Bare Bones Beginners Advice.
by Bullets4Teeth (Sep 12, 2011)
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
Salutations! I'm an aspiring guitarist like many of you. Honestly I just recently found this site and find it to be one of the best resources on the web for those of us who want to learn to play guitar. The music theory lesson's have helped me a lot and I tip my hat to all the contributors here. I like many of you am at a point that I really want to focus on expanding my playing ability's. If your reading this I assume you have the same goals for yourself. If your as lost as I am, this lesson is for you! Knowing what kind of player you are is very important because it lets you know where your at, and helps you set up your goals. It's important to have goals because you need them to generate a sense of accomplishment so you can measure your progress. There are a lot of different views on the level of experience someone has, but the following is how I had it explained to me in the following 6 levels.
Beginner = Knows nothing about the guitar or music theory.
Novice= Basic knowledge of chords and basic music theory.
Intermediate= Good knowledge of chords, scales, modes, music theory.
Journeyman (Busker)= Good playing ability, can play several tunes, start to completion.
Advanced= Stage ready playing ability, honed ability to perform with other musicians and equipped to do so.
Professional= Stage performer, ability to write and transpose and record music on a professional level.
Guitar God= Ability to perform legendary world wide stage performances in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans, dudes envy you, women want you,... Hey, it can happen!
HARD BODY OR FLAT TOP BOX?
Now that you know where your at, you can find out where you need to start. Knowing this has really helped me a whole lot, I consider myself a busker, but lately I have been faced with the truth that I fall into the Intermediate level cause I find myself having to go back and hit the book on music theory again since I picked up an acoustic. Playing an acoustic is an entirely different animal. Though you can start out on electric if you want, I recommend getting an acoustic because it will discipline you more and you won't be tempted to cheat. An acoustic guitar is a tough drill instructor and not as forgiving as an electric. Electrics are cool but can be more complicated and expensive to learn on, I find my acoustic much more handy than any of the electrics I've owned. But once you settle on an axe, it's time to...
BREAK YOURSELF IN.
For those of you who find yourselves in the Beginner level though, I recommend you jump right away into learning some rhythm chords to some very simple songs. So put the boring chord charts and theory books away for right now, coz if your not having fun playing the guitar, your not going to have any fun learning it! As a rule do not start out with a song with more chords than you can handle, start out simple with something like "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd which only has four chords in it's rhythm. Mastering the simple chords of this song and humming out the words will inspire you to learn more about the piece and give you some basics into chords, and a very simple blues scale which will help you work out your fingers and introduce them to the fret board. You can pick any song you like, but as a rule choose one that has less than six chords and keep at that tune until you master it. To keep from getting bored select two or three tunes that match this criteria, when you get bored with one, you can go to another. Alternating is good exercise. Remember to relax, and take breaks, watch other performers play, play along with the song. Don't worry about learning about scales and modes etc. etc. until your fingers become comfortable and oriented on the frets and strings. Once you get a couple of tunes down, you will have a basic chord vocabulary and music theory will be much easier for you to understand. Hey, worked for me.
If your already familiar with some chords and songs and insist on learning a scale so you can shred some riffs, I suggest the pentatonic blues scale, C, G, or E is a good starter scale. Read some basic theory on scales before you do though. This is my advice for beginners out there, everything I advised worked for me, maybe it will work for you to. Don't stress yourself out learning music theory and all the other b.s. until you are ready to bring something to the table, you will be surprised about how and why everything you learned click's into place so easily and it will make greater sense to you.
Remember if your not having fun, your doing it wrong.
Thanks.
Salutations! I'm an aspiring guitarist like many of you. Honestly I just recently found this site and find it to be one of the best resources on the web for those of us who want to learn to play guitar. The music theory lesson's have helped me a lot and I tip my hat to all the contributors here. I like many of you am at a point that I really want to focus on expanding my playing ability's. If your reading this I assume you have the same goals for yourself. If your as lost as I am, this lesson is for you! Knowing what kind of player you are is very important because it lets you know where your at, and helps you set up your goals. It's important to have goals because you need them to generate a sense of accomplishment so you can measure your progress. There are a lot of different views on the level of experience someone has, but the following is how I had it explained to me in the following 6 levels.
Beginner = Knows nothing about the guitar or music theory.
Novice= Basic knowledge of chords and basic music theory.
Intermediate= Good knowledge of chords, scales, modes, music theory.
Journeyman (Busker)= Good playing ability, can play several tunes, start to completion.
Advanced= Stage ready playing ability, honed ability to perform with other musicians and equipped to do so.
Professional= Stage performer, ability to write and transpose and record music on a professional level.
Guitar God= Ability to perform legendary world wide stage performances in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans, dudes envy you, women want you,... Hey, it can happen!
HARD BODY OR FLAT TOP BOX?
Now that you know where your at, you can find out where you need to start. Knowing this has really helped me a whole lot, I consider myself a busker, but lately I have been faced with the truth that I fall into the Intermediate level cause I find myself having to go back and hit the book on music theory again since I picked up an acoustic. Playing an acoustic is an entirely different animal. Though you can start out on electric if you want, I recommend getting an acoustic because it will discipline you more and you won't be tempted to cheat. An acoustic guitar is a tough drill instructor and not as forgiving as an electric. Electrics are cool but can be more complicated and expensive to learn on, I find my acoustic much more handy than any of the electrics I've owned. But once you settle on an axe, it's time to...
BREAK YOURSELF IN.
For those of you who find yourselves in the Beginner level though, I recommend you jump right away into learning some rhythm chords to some very simple songs. So put the boring chord charts and theory books away for right now, coz if your not having fun playing the guitar, your not going to have any fun learning it! As a rule do not start out with a song with more chords than you can handle, start out simple with something like "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd which only has four chords in it's rhythm. Mastering the simple chords of this song and humming out the words will inspire you to learn more about the piece and give you some basics into chords, and a very simple blues scale which will help you work out your fingers and introduce them to the fret board. You can pick any song you like, but as a rule choose one that has less than six chords and keep at that tune until you master it. To keep from getting bored select two or three tunes that match this criteria, when you get bored with one, you can go to another. Alternating is good exercise. Remember to relax, and take breaks, watch other performers play, play along with the song. Don't worry about learning about scales and modes etc. etc. until your fingers become comfortable and oriented on the frets and strings. Once you get a couple of tunes down, you will have a basic chord vocabulary and music theory will be much easier for you to understand. Hey, worked for me.
If your already familiar with some chords and songs and insist on learning a scale so you can shred some riffs, I suggest the pentatonic blues scale, C, G, or E is a good starter scale. Read some basic theory on scales before you do though. This is my advice for beginners out there, everything I advised worked for me, maybe it will work for you to. Don't stress yourself out learning music theory and all the other b.s. until you are ready to bring something to the table, you will be surprised about how and why everything you learned click's into place so easily and it will make greater sense to you.
Remember if your not having fun, your doing it wrong.
Thanks.