Yeah he is giving me an amp, 4 string bass, and a guitar. I think I will only use the guitar. I don't want to be tempted with switching back and forth. He said its just a small brand name, but it was like 150 dollars. Its good to see if I enjoy I guess.
People do not do acoustic first because it is easier, it is quite the opposite, Acoustic strings are on average alot harder to press down than electric strings, so alot of people learn on an acoustic first and then take it to electric. Acoustic is, in my opinion, no easier than electric.
Headphones, most amps have a headphone jack on them, however if you are not going to be playing without the headphones, save yourself some money and get a headphone amp.
That's great that your friend is going to let you borrow his equipment, sounds like it's a Johnson or something.
There is nothing wrong with looking at some tabs while you decide if you want to continue playing, just make sure to find correct tabs, nothing worse than learning a song wrong. Also search around and try to find some beginners exercises and scales, or if you ask nicely enough I can come up with a little program for you to teach you some basic cords and a few basic songs you like, my college work isn't keeping me very busy so just let me know.
Well today my friend gave me an electric guitar, a bass, amp, and a tuner. So far I enjoy the guitar over the bass, I just love the sound. It seems like the instrument sounds so well no matter how you play it. Right now im printing out a guide on finger placement, how to hold the guitar, chords, etc. Just basics to get me understading the guitar. The amp is like a Pig something, its (I think) 50 watts.
My left wrist starts to hurt pretty bad fast, but im sure I will get used to the position. I don't see how you can move back and forth fast enough to the different frets, in one song will you be chaning positions on the neck alot to different frets? How hard should I be striking the chords?
To Tannyr: Ah yep, I really only look at online tabs, though I have an issue of Acoustic Guitar World(I think thats the title...cant seem to find it right now). But now that you say it I do recall seeing the rhythm shown for the songs that they had tabbed.
Also forgot to mention the metronome, thanks :P. On the topic of rythym and metronomes, I really would, actually I would say you really NEED to get one. I recently just started getting into rythym (not just timing quarter notes and half notes, etc) but playing chords in the backround while my teacher played the melody, and then switching up to a swing 8th note melody right after playing the chords in a different timing. 921, this is where stuff really gets to be alot of fun. The metronome has been good so far for getting me to have a 4 beat measure down, and then being able to strum twice for each beat, and then switch the rythym up and still having that 4 beats going in my head. Its difficult at first but once you get the hang of it, its awesome.
On the chords thing, I still get them mixed up a bit . Ive learned alot of them but still cant get over how many there are and variations possible. This is where I think a good chord book that has pictures comes in. Just in case I need back up if I blank on how exactly a chord is played.
To 921: The chord switching gets a great deal faster the more you play and get familiar with the hand position. The first song I learned to play was Green Day's wake me when september ends. It switches chords quite a few times quickly, and at first I had to place each finger down slowly while watching it. As time went on I could place 2 fingers down together that are close to each other, and eventually I could place all of the fingers down at once, without looking.
You will also begin to learn shortcuts. By that I mean you might notice that "hey, these two chords have the ring finger and pinky finger in the same position", so you just slide those fingers down or something of that sort. You will also become used to the space between the frets, so that you can move your fingers and hand down the frets without having to look, but still know exactly where you are.
Something I discoverd on my own about 3 months after I started playing and once I got into more difficult songs, was that I wasnt learning to play without looking down to much, but just remembering the songs instead so I could look down at my fingers. While this was ok at first, I started coming across songs that I just wanted to try playing or I was sight reading it, and I couldnt sight read and look at my fingers at the same time. So instead I concentrated more on learning the spacing between frets and strings so that I could just read the sheet/tab music and play without looking. It really increased my playing speed.
Originally posted by 9216544 Well today my friend gave me an electric guitar, a bass, amp, and a tuner. So far I enjoy the guitar over the bass, I just love the sound. It seems like the instrument sounds so well no matter how you play it. Right now im printing out a guide on finger placement, how to hold the guitar, chords, etc. Just basics to get me understading the guitar. The amp is like a Pig something, its (I think) 50 watts. My left wrist starts to hurt pretty bad fast, but im sure I will get used to the position. I don't see how you can move back and forth fast enough to the different frets, in one song will you be chaning positions on the neck alot to different frets? How hard should I be striking the chords?
Describe how you mean hurts? You should avoid positioning that strains and tightens your left wrist and elbow.
And yes you will get used to the chords and be able to switch very fast, you'd be suprised.
And on the metronome thing, you can download a free metronome to use on your computer, i always lay my guitar at my computer desk, so no real need for me to buy a real one, but if you want to it's still a great idea.
Ok I found my favorite thing to do with it. I think this only works with the metronome on.
hold down Z let him do his thing four times and then types this keys about a second apart. In a 1-2-3-4 rhythm. You should be able to here the Z part in between each of the other keys and I think you'll know when you're doing it right. Wish I could explain better anyway it goes like this
Hold down Z 4 quatraints (probably not using this right but let him do his riff four times should take about 10 seconds) then jump in and go O-I-L-K O-I-L-E O-I-L-D O-I-L-S let the s ring out for a while and cut if off with F anyway that's what I started doing when I found it just now.
Originally posted by 9216544 My left wrist starts to hurt pretty bad fast, but im sure I will get used to the position.
You should never have pain while playing. If your wrist/hand is burning such as you would feel after exercising you should be alright, (you're just building muscle) but if you are feeling pain you should stop and re-evaluate the way youre holding the guitar.
Well I have to twist my wrist a little bit to be able to reach the sixth chord. Other wise, my finger will run across the chords closer to my palm. I try to keep my arm and wrist straight, but then I cant reach all the strings well, or be able to curve my fingers. When I get a guitar, I think I will try to find one with a smaller neck. I haven't been able to play this weekend since I have been at friends the whole time.
Comments
Yeah he is giving me an amp, 4 string bass, and a guitar. I think I will only use the guitar. I don't want to be tempted with switching back and forth. He said its just a small brand name, but it was like 150 dollars. Its good to see if I enjoy I guess.
To address a few things:
People do not do acoustic first because it is easier, it is quite the opposite, Acoustic strings are on average alot harder to press down than electric strings, so alot of people learn on an acoustic first and then take it to electric. Acoustic is, in my opinion, no easier than electric.
Headphones, most amps have a headphone jack on them, however if you are not going to be playing without the headphones, save yourself some money and get a headphone amp.
That's great that your friend is going to let you borrow his equipment, sounds like it's a Johnson or something.
There is nothing wrong with looking at some tabs while you decide if you want to continue playing, just make sure to find correct tabs, nothing worse than learning a song wrong. Also search around and try to find some beginners exercises and scales, or if you ask nicely enough I can come up with a little program for you to teach you some basic cords and a few basic songs you like, my college work isn't keeping me very busy so just let me know.
Well today my friend gave me an electric guitar, a bass, amp, and a tuner. So far I enjoy the guitar over the bass, I just love the sound. It seems like the instrument sounds so well no matter how you play it. Right now im printing out a guide on finger placement, how to hold the guitar, chords, etc. Just basics to get me understading the guitar. The amp is like a Pig something, its (I think) 50 watts.
My left wrist starts to hurt pretty bad fast, but im sure I will get used to the position. I don't see how you can move back and forth fast enough to the different frets, in one song will you be chaning positions on the neck alot to different frets? How hard should I be striking the chords?
To Tannyr: Ah yep, I really only look at online tabs, though I have an issue of Acoustic Guitar World(I think thats the title...cant seem to find it right now). But now that you say it I do recall seeing the rhythm shown for the songs that they had tabbed.
Also forgot to mention the metronome, thanks :P. On the topic of rythym and metronomes, I really would, actually I would say you really NEED to get one. I recently just started getting into rythym (not just timing quarter notes and half notes, etc) but playing chords in the backround while my teacher played the melody, and then switching up to a swing 8th note melody right after playing the chords in a different timing. 921, this is where stuff really gets to be alot of fun. The metronome has been good so far for getting me to have a 4 beat measure down, and then being able to strum twice for each beat, and then switch the rythym up and still having that 4 beats going in my head. Its difficult at first but once you get the hang of it, its awesome.
On the chords thing, I still get them mixed up a bit
. Ive learned alot of them but still cant get over how many there are and variations possible. This is where I think a good chord book that has pictures comes in. Just in case I need back up if I blank on how exactly a chord is played.
To 921: The chord switching gets a great deal faster the more you play and get familiar with the hand position. The first song I learned to play was Green Day's wake me when september ends. It switches chords quite a few times quickly, and at first I had to place each finger down slowly while watching it. As time went on I could place 2 fingers down together that are close to each other, and eventually I could place all of the fingers down at once, without looking.
You will also begin to learn shortcuts. By that I mean you might notice that "hey, these two chords have the ring finger and pinky finger in the same position", so you just slide those fingers down or something of that sort. You will also become used to the space between the frets, so that you can move your fingers and hand down the frets without having to look, but still know exactly where you are.
Something I discoverd on my own about 3 months after I started playing and once I got into more difficult songs, was that I wasnt learning to play without looking down to much, but just remembering the songs instead so I could look down at my fingers. While this was ok at first, I started coming across songs that I just wanted to try playing or I was sight reading it, and I couldnt sight read and look at my fingers at the same time. So instead I concentrated more on learning the spacing between frets and strings so that I could just read the sheet/tab music and play without looking. It really increased my playing speed.
Describe how you mean hurts? You should avoid positioning that strains and tightens your left wrist and elbow.
And yes you will get used to the chords and be able to switch very fast, you'd be suprised.
And on the metronome thing, you can download a free metronome to use on your computer, i always lay my guitar at my computer desk, so no real need for me to buy a real one, but if you want to it's still a great idea.
Here's a little something to start on....You should have this down in no time....
http://www.guitarshredshow.com/
Ok I found my favorite thing to do with it. I think this only works with the metronome on.
hold down Z let him do his thing four times and then types this keys about a second apart. In a 1-2-3-4 rhythm. You should be able to here the Z part in between each of the other keys and I think you'll know when you're doing it right. Wish I could explain better anyway it goes like this
Hold down Z 4 quatraints (probably not using this right but let him do his riff four times should take about 10 seconds) then jump in and go
O-I-L-K
O-I-L-E
O-I-L-D
O-I-L-S let the s ring out for a while and cut if off with F anyway that's what I started doing when I found it just now.
Well I have to twist my wrist a little bit to be able to reach the sixth chord. Other wise, my finger will run across the chords closer to my palm. I try to keep my arm and wrist straight, but then I cant reach all the strings well, or be able to curve my fingers. When I get a guitar, I think I will try to find one with a smaller neck. I haven't been able to play this weekend since I have been at friends the whole time.
Well, I'm also starting to play guitar but I prefer Acoustic one than Electric..So, Good Luck to both of us..Have fun!!! See yah
[color=red] bluh
I began to learn to play on acoustic but I started to bleed so I quit.