Musician's Thread

Here he is with it, I think the farther parts of the neck are a stretch, but he was able to do the first chord on the second fret (I want to say it was "E") ok with his reach and his fingers. What do you think?

 

I am neither of those people, but learn both. Obviously your pick technique is good, but you gotta be able to walk it with your fingers. Plus finger tone (to me) sounds much nicer, I only use picks for parts that are impossible to play with fingers.

 

I am selling my old Squier Strat on eBay

I never played it much. I love music, but never take the time to practice very much. I enjoy playing guitar as just a little hobby. I have so many other interests, that I never took the time to dedicate to learning guitar better. However, I've been committed in the last year or so to take more time to get better, moving beyond just knowing a few chords and strumming. I got a decent Breedlove acoustic recently, and play mostly on that. Getting that new guitar inspired me to play more.

So, I'm hoping getting a new electric will inspire me further. I have played a friend's Les Paul Standard, as well as different LP versions at the local Guitar Center. I think I going to go with the Standard. I wish I could afford a real Gibson, but will settle for the Epiphone. (Unless, I sell the Strat for a lot more than I expect! Ha!)

Since this place is always a fount of knowledge that I can never seem to get straight answers on anywhere else, I thought I'd ask here. The current model of LP Standard in Ebony is a good bit cheaper than any of the "burst" plain top models. I am assuming that is because the maple veneer is painted instead of allowing the natural grain to show, and therefore the selection of wood can have more blemishes. If that's true, does it negatively effect the tone or durability? If it does, I honestly don't think I'm skilled enough to notice the difference, but I appreciate any commentary.

 

Never been a fan of Marshall amps, the Blackstar amps that Doublestop recommended are better (in my opinion duh).

Anyway, I can play louder than my drum set with a 15 watt Tiny Terror into a 1x12 inch speaker. What the hell are you playing out of that can't get that loud? A full stack is pretty unnecessary, you'll never be able to turn it up at all, especially in places that seat less than 100 people. You're never really relying on how loud the amp can get anyway, as long as the places you're playing have a PA system you can play out of a 5-watt amp for all anyone cares, amplification comes from the house.

Definitely check out some different amp brands, Blackstar was mentioned, I love Orange, one of my friends swears by his THD Univalve. I sound kind of like a Marshall hater, but to be honest a Marshall just has that distinct sound that everyone's like "Oh, this guy's playing out of a Marshall." If that's your goal, then go for it, but there's better amps out there.

PA's are a good recommendation, you can either go mixer+powered speakers or get an amp+speakers (and maybe mixer, it depends). Depending on how you do it, I'm not a huge fan of direct guitar ins unless you have a nice DI box. Again, different strokes.

 

Same boat really. I play finger style or slap for the most part, and I'm pretty terrible at using a pick. That said, having more versatility in your pocket is the best. There are times where you'll need a pick and there will be times where slapping the fuck out of your bass is the next big step - even if you never use anything else but a pick, it's still a necessity to know other styles. I generally use a pick when I'm playing really fast songs that I cannot get with fingers. Even at that, if you play near the bottom the string, where the strings don't vibrate (nearer to the bridge) as much and crank your amps and such, you can play just as fast and as loud.

I like using my fingers for the same reason as double. I have a lot more manipulation than a pick; you can go really soft, yard on the strings, use your finger nails to grind the strings and it's really simple to go finger style to slap (rotate your hand). Most of the people I know who exclusively use picks are guitarists who don't know finger style.

 

If you're into gear, this is a pretty good run down of Alex Lifeson's complicated rig . . .

 

Well, I took your advice and got myself a guitar, too. My daughter also got one, so she and I have acoustics, my son has his electric. For now, we're doing a DVD on how to play, when school gets out, we're going to do lessons. We don't have time with school and karate to do them now.

The kids have a music teacher at school they think is "totally awesome!" and he and his wife do lessons from home. We're going to start simple, once a week. For now, I got them guitar stands and they help themselves to their guitars whenever they feel like it.

Now here's my question: I can read regular music (I play saxophone) but I A) don't read chords and B) don't read tabs. I've looked at tabs online, and they seem easy enough to figure out, but is there an easy way to learn that stuff that you guys swear by? I've googled it, and it's kinda like medicine: There's a bit too much information, and I would rather hear from you experienced guys than weed through a bunch of bullshit.

 

Here's a really, really stupid question:

The acoustic guitars my daughter and I have both came with neck straps. The ass end of the guitar has a little thing that you put the strap on, but there isn't one on the other side (like on my son's electric). The straps come with little cords on one end.

How the fuck do I put the straps on???

 

Tie the cords together to the neck of the guitar in the void between the tuners and where the fretboard starts. Then cut away any excess string.

 

I don't think it's a stupid question, my first instinct was to keep the strap away from the strings so I had to ask someone too.

This (although I don't think I ever needed to cut any excess) but if you need to see it to understand:




Same thing attaching with the two cords.

 

Go check out <a class="postlink" href="http://www.songsterr.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.songsterr.com</a>, they have a decent tab selection and it has all the tabs in flash or something and will play the song in shitty midi for you to play along too.

 

Learning to read chords in sheet music for guitar is a bitch, and not something you really need to concern yourself with.

Net had some good advice. I guess the best thing I could add is that it's much easier to pick a style and learn it to a pretty decent amount before you start transitioning to other styles. Blues is probably the easiest/best place to start (unless you're into classical), it sets the foundation for a lot of the styles that came after it. Being able to read music is a good skill that you already have, if you were into jazz it'd come to serve you well, and you might want to consider improving it.

For technique, all I did was learn songs (also, I forgot to mention I'm self taught as well). I was into metal and all that fast shit when I was younger, so I picked up on all the technique necessary to play those songs just by putting them on repeat and jamming along. An excellent utility is Guitar Pro, kind of like Songsterr but sounds less like shit. Most tab sites (Ultimate-Guitar has the biggest selection I've found) have Guitar Pro files available for you to download, especially good for learning songs that are beyond your current skill range.

Learning to play by ear takes a while, but is hugely useful. However, just based on how long it takes to develop an ear don't feel bad about using tabs as some sort of "easy way," if you learn the song AND listen to the damn thing and figure out what sounds like what, you'll progress quickly. Learning the theory behind everything helps out your ear as well, for playing with somebody as well as writing your own material. Best not to dive into that until you have some understanding and control of the instrument.

You're just starting out, your ability will improve drastically in a short time even if you just practice a little bit, as long as its consistent. Learn songs, learn chord inversions, learn how to sweep pick, there's so much out there that can teach you the correct way to do something. If there's a specific technique you want to learn, there's probably a 100 videos on how to do it. Just keep learning.

 

Well, my guitar just got here today and I've figured out "Old McDonald" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" by ear for the kids, so watch out Eddie Van Halen!

I've spent about an hour playing major scales (glad I took that Foundations of Music class last summer) to just figure out where the notes are and what sounds like what.

The fingertips on my left hand are a bit sore which I expected, but I'm actually really enjoying myself with it.

Thanks for all the advice, I'll be checking that stuff out.

 

I started looking online for tabs for relatively easy songs, so I've been practicing "Breathe" by Faith Hill today. Nice slow one note at a time song for the most part, and my wife likes it, so that's a decent motivator. The tabs are very easy to figure out, especially since that particular song seems to be the same throughout.

I'm having a hard time getting my hands to hold down the strings I want without fucking up the open strings, and I find myself having to really think about what finger goes where for which string so that my fingers aren't all twisted up. I'm assuming that will come with time and practice.

The parts on the tab where it says "Am" I'm assuming means the A major chord? What about when it says "G/B"?