guitar players - need advice

[DavemanUT]

I picked up an Epiphone Les Paul Special II and a nice 15w Roland amp along w/ the starting Electric guitar DVD. Well I've gone through a couple lessons so far and I'm doing better than I expected.. but damn some of the fingerings are driving me nuts since I have small-med size hands. I know I can do them, but its just going to take some time.

I've learned 3-4 chords which I'm practicing currently... but got bored with that so started going through the picking techniques/scales. If you have any bit of advice to give a beginning guitarist what would it be? I've very determined to get it down so that I can play decently in front of a crowd at parties, etc. Thanks in advance guys.

 

[49erinnc]

Originally posted by: DavemanUT
If you have any bit of advice to give a beginning guitarist what would it be? I've very determined to get it down so that I can play decently in front of a crowd at parties, etc. Thanks in advance guys.

Best tip: Practice, practice and practice.

When I first started, the tips of my fret fingers were killing me until I developed some calluses on them. If your fingers aren't hurting, you're not playing enough as a beginner. Also, learning chords/scales is great but pick a target song you want to learn. Nothing complex but just a basic tab. It will give you a sense of accomplishment and you'll impress yourself when you can play some of it. And expect plateaus. You'll find yourself learning a great deal when you start out with your interest being really high. But then you'll reach points where you feel like you're not really improving and your interest will fade a bit. That's totally normal. Just allow yourself to take small breaks so you don't get burnt out.

Good luck. It's a great stress reliever and a lot of fun once you start seeing some gains. I rarely play my electric anymore though. I bought an acoustic a few months after getting my electric and it's virtually all I play these days. Just can't beat sitting down at night and strumming on a nice acoustic.

 

[DavemanUT]

Originally posted by: 49erinnc

Originally posted by: DavemanUT
If you have any bit of advice to give a beginning guitarist what would it be? I've very determined to get it down so that I can play decently in front of a crowd at parties, etc. Thanks in advance guys.

Best tip: Practice, practice and practice.

When I first started, the tips of my fret fingers were killing me until I developed some calluses on them. If your fingers aren't hurting, you're not playing enough as a beginner. Also, learning chords/scales is great but pick a target song you want to learn. Nothing complex but just a basic tab. It will give you a sense of accomplishment and you'll impress yourself when you can play some of it. And expect plateaus. You'll find yourself learning a great deal when you start out with your interest being really high. But then you'll reach points where you feel like you're not really improving and your interest will fade a bit. That's totally normal. Just allow yourself to take small breaks so you don't get burnt out.

Good luck. It's a great stress reliever and a lot of fun once you start seeing some gains. I rarely play my electric anymore though. I bought an acoustic a few months after getting my electric and it's virtually all I play these days. Just can't beat sitting down at night and strumming on a nice acoustic.

Thanks! I've considered picking up an acoustic also to take on the road or what not. My heart is with electric right now considering I'm more into the metal/rock genre. I will take what you said to heart and try not to get burnt out. I'd like to eventually take lessons, but don't have time with my work schedule. I can only practice 2 hrs a day at night and maybe 4-5 a day on weekends. My fingertips are not yet hurting so I guess I need to crank it up a bit!

 

[ZOOYUKA]

Did you buy the Roland Cube 15 Amp?

 

[DavemanUT]

Originally posted by: ZOOYUKA
Did you buy the Roland Cube 15 Amp?

Yes, after hearing great reviews on it here. It has a great full sound for its size.

 

[ZOOYUKA]

Originally posted by: DavemanUT

Originally posted by: ZOOYUKA
Did you buy the Roland Cube 15 Amp?

Yes, after hearing great reviews on it here. It has a great full sound for its size.

Just wondering. I recently bought one. It packs a pretty nice punch for its size.

 

[StevenYoo]

keep on practicing!

 

[Scarpozzi]

My dad taught me 3 chords, then I taught myself another 3...I basically played those 6 chords over and over until I could transition from one to the other smoothly....it takes time to stretch your fingers, but they'll learn eventually. I really want to learn how to pick and play blues guitar... It's gonna take me some time to get around to lessons...or just time to do it, but I think it would be cool.

 

[Hammerhead]

Get an acoustic to build up finger strength.
and practice, practice, practice.
Don't give up.

 

[DavemanUT]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
My dad taught me 3 chords, then I taught myself another 3...I basically played those 6 chords over and over until I could transition from one to the other smoothly....it takes time to stretch your fingers, but they'll learn eventually. I really want to learn how to pick and play blues guitar... It's gonna take me some time to get around to lessons...or just time to do it, but I think it would be cool.

Awesome! I'm basically just playing the EAD chords right now until I have em down. Transition is definately the b*tch of it all. The guy Keith teaching in the video is playing a squire guitar and it sounds freakin great... although I've heard all kinds of crap about those guitars, I guess he's just a pro and can make anything w/ 6 strings sound nice. I'm having a great time learning thus far.

 

[Jeraden]

I tried learning guitar about 6 months ago, but I got very frustrated. I always got conflicting info of how best to get started. Most said just find a song you want to learn and go play it. But anything I wanted to play was too complicated. Plus any site that offers you guitar lessons seemed horribly biased towards classic rock songs, which I have no real interest in playing, and I am largely unfamiliar with anyways so it was hard to know if I was even playing them right.

 

[DavemanUT]

Originally posted by: ZOOYUKA

Originally posted by: DavemanUT

Originally posted by: ZOOYUKA
Did you buy the Roland Cube 15 Amp?

Yes, after hearing great reviews on it here. It has a great full sound for its size.

Just wondering. I recently bought one. It packs a pretty nice punch for its size.

Definately! I've only cranked it up to about 1/2 of its volume potential and its as loud as I need it to be. I love the distortion options also, even though I haven't played around w/ them much yet. Great buy for under $100.

 

[49erinnc]

Originally posted by: DavemanUT
Thanks! I've considered picking up an acoustic also to take on the road or what not. My heart is with electric right now considering I'm more into the metal/rock genre. I will take what you said to heart and try not to get burnt out. I'd like to eventually take lessons, but don't have time with my work schedule. I can only practice 2 hrs a day at night and maybe 4-5 a day on weekends. My fingertips are not yet hurting so I guess I need to crank it up a bit!

Same here, regarding metal/rock. I got the electric and the first song I learned was "Come As You Are" (Nirvana) followed by "Rock You Like Hurricane." I still enjoying cranking up my electric every once in a while and blasting "Am I Evil?" by Metallica but there's just something about an acoustic. You'll see what I mean once you get one. The acoustic will also really build up your finger strength as well. When you play one for a while and then pick up an electric, it's SOOO much easier to play.

Acoustics are just nice because of their versatility. I'll sit on the couch with mine, out on the patio, etc. We went to the park a few weeks ago and I took it with me just to play on the grass by the lake. No power required and you can keep the volume to a minimum without sacrificing sound quality.

Stick with the electric until you know you're gonna take playing serious. But once you feel you will, I would definitely invest in a nice acoustic. You'll play it far more than you think you will, despite your musical preferences. And btw, 2 hours a day/4-5 days a week is plenty if your just starting out. It's enough to learn a lot but not so much you get burnt out. And start checking out "tabs" online if you want to learn how to play familiar songs in an easy way. You can at least play the intros to a lot of songs that way without a lot of experience.

 

[Poulsonator]

Originally posted by: Jeraden
I tried learning guitar about 6 months ago, but I got very frustrated. I always got conflicting info of how best to get started. Most said just find a song you want to learn and go play it. But anything I wanted to play was too complicated. Plus any site that offers you guitar lessons seemed horribly biased towards classic rock songs, which I have no real interest in playing, and I am largely unfamiliar with anyways so it was hard to know if I was even playing them right.

That's how I learned. Picked a bunch of three-chord songs, printed them out, learned them all. Not only did that teach me the chords, but also about basic song structure and how to sing while playing.

There's an unlimited amount of free tools online that can help you. Tablature, sounds for single notes or whole chords, software that slows down mp3s, etc. I took lessons for two months until I decided to do it on my own.

Learning to play the guitar is a wonderfully rewarding experience. It takes patience, but anything you want to learn (and learn well, I hope) takes patience. Sure it can get frustrating, but the guitar is like anything else...you have to keep practicing. There aren't many things that feel better than flawlessly hitting that chord progression you've been working on (finally!), belting out your first song, or just accomplishing your goals for the day/week/month/etc.

 

[DavemanUT]

Sounds good. What acoustic do you guys recommend? Most of my buds recommend a Seagull or Yamaha at around $120 or so. Suggestions?

 

[Triumph]

All you can do is practice, really no way around that. You've got a good setup for a beginner. I've always found the Epiphone/Gibson necks to be particularly easy to play. But yeah, just like anything else it takes practice to become good.

The good thing about guitar though is that you don't have to actually be proficient to sound like you know what you're doing. Very, very few guitarists are technically as skilled as someone who is "good" at something like piano, or violin, or french horn, etc. A pianist who plays Chopin is "talented," while a guitarist who plays Chopin is a showoff.

 

[DavemanUT]

Also, do you guys recommend going ahead and changing out the factory strings to the d'addarios I've picked up. I'm a little worried about changing them out as I've never done it before. Is this something easy to accomplish? Will it make a huge difference in the sound?

 

[Poulsonator]

Originally posted by: DavemanUT
Also, do you guys recommend going ahead and changing out the factory strings to the d'addarios I've picked up. I'm a little worried about changing them out as I've never done it before. Is this something easy to accomplish? Will it make a huge difference in the sound?

Strings can make all the difference in your guitar's sound. New strings sound completely different than old, worn out strings, and strings from different manufacturer's all sound different. I can tell when mine are in need of changing (they'll lose their shine, sound "dull", etc.) and that's usually after about two weeks of playing. I put in an hour a day, so roughly 10-15 hours of solid playing is all I give my strings. It's all personal preference. I also have an acoustic and electric, so splitting time evenly can be tough...thus that weighs in on my string changing decision.

Don't be afraid of changing strings! Everyone is at first, but after that it'll take you a matter of minutes. Here's a good site to help you:

Stringing

Also, no newbie should go without checking this site out:

Frets.com

Great site with a ton of helpful information.

 

[Fritzo]

What you're experiencing now is what makes 95% of people learning guitar quit. They think their hands aren't right to play the instrument and it hurts their fingers, so they stop.

In a few weeks, you'll get calluses on your fingers (calluses are a guitarist's friend. When Stevie Ray Vaughn would break a callus, he would put drops of super glue on his arm, stick his figer tips to them, and rip them off to make new ones!). Once these form, the stings won't hurt anymore.

Dexterity is the key to guitar playing, and it's something that is learned. Nobody can pick up an instrument and contort their hands into chord shapes naturally- your muscles must be trained to do it. If you think about it, it's a lot like typing...you were probably a hunt and peck typist at first, but now you don't even have to look at the keyboard to move your fingers around it. This is the same concept, expept you make cooler sounds than "click clack clack clickity click clack"

Good luck, and remember short 15 minute sessions several times a day is a LOT better than 1 2 hour session.

 

[DavemanUT]

Originally posted by: Poulsonator

Originally posted by: DavemanUT
Also, do you guys recommend going ahead and changing out the factory strings to the d'addarios I've picked up. I'm a little worried about changing them out as I've never done it before. Is this something easy to accomplish? Will it make a huge difference in the sound?

Strings can make all the difference in your guitar's sound. New strings sound completely different than old, worn out strings, and strings from different manufacturer's all sound different. I can tell when mine are in need of changing (they'll lose their shine, sound "dull", etc.) and that's usually after about two weeks of playing. I put in an hour a day, so roughly 10-15 hours of solid playing is all I give my strings. It's all personal preference. I also have an acoustic and electric, so splitting time evenly can be tough...thus that weighs in on my string changing decision.

Don't be afraid of changing strings! Everyone is at first, but after that it'll take you a matter of minutes. Here's a good site to help you:

Stringing

Also, no newbie should go without checking this site out:

Frets.com

Great site with a ton of helpful information.

Those sites look extremely helpful. Thanks for the info - I will probably grow some balls and attempt to change my strings in a day or two.

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: DavemanUT

Originally posted by: ZOOYUKA
Did you buy the Roland Cube 15 Amp?

Yes, after hearing great reviews on it here. It has a great full sound for its size.

Those amps are cool. I have the Micro Cube. It can run on batteries and has some great effects built in. Perfect for taking to parties

 

[dwell]

Just start a band. Even if you suck you will learn 100x faster than wanking alone in your basement.

 

[DavemanUT]

Originally posted by: dwell
Just start a band. Even if you suck you will learn 100x faster than wanking alone in your basement.

I don't think I will ever have the time to do this, although I'd love to. I used to be in a ska band when I was playing tenor sax in high school ---those were the days!

 

[Poulsonator]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
Good luck, and remember short 15 minute sessions several times a day is a LOT better than 1 2 hour session.

I'd say this depends on your level of ability as I've pulled many a marathon session, but there's no doubt for beginners this is great advice (fresh fingers after two hours? OUCH!).

Ultimately, DavemanUT, it's all about dedication. Guitar practice needs to become a habit if you want to improve. If all you can do is 5 minutes one day, do it. 5 minutes is better than no minutes.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions or just post them here. That's one thing that I've noticed since I starting playing many years ago...for the most part, the guitar playing community is extremely helpful and encouraging to each other. Don't be shy!

 

[Radical Ans]

Originally posted by: Poulsonator

Originally posted by: DavemanUT
Also, do you guys recommend going ahead and changing out the factory strings to the d'addarios I've picked up. I'm a little worried about changing them out as I've never done it before. Is this something easy to accomplish? Will it make a huge difference in the sound?

Strings can make all the difference in your guitar's sound. New strings sound completely different than old, worn out strings, and strings from different manufacturer's all sound different. I can tell when mine are in need of changing (they'll lose their shine, sound "dull", etc.) and that's usually after about two weeks of playing. I put in an hour a day, so roughly 10-15 hours of solid playing is all I give my strings. It's all personal preference. I also have an acoustic and electric, so splitting time evenly can be tough...thus that weighs in on my string changing decision.

Don't be afraid of changing strings! Everyone is at first, but after that it'll take you a matter of minutes. Here's a good site to help you:

Stringing

Also, no newbie should go without checking this site out:

Frets.com

Great site with a ton of helpful information.

I've found that using Fast Fret helps keep strings "newer" longer.