Guitar Players on DTF: TOX Is Now a Member!

[TheOutlawXanadu]

I've had a guitar for many years but never did more than fiddle with it. The last week I've been trying to actually make progress on it and progress has been made. Planning to take lessons this summer as well.

What are some tips you veterans have for me? Some bad habits to avoid?

P.S. Learning parts of Damnation songs is fun.

[bosk1]

1.  Practice.
2.  Don't suck.
3.  Even if you do suck, try to project an attitude like you don't and you will probably still get girls.

But in all seriousness, #1.  A lot.  And work in practice with a metronome, playing along to the song on a CD player, or both.  Until you do this regularly, you will not discover that your perfect-sounding timing is anything but.  Learn some basic scale shapes and practice impromptu soloing.  Even if you don't like to solo, it changes up your practice, helps you familiarize yourself with more parts of the fretboard than you otherwise would, and builds speed and dexterity.  When your fingers hurt, it's natural and doesn't mean anything is wrong with you; they have to hurt for a while until you build up callouses.  Barre chords are tough for beginners; what helped me quite a bit was still forming the bar chord shapes on my arm or anything else I could find when I was away from my guitar.  Even if you aren't that good and are very self-conscious about your playing, try to play with other people as much as humanly possible; you will learn tons of stuff and gain in confidence.

Those are my random thoughts, anyway.

[hefdaddy42]

try to play with other people as much as humanly possible; you will learn tons of stuff and gain in confidence.

This cannot be stressed enough.

Oh, and the practice thing.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

1.  Practice.
2.  Don't suck.
3.  Even if you do suck, try to project an attitude like you don't and you will probably still get girls.

But in all seriousness, #1.  A lot.  And work in practice with a metronome, playing along to the song on a CD player, or both.  Until you do this regularly, you will not discover that your perfect-sounding timing is anything but.  Learn some basic scale shapes and practice impromptu soloing.  Even if you don't like to solo, it changes up your practice, helps you familiarize yourself with more parts of the fretboard than you otherwise would, and builds speed and dexterity.  When your fingers hurt, it's natural and doesn't mean anything is wrong with you; they have to hurt for a while until you build up callouses.  Barre chords are tough for beginners; what helped me quite a bit was still forming the bar chord shapes on my arm or anything else I could find when I was away from my guitar.  Even if you aren't that good and are very self-conscious about your playing, try to play with other people as much as humanly possible; you will learn tons of stuff and gain in confidence.

Those are my random thoughts, anyway.

All very solid advice.  The bolded part also cannot be stressed enough.  If you keep it up, your fingertips are going to hurt like a bitch.  No getting around it.  DO NOT let it discourage you at all.  It is insanely easy to just drop it and say "This hurts, I don't want that!"  Give it a couple days off when they hurt like that, then come back to it.  You may have to take a day or two off a few times, but it WILL pass and your fingers will get used to it, then you're pretty much good.  I can't recall a time after my initial breaking in period where I've ever had to experience that again.  This is going on 20 years now.  I have to say again, do not let it get you down.

I was lucky in that I played for years in my room before I ever joined a band.  Probably 7 years.  So by then, I was already seasoned, but playing WITH others definitely made it 100x more awesome and is such a great learning experience.

Is this an acoustic or an electric guitar?  Acoustics will have a slightly shorter neck and much heavier strings which is far more difficult to learn on than an electric.  The lighter the strings that you're capable of getting away with, the better, for starters.  The benefit to learning on an acoustic is if you can learn that well, your hands will be stronger for it and an electric will feel like a breeze.

[TimmyHiggy]

1.  Practice.
2.  Don't suck.
3.  Even if you do suck, try to project an attitude like you don't and you will probably still get girls.

But in all seriousness, #1.  A lot.  And work in practice with a metronome, playing along to the song on a CD player, or both.  Until you do this regularly, you will not discover that your perfect-sounding timing is anything but.  Learn some basic scale shapes and practice impromptu soloing.  Even if you don't like to solo, it changes up your practice, helps you familiarize yourself with more parts of the fretboard than you otherwise would, and builds speed and dexterity.  When your fingers hurt, it's natural and doesn't mean anything is wrong with you; they have to hurt for a while until you build up callouses.  Barre chords are tough for beginners; what helped me quite a bit was still forming the bar chord shapes on my arm or anything else I could find when I was away from my guitar.  Even if you aren't that good and are very self-conscious about your playing, try to play with other people as much as humanly possible; you will learn tons of stuff and gain in confidence.

Those are my random thoughts, anyway.

This, and

If you havn't downloaded powertab yet, do so.

Its worth getting guitar pro too, or maybe tuxguitar has a windows version too? Anyway, those bits of software, in combination with tab sites like ultimate-guitar.com are so bloody useful you have no idea. They have song learning tools like a metronome feature that loops a section of your choice from a tempo up to full speed and you set the increment it increases by each time.

[cthrubuoy]

USE ALL FOUR FINGERS

[black_biff_stadler]

USE ALL FOUR FINGERS

That's what she said.



I never had any discomfort whatsoever when it came to the pre-callous-forming adjustment period. Am I ridiculously lucky or have any others on here been so blessed?

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Could be lucky, could be just in how often you practiced that you never played SO often that it got to the point of hurting.  Seems odd, but I'm really not sure what it could have been.  At the time, I played a LOT.  I was very into it and I played a lot, so I did have those times, but most of the time, I hear of people having to deal with that.  Lucky for you that you somehow managed to sidestep it.

[cthrubuoy]

I felt the pain, stopped playing for a year and a half and then re-felt the pain. Sucks to be me.

[Jamesman42]

Great points thus far. I would like to add, the pain you should or may feel is the callouses forming in your fretting hand and only at the tips of your fingers. One thing I received advice for, in addition to playing scales and playing with a metronome, was to always stretch your hands and fingers before playing, especially before playing for a long time. The stretching does two things as far as I know: 1) It keeps your hands from cramping and causing long-term damage, like carpel tunnel; 2) it helps with flexibility while playing at that moment. I do this every time I play, and it seems to help me play better and learn better.

[cthrubuoy]

Great points thus far. I would like to add, the pain you should or may feel is the callouses forming in your fretting hand and only at the tips of your fingers. One thing I received advice for, in addition to playing scales and playing with a metronome, was to always stretch your hands and fingers before playing, especially before playing for a long time. The stretching does two things as far as I know: 1) It keeps your hands from cramping and causing long-term damage, like carpel tunnel; 2) it helps with flexibility while playing at that moment. I do this every time I play, and it seems to help me play better and learn better.

Buy the JP DVD for this. He's shows you some very good stretches and warm up exercises

[ddtonfire]

All the advice in this thread is excellent advice.

[Marvellous G]

The most important thing I did was learn scales, but then I mainly play improvised blues stuff. If you're into that at all, scales should be one of the first things on your checklist.

[Ultimetalhead]

I would add something here, but the others have the bases pretty well covered. I definitely second the USE ALL FOUR FINGERS sentiment though. If you don't play with a good technique, the other kids laugh at you.

[brakkum]

Play.
Play with others.
Play more.
Study.
Play with others.
Gig.
Play more.
Play more.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

I would add something here, but the others have the bases pretty well covered. I definitely second the USE ALL FOUR FINGERS sentiment though. If you don't play with a good technique, the other kids laugh at you.

If the other kids laugh at you, you know what you need to do.



then

[pogoowner]

I definitely second the USE ALL FOUR FINGERS sentiment though.

This. No matter how much easier it may seem in some situations to just stretch and avoid using your pinky finger, DON'T DO IT. It will massively delay your development.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Thanks guys. I've been making some good progress.

Question: My ear for the notes isn't very good yet. When I tune I use a tuner. I tried tuning to DADFAD for Ghost of Perdition and the tuner kept saying: "6th string is in D" then I would tune a few more strings, then I'd come back and it would say: "6th string is now in E" or something. The tuning kept changing.

What n00b thing am I doing?

[Ultimetalhead]

You often have to run through the strings tuning them many times until they've adjusted to the change. It's a pain in the ass.

[cthrubuoy]

There is a specific order in which to tune the strings. In standard (and if I remember righly) the order is E E A B D G. So that's out to in. There was a reason but I can't remember, probably neck tension or something. That should help you.

[TimmyHiggy]

If you tune them from low to high, then you put the first 3 all on the same side of the neck, so you are trying to twist the poor thing! Doing it the way stated above gives a more even spread. Especially if the first E is the high and the 2nd is the low.
My order:

Low E
High E
B
A
D
G

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

This may seem like an obvious question, but I'll ask:  Do you have a floating (Floyd Rose style) bridge?

[pogoowner]

This may seem like an obvious question, but I'll ask:  Do you have a floating (Floyd Rose style) bridge?

He must... otherwise something's seriously messed up for his tuning to keep changing that much.

[cthrubuoy]

He could have restrung badly? If you don't do the locking way of restringing then you could be in for a world of trouble. Either that or he's got some serious room temperature fluctuations.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

This may seem like an obvious question, but I'll ask:  Do you have a floating (Floyd Rose style) bridge?

He must... otherwise something's seriously messed up for his tuning to keep changing that much.

Exactly.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Thanks for the tips.

Another question: I want to buy myself an acoustic this summer. I've been looking on Musician's Friend, at local stores for guitars and reviews. I'd like something in the $500 range.

Any advice there?

[TimmyHiggy]

I remember finding acoustic really hard to buy, as shops tend to have such a different selection.
I ended up just going to a shop and trying lots out. I ended up with one with a cutaway and no internal pickup, all the acoustics with pickups at the bottom end of the range were noticeably worse than ones of equal price without one, I guess you end up with a $100 pickup in an inferior guitar!
I kinda regret the cutaway though. It sounds a bit thin and weedy now that I have got used to it and compared it to others.

[antigoon]

Thanks for the tips.

Another question: I want to buy myself an acoustic this summer. I've been looking on Musician's Friend, at local stores for guitars and reviews. I'd like something in the $500 range.

Any advice there?

https://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=C350&cid=75

It is a WONDERFUL guitar. Don't let the price fool you. I've had mine for over a year and it's treated me extremely well.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Thanks for the tips.

Another question: I want to buy myself an acoustic this summer. I've been looking on Musician's Friend, at local stores for guitars and reviews. I'd like something in the $500 range.

Any advice there?

Do what Timmy did.  Go play LOTS of them until you find the one that feels right.  As far as I'm concerned, it's the MOST important factor.  If you are lucky to find a few that feel perfect, then evaluate what you like and dislike about each.  But playing a lot of them is essential, to be sure you aren't settling for something, just because you want to get one.

[bosk1]

^I could not possibly agree more.  By way of example, when I first started playing, for whatever reason, I really liked the look and sound of Les Pauls and absolutely hated Kramers.  Problem was, for my playing style, Les Pauls really never felt all that comfortable.  I eventually played around with some Charvels/Jacksons in a music store and found that they were really comfortable to play.  I bought one, and my playing really took off as a result.  I think there were basically two reasons why:  (1) the guitar was just easier for me to play; and (2) because it felt more comfortable, I wanted to practice and play more often.  And a little later, I tried out a Kramer in a music store, and it was even better in terms of feel.  A friend of mine has an old Kramer Baretta that I just love to play on whenever I get a chance.  I'm not sure why people don't understand this and will ignore "feel" as a factor and just go for a brand that looks cool or that their favorite musician plays.  Well, actually, I do understand it.  But it is really important to fight that urge.

[icarus4321]

Yep, definitely play lots of guitars before you make a purchase.  I used to work at a music store, and I can't count how many times people would come in and make a purchase based upon some preconceived notion of what was a better instrument (not even playing them before the purchase).  Every guitar is different.  Lots of things factor in to how the guitar will play (humidity effects, action/truss settings, intonation, cosmetic blemishes, etc.), so I'm cautious about ordering from an online source, as I like to play any instrument before I buy it.  Some of those things can be corrected, but why pay so much for something that you can't look over first?

Whatever you choose, make sure it fits YOU as a guitarist. 

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Thanks again guys.

A playing question:

How do I play something like:

-------
-------
--12--
-------
--10--
-------

It's in a metal song so I fingerpicking isn't the answer.

[Sigz]

Hit the 10 with your index finger, the 12 with your ring, and shift your index finger so you're muting the string in between while still hitting the 10th fret, then just strum those three strings. (I'm assuming you're right handed)

[TimmyHiggy]

Yeah the key is making sure that you can strum over the whole thing in one go but the middle string doesn't ring out. If you flatten your first finger slightly so it mutes higher strings then it does make a slight "clunk" as you play it, but it is completely overpowered by the volume of the 2 clear notes.

[Sir GuitarCozmo]

Another thing to note here is that it'll take a while to be able to pick with the accuracy that will allow you to strike this example and pretty much JUST hit those three strings.  I used to think "God, I'll NEVER be able to pick that specifically."  Now, 20 years later, I've gotten to the point that I can hit 2-3 string riffs with ease, no matter where they are.  Keep up the good work!