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[Fret Runner]

I have a guitar but haven't really had the time to dedicate learning it
I have rocksmith and tried that out when i first got it but it just confused me even more. Would love to start learning tho

I have this beauty but I won’t pretend I can play it very well. I’ve got a few chords nailed down but my technique is shite, I feel like I’ll never conquer the bastard.

This is slacker talk!

Drop and give me your best enter sandman’s, right now!

but seriously, stick with an go at your own pace. I’m a self-taught nincompoop who knows nothing about the technical side of music, an if can somewhat get passable at it then I’m more than positive you two can.

Remember, in times of wanting to give up guitar, ask yourself this: do you really wanna live in a world where bass players and drummers out number us?

I’m just kidding you bass slappers and bongo bangers, I love ya really.

 

[Fret Runner]

Since it's the start of spooktober, something fitting.
It's crappy sounding like everything else of mine that I've posted here so Metallica fans ears be warned.
But hey, Rocking out an having some fun is the main thing.

 

[Fret Runner]

With how bad my last one sounded, I had to do a take 2.


Uh oh, Triple post. Time to shut up for awhile.

 

[Flintty]

How the fuck am I supposed to go from Am (or anything really) to F quickly? Shit seems near impossible. Am I missing a trick?

 

[Fret Runner]

How the fuck am I supposed to go from Am (or anything really) to F quickly? Shit seems near impossible. Am I missing a trick?

A thing That took awhile for my brain to commit to muscle memory personally is not pushing down on every string for a barre chord an only focusing on putting pressure where needed with the bare-finger an remembering that my other fingers are also sharing the workload.

Wish I could help more but I'm no teacher. Just thought I'd share a similar problem I had when starting, and still do tbh lol

 

[Flintty]

A thing That took awhile for my brain to commit to muscle memory personally is not pushing down on every string for a barre chord an only focusing on putting pressure where needed with the bare-finger an remembering that my other fingers are also sharing the workload.

Wish I could help more but I'm no teacher. Just thought I'd share a similar problem I had when starting, and still do tbh lol

That’s actually a really good point, thank you! I’ll keep at it, but it’s frustrating at times and makes me want to bin it off. I’m determined to nail it though!

 

[Audiophile]

My Clapton Duo..


Martin 000-28EC (Natural, First Year of Production/1995, Serial # in ~700s):




Fender Artist Clapton Strat (Original 7Up Green, Gold Lace Sensors, 1991/1992):



This was my Amp, but I sold it, biggest mistake I ever made, it's the best amp I've ever had. Will get one again one day.
(Blackstar Artisan 15H + 2x12 w/ Eminence Cannbis Rex + Screamin Eagle):

 

[MastAndo]

Sup, guitar bros. I know for most this would fall under the gimmicky category, but I saw an ad for this and thought it looked sweet as hell;

American Acoustasonic® Telecaster® | Acoustasonic Guitars

American Acoustasonic® Telecaster®, Ebony Fingerboard, Sunburst

shop.fender.com

99% of my guitar playing is just picking up my Strat and just dicking around unplugged while watching TV. Given that, something with that similarly small body with a slightly bigger unplugged sound or an electric acoustic would be great to mess around with - but definitely not at a $2000 price tag (sheesh). Any recommendations with that in mind? Basically, it doesn't need to have stellar sound since I'm a very casual player, but playability/good (i.e. low-ish) action is important to me, and I think having that smaller body would compel me to just pick up and play more here and there.0

 

[ESPOMAN]

I finished learning the Sweet Child O Mine solo and I was gonna post it on Instagram and idk how to make it so I do not look like a tool. I think next I will either learn Don't Damn Me because of the solo or Anastasia.

 

[EviLore]

Sup, guitar bros. I know for most this would fall under the gimmicky category, but I saw an ad for this and thought it looked sweet as hell;

American Acoustasonic® Telecaster® | Acoustasonic Guitars

American Acoustasonic® Telecaster®, Ebony Fingerboard, Sunburst

shop.fender.com

99% of my guitar playing is just picking up my Strat and just dicking around unplugged while watching TV. Given that, something with that similarly small body with a slightly bigger unplugged sound or an electric acoustic would be great to mess around with - but definitely not at a $2000 price tag (sheesh). Any recommendations with that in mind? Basically, it doesn't need to have stellar sound since I'm a very casual player, but playability/good (i.e. low-ish) action is important to me, and I think having that smaller body would compel me to just pick up and play more here and there.0

Do you have an acoustic? Definitely get a real acoustic guitar first if not.

 

[Kazza]

I finished learning the Sweet Child O Mine solo and I was gonna post it on Instagram and idk how to make it so I do not look like a tool. I think next I will either learn Don't Damn Me because of the solo or Anastasia.

Just out of interest, when do you decide that you have finished learning a song? I have a few that I can play from memory, but I still have a relatively high rate of "failure". For some, I can play the song pretty decently 9/10, but there's always 1/10 where my finger misses a string or the rhythm goes wrong. I've just learned Romance d'Amour, but my level of consistency is very low. Maybe I can play it well 1 time out of 10, the rest of the time something goes wrong (normally when switching between full bar cords).

Still, I'm proud that I can now play this piece (sorta):




Learning that song really improved my bar cord technique (from zero, basically). My fingers are also more "stretchy" than before. Next up, Recuerdos de la Alhambra:




That tremolo is going to kill me!

 

[ESPOMAN]

Just out of interest, when do you decide that you have finished learning a song? I have a few that I can play from memory, but I still have a relatively high rate of "failure". For some, I can play the song pretty decently 9/10, but there's always 1/10 where my finger misses a string or the rhythm goes wrong. I've just learned Romance d'Amour, but my level of consistency is very low. Maybe I can play it well 1 time out of 10, the rest of the time something goes wrong (normally when switching between full bar cords).

If I am able to play the song along with the backing track consistently I say I learned it. I still mess up on it every once once in a while though

 

[MastAndo]

Do you have an acoustic? Definitely get a real acoustic guitar first if not.

I do, but I just don't really enjoy picking it up and playing it as much, due to the size (and the higher action) compared to my electric. That's basically why that hybrid caught my eye.

 

[Flying Toaster]

I tracked down an olive green American professional Telecaster. It is super nice and my wallet weeps.

 

[Fret Runner]

Well, time to get some Christmas Rock going in this thread.
A few hours early but fuck it, It's Christmas.

 

[Fret Runner]

Thoght I'd give recording some acoustic a go. Just a laptop mic so nothing fancy sounding.
Something basic but a very nostalgic little tune that I'm sure most of you know.
My go to "hey you! you play guitar, right? play a christmas song!" song.

comfy vibes lol

Still trying to get use to switching back and forth from 8 string to 6. It fucks my brain up every damn time.

 

[Paasei]

My Lag Arkane 66. Still learning, have only been playing for 4 years now. This was a birthday present last September.

 

[Fret Runner]

Haven't played in ages due to a fucked health thing and had brief moment of it not bothering me today so had to make the most of it, and since I haven't posted anything here in awhile I thought I'd pressure myself to cover my one of my fave Queen tunes.

If you can make it past the out of practice sloppyness, I hope it makes a few heads bang.
Any Highlander fans here? I'm sure there can't be only one.


Haven't used a wah pedal in years so excuse that part.

 

[kingbean]

Hey guys been a while.



Fret Runner keep on keeping on dude, I'm glad you're doing okay and still making tracks.

 

[Ionian]

Haven't played in ages due to a fucked health thing and had brief moment of it not bothering me today so had to make the most of it, and since I haven't posted anything here in awhile I thought I'd pressure myself to cover my one of my fave Queen tunes.

If you can make it past the out of practice sloppyness, I hope it makes a few heads bang.
Any Highlander fans here? I'm sure there can't be only one.


Haven't used a wah pedal in years so excuse that part.

Only tip i'll give is lay off the power chords and aim for standard chords, easier to harmonize. Also the wah wasn't obvious, it's a stomp pedal so you need to move it.

Best of luck with learning dude, guitar playing is awesome! (Gets all the chicks, not even lying)

 

[Fret Runner]

Only tip i'll give is lay off the power chords and aim for standard chords, easier to harmonize. Also the wah wasn't obvious, it's a stomp pedal so you need to move it.

Best of luck with learning dude, guitar playing is awesome! (Gets all the chicks, not even lyi

Only tip i'll give is lay off the power chords and aim for standard chords, easier to harmonize. Also the wah wasn't obvious, it's a stomp pedal so you need to move it.

Best of luck with learning dude, guitar playing is awesome! (Gets all the chicks, not even lying)

Final Fantasy Tunes on acoustic has the highest success rate for impressing the chicks in my experience.
Playing At Zanakand use to be my go to.

(I don't know why it quoted twice lol)

 

[Fret Runner]

Had to give the Acoustic some attention and figured I would revisit some Final Fantasy X tunes since I mentioned them.

Probably one of my fave FF tunes.



Totally got sucked into recording this one though and it has probably become my fave little recording that I've posted here.


As always, look past the scuffedness if you can.

 

[baphomet]

I've been playing for about 25 years now. I'm an Ibanez guy so I've got about 15ish Ibanez guitars. All Prestige models or Fujigen pre-prestige stuff. A couple of Warwick basses and a Fender tele I'm trying to sell.

My current daily player is a 1999 7621 that I had an Evertune installed in as well as some Bare Knuckle Juggernauts.

Have a couple of different heads. Mesa Triple Rec, 6534+, and a JCM 900. Run Fortin effects and a Mesa cab with v30s and cream backs.

The newest addition is a 1987 RG550 in road flare red. Currently at the luthier getting a setup and swapping out the pickups.

 

[Kev Kev]

a little clip from my practice session earlier. Just going up and a down a Bm scale, mostly

 

[hollams]

Started playing when I was 16 years old back in the late 80's. I even have a video of me from back then that I watch from time to time. For some stupid reason I sold my first guitar to a friend, but unbelievably about 10 years later I was able to get it back from another friend whom he had sold it to years back.

The craziest thing I did back then was someone gave me a Van Halen Tablature package that came with a book and some cassette tapes, but it wasn't licensed so the tab book was just 6 blank lines on every page. On the cassette tapes was a guy telling me how to write out the tablature in the book. He would say 6th string 5th fret slide up to 6th string 12th fret and I'd have to write that down and so on. If you can imagine sitting there trying to transcribe all this from a cassette tape, on a Van Halen song, so if you didn't hear something right you would have to backup which wasn't easy and make sure you weren't duplicating anything. I can't remember how long it took me, but I did this for 10 songs. I think I still have the book somewhere although I haven't seen it in awhile.

 

[Happosai]

a little clip from my practice session earlier. Just going up and a down a Bm scale, mostly

I figured from a post you made in a different thread with a midi piano sample (which was amazing) that you were probably a prog or jazz fusion type guy on the guitar. Too bad I'm no longer in the U.S. I would have joined up for a session running the harmonic lines with that. What type of hollow bodied is that Kev Kev ?

 

[Kev Kev]

I figured from a post you made in a different thread with a midi piano sample (which was amazing) that you were probably a prog or jazz fusion type guy on the guitar. Too bad I'm no longer in the U.S. I would have joined up for a session running the harmonic lines with that. What type of hollow bodied is that Kev Kev ?

Ibanez GB 10EM

yeah im really into jazz, currently playing in a few different big bands and combos around here in the central florida area. i love metal and prog rock and a lot of the old classic stuff like pink floyd and hendrix and all that as well, so i want to branch out to that stuff as well. but i think im going to mostly focus on jazz as it has a large variety of styles that i can play with, and itll hopefully help get me gigs and a job as a community college professor some day. that is too bad, ould have been fun! im still pretty new to jazz guitar elieve it or not. only been going hard on guitar for the last 3 years. but all the hard work is paying off! thanks for listening!

you play too? what kind of axe you got? any recordings you care to share?

 

[Happosai]

I like the GB 10 EMs. A friend of mine uses them. Prog is a fun place to explore especially bands/musicians like: Mike Oldfield, Yes, ELP, King Crimson, Focus, even Kansas (Song for America is super proggy).Here was a jazz fusion one a wrote a few years ago. I hate the title of the E.P. but too late to change it now. I've been semi-retired from music for about 2-years due to work. I love hollow bodied guitars and would love to have a Gibson ES-175 someday. This whole recording session was improvised over 3-days. I wrote the outline on my Hammond organ and got to the studio in May 2018...found out there was no one to help with drums, keyboard, or the bass. So, I played everything on this. About the axe. I only took one electric from the U.S. to my new home in 2016 and that was my PRS Custom 24. As a friend once told me, "One good axe is enough -- but she'd better be tough."

 

[Kazza]

Started playing when I was 16 years old back in the late 80's. I even have a video of me from back then that I watch from time to time. For some stupid reason I sold my first guitar to a friend, but unbelievably about 10 years later I was able to get it back from another friend whom he had sold it to years back.

The craziest thing I did back then was someone gave me a Van Halen Tablature package that came with a book and some cassette tapes, but it wasn't licensed so the tab book was just 6 blank lines on every page. On the cassette tapes was a guy telling me how to write out the tablature in the book. He would say 6th string 5th fret slide up to 6th string 12th fret and I'd have to write that down and so on. If you can imagine sitting there trying to transcribe all this from a cassette tape, on a Van Halen song, so if you didn't hear something right you would have to backup which wasn't easy and make sure you weren't duplicating anything. I can't remember how long it took me, but I did this for 10 songs. I think I still have the book somewhere although I haven't seen it in awhile.

It's funny you should bring up learning guitar back in the old days, a guitar teacher recently put up this video about how his students have changed from the late 90s to today:




He basically lists different eras of students:

late 90s - students would bring a CD in and ask to learn specific songs. They would know the names of the songs, the names of the band members and seemed to have a real connection to the music and the people who created it. They knew a lot of the lesser known songs too, as any album usually had a mix of big hits and deep cuts.

vey late 90s/early 00s - with the birth of Napster and MP3s, students would bring in burned CDs. They still had a connect to the bands and knew a lot about them, but they had less knowledge of deep cut tracks, as they would usually just create a compilation of big hits

early to mid 00s - people brought in ipods with huge playlists, with lesser known tracks discarded completely in favour of the most popular hits . The School of Rock movie inspired a lot of people to learn older rock songs

mid to late 00s - people didn't bring in anything at all, they just said "I wanna learn this song from Youtube". They knew pretty much nothing about the bands themselves or their lesser known songs. Guitar Hero inspired a lot of people to learn, but many would get really discouraged when they found out that actually playing on the guitar was harder than playing the game . It did broaden their taste in music though.

smartphone era - most of the students don't even know what they like, they have to check their phone when he asks "So, what music are you into?"

It's interesting how much things have changed in just a couple of decades. For me, I only started learning properly since the pandemic and it's difficult to imagine trying to learn without Youtube.

 

[Kazza]

Speaking of learning via Youtube, this guy has been churning out great classical guitar lessons at a rate of over twice a week for months now and has become my favourite guitar teacher:

Robert Lunn - YouTube

 

[EviLore]

Kazza yeah, music is not something everyone listens to critically anymore. That's been on the decline since the mp3 era began. With Spotify et al, people don't even know what they're listening to anymore.

It's definitely not like that for 100% of younger people, but that's the trend. But you'll find lots of hardcore music fans who know things properly at concerts and festivals.

Either way, people appreciate skill, so playing an instrument well will always be cool. The fewer people willing to put in the hundreds and thousands of hours of work to git gud, the more special it becomes. And it's no less rewarding on a personal level to master something difficult in this instant gratification era.

 

[Kazza]

Kazza yeah, music is not something everyone listens to critically anymore. That's been on the decline since the mp3 era began. With Spotify et al, people don't even know what they're listening to anymore.

It's definitely not like that for 100% of younger people, but that's the trend. But you'll find lots of hardcore music fans who know things properly at concerts and festivals.

Either way, people appreciate skill, so playing an instrument well will always be cool. The fewer people willing to put in the hundreds and thousands of hours of work to git gud, the more special it becomes. And it's no less rewarding on a personal level to master something difficult in this instant gratification era.

I think a certain amount of repetition is needed in order to really appreciate something, whether that be games, music or cinema. These days it's so easy to just consume something once and then move straight on to the next thing, but the problem with this is that listening to music becomes precisely that - a mere act of consumption. It's only when you take your time with something (memorising lyrics, band member names, whole scenes from a movie etc) that it truly becomes part of your "inner culture" so to speak. Pre-broadband internet, there wasn't much choice but to listen to or watch that CD/DVD/VHS for the 10th (or 100th) time, so it almost become a part of you, but now it requires a conscious effort. I'm trying to keep a 25-75 old-new ratio, to avoid the pitfalls of that feeling of shallow consumption.

It's definitely true that there are still some young people really into their music. The guy in the video mentioned that a silver lining of the internet is that he can now pull from students from around the world rather than just his local area, and he said that he has discovered lots of hardcore young people who are really serious about learning.

It must have been amazing to have been a musician before the birth of recorded music - the only way for people to listen to music was via your own voice or hands! Looking at a more recent timescale, I wonder if there are more or fewer serious hobbyist musicians than in the 80s/90s/early 00s? I would guess fewer, as there are so many other distractions now, and the kind of boredom that made people want to do stuff like learn guitar just doesn't really exist now. Personally, I find myself being easily impressed by anyone these days who can get engrossed enough in something so as to be able to ignore their phone for a couple of hours, so I think you might be right when you say that people still admire people how can play music.

 

[Happosai]

It's funny you should bring up learning guitar back in the old days, a guitar teacher recently put up this video about how his students have changed from the late 90s to today:




He basically lists different eras of students:

late 90s - students would bring a CD in and ask to learn specific songs. They would know the names of the songs, the names of the band members and seemed to have a real connection to the music and the people who created it. They knew a lot of the lesser known songs too, as any album usually had a mix of big hits and deep cuts.

vey late 90s/early 00s - with the birth of Napster and MP3s, students would bring in burned CDs. They still had a connect to the bands and knew a lot about them, but they had less knowledge of deep cut tracks, as they would usually just create a compilation of big hits

early to mid 00s - people brought in ipods with huge playlists, with lesser known tracks discarded completely in favour of the most popular hits . The School of Rock movie inspired a lot of people to learn older rock songs

mid to late 00s - people didn't bring in anything at all, they just said "I wanna learn this song from Youtube". They knew pretty much nothing about the bands themselves or their lesser known songs. Guitar Hero inspired a lot of people to learn, but many would get really discouraged when they found out that actually playing on the guitar was harder than playing the game . It did broaden their taste in music though.

smartphone era - most of the students don't even know what they like, they have to check their phone when he asks "So, what music are you into?"

It's interesting how much things have changed in just a couple of decades. For me, I only started learning properly since the pandemic and it's difficult to imagine trying to learn without Youtube.

Very informative! I tried both to be honest. I'm a CD/FLAC snob and like having physical media with a good 44 or above kHz sound (I hate compressed audio for music unless it's a cartridge game). CD/DVD/blu-ray audio is still the best physcial you can buy. I've been collecting super deluxe reissues of older albums remastered to 5.1 surround but I'll settle for studio too. The exception I make to the rule of digital is material that's long out-of-print that had to be transferred from an old cassette acetate and no CD master exists. So, not everything is on CD or in FLAC (lossless). Sometimes the only way to hear old concert recordings or unreleased material from bands is to dig through digital uploads which had to run through a partial compression.

 

[Happosai]

Kazza yeah, music is not something everyone listens to critically anymore. That's been on the decline since the mp3 era began. With Spotify et al, people don't even know what they're listening to anymore.

It's definitely not like that for 100% of younger people, but that's the trend. But you'll find lots of hardcore music fans who know things properly at concerts and festivals.

Either way, people appreciate skill, so playing an instrument well will always be cool. The fewer people willing to put in the hundreds and thousands of hours of work to git gud, the more special it becomes. And it's no less rewarding on a personal level to master something difficult in this instant gratification era.

On the note of Spotify, it's a loophole in the system that helped artist continue getting royalties when the well was starting to run dry. I recall reading several interviews a few years back on how many older English artists were upset that sites like Spotify were legal -- as users would simply not buy an album at all and their label/distributors weren't doing anything about it. To the artists, they felt like they were being robbed of that revenue they had seen more of during the CD/record/cassette eras.

It's been less rewarding for myself as well. I can go in an listen to a quick 2000's electronica track but never learn a thing about the artist. However, owning entire discographies on CD of regular artists; I can hear various changes (good or bad) in their line-ups, style, and variation over time and listen to a long-play without just stopping to skip for the "hits."

 

[Darko]

The World's First Attachable, Mini, Portab Guitar Amplifier - Jamstack

Play anywhere, anytime, with any sound. We believe mini, portable guitar amps should sound incredible, be multi-purposes, and be made with premium components. Jamstack is small enough to fit in your backpack and loud enough to play a small pub. As seen on Dragon's Den, it's the most portable...

jamstack.io

I see this advertised on Instagram all the time is it any good

 

[EviLore]

The World's First Attachable, Mini, Portab Guitar Amplifier - Jamstack

Play anywhere, anytime, with any sound. We believe mini, portable guitar amps should sound incredible, be multi-purposes, and be made with premium components. Jamstack is small enough to fit in your backpack and loud enough to play a small pub. As seen on Dragon's Den, it's the most portable...

jamstack.io

I see this advertised on Instagram all the time is it any good

Looks a little...big...to be hanging from the guitar directly? Maybe it's the world's first in 2021 because it makes no sense. Expensive, too, for what looks like a Bluetooth speaker more or less.

Boss Katana Mini is $99 if you want something small and battery-powered.

 

[Korranator]

Best suggestions for beginner on accustic?

 

[Kev Kev]

Best suggestions for beginner on accustic?

What kind of music do you like and what do you want to play?

 

[Happosai]

Best suggestions for beginner on accustic?

For guitars, Yamaha medium-large bodied acoustics are affordable but have the sound of medium-high end acoustic guitars. For starters a book that helped me (still in print) some 18-odd years ago "Hal Leonard Guitar Method Book 1." It details the basics of the guitar itself, learning notes/octaves/harmonics, basic chords, etc. For music to practice...any rock/pop genre music consisting of triad chords in 4/4 timing. That's all for beginners. Some of the most famous songs in the past 70-years were songs written in 4/4 timing using basic triad chords.

That's to get started. The technique comes naturally; skill depends on your mindset and discipline.

 

[Korranator]

What kind of music do you like and what do you want to play?

I enjoy metal, rock, blues, and some jazz. Figured either rock or blues would probably be easiest to start, before moving into more complex metal or jazz. Eventually upgrade to electric.

inherited this acoustic from my uncle.

 

[Digity]

 

[Kev Kev]

I enjoy metal, rock, blues, and some jazz. Figured either rock or blues would probably be easiest to start, before moving into more complex metal or jazz. Eventually upgrade to electric.

inherited this acoustic from my uncle.

Ok great! Sweet guitar man

• First step is to make sure it’s in tune.
  • Download an app called Guitar Tuna or use a YouTube video.
  • The strings are numbered starting from the bottom of the guitar (the string closest to the floor). Your smallest, skinniest string is your E string (string 1), next is B (2), then G (3), D (4), A (5), and finally another E string at the top (6), the big, fat one. Get used to thinking about those strings as being numbered 1 through 6, you’ll hear a lot of of quick “put your third finger on string 4, fret 3” and it gets confusing real fast for beginners. So, first step, tune those strings!
• Step two, get familiar with your instrument
  • The biggest part of your guitar is the body, also knows as the “box” of the guitar
  • 
  • On the body of the guitar is the sound hole, and sometimes a pick guard is attached to protect your guitar from wear and tear while playing over the years. Pick guards can be replaced as needed.
  • Further down the body of the guitar you’ll have your bridge...
  • 
  • The bridge is that little white piece that the strings are resting on. More on this whole area when we cover changing your strings, but that will be a post for another day (as a beginner, you should change your strings every 6 months, or more often if you have the time/money and your anal about that kind of stuff)
  • Next is the neck...
  • 
  • Then you have the head...
  • 
  • Connected the head are the tuning machines, made up of the part your string wraps around and the knob things sticking out the sides (there are several different names for all the components of the tuning machine, but in general, people just refer to the whole thing as the “tuners”).
  • The plastic strip that the strings are resting on is called the nut...
  • 
  • And that’s it! It’s good to have a basic understanding of these terms so you can communicate with other guitar players effectively, especially once you go to change your strings for the first time, or are trying to explain an issue your having to a repair shop.
• Next is a more in depth look at the neck, as it relates to making your first chord...
  • You’ll be sticking to frets 1 through 4 for the next several months. Most people assume the frets are the open spaces on the neck, but they are actually the metal strips. When you start to make your first chords, you want to keep your finger tips as close to the frets as possible. Check out this picture...
  • 
  • He’s not making an actual chord as far as I can tell, but notice how close his fingers are to the frets. Here’s another example...
  • 
  • Take note that I am talking about the fret closest to the body of the guitar, not the head.
  • The idea is that being close to the fret will assist you when pushing down on the string. The further you are from that fret, the harder you’ll have to push, which is no bueno when you’re a beginner.
  • The dots represent fret numbers. Going from the head, to the body (or “up” the neck, in guitar speak), you have 3, 5, 7, 9 and 12...
  • 
  • It is worth noting that the guitar is made of wood, and as such needs to be taken care of. Never play with wet hands and always wash your hands with soap before playing, drying off thoroughly of course. Necks need to be wiped down while changing strings, but don’t use household cleaners. More on that in another post...
  • Also, never leave your guitar in a hot car (or cold for that matter), keep it away from windows (whether they are open or closed... but especially away from open windows), and in general, just understand that your guitar is made of wood and can be warped by big shifts in temperature and humidity, or over exposure to the elements. I have heard of guitar players not understanding this, and leaving their guitar in the car or next to an open window too much, and literally ruining their guitars in a matter of months.
  • Keep the guitar in a case as much as possible. A hard case is better for acoustics, since they are more delicate, but any case is better than none.
• And finally, making your first chord!
  • I always start my students off on E minor for their first chord.
  • E minor (or Em for short) is your middle finger on the 5th string, 2nd fret, and your ring finger on 4th string, 2nd fret...
  • 
  • 
  • From there, you can easily make E Major (EM or just E for short), simply by leaving your 2 and 3 finger where they are, and putting down your 1 finger on the 3 string 1 fret...
  • 
  • And then, you can easily make Am by keep that chord shape, but move all three fingers down one string...
  • 
  • Practice transitioning from Em, to EM, and finally to Am. This will take weeks and months to master. You are going to have to suck at something for a while if you want to get good at it. Be patient, slow and steady wins the race. And try to enjoy the sound of each note and how they interact with the chord as a whole, that is the nature of music, no? To enjoy the sound being made? I think so.
• A couple house keeping things about technique in your fret hand, and making sure your chords sound clear and clean...
  • Always, always, always use finger tips, not the finger pads...
  • 
  • The pad is fleshier, so it doesn’t hurt as much, but it’s a bad habit to get into because you will mute your strings if you use pads. Always use tips!
  • Keep your thumb on the back of the neck as much as possible...
  • 
  • Thumb position changes as your playing evolves, but when you first start, it’s important to keep your thumb like you see in the picture. This helps you apply pressure from the back of the neck, and gives you what I like to call “pinching power”, which will help you push down hard enough on your strings and make playing chords easier.
  • In the picture above, take note of how much space is between the palm of his hand and the neck of the guitar. His palm is not resting, or gripped, to the bottom of the neck. I always tell my students you should be able to put a finger through there. If your gripped to the bottom of the neck, it makes using your finger tips, and placing your thumb on the back of the neck, much more difficult. And it will slow you down once you start moving around the neck more. Make sure there is some space there.
  • Push the strings down real hard, and play each string individually. Make sure each string is making sound that is clear and loud, and if it is not, make the tiny adjustments necessary with your left hand, and keep tweaking till it makes the desired sound. Don’t move on to the next chord until each string sounds clean and clear.
• After you have mastered those three chords, and you can transition between them quickly and cleanly...
  • Learn C and G, and be able to transition cleanly...
  • 
  • 
  • WARNING! These chords are where every beginner usually gives up. It could take you weeks to master them. It took me months!!! Be patient and try to enjoy the process. You might want to just worry about the fret hand for a while. Don’t even worry about strumming and making them sound clear. Just sit back, watch some Netflix and practice transitions back and forth with just your fret hand. Do it for enough hours and you’ll get it.
• After those, work on a few more essential open chords (they are called open chords because some string are left unfretted or “open”)...
  • 
  • 
  • 
    
    
  • After you have mastered all of these open chords, I would say it’s time to tackle the dreaded barre chords . But that is probably several months from now (I didn’t start trying to play barre chords until a year or so in).
  • Strumming is a whole other post (perhaps another Gaffer would like to tackle that subject?). In fact, your strumming and picking hand is often more important than your fret hand, but obviously you need to be able to fret chords before strumming. So get these chords under your belt first so you can move on to strumming and eventually playing songs!

Ok I’m tired of typing lol. I made this post for you and also other beginners, so my apologies if you already know all of that. If you have any other specific questions, feel free to ask and I’m sure myself or someone else will be happy to help. Good luck!

And remember to be patient and enjoy the process. This isn’t a chore, it’s a hobby. It's not a single serving 2 week hobby, or even two months, more like 2 years! Start slow at first. Just 20 or 30 minutes, any longer than that and it will drive you mad. Eventually you'll be able to play some chords and you'll sit their for hours without thinking about it. It's tough at first, but very rewarding! Stick with it a little bit everyday (30 minutes or so), or every other day, and you’ll see teeny tiny improvements every week, and big improvements over a long period of time.

 

[Korranator]

Wow that's a lot of info. I'm a complete newbie so this will be a great startIng guide. Thanks.

 

[Kev Kev]

Wow that's a lot of info. Thanks

no worries! dont mean to overwhelm you lol, its just important that you get a solid start with good technique, or youll have to undo the bad technique later.

the good news is, if you can play all those chords, and you get a little strumming down, then you can play nearly any song on the radio (well, songs with guitars in them lol). they mostly all use those chords. from there you can learn some pentatonic scales and start soloing over those chords. next step after that is to learn more complicated chords and scales, and thats when you can really start digging into blues, jazz and metal.

but you gotta start with those basics first. like i said, dont look at it as an obligation. just pick the guitar up, flip on the tv and start trying to get the chords under your fingers. just chill and have fun with it, thats the key to consistency.

 

[Polygonal_Sprite]

I've been casually playing for 20 years. Can do the twelve or so basic chords, power chords and barre chords and some basic two string solos. Not really played much in the past five years at all so I'm really rusty and man do my soft guitar virgin like fingers hurt again lol.

I've been a huge fan of Nirvana since around '99 and since I'm thinking of starting to play again more frequently and my guitar is dogshit (a cheap strat copy) I want a better one. I've always wanted Cobain's custom designed 'Jagstang' but after seeing the price of them almost double in a year to £1500 I think I might just get a Sonic Blue Squier Jaguar for £450. It looks very similar anyway and is a third of the price

 

[Happosai]

I'm a multi-musician and found out only 6-years ago that I was made for bass. i had adapted classical picking but I cut the nails from time to time and found numerous techniques on bass which captivate me to playing 4-string/5-string basses almost more frequently than 6-string guitars.

 

[Kev Kev]

this is just too ompressive and awesome to not post. they kind of do the music in order of where you hear it in game. so it takes you through the whole journey with just two guitars in 30 epic minutes. and the are fantastic guitar players! i love how the use the nylon string guitar and the steel string at certain parts to get the feel of the fong right. and they shoot video outside in areas that resemble the areas found in game. so cool!

 

[SirTerry-T]

I think I want a Shamisen...

 

[Happosai]

this is just too ompressive and awesome to not post. they kind of do the music in order of where you hear it in game. so it takes you through the whole journey with just two guitars in 30 epic minutes. and the are fantastic guitar players! i love how the use the nylon string guitar and the steel string at certain parts to get the feel of the fong right. and they shoot video outside in areas that resemble the areas found in game. so cool!

When you posted here it showed in my notifications and I don't believe I'm following you but I like the music you play in covers. Neat video but I thought you'd be posting one of your videos.

 

[Kev Kev]