Guitar learnin's

[Hideki 0]

ok,so I'm learning to play acoustic guitar. At the moment I'm learning to play Never too late by three days grace. Does anyone know any somewhat simple songs that I should learn. Nevr too late is good because it requires just the right amount of hand moving to help practice. So any songs to suggest? Or advice/tips?

[pheonix561 2080]

the first song I taught myself was "lullaby" by queens of the stone age. look into it.

and here's where I get all my tabs from

[Max 10]

Wish You Were Here, by Pink Floyd. It learns you to go between picking and strumming, and there aren't any complex chords in it.

Also, learn the Blues Scale

(In the key of A)

e|--8-5------------------------------|

B|-------8-5-------------------------|

G|------------8-7-5------------------|

D|-------------------7-5-------------|

A|------------------------7-6-5------|

E|-------------------------------8-5-|

Familiarize yourself with the notes in the scale. This scale is the foundation for almost all rock music, so fire at will with it.

Make sure you know the names of all the strings, and after that, each note on the fretboard. Remember, it starts over at the 12th fret.

The scale above is written in TAB format, if you can't read TABs, the number represents the fret to pick. There are six bar things, these represent your strings, the very top one is the very bottom one on your guitar (The thinnest)

Learn all the chords you can.

If you have any questions or want any help, feel free to PM me. =)

[ZuZu 10]

Punk is usually a good way to go, its fast but usually really really simple

Blink 182, Offspring, all that sorta stuff you know?

Pop is usually easy aswell, so learn a few catchy pop songs too =)

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ is a good site with tabs and that for most songs / genres

[Max 10]

I use 911 Tabs. It searches through a bunch of tab sites including Ultimate Guitar, and I have found it usually has at least 10 times the number of hits. =)

[Ganny 285]

Some obvious advice would be to learn simple major and minor chords first, maybe picking up a dominant 7th or diminished every now and then. Print out an extensive chord chart and learn two or three or more every day, depending on your pace.

You can buy a method book if you want to, but many of the books I've seen move pretty slowly and don't go in-depth enough: most of the information you can find in method books is available on the Internet. However, taking private lessons may help you more than the Internet can because a teacher can show you specifically what is good or bad about your playing. Since I've never planned to get too deep into guitar playing, I haven't taken any lessons, but can still say I can play some guitar.

Depending on what kind of music you plan on playing, you may want to learn to fingerpick. Fingerpicking is used extensively in folk and sometimes in rock, usually for softer songs. (Instead of using a pick to strum all strings in the chord in quick succession, you use your fingers to individually pluck the strings. Kind of like what you would see with a banjo player.)

More good advice for learning to play any instrument is to pick a song that you really like but that is kind of hard to play. It'll give you something to work toward. For guitar, I chose Re Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton, which actually isn't hard (it's one of Couton's easier songs to play), but has a fair number of chords and is an enjoyable song to play.

I would recommend learning a bit about chord construction, which makes it easier to memorize chords since you actually know what's going on and what makes them chords. It'll also encourage you to come up with alternate fingerings that may or may not sound better.

Oh, also, practice. And have fun with it.

[Skippy 82]

daily practice, hand dexterity exercises, and learn to read proper music, tabs are fun for learning songs, but if you wanna play classical stuff or right, good old sheet music is the king.

[TrueNinja2 0]

Since im only a year into learning myself(At a snail's pace...) The only advice I can give is to practice finger movements for about 10 - 15 minutes a day. Bend your wrist(It helps, a lot.)

I leared how to play the main part of Never Too Late. Not really difficult, just need to practice.

If I wasn't tired I could give better advice, believe me.

Do you use a pick?

[Hideki 0]

Since im only a year into learning myself(At a snail's pace...) The only advice I can give is to practice finger movements for about 10 - 15 minutes a day. Bend your wrist(It helps, a lot.)

I leared how to play the main part of Never Too Late. Not really difficult, just need to practice.

If I wasn't tired I could give better advice, believe me.

Do you use a pick?

What a coincidence I'm learning to play the intro to it! And yes I use a pic it helps a lot.

[TrueNinja2 0]

Yes it does.

The intro isn't very difficult, you just have to position your fingers correctly. I suggest barring 8 with your second finger, and using your fourth for the 10, and then switch to barring 7 with your first finger. That's how I play it.

Once you have callused fingers it'll sound a lot better. Barring is still kinda difficult for me, my fingers are too long. DX

That's the only part I ever learned how to play. I have the entire song printed out somewhere, but Im too lazy to find it again.

[Ganny 285]

Not sure why, but I've never gotten into using a pick. I'd already had a pretty epic callus on the side of my thumb, so I just use my thumb to strum. I'm sure I could eventually sound better with a pick, but I think my thumb gives me more control.

Speaking of calluses, they are pretty integral to guitar playing. Guitar strings are kind of thick and usually made of steel (or nylon, sometimes, but I'm going to assume you're playing with steel), so you're going to want to get your fingers pretty hard to play notes and chords more clearly. While you're practicing, just press on the strings harder than you normally would with the fingers of your left hand and practice for as long as possible every time. In a few days, you should have some pretty substantial calluses and notice an improvement in the way your playing sounds.

Barre chords can be discouraging at first, but just stick with it and keep trying. They come with time.

This is pretty elementary, but I've found that some beginning guitarists are unaware of it: when you're fretting a string, get your finger as close to the fret as possible in order to keep it from coming off and making that unpleasant noise; you get cleaner notes that way.

[Hideki 0]

What are barre chords.

[Ganny 285]

Barre chords are chords in which you extend your index finger across the neck to cover a whole fret.

OK, look at an E major chord, 022100. Those 0's are open strings (strings you do not have a finger on), because they fit into the chord. E major is an open chord, then. Now, an F major chord. Think of your scales: F is a half-step above E. So just move all of the notes up a half step (each fret is a half step above the last). This makes F major 133211. The thing is, you only have four fingers you can conventionally use, so in order to press down all of those strings, you put your index finger all the way across the first fret and put your other three fingers where they have to go. It's like using your finger as a capo.

Simpler explanation:

There's an F major chord. See the finger? That makes it a barre chord.