Know of any good guitar forums? Or can you help me with my question?

[MeddyDuo]

I have a question about playing a song, so I figured I would get a better response at a guitar forum than ATOT. What are some good/big ones?


EDIT (post copied from my guitar forum post):
The song is "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie.
Here is a video - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid...2132&q=death+cab+for+cutie+conan&hl=en
And you can see at the beginning how he plays. Here is the tab - http://www.fretplay.com/tabs/d/death_cab_for_cutie/i_will_follow-tab.shtml
So I'm still figuring out which fingers to use for some chords, but the thing I'm having the most trouble with is the strumming/picking whatever you call it. I looked at the video but I couldn't see what he was doing. I thought maybe a more advanced player take a look and help me out.
It also sounds like he's emphasizing the offbeat (or beats 2 and 4, depending what time signature you play it as) , but the chords change on the downbeat or beats 1 and 3.

So if anyone has any advice, please help
I never really 'learned' guitar, I just like to try playing some songs every now and then. I also could use some tips for finger picking, because it's kind of hard to get a nice sound without using my fingernails.

 

[Platypus]

What's the q?

 

[Smartazz]

You're probably right about that. IDR which forums I used to use.

 

[Rob9874]

www.harmony-central.com/ have the best forums I know of, but they look down for maintenance right now. Not sure when they'll be up again.

 

[CraKaJaX]

Ultimate Guitar has them, but they are filled with 12 year old kids.
Harmony Central is good all around.

 

[MeddyDuo]

Originally posted by: Platypus
What's the q?

Ok I edited my post.

I have already posted on the Guitar Noise Forums, but there has to be a bigger forum than that.

 

[Platypus]

I taught myself how to play guitar so I probably don't have orthodox techniques but I'll give you some finger picking advice.. I play it sort of like a bass, I use my middle finger and my ring finger to pluck if I want to accentuate or pull gently upward w/fingers to get a nice clean sound.

For that song, I'd use the above combination and play the 'bass' or basically the driving rhythm part with your thumb, strumming in a downward motion. Play is really slow at first and get used to how the chords feel fingerwise. After you know the formations increase your speed.. I know you want it to sound like the song right away but it takes practice and this is the quickest way. Note what it says about palm muting. I'm familiar with the song and there is a lot of implied rhythm generated by him on guitar to sort of drive the song along. The toughest part of this song will be being comfortable enough with the riffs that you can add in this vital piece of the song.

You are capoing on 5 right?

 

[MeddyDuo]

Yes, I'm capoing on the 5th. I have slowly played through most of it, but now that I'm trying to speed it up, I want to be doing it the right way.
I read the palm muting thing, but I have no idea what that is. Can you explain please?

 

[Platypus]

Palm muting is hard to explain in text but I'll give it a shot. With your picking hand, place your hand on the strings to sort of 'mute' the strings while you pick. So basically where you normally pick, just put your hand down there. You can adjust the pressure and get different sounds....hope that made sense.

go listen to any old punk record for tons of examples of palm muting

 

[Fritzo]

OK, I took a look at the video. This is more technique than something you can learn from tabs and it'll take some practice. He's capoed at the 5th fret. The chord progression appears to be G-Am-C-E (these are the shapes you would use). His picking pattern is a bluegrass style where you use the bass notes to keep rhythm and the treble strings (lower three) to play the harmony. What he's doing is strumming the E A D strings and muting them slightly to make a beat, then hitting the high E &B strings.

Like I said, the song is easy, the technique is hard. If you're not familiar with this style, it'll take a good month or two to pick up.

 

[MeddyDuo]

Wow I had the tuning wrong the whole time. I though that since the letters in the tab were small, I was supposed to tune the strings down one half-step.
So why is the E for the bottom string big, and all the other letters are small?

 

[SludgeFactory]

Originally posted by: MeddyDuo
Wow I had the tuning wrong the whole time. I though that since the letters in the tab were small, I was supposed to tune the strings down one half-step.
So why is the E for the bottom string big, and all the other letters are small?

Some people like to capitalize the low E-string and use lowercase for the high E-string in their tab notation. I don't really see the need.

 

[Mikey]

I actually know how to play that song both by power strumming and finger picking. I used this to help me learn to play it. It's quite simple once you get the hang of it. Use your thumb for the base note. Then use the topside of your fingernails on your middle and index fingers to "scrape" the strings from number 5 to number 2 string. After that, pluck the 2nd string with your middle finger and then pluck the 3rd string with your index finger. That's basically all it is for the most part. you'll get the hang of it and then learn to adapt as you go on to the other chords. The easiest way to learn are by knowing your chords. Once you know how to play your chords, you will be able to play most songs.

 

[MeddyDuo]

Originally posted by: Mikey
I actually know how to play that song both by power strumming and finger picking. I used this to help me learn to play it. It's quite simple once you get the hang of it. Use your thumb for the base note. Then use the topside of your fingernails on your middle and index fingers to "scrape" the strings from number 5 to number 2 string. After that, pluck the 2nd string with your middle finger and then pluck the 3rd string with your index finger. That's basically all it is for the most part. you'll get the hang of it and then learn to adapt as you go on to the other chords. The easiest way to learn are by knowing your chords. Once you know how to play your chords, you will be able to play most songs.

Wow that helps so much.
Thanks!

 

[Mikey]

Originally posted by: MeddyDuo

Originally posted by: Mikey
I actually know how to play that song both by power strumming and finger picking. I used this to help me learn to play it. It's quite simple once you get the hang of it. Use your thumb for the base note. Then use the topside of your fingernails on your middle and index fingers to "scrape" the strings from number 5 to number 2 string. After that, pluck the 2nd string with your middle finger and then pluck the 3rd string with your index finger. That's basically all it is for the most part. you'll get the hang of it and then learn to adapt as you go on to the other chords. The easiest way to learn are by knowing your chords. Once you know how to play your chords, you will be able to play most songs.

Wow that helps so much.
Thanks!

No problem. I went through the pain of learning how to play the guitar all by myself. www.ultimate-guitar.com and youtube really helps. I used to learn by tabs only, but I found out that much of the tabs out there are the same exact things as chords, but chords are easier to memorize. if you have any questions, feel free to email me. i check my email more then atot, so just pm me for my email.