Learn guitar?

[Susie]

I'm hoping we've got some ishers who play, I think we have...

I want to learn to play my guitar properly & write songs. I've got a Russ Shipton (yay) teach yourself book which I'm going to go through, but it slightly makes me lose the will to live. Could anyone recommend any websites/ books/other resources anything that I could teach myself with? I can play a tiny bit but not well i.e. I can play about three chords and then as soon as I get to the F chord I give up. No more! I'm going to crack it this time! .

I have cut my nails and gritted my teeth in anticipation...

[MKG]

This one's not too bad, Susie ...

http://guitar.about.com/library/blguita ... rchive.htm

Your biggest problem for the first few weeks is the hardness of the fingertips on your left hand (assuming you're right-handed). Until you've built up callus on the fingertips, they're going to be sore, and it's difficult to get enough pressure on the strings with sore fingertips. This is the masochistic bit - you just have to keep going.

F - as is the case for all barre chords - is merely a matter of long practice. You will need the barre chords but in a lot of cases you can get away with a 5-string version of F, your thumb dampening the bass E string.

Best of luck (which you don't need as, if you keep up the practice sessions, you'll get there).

Mike

[clanpowell]

Buy a TAB book for an album that you feel like you know the guitar parts so well you can sing/hum them really well. Then go from there. I did it with Pink Floyd's Wall album. They usually have a legend for the TAB in them so you can pick them up quite quickly. Once you know a few techniques you can slowly put them together and go from there.
What sort of music are you hoping to play?
If you simply type in guitar tab into a search engine you'll find loads of tabs for songs you want to play. The only problem with internet TABs is that they don't have timings on them. However if you want to simply do some chord strumming you'll also find chord sheets-the lyrics wich the chords above the lyrics. These days you can usually hover your mouse above the chord name and it will give you a chord diagram so you can build up your chord reptoir that way as well.

[clanpowell]

Oh, before I forget.....Meths for your finger tips, that will speed up the hardening. As will an acoustic rather than electric.

[frozenthunderbolt]

http://www.chordie.com/ can be quite a handy site for different songs, as a how to there is no substitute for a decent teacher, my bro taught himself and hes pretty good, but it took him 3 years.

[magicguitarman]

Hi Susie,

I teach the guitar, and the one thing I'll say as a starting tip is; don't try too hard! You'll put yourself off. Aim to practice less than you think you could, and build from there.

I hope that makes sense!

[wulf]

Not being too hard on yourself is a good tip but don't go too easy, either. Try to spend at least a little time with the guitar each day so that your skills (and finger toughness) get a chance to develop.

As an exercise, I would suggest making sure you can change between chords smoothly is a good one. If you can go from chord to chord without stumbling and loosing the rhythm, it will sound much better than if you have to stop and think about repositioning your fingers on each transition. Try playing a slow steady beat and switching between two chords at regular intervals (eg. D D D D A A A A D D D D A A A A etc...).

Once you learn the transitions between a related set of chords (eg. D, G, A) you will be able to play song structures like a blues (a simple version, with four bars for each letter, would be: D D D D G G D D A G D A). Also, once you can play with a steady, solid rhythm, you can start to make it more interesting with different strumming patterns and so forth but, if you don't have the foundation, your playing will sound sloppy.

Wulf

[Susie]

Thank you everyone for this, these are great tips. I think I've got some meths in the cupboard from the last fondue set, I shall dig it out.

Frozenthunderbolt, I would like lessons but I can't really afford it at the moment. I have a brother who plays too so I'm going to make him help me when I next see him, in the meantime I'm just going to try and teach myself doggedly ;-).

I'm going to aim for about half an hour practice a day and see how I go with that. I'm on an acoustic so that should help with the finger hardening.

What sort of music are you hoping to play?

The honest answer to that is, anything you can play with only A, D and E that isn't bloody Hey Jude ;-). When I'm a bit better though I will probably find myself going in a folk/ alt country direction because that's the kind of music I tend to listen to (although that definitely might change when I know what I'm doing!). IFI When I can play a bit better than Father Ted doing My Lovely Horse I'm going to have a go at Johnny Cash because the accompaniments to the songs in his last album seem quite easy (from googling) so I might have a fighting chance.

Sorry if that all sounded disjointed, I have a bad cold and am a bit dopey.

[magicguitarman]

I would suggest you have a look for something like a "three chord songbook". these take many popular songs and arrange them in the same key so you can play them with the same chords.

Some would call it "cheating" but it's a good step onto the ladder.

[wulf]

If you want to get as far as possible with only a few chords securely under your belt, get a capo, too. That way you can find a key that is suitable to your voice for a given song, even if it turns out to be Ab or B.

Wulf

[phil55494]

One extra point I would add is get a good guitar stand and a music stand. Have them setup with the guitar and whatever book/music you're playing on them. It's a lot easier to practice and play if you're not spending several minutes getting the guitar out etc. T'other half who plays classical guitar (and fingerstyle acoustic) plays her guitars much more frequently since we set a corner of a room like this as a music space.

[gregorach]

If you want to get as far as possible with only a few chords securely under your belt, get a capo, too. That way you can find a key that is suitable to your voice for a given song, even if it turns out to be Ab or B.

Wulf

Always get a cap anyway. A lot of things that look really hard to play when written down turn out to be quite simple if you're capo'd right.

[Susie]

Just updating to say I've just played (aka murdered) the Leonard Cohen song about Joan of Arc, go me, I see a party piece forming especially if I've had wine.

From looking at chords on the internet I'm suspecting quite a lot of people never actually get very far with chords but write songs anyway! ;-).

When I next go into town I shall brave scary guitar shops and look for a capo, I think it would indeed help while I'm learning, because singing seems to be a skill in itself - I thought I could hold a tune but it turns out I can only hold it when I'm sure what note I'm starting off on, so I definitely need to practice more.

[magicguitarman]

Singing is something 99% of people can do if they practice, it'll come don't worry!

Guitar shops tend to be a lot less scary than they look too. Just go in and ask for one, chances are they'll have the capo's hung up behind the counter anyway.

Good luck!

[wulf]

From looking at chords on the internet I'm suspecting quite a lot of people never actually get very far with chords but write songs anyway! ;-).

That's certainly true of a lot of people who put chords up on the Internet, anyway. The original songs often turn out to be a little more sophisticated although, to be fair, you don't need every nuance to create your version of a song (especially if you are adapting the sound of a full band for a single guitar and voice).

One thing that is worth doing, if you can muster up the technology to do it, is to record yourself playing and singing. When you listen back you will probably cringe but, if you can resist beating yourself up too much, you should be able to pick out things you can do well (look for more opportunities to use and refine those tricks) and things you struggle with (to be targeted with practise until you can do them well).

Wulf