blonde poker forum

I need some help all
i got an electric guitar for crimbo and realy want to learn how to play it
Ive got the programme guitar pro but that just lets me play tabs but it doesnt teach me how to play them or how to read the tabs
if anyone has any dvd's or programmes to teach me the basics to get i would appriceate it so much
the one song i want to learn is coldplay  ..talk as ive been told its quite easy
help please

My oldest got an electric guitar last year and hes learnt from errrrrrrrr somewhere.

Will ask him tomorrow but I expect you will get a few answers before then.

Happy plucking :-)

save the hassle and get lessons is the best idea. You will learn infinitely faster than teaching yourself.

tab is good but you want to learn music really, it will make you a much better player.

Other than that there are some excellent free sites which take you from total beginner to decent standard but you have to put the effort in, i will post one when i get home.

Try asking AdamM, he's a bit of a guitar freak, he does a lot of Val Doonican stuff I believe.

I taught myself to play guitar (after a fashion) with no help at all.

It took me years to work out the things that a tutor could have taught me in a few months.

You need Bert Wheedon's 'Play in a Day'.

Really showing my age!!  :tikay:

Bert Wheedon! (Weedon?). Wow, there's a memory.

Remember Larry Adler?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LEARN-HOW-TO-PLAY-BEGINNER-GUITAR-TUITION-LESSON-DVD-UK_W0QQitemZ150074103663QQihZ005QQcategoryZ109033QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

My mistake with the spelling!

I know the name - Larry Adler - but not overly familiar with his work!!

I wish we'd had the Trade Descriptions Act when I was a kid... I could have got my money back on that damn book!!!!

(http://i11.ebayimg.com/07/i/000/80/37/5642_1.JPG)

http://www.zentao.com/guitar/guitar-lessons.html

Thanks all for the help
im giving myself a year to be able to play a song from start to finish
so i'll keep you up to date and post a file of it on here a year from now  so you can have a laugh

Merry Christmas.

My PC died Saturday before Christmas so badly, that this is my first post from a new PC. Tony PMd me the link to this topic. I have been playing 20 years and am self taught. I don't read music and don't think that helps much for a modern guitarist. trouble with getting lessons is you have to find someone who'll teach you the sort of stuff you're into. grown ups find it difficult to stick to learning the guitar if you are playing 'if you're happy and you know it'
If you can't find a good teacher you will definitely need another guitarist to play with. preferably one who can show you how to string it properly.

I taught on and off for about 10 years. this is broadly the order I get students learning. don't know if this will help but try hitting it in roughly this order

-learn the fret board. Strings thickest to thinnest E,A,D,G,B,E
notes on E string (# = SHARP, b = FLAT. Most guitarist I know call notes flat rather than sharp, ie 2nd fret on the E string will be refereed to as G flat rather than F sharp)
E , F , F#/Gb , G , G#/Ab , A , A#/Bb , B , C , C#/Db , D , D#/Eb , E
Remember no #/b between E and F and between B and C
I used to get my students to draw out a 13x6 grid and fill it in open to 12th fret on each of the 6 strings.if you've done it right the 12th fret will be the same note as the open string. it's long winded but if another guitarist says, play me a G you don't want to be counting. you need to be able to go straight there.

-learn to tune it
Notice that 5th fret on the thick E string is A, same as open 2nd string.
5th fret A string = open D string
5th fret D string = open G string
4th fret G string = open B string
5th fret B string = open E string
therefore, if you can establish that ONE string is tuned right you can uses the above fret positions to tune the whole thing.

a digital tuner is good to have but it's also good to be able to take a note from a pitch pipe / keyboard / other instrument and be able to tune it the old fashioned way as above.

-learn your first position chords.
make sure you use the tips of your fingers to fret your chords
using a chord book or song books learn yout basic chords around the nut.
you will want to at least know:
E,G,A,C,D
Em,Am,Dm
then F and B
next, Barre chords.
for all the chords you need to be able to hear every note sound clearly. keep shifting your fingers about until that happens.
I found learning to put my fingers in the right shape for the chords without my guitar helped.

-Basic scales
a Tone is a two fret jump on the guitar, a semi-tone just one fret.
major scale is
Tone, Tone, Semi-tone,
Tone, Tone, Tone, Semi-Tone
so in numbers on one strings that's
OPEN, 2,4,5,7,9,11,12

Minor scale is OPEN,2,3,5,7,8,10,12

play scales up and down so one complete exercise for the major scale would be 0,2,4,5,7,9,11,12,11,9,7,5,4,2,0

once you've learned it on one string, try using your map of the fret board from step one and work out how to play the scale within a four or five fret bracket.

Those are the basics really. a year later you might be making a start on modes (advanced scales) and more advance rhythm techniques.

sadly, there's not short cuts to the guitar. the first couple of years are really hard. I think you're onto the right idea with aiming for particular songs / bands. If it's Cold play you like, get a song book and work on it one song at a time, and one chord at a time. For my dad it was John Denver. Me, it was Chuck Berry to start with.

If you get stuck onANYTHING, feel free to PM me and I'll help all I can.

good luck

for the Blonde Bash at DTD when it happens I'll have to sort out a jam session for the Blonde musicians.

Thanks Adam.

welcome

What a fantastic and helpful post Adam,on behalf of my husband and youngest daughter many thanks
Shelly x

I thought so too, must have taken him hours. Typical blonde.

nice one adam.

wish someone had laid it out like that for me at the start, playing with another guitarist is essential.

I had a few minutes so decided to put up some scales that would be handy to know. then just as I was proof reading it my little boy turned the PC off ;frustrated; so this is the second time I've typed all this out.

With theses scales learn the shape more than the actual fret positions. by moving the whole shape, you change the key. eg if you move the C major scale below and start on 3rd fret rather than 8th you have the G major by playing the same shape. one exersize is going up and down once.
the underlined numbers are the root notes.
get into good habits from day one with your little finger. the nubers in italics are played with your little finger

here goes again

C Major
E  8 10 12                                                                                                                  12 10 8
A             8 10  12                                                                                           12 10 8
D                          9 10  12                                                                12 10  9
G                                       9 10 12                                                12 10 9
B                                                    10 12 13                13 12 10
E                                                             10 12 13 12 10

cant stress how important this shape is if you ever go on to be an advanced lead guitarist.

A minor
in this one the 4--5 indicates you play the first note with the index finger and slide it one fret to the next one
E 5  7  8                                                                                              8  7  5
A           5  7  8                                                                         8  7  5
D                     5  7                                                            7  5
G                           4--5  7                                        7  5--4
B                                      5  6  8                   8  6  5
E                                                5  7  8  7  5

and finally the classic
BLUES SCALE, in this case, A

E  5                                                                                         5
A     3  5--6--7                                                            7--6--5  3
D                   5  7                                              7  5
G                          5  7--8                         8--7  5
B                                     5  8           8  5
E                                           5  8  5

It bares repeating that there are no short cuts to being a good guitarist and the first couple of years are the hardest. It's like a giant stringed Rubik puzzle. if you nail down the basic theory it becomes much easier to express yourself with the guitar. For years I've played in and written for rock bands but I've always had other musicians around me and a singer to deliver the words so I couldn't even sing you half my songs. my new years resolution is to learn songs that I can play and sing (to my limited ability) on an acoustic guitar.

Ok, maybe i'm misreading AdamM's post incorrectly. I've followed what he said and tried to apply it with my air guitar - unfortunately it sounds exactly the same as before i read the post!!

Oh well back to the drawing board :(

Air guitar? Don't fret.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUgiaOT2DOo

FFS.

Bring back Conscription.

what gauge imaginary strings do you have on your air guitar? try imagining different ones. failing that have you tried changing your FauX pedals? (nearest to a pun I could think of)

Conscientious objector on grounds that i'm a pacifist.

(or completely insane - take your pick ;))

Thanks for that - maybe i do better in the 2007 World air guitar championships!! :)up

I used to know an air drummer ( I swear)

think he had to give it up because he only had a virtual hatchback and couldn't get around.

All we need now is an air singer and we can form a group!!

Given the state of some of the manufactured rubbish that is currently masquerading as music in the charts we'd be on to a winner!! ;D

That is so poor

I agree, thats all I could pluck up the courage to Post.

Plenty of Feedback then

WOW thank you Adam
the things i have been picking up from trying myself and the prog i have started out good
a friend gave me a tuner and a book with the scales but you have made it a lot easier
give me a few months and if you dont mind i will PM you thx

 :)up

Just over a month now

how's it going so far? any problems? Mastered it?

Not too good  ;djinn; ;djinn; ;djinn;

i have tried the   ... stick to one tune .. no joy
so now im back to the basics
im going to learn all the scales and practice them for a while to see if i can hit a note :-}
thx and i will need your help later as its seems than sooner
gave myself a year so plenty of time   :-}

I'm not sure that fretboard roadmap theory stuff will necessarily be that useful to you...

I'm a semi-professional musician, by which I mean I busk on the Tube, I taught myself to play guitar when I was 15 because I wanted to play songs to myself in my bedroom, which I'm guessing is what you want to do, strum popluar ditties and the like... Scales and things are useful if you want to play lead guitar, but I recommend you get a learn-to-play-guitar book - any one will do - or look somewhere random on the internet, just to find out how to tune and hold the guitar. Then all you need is a chord finder (you can get a book, or this one's pretty good - http://www.xs4all.nl/~hippy/chords/), some chord charts for songs you like (in my experience the tab sites are all the same) and a bunch of time to practise. Playing guitar is actually a really unnatural thing for your fingers to do, it takes years to get all the muscles and joints used to it, and there's no substitute for playing every day until it just clicks and it feels natural. Teachers can help, it's true, but very often you won't understand what you're learning until you feel comfortable with the instrument anyway. I remember when I was at school I learned some music theory, and I learned it off by heart to pass the exam, but then forgot it instantly; I certainly was never able to apply it to anything practical. But just from constant playing over 12 years I've picked up a bunch of theory so I can intuitively play along with other people and with songs I've never heard before.

I've also given myself a repetitive strain injury...

Nice Post Dana.

Dare I ask what caused the RSI.......?

Well thank you very much.

I will not rise to your insinuations. The RSI is apparently a combination of something genetic involving the collagen in my body being super-bendy, and me unwisely playing the banjo for 14 hours a day. It's called Hypermobility Syndrome. The doctor said it's very rare and I should be proud of myself.  ;topofclass;

the collagen in my body being super-bendy

The Doc said THAT? Medical Science must have moved on since I qualified. "super-bendy". Only a girlie could say that. Tsk, tsk.

Because when men are bendy, it's not super?

What is thr collective term for banjo players? Banjo-ers? Banjo-ists? Banjo-plonkers?

I must add that Dana is a superb Banjo-whatever it is-er. But I'll never forgive her for pinning a label to my tie when I stayed at her place one night before catching the early train home. I never realised it was pinned to me untill I was woken up at Derby. "Please wake him at Derby. Remove drool,frequently".

That was Jen!

That's it, blame your best mate.

So how do you explian how your fingerprints came to be on my chest?

That never happened at all!

I think you should know, my boyfriend looks at this forum and he's really big and butch and he can beat you up with his guns. Just so you know. ;snoopy'sguns;

SNOOPY! She's cheating on you!

Some bloke with big guns apparently.

Not too late to give Mr Weedon a chance... http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Burt-Weedons-Play-In-A-Day-Guitar-Guide-Chord-Book_W0QQitemZ110085171355QQihZ001QQcategoryZ2235QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 ;goodluck;

I'd agree that the theory stuff I put up isn't necessary to enjoy the guitar. I think they're worth working on long term for any guitarist. I may be repeating myself but I used to feel like the guitar was a big rubix puzzle until I learned the theory. once I understood the way it all works I found it alot easier to express myself.

no substutution for practice and most of all, I think a jamming partner(s) help.