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AdamM
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« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2006, 12:36:23 AM » |
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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.
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