clips available..

tons of good blues stuff..

 

but a book cd with a decent table of contents..

you want styles explained and a level of difficulty that's progessive.. even a beginner can start tackling difficult bits..

so do what you can well. and the rest badly, but do it.

 

never forget that sometimes you lay off a day or two and come back with a difficult part mastered or nearly so..

so try to rotate what you play.. and even then.. it takes a few days for each real new bit of info to be firm in mind and transfer to fingers..

so patient good sense.. and mega motivation.

[thewarriorpope]

thank you, both of you. yellow ledbetter was insanely hard for me!! I mostly use youtube but im not getting as much theory as id like from it. ill look into some book/cds for sure

[tommyb]

Try this one. It's a great song' date=' and not to hard to learn.[/quote']

 

If I would have had access to instruction like this forty years ago I'd be a better player. Very well done...my compliments!

[Gordy01]

Learning guitar is a different thing for everyone. It depends on how you learn best.

Some people are naturals, and can pick things up just by hearing them.

Others learn best by seeing someone play something over, and over.

Still others need to have the chord diagrams and video.

Most will benefit greatly from having a professional instructor.

 

I personally like the instructional videos. I like to think of this method of learning

as having my own teacher. One who will repeat things endlessly without losing his temper!!

It's good if you can get a chord chart with the DVD too.

 

Start with simple songs. 2 or 3 chord songs. You have to walk before you can run.

Oh yeah. Practice, practice, practice.

[MykWiz]

Thanks smips65,

 

It's cool to see other people dig Marty's lessons/tidbits/instruction too!

 

~MW

[animalfarm]

thank you' date=' both of you. yellow ledbetter was insanely hard for me!! I mostly use youtube but im not getting as much theory as id like from it. ill look into some book/cds for sure[/quote']

 

I also will hit youtube looking for tunes that I need to clarify a

progression,chord change, or lead run, BUT more often than not I go to:

 

www.vanderbilly.com

 

LOADS of guitar lessons, practice lessons, scales, etc.

Just click on "Video Vault", then in the search box, type in name of

band or song you're trying to learn. Then hit "search"... POOF!

VIDEOS!!!! You'll learn how to navigate the site fairly easily.

 

Here's a good finger practice and speed building vid from vanderbilly -

something you can either while totally focused on it, or just pick up a

guitar and "Doink" around while watching TV... It helps!

 

http://www.vanderbilly.com/Guitar-Lesson-sixstring63+-+Chop+building+riffs,8811,1.html

 

4 fingers, 4 frets, 6 strings. Starts you to get ito the habit of using

all 4 fingers for leads. I was a mostly 3 finger lead player, hardly used

my pinky. Gotta get into the habit, and it's just a simple practice run,

can be done slow or fast as you get better...

[smips65]

thank you' date=' both of you. yellow ledbetter was [b']insanely hard[/b] for me!! I mostly use youtube but im not getting as much theory as id like from it. ill look into some book/cds for sure

 

OK, sorry, didn't mean for you to shoot the moon right off the bat, there is a lot of theory in that video, good to learn and you will find that the basics he is showing are good building blocks.

 

E Major Pentotonic,

Jimmy Hendrix Chord formations (that means using the thumb to finish off the Barre Chord)

 

Don't try so hard to play the licks, and such, get the three chords down, and that is a great blues foundation.

 

 

 

This song is very similar to "Under The Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

and so many others...too many really to list here.

 

If Barre Chords are very difficult for you at the moment, re-watch the vid, and he shows how to make these chords work

using the A minor and E major shapes. If you can play a clean F chord un-barred, your halfway there already, simply a matter of going up the neck to the right fret.

 

+1 to VanderBilly as well.

[Jocko]

I read somewhere that you should practise for a spell every day. If you miss one day you will notice. If you miss two days, your friends will notice. If you miss three days everyone will notice! Don't know if it works with guitar but it works with beer!

[thewarriorpope]

great quote man, thats pretty funny. i do practice for about an hour to two daily but i dont know what i should practice!!! i think im gonna get a few lessons

[animalfarm]

What's your current skill level? Are you familar with

"Barre" Chords? Just trying to figure out which direction to

recommend you go!

[thewarriorpope]

yeas i can play barre chords, well most of them i think. i can run the shape up and down the fretboard. I also know some scales but only like first positions and some boxes i watched a video on in A or Aminor (dont know). I just sit around and pick away at the scales i know to try and make little blues solos over the backing tracks at guitar center.com. I dont really know where im at because i have no one that knows what they are doing telling me where i am or what im doing right and wrong. Its a bit discouraging to be your own teacher, when you dont know what to teach. Also when i play barre chords, my arm gets tired really quickly, there has got to be a trick to them that is less strenuous.

[Jocko]

The trick to barre chords is to use the minimum amount of pressure to get a clean sound. A low action and light gauge strings help.

What I am doing at the moment (going through an in love with my axe phase - it will pass) is I play 30 minutes at lunch time and another 30 minutes to an hour in the evening. I work on about 6 things that grab me and as I get happy with one thing I let it drop off and start something new. I revisit the old stuff regularly cause if I don't I forget it. A touch of oldtimers I think. I do a bit of rhythm and a bit of lead. Currently I am working on Sultans of Swing, Crossroads and Sweet Home for lead and Georgia On My Mind as rhythm. Once I learn the basics of a piece I use a drum track as a metronome. My Pandora PX4 supplies that.

[gl297]

oh man there's so much stuff available online, I too wish they had this stuff 30 years ago. Books, tabs, cd's, dvd's they're all great but the best thing is to learn to play by ear. It's well known that SRV couldn't tell you what key he was in. I bet all the pioneer blues players couldn't tell you either.

 

Don't play stiff, relax and flow with the song you're playing. You and the guitar should become one, I know it sounds corny but...

 

Watch Robin Trower videos for an example on using your whole body and not just the hand for vibrato.

 

Here's a great blues video of Lonnie Mack, a man that SRV called the greatest guitar player alive. SRV listened to this as a kid and tried to play what he heard. Needless to say, he succeeded.

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDmVmw41I2k&playnext_from=TL&videos=tJiPjRt57F8[/YOUTUBE]

[animalfarm]

True, it is difficult to be your own teacher, it really helps

if your have access to other git players. I started teaching

myself at age 14 from a MEL BAY chord book. Then, one day,

I "magically" discovered I could figure out how to play what

I was hearing on the Radio. After that, it was "H@ll Bent for Leather"!

 

Use the lesson vids, get a book showing basic bar chord shapes,

scales... I tried posting a scanned pic of a basic Minor Blues scale

for others to use, Photobucket deleted it.

Hey, I'll try again, see how long it stays....

 

Focus on the Minor Pentatonic scale in Red - the "key" it's in is the

Diamond Shape where the first finger is. Example: Place first finger on

5th fret, this is now a "basic" blues scale in the key of Am. Save this picture

while you can see it!

 

[thewarriorpope]

i have a scale chart with first positions on it, i just dont know where to begin with them, i know the pentatonic by heart, and even the blues variation of it. im so confused, i dont know what to do. i dont even know how to word what im thinking!!!

[animalfarm]

I've provided a link to an Am key blues backing track,

downloadable as MP3. Download it, then play the Am

Pentatonic Scale as shown with it. A Start!

 

http://www.guitarbackingtrack.com/play/jamtracks/blues_backing_in_am.htm

 

Any other Git Players around for you to interact with?

 

[thewarriorpope]

thank you, that pic is effin awesome!!!!! but no, there arent any, just my fiance, and im the one teaching her (i thought i sucked!! ) thats why im thinking an occasional lesson would be nice, but everyone wants you to buy 4 up front, i only want 4 total, over a year!

[RobinTheHood]

Why are these scale charts missing positon #2?

 

[thewarriorpope]

the first chart isnt i do not think, i am unfamiliar with the whole of the second. the first diagram on chart one is the second position i thought? I saw a youtube vid that went through all 5 but i only really got the first two memorized

[RobinTheHood]

the first chart isnt i do not think' date=' i am unfamiliar with the whole of the second. the first diagram on chart one is the second position i thought? I saw a youtube vid that went through all 5 but i only really got the first two memorized[/quote']

 

The first diagram on chart one is the second position for chart two.

Each scale has five positions. The last two charts (the long ones) are pentatonic extended scales.

[animalfarm]

the first chart isnt i do not think' date=' i am unfamiliar with the whole of the second. the first diagram on chart one is the second position i thought? I saw a youtube vid that went through all 5 but i only really got the first two memorized[/quote']

 

You are correct, the first diagram on "Chart 1" IS the

second position that "tacks onto" the bottom of the

Minor Pentatonic - Good Catch! Don't know why the

AUTHOR of the scale charts didn't include it....

Guess we'll have to no longer use his products! (Free for now).

 

:)

[animalfarm]

The first diagram on chart one is the second position for chart two.

Each scale has five positions. The last two charts (the long ones) are pentatonic extended scales.

 

Yeah, one of my favorites to run thru is the second from

right on the "Minor" Scale chart, just flows!

[RobinTheHood]

Yeah' date=' one of my favorites to run thru is the second from

right on the "Minor" Scale chart, just flows![/quote']

 

I love the pent extended as well. You can zip up and down them so easily...like you said; it just flows. I find my self using them, even partially, all the time. The pent ext. really helped me to learn to run downward smoothly at a quicker pace. I find it easier than a downward run on a single position.