guitar NEWB thread

haha have I practiced yet

I spent 90 minutes Saturday afternoon playing simple songs from my lesson book on strings 1 and 2, including "Jingle Bells" and "Ode To Joy" (which btw was annoying me because the version in the book was super simple and all in half and quarter notes and without the drop down a fourth at the end of the third line, so I started playing it "right" and using the third string as well).

Then, I started playing the C scale during the 2nd half of the Saints game and kept playing it and random songs until the end of SNL.

Then I started working on really incorporating string 3 yesterday for about an hour but my evening shenanigans really did a number on my fingertips and shoulder.

Need to pick a teacher this week.

. because my new year's resolution is to learn to play the guitar
i need to get a guitar first.
does anyone want to sell me a guitar for cheap?

talk to jjj, it's kind of like he does that for a living

no wait, it's EXACTLY like he does that for a living

to be fair i took guitar lessons for about 6 months in high school, but my teacher was a jazz dude, and that's not the kind of guitar i want to learn to play now (plus i don't remember anything).

Which shoulder hurts, Dan? I have to admit I'm a little confused.

right shoulder

Perhaps one of these arrangements will be more to your liking
http://www.guitarnoise.com/topic/christmas-songs/

Need to pick a teacher this week.

ha that is assuming I have a shortlist; as noted upthread, Boston is DROWNING in music teachers

oh and I moved the guitar into the corner of the living room; no fight!

How cheap is cheap bene?

Dan, I assume you acted prudently and looked on craigslist asked your opera buddies for recommendations

not yet I haven't, that is today's Facebook project

Too bad Peter Frampton found his guitar, bene_gesserit, or maybe you could have bought that one.

jjj, under a hundred

Don't tell Dick Destiny that.

http://www.rondomusic.com/

I have not personally played a Rondo instrument and cannot go to bat for their quality.

Any progress? IMM wants to know.

I've started playing the C scale up and down across all 6 strings. I've also solicited friends on Facebook for guitar teacher recommendations and have gotten a couple of good leads; one is a Berklee prof and the other is an NEC grad. Self-instruction wise, I'm up to doing "songs" on the third string but I don't want to go too much further than what I'm doing now without seeing a teacher.

Which Berklee prof? Freddie?

this dude: http://www.berklee.edu/faculty/detail/eric-byers

To think I learned by playing along with records :(

How old were you when you started?

I admit it was tricky having to get up every so often to wind up the gramophone

Doesn't work for everyone though - I learned by playing along to records as well and I'm a lousy guitarist!

What makes you think I'm not!

question: does it make sense to bring examples of the types of things I'm most interested in doing with a guitar into an initial lesson or is that jumping the gun/potentially prejudicing the teacher's ability to show me the fundamentals?

I don't see what harm it would do

Definitely do that.

xxxpost cos I've heard you play on an ILX comp and you're pretty good?

Shucks, I'd forgotten about that

zomg I just realized that I had completely forgotten to try playing Siouxsie songs

"Night Shift" here I come FUCK THE MOTHERS KILL THE OTHERS

Do you have any books with chords in them? As a permanent guitar NOOB myself, I recommend Chords and Progressions for Jazz and Popular Guitar, by Arne Berle for the chords and then one of Rikky Rooksby's guitar books for chords plus arrangements of songs.

(I'm just assuming that ultimately single note stuff is going to end up being pretty easy for you)

hey y'all

I haven't contacted a teacher yet because I feel like I should get my wisdom teeth taken out first. I know that logic doesn't make much surface sense but in my head it TOTALLY makes sense.

I have gotten VERY tired of playing the C scale on strings 1-3 and have started walking up and down all 6 strings. I also kind of stumbled across E, E7, Emin, Emin7 and C and have jamming back and forth between them. I also found some chord that I am CERTAIN is the first chord to "Love Will Tear Us Apart" but I can't recreate it now. Also been playing the intro to "Crystallised" over and over.

how are current Epiphones? their version of the Gibson ES-339 is only $400 online, which seems pretty affordable

aww djp i meant to ask you how this was going on saturday!

ha I am still kind of struggling through on my own, although I have like 3 ppl I need to contact re: lessons

I can now play C, E and Emin chords! Also I am pretty sure the opening chord to "Love Will Tear Us Apart is just the third string/third fret but I haven't looked it up to confirm. I've also been teaching myself the opening to "Crystalized" and the main guitar riff to "Dull Life"

Been recommended this site, pretty comprehensive free video lessons, will check them out myself when I get a mo:

http://www.justinguitar.com/

Dan, you should definitely learn the E and A chord shapes - those are the most important shapes once you start playing barre chords). throw in D and you can play songs w/I-IV-V progressions!

E major(/minor) = 022100(/022000) E-B-E-G#-B-E (E-B-E-G-B-E)
A major(/minor) = 002220(/002210) E-A-E-A-C#-E (E-A-E-A-C-E)
D major(/minor) = x00232(/x00231) x-A-D-A-D-F# (x-A-D-A-D-F)

don't forget the fingering! (231/12 or 23, 123/231, 132/321). trivial or ymmv you might think but i played D as 231 for ages, which is definitely bad and wrong.

I play E minor the exact same as E major except without fingering the G string, so it's easy to switch between the two if necessary. My guitar teacher taught me to do it that way.

wait how do you play d minor as 321 and not 231, my fingers are not physically capable of doing this afaik

oops yr right, i knew i'd make a mistake. e minor like e major makes sense but i tend to use first two fingers anyway if i'm not playing e major or say playing esus4 as well, nothing wrong with using more than one fingering if it suits the occasion.

altho 234 for esus4 works too, always good to get the little finger in on the action.

Guitar is fun! My advice, if you're teaching yourself, is to familiarise yourself with the main open chord shapes and then start learning tunes from Ultimate Guitar chord tabs - you'll get used to switching between them pretty quickly.

Any sites that teach you country picking?

There are a few good lessons on http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Category/Premier_Clinic.aspx

filter by issue: All Issues
filter by category: Premier Clinic
filter by section: Country

There are some lessons on chicken picking and double stops and stuff.

Awesome. Pedal-Steel Effect that's what I want!

Also I did end up buying a d'Angelico guitar from jjjusten