guitar NEWB thread

Believe it or not YouTube has been my go-to for guitar rut-busting. Mixed in with infinite numbers of rough webcam covers are some pretty good instructional videos. I like the ones from this instro surf guy

Speaking of reverb, jjusten (or anyone else) how do you like the Dispatch Master? It looks like a nice, simple-to-operate pedal with the added benefit of being two effects. Does it lose anything in its simplicity? How does it stack up against other delay/reverb combos like the Boss RV-5 or whatever?

― how's life, Thursday, June 5, 2014 11:31 AM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In Tone Report this week, Jamie Stillman says this has been earthquaker's most popular pedal!

I have been a guitar owner for a quarter century and still feel like a newb as a player. I'm not bothered. A lot of it has to do with not having a shitton of spare time in which to seriously practice. If I'm lucky I'll get 15 minutes a day to fuck around and I'm resigned to that as the status quo for now.

But so, the thing I just started getting into in the last month or so is learning vocal lines. I've gone through phases of figuring out all the other parts of songs: chord changes, riffs, solos, bass lines, trying to teach myself how to improvise, etc. But for some reason I had never even thought to try to work out a song's vocal melodies before and that's kinda crazy to me, in retrospect. Anyway, it's been a really good rut-buste. Feel like I'm learning a lot.

ha given my background as a singer, following vocal lines is my first inclination (2nd inclination is to follow the bass line because I sing bass or baritone in ensembles)

B-b-but did you ever get a teacher?

does Rocksmith count

If u want it to

I fucking love Rocksmith

wish rocksmith used tab instead of... whatever it is it uses

does rocksmith have style-specific lessons? is it mostly just for beginners? the website seems deliberately opaque about the lessons that are offered.

I was initially excited about https://getinstinct.com/ but it doesn't seem to work very well at all. Using a laptop microphone and the internet maybe not such a good idea yet.

but I do like how they have style specific lessons (though I couldn't even get the free section of one to load correctly in chrome to see if I was interested in buying).

Also, I have been having a hell of a great time learning to play ragtime guitar, but I am afraid that it is one of those styles that is great fun to play but horrible to listen to outside of old western saloons.

I realize that ragtime and old western saloons are very different times, but I also don't realize that because I guess it just sounds "old timey" is what I am saying.

wish rocksmith used tab instead of... whatever it is it uses

The default has the strings the opposite way round to tab, but you can reverse the order, I found it OK once I did that.

does rocksmith have style-specific lessons? is it mostly just for beginners?

There are some video lessons for various techniques, not sure they are any better than stuff you can find on Youtube tho. Some of the solos are pretty advanced, I think, but then I am not a very good lead guitarist - I don't think it's just for beginners though - I've got a long way to go on some of the tracks.

ha given my background as a singer, following vocal lines is my first inclination (2nd inclination is to follow the bass line because I sing bass or baritone in ensembles)

― the farakhan of gg (DJP), Monday, November 24, 2014 5:11 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, it just feels like the missing piece of the puzzle to me, in terms of understanding a song. Like, the vocals are the thing people think of first when they're thinking about a song, so why wouldn't I want to figure them out on my instrument? How did I skip this?

Feel like if I did have a background in chorus, or in another instrument in the band or orchestra, I would have approached things differently. My son plays violin at his school. I can kinda tell when he's just whistling or whatever that he's getting a pretty good grasp on melody.

It's really frustrating in hindsight, but I'm having a lot of fun now.

xp Guitar is a weird instrument in that many people never go through the trouble of learning to play the kinds of very basic single-note melodies that a first-year student on any other instrument would learn. You learn cowboy chords, then power chords, then barre chords, then blues/pentatonic scale soloing.

Like I'll bet a lot of guitarists who have been playing a couple years would have trouble picking out Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in first position.

meanwhile that has basically been the extent of my guitar playing lately (that, When The Saints Go Marching In, Ode To Joy, and the main keyboard riff from Never Let Me Down Again)

It's a good thing to learn, because then when you play chords you can throw in little basslines/licks/fills and it gives you a nice little stylistic edge since a lot of people don't play that way today (whereas in the 60s it was pretty common)

Do you ever take a melody and just strum in the rests? Like you could do "Oh when the saints" (strumy strummy strummy strum) "go marchin in" (strummmmmm a strummy strum) etc. -- it's a good exercise

I can tell you that back in jr. high school when I was taking lessons I probably made it 1/4 way through the Hal Leonard Guitar Method 1 book. I did't want to practice Au Claire de la Lune or Greensleeves.

xp: Yes! that's another thing that I'm doing too, going back and forth between the melody and the chord or root.

I moved this summer and my guitar is now in a room with a computer so I've been playing a lot more - watching videos on youtube and figuring out how to sort of play Ziggy Stardust, Karma Police, Can You Get To That, Mr. Brownstone, etc.

But playing along is still all I do, and I am still totally stupid about scales, positions, keys, and any music theory stuff. I have no idea where to get started and it feels like I will have to force myself to do this and it stops being fun. Which sucks, as this is how it's been for the last 15 years.

Well yeah getting beyond that is going to require some vegetables-eating, just like you don't get much better at basketball if all you ever do is randomly chuck up shots. But don't make it so huge for yourself, just pick one thing and learn it gradually -- how to play a major scale in a few keys (off a few different chords) or something like that. A lot of this stuff builds on itself so once you get a certain amount of base knowledge it gets easier to learn more.

I think it's more that I need to find some specific list of things to work at on a daily basis that progress and build on previous knowledge but am overwhelmed by the options.

I got really good at cooking because I had to eat everyday so I practiced fundamental things over and over. My guitar playing is more like ordering takeout all the time.

The key is to make a very small, manageable list. It won't be "complete." You won't come up with the perfect practice routine. Doing something is better than doing nothing.

Do you workout? It's not that different than with working out -- unless you're a fitness nut you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out exactly what to do and how to cover all bases and you wind up not going to the gym at all in the end. Better to just do something. That 20 minutes you wind up spending upgrade walking on the treadmill is at least exercise, whereas wringing your hands about what workout to do is not really.

just keep stumbling through satin doll until you can play it perfectly in 20 years

It's something that sort of fascinates me about the human mind and learning process tbh -- how you can keep doing an activity for years but actually not get better at it unless you take specific concerted steps -- the fact that there are just walls that you hit if you don't consciously direct yourself over them.

Hurting otm throughout, painfully so.

i just want a basic but not-trash electric guitar because i'm in my 30s and filled w regret and want to try learning again

what do i get

or should i just get a ukulele

Are you still in town? Because I know a guy

i am not 8[

but you are just the guy i was hoping would show up

Gimme a price range.

fwiw u live in a golden age of affordable electric guitars

big fan of the squier classic vibe tele custom fwiw but: trust in jjj

range would be sub five hundo but ideally sub three

I really like my G&L Tribute ASAT. You can pick them up (and many of the other Tribute models) for under $500.

G&l tribute fallout is amazing, hagstrom ultra swede, several Eastwood models come to mind as well.

Through a weird series of events I wound up with a Johnson Solara -- under $300 and great imo.

Curious if you agree jjj

oh that ultra swede looks v nice

Agree with jjj on the fallout. At least from the demos I've heard it sounds like a super versatile guitar. Would love to get my hands on one someday.

btw Rocksmith original version is on sale at Steam at the moment, just bought it cos it has loads of songs I like on DLC that I can't play in Rocksmith 2014 without owning the original game.

is it a bad idea to buy a used guitar that suffered damage to the neck that was then repaired by a luthier?

In my experience, once the neck broke it was always a weak spot. I had a Les Paul that fell and had its headstock shorn off. I had it repaired once and it broke again a few years later. had it repaired a second time and it broke again a few years later, so I sold it off as a "project" guitar.

per the listing (it's an ebay ish) it did not break all the way through

Terrible, terrible idea. The problem is not that it will break in the same spot, but that the wood fibers on either side of the neck have been greatly compromised. One more drop or fall could be unrepairable.

good to know, thx jjj!

so i got an ebay ultra swede