I'm so stuck

welcome to the forum.
good questions.
first things first: learn how to tune your guitar.
then begin to learn the essential open chords, then barre chords.
at the same time you should learn how to strum and pick notes. you should know the name of each string.

get a tuner and learn the proper pitch.
details to follow. :)

Thanks, more info would be much appreciated. I have an electrical tuner but once I have tuned it the chords sound terrible and impossible to make a song out of. Whats the difference between open and barre chords? I don't want to waste to much of your time so a link to some info will do. All I can find is different barre chord positions.
Thanks

firstly mr numbers lol

click on the logo at the top left....guitarnoise.com....that will take you to the home page....click on lessons....you will see a blue box with all sorts written in it....click on absolute beginners and check the lessons in there....

learn to finger a couple of basic chords and dont worry if they sound bad and feel very uncomfortable at first......as you place your fingers as instructed...play the strings from top to bottom,one by one....hopefully they will all sound clear and clean...if not....try moving your fingers slightly until they all do....

once they all ring true...hey presto...play them in strum....one movement...top to bottom.....congrats your a guitarist :roll:

hey we all started out in total confusion.....it is bewildering at first...but all you need is here on that home page my friend :lol:

listen to bally, this site has a ton of beginner lessons, learn the basic open chords then start with the songs for begginers lessons and learn them
in the order there listed, you will see each song is a lesson, david did a great job designing the begginer songs for that purpose 8)

Don't even worry about barre chords yet. A barre chord is when you use your first finger as a bar and lay it across all the strings. At your level all you will do is mute the strings.

Open chords have you finger individual strings with the rest of the strings remaining open, thus able to vibrate and make sound. At first you will be unintentionally muting, stopping the vibration, of strings which you don't want.

But remember chords are not the song just part of it. When you are playing chords someone else is singing or playing the melody. The chords add fullness to the sound.

Good advice ballybiker. Welcome to the forum Numbers. About your first question; an acoustic guitar is not a stepping stone on the way to playing an electric. The touch is lighter on an electric. If you already have an electric, learn with that IMHO. For me, it was harder to go from acoustic to electric because it sounded like I was bending all the notes from the pressure I was putting on the strings. That's just me though, and I very rarely play an electric. There are some very excellent electric players here that will be able to answer all your questions.

Denny

Good advice ballybiker. Welcome to the forum Numbers. About your first question; an acoustic guitar is not a stepping stone on the way to playing an electric. The touch is lighter on an electric. If you already have an electric, learn with that IMHO. For me, it was harder to go from acoustic to electric because it sounded like I was bending all the notes from the pressure I was putting on the strings. That's just me though, and I very rarely play an electric. There are some very excellent electric players here that will be able to answer all your questions.

Denny

I'm with you on that Denny.....the beauty of the acoustic is that you can make music anywhere,anytime.....one case or bag and off you go :roll:

Thank you everybody

hey 7etc, there are lots of sites for finding chords. the one i use is http://jguitar.com/chord . An X above the string means you don't play it, btw.
Make sure your tuner is set to 440 Hz. That will let you tune to standard tuning.
Good luck! Just keep at it; it'll come. :wink:

EDIT: Apologies for the looooong essay I appear to have written!

1. Is a acoustic guitar good to begin with before moving to an electric guitar?

This all depends on your own point of view; do you want to play acoustic? Or is your interest in electric only? You can *in theory* play the same things on both acoustic and electric, and you will have to learn the same things to begin with regardless of which you learn on, so if it's electric you want to play, play electric.

If you learn on electric and later decide to get an acoustic, the transition to acoustic can be tough; the strings require more pressure to fret, on most models the fretboard will be wider, and the frets themselves can be larger.

If you learn on acoustic and then move to electric, you have the reverse; much less pressure is needed, and the neck/frets are smaller.

Personally, I did the acoustic to electric route, and found that it didn't take long to learn to be ligher fingered when playing. I can imagine it would be harder to go from electric to acoustic, as having to put more pressure on the strings is going to mean further developing your finger muscles, which will require you to go back to basics in terms of your playing.

2. I want to learn how to do this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjA5faZF1A8 , should I learn how to do chords first and is this known as picking as opposed to chords?

One thing that I'll say (not meaning to sound rude), and I'm sure many people will agree; do not expect to be able to play anything like that for a WHILE. You'll find that simple, slow riffs from many songs will give you trouble for some time yet.

Chords and playing individual notes require some different skills;

Chords require you to 'memorise' a set arangement of your fingers and then create that pattern as it is needed (after lots of practice this becomes a subconcious thing) which is gained from repeating the arrangement of the fingers over and over until they are ingrained into your muslce-memory, at which point the arrangement can be created without any thought going into it; this can seem hard to believe when you begin I know, as it is hard to conciously remember the finger arrangement for even simple chords like E and A, but with enough practice, one day you can just "do" them.

Playing individual notes requires your fingers to go to where they are needed, when you need them to, as you tell them to, and is always going to be a concious thing. There is no way of 'learning' this, it is purely down to practice. When you learn a solo, you learn what frets/notes need to played in what order; you don't learn how to 'finger' the solo. Personally, I can say that I could play the same solo 5 times, and play it using different fingers in different positions on the fretboard each time. That only comes from developing the connection between your mind and your fingers. Once this has been developed to a certain point, your fingers will move to where you want when you need them to; but it does take A LOT of practice to get to that point, and at times it will seem like it won't ever happen.

the point of this is thus: Chords teach you how to move your fingers, improve your finger strength, they get your fingers moving over the different strings and frets, and improve your general dexterity. So learn chords first; by all means practice playing riffs as well. But chords are your first point of call in terms of developing guitar abilites.

3. Why do my chords sound go crumby with my 'Squier' by Fender Acoustic guitar? I'm pretty sure it is tuned right but when I strum the low notes sound very low it just dosn't sound right.

It could be that

A) your low strings are tuned to the right note (i.e. E) but an octave too low (this would make your strings very loose, but it is possible) if you have an electronic tuner, it will not tell you that you are tuned too low or high, only that you are tuned to that note.

B) your strings are old; if the strings are worn out, then the bass notes are going to sound heavy as the lighter, higher strings will have very little tone to them

C) you are not strumming all the strings evenly; putting too much pressure on the bass strings and not enough on the lighter strings

This is all just my opinions and views on things; I may be wrong! Hope its of some use.

Pete

Great, I don't have enough money to get an electric guitar at the moment so I will just keep practicing with my acoustic :).
Thanks

What does this mean on a tab?
1h2p1
Thanks

What does this mean on a tab?
1h2p1
Thanks

Play the first fret, then hammer on* to the second, and pull off** to the first again.

*hit the string with one of your fret hand fingers so it rings just as loud as when you pick it (takes practice).

**pull your finger off of the fret letting the previous fretted note sound in the process.

I have an electrical tuner but once I have tuned it the chords sound terrible and impossible to make a song out of.

My friend recently bought his first guitar. So I went with him to Guitar Center to get him some strings, a tuner, capo, etc. He bough a brand-new Korg tuner, I can't remember what model it was. The next weekend he had a small party at his place, and me and two other guitar players were there. We got out his guitar to play check it out/play it, and quickly found out it was badly out of tune. Come to find out, his tuner was defective and although the tuner said his strings were tuned EADGBE, they were WAY off!

So have a friend who plays check the tuning out for you.