Hints and tips for guitar beginner

[pcfan123]

Edit: Do you know how much I'd expect to spend for those strings?

Just saw this, over here you can get a pack of EB acoustics for $6.

 

[Magz]

@Masterblaster76 - I'd recommend changing them once a month, Ernie Ball strings are pretty decent, I can't remember the name of the ones I have but they're even better, they have coloured tips so you know which string is which if that helps you when you go to buy some.

As for the buzzing, yep, sure-fire way of knowing its time to change the strings generally. Its generally when theres a build-up of fine dirt in the strings, the other way is to smell your fingers after playing, if you don't like it, then thats another way of knowing.

Judging by the coloured ends you've got D'addargio strings , same as the ones on one of my basses. On my other bass I do the funk thing, I haven't changed the strings in nearly a year but it really sounds deep and dirty, perfect for playing slap.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Had my first proper lesson today (after the consultation one). Now, I'm learning 12 bar blues, shuffle techniques and the three chord trick, so I'm not short of practice material!

 

[jkartik]

really busy these days....dont get much time to practice....:crying

hopefully, should get some free time in the coming days..

 

[jkartik]

i so wanna play this song.....WAYYY out of my league...but no harm in dreaming.

jkartik added 2 Minutes and 12 Seconds later...

does anyone know any good songs for beginners ?

 

[pcfan123]

1. "Horse With No Name" - America

Chords: Em, F#m7sus

2. "Leaving On A Jet Plane" - John Denver

Chords: G, C, D

3. "No Rain" - Blind Melon

Chords: E, D, A, G

4. "Every Rose Has It's Thorns" - Poison

Chords: G, C, D, Em

5. "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" - Bob Dylan/ Guns N' Roses

Chords: G, C, D, Am

6. "One" - U2

Chords: Am, D7, FM7, G

7. "Four Strong Winds" - Neil Young

Chords: C, Dm, G, F

8. "I Remember You" - Skid Row

Chords: G, C, D, Am, Em

9. "Come As You Are" - Nirvana

Chords: Em, D, G, Am, C

10. "Wonderful Tonight" - Eric Clapton

Chords: G, D, C, Em, Am

Finger placement:

C (x-3-2-0-1-0)

D (x-x-0-2-3-2)

D7 (x-x-0-2-1-2)

E (0-2-2-1-0-0)

Em (0-2-2-0-0-0)

A (x-0-2-2-2-0)

Am (x-0-2-2-1-0)

F (x-x-3-2-1-1)

FM7 (x-x-3-2-1-0)

F#m7sus (2-0-0-2-0-0) G (3-2-0-0-0-3)

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Just thought I'd post a progress update.

In the past few days, everything seems to have clicked into place. My chord changes are flowing beautifully (when playing strumming patterns involving any upstrokes, my tutor said to take my fingers off the last chord and use the upstroke to find the next chord - so you get a sort of 'nothing' open chord on the upstroke and as long as you don't hit the low E string, it works beautifully as a 'bridge' between chords!)

I've only had one proper lesson (the first one was a consultation lesson), but I feel I'm making tons of progress. When I first started playing 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door', using down, down, up down, down, up down down strumming pattern, I thought I'd never be able to sing along to it, but I can do that fine now.

I'll probably organise my next lesson in a few days - my tutor's going to teach me how to embellish the Blues shuffle technique he showed me last time round and hopefully introduce some new songs as well. I'm beginning to tire of 'Let it Be' and 'Knockin' on Heaven's Door'. Might look at some from that list you posted, Hmarka. Are the chords played in the order you listed?

 

[pcfan123]

Yes they are, its a very raw chart to be able to strum those songs and sing along.

You can also lookup tablature online for any song just to see what chords are used in them

e-tabs.org was the site I used years ago!

 

[StickyWicket]

Get a software called GuitarPro 5. Honestly, it's all you need. You can download GP tabs and it'll actually play them for you , so you know exactly how to play the tab, you can pause and fastforward them etc. Besides that GuitarPro comes with a metronome, and figures for each and every scale and chord.
I owe 75% of my guitar skill to that thing.

Also just go Nazi on scales, man. Once you get the hang of scales and know which note is where and which scale it belongs to, you can do just about anything.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Does anyone know of the chords for a version of 'Happy Birthday' that doesn't involve the F Chord? That chord is still giving me problems.

 

[pcfan123]

This is not the proper thing to do but when I first had trouble playing the F chord I would not bar the low E and just hold the rest of the chord.

so

x
3
2
0
1
1

if that makes sense, it sounds close enough :laugh

 

[StickyWicket]

The F chord is always a bitch for beginners. Contrary to hMarka, I always found it easier to hold the bar chord as opposed to only the bottom two strings. Which way are you doing it ?

 

[Dutch]

Does anyone know of the chords for a version of 'Happy Birthday' that doesn't involve the F Chord? That chord is still giving me problems.

Play in the key of D...........................

so C = D, F = G, G = A

You just transpose the piece up a whole tone

 

[MasterBlaster76]

The F chord is always a bitch for beginners. Contrary to hMarka, I always found it easier to hold the bar chord as opposed to only the bottom two strings. Which way are you doing it ?

Holding the bottom two strings. So which strings would I hold doing it your way?

Play in the key of D...........................

so C = D, F = G, G = A

You just transpose the piece up a whole tone

Many thanks! I can change between those and most other basic chords smoothly now, so mum's getting musical accompaniment for her ' Happy Birthday'!

 

[Dutch]

Holding the bottom two strings. So which strings would I hold doing it your way?




Many thanks! I can change between those and most other basic chords smoothly now, so mum's getting musical accompaniment for her ' Happy Birthday'!

You would have your index finger spread over all the strings as oppossed to holding the B and E strings with one finger. The only way to get good at the barre is to practice and practice and practice and dont try and avoid it!


Great. Happy Birthday to your mum from all of us here in the Dutchad household!