I have a very very simple question, where can i find good info on learning how to strum? hand positions? i mean the simple basic stuff..after one week with my guitar, i can honestly say the only thing i can do really well, is unzip the case, pull it out, and sit down with it... :lol:
i found a link i none of the threads (may have been other one istarted :? really not sure anymore0 however, with dial up, it took two hours to download a fraction of it.
again, thanx for any advice
Tiffany
"after one week with my guitar, i can honestly say the only thing i can do really well, is unzip the case, pull it out, and sit down with it... "
LOL it sounds like your doing just fine :)
After playing for awhile I've realized the strumming hand is just as important as the fretting hand and requires just as much practice. Contrary to how things appear. I mean all the twisting and stretching that our fretting hand must do, surely just strumming along can't be that difficult. Well it is to me and although Im no expert, here are a couple things I've tried. when just starting out it was easier for me to strum with a thinner pick, it allowed more flex and wouldnt grab the strings, as I've improved I've gone to thicker picks. Hold the pick lightly it seems to help, you may drop it a few times but we all do. Upstrokes are the most difficult for me, and what I've learned when strumming chords is often times on my upstrokes I only need to stum the bottom (thinner) two or three strings to get the sounds I want. It's not neccessary to strumm all six strings. These are just a few things that have helped me, I'm sure others can add tips that have worked for them.
keep on strummin it gets better with time and practice
I started a thread in the guitar discussions section for strumming submissions, Meusenfreud linked us to a really good strumming site, with audio and everything.
Check it out.
Kido
THANK YOU, BOTH!!! (HUGS TO YOU BOTH)
David...i cant wait for others to wake up here so i can try out those tips you posted. was beginning to feel like i was doing something wrong, the strumming has been more difficult for me than fretting.
Kido...went to the other thread, and the links in there were a BIG BIG help!
Now i feel like i can start getting somewhere with this... :lol:
Tiffany
Tiffany
Not to make light of your post, but one week is nothing. I have been playing guitar continuously for over 33 years now, and I still work on technique every day. There is no magic formula for guitar except practice, practice, practice.
Many people get discouraged on guitar. They may have been playing 2 or 3 years and feel they are not very good. Then they will run into someone who has been playing 2 or 3 years that is amazingly good. Then they come to believe there is something wrong with themselves. This is totally false. While some people do have a little more natural talent than others,
the real difference is the amount of hours practiced. The person who is not that good probably spent less than 2 hours per week practicing, and the great player probably spent 6-8 hours per day (or even more) practicing.
I read an interview of Yngwee Malmsteen once. He said people were amazed that he became such a good player in the space of 3 or 4 years.
He said what people didn't realize is that he practiced 12 to 16 hours every day. Jimi Hendrix was known to practice up to 16 hours per day even after he was known and established, right up to his death. This is the only secret.
The more you practice the better you will get.
That's it.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
Thanx,Wes.
I guess I was just concerned because when i taught myself piano, within a week i was half way thru beginner lesson book; and with the clairnet, completely throu book in less than a month...
wait...maybe thats prob, cant afford book yet :lol: but will have one in a week!!! I have only been using stuff on this site to begin to practice. I think it will start to pick up for me when i can get a beginner lesson book to follow, should help with what i should actually do to set up practicing too.
Thanx
Tiffany
Tiffany
I can play piano a little bit myself. Guitar is far more difficult than piano. Piano is considered one of the easiest instruments to play.
Just think about it. Anybody can hit a note on piano immediately, but even playing one note on guitar is far more difficult. It takes the coordination of both hands. It is also not easy to fret a guitar cleanly, especially at first.
Whenever you see a list of the most difficult instruments, guitar is always in the top 5. Many claim it is the most difficult of all instruments.
You say you got good on clarinet quickly? That's great because the reed instruments are also considered some of the most difficult instruments to play.
I am not putting piano down. Just like any instrument, it takes years of diligent practice to be a master on piano. I was simply talking about starting out.
Stay at it Tiffany, you'll get good.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
I read recently that one of the universities (as I recall, the Royal College of Music in London) commissioned a review of performance pieces they use for classical guitar.
The regents felt it was needed because a guitarist, after a year or so of study, is 'behind' other instruments in the level of difficulty that can be played.
Some of that is due to the flexibility of the instrument - you can get a note in more than one place - and some of it to the tuning - unlike, say, a violin, the strings aren't spaced in even intervals.
When I started playing guitar I found it easier than other instruments... but that could be because I was so enraptured with the guitar, I practiced five or more hours a day. As Wes noted, a lot of it is the hours you put in - provided they're really working at learning, and not just noodling around.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
I personally find piano extremely hard. Im just beginning though so yeah.
aka Izabella
sometimes i worry that i will never have enough time to properly learn. I work full time and I am just starting out, I certainly dont have time to practice for hours on end each day, and often on my days off i am just too tired, or have other things to take care of that i still dont get that much time....
actor -
"just too tired"...?
Its down to commitment. Regardless of how tired you are, if you REALLY want to learn this great instrument, you will.
I split with my girlfreind about 2.5 years ago and moved into a small house. I decided to try and play guitar to take my mind off the disaster that any relationship going wrong is. And i found it extremely addictive. Regardless of how tired I was, quite often i found myself trying to play something until 2 or 3 in the morning.
Granted, i wore myself out at times, but i would not do things any differently again.
One question. How much TV do you watch a week? And be honest.
All the best
Matt
there is only one show i watch with any regulariy, and that my guitly pleasure, the gilmore girls. thats only on on wednesdays. otherwise i hardly watch tv at all anymore, honestly.
but i work 40 hours a week, oftentimes 3-11 shifts, when i get home from those its usually midnight, then i sleep. in the morning i try to play for at least a while, but unfortunately there are a great many distractions in my house. perhaps if i lived alone i would be able to attain that focus. Then i have to get ready for work three hours before its time to go because i ride the bus.
I love it, and i really want to play, i find that i catch on to things fairly quickly, much faster than i ever expected, but it truly is difficult to find the time.
:? Funny after I split up with my wife, I found myself going back to learn guitar and I have to say it is very good therapy, when we were together it was hard to find time she had kids and when I did play on Friday nights she did not like it and complained I even tried to show her a couple of chords thinking if she got Involved she would not complain but she told me It hurt her fingers and she got mad at me and said she wanted no part of it, made me feel bad, after she left I can play when I want and no more complaints, I put all my efforts into it and just because she did not like it, that will never hold me back again, music can realy help you when you are down and it sure has been a friend to me.
:? Funny after I split up with my wife, I found myself going back to learn guitar and I have to say it is very good therapy, when we were together it was hard to find time she had kids and when I did play on Friday nights she did not like it and complained I even tried to show her a couple of chords thinking if she got Involved she would not complain but she told me It hurt her fingers and she got mad at me and said she wanted no part of it, made me feel bad, after she left I can play when I want and no more complaints, I put all my efforts into it and just because she did not like it, that will never hold me back again, music can realy help you when you are down and it sure has been a friend to me.
I think the pain factor is what puts off a lot of women from playing guitar. It hurts at first and requires trimmed fingernails, at least on the fretting hand.
-Metaellihead
Thanx for all the encouragment, everyone! I havent given up tho! (too stubborn for that). I also work the 3 - 1130 shift at the hospital, but i get my time in during the night...husband gone to work, brother in law at band practice or shows...ME ALONE!!!! YEAH!!! :lol:
The other day i wrote down some of the chords on paper, and spent most of the night playing them over and over for about 3 hours, then started on what i think is the first song-lesson Horse With No Name...for couple hours...still got plenty of sleep for work too.
actually feeling better about how i going with this...the sounds coming fromthe guitar are actually getting tolerable!!! :lol:
Tiffany
