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New Guitar Player questions?

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(@firefak)
Active Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 8
Topic starter  

Hey there everyone, I'm pretty new to guitar and to Guitar Noise. So here are my questions.

1. The music I'm really interested into is Rock and Metal, so I'm working to get an electric guitar, but for Christmas I got an Acoustic guitar. Don't get me wrong, I love the sound of Acoustic Guitar music and It's portable. I wouldn't mind playing both, yet I've heard the Acoustic Guitar is harder to learn on, and I'm not sure what to practice. So what can I practice on my acoustic to get mke started on guitar?

2. There's the debate of Self Taught and Teachers. Self Taught is neat since you can learn what you want, Teacher's may or may not be boring, but it;s the basics. Which do you think I should do?

3. Would you know of any online sites that would give me great beginner help to start my guitar playing?

Thanks,
Firefak.


   
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(@alangreen)
Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

I've heard the Acoustic Guitar is harder to learn on

Rubbish - this one comes from people who were too lazy to learn
So what can I practice on my acoustic to get me started on guitar?

Anything you like - what are your three favourite songs? Start working on them

There's the debate of Self Taught and Teachers. Self Taught is neat since you can learn what you want, Teacher's may or may not be boring, but it;s the basics. Which do you think I should do?

Get a teacher - Tell him/ her what you want from lessons. If you don't learn what you want from that teacher, change the teacher
Would you know of any online sites that would give me great beginner help to start my guitar playing?

This is a trick question, right? Check out the lessons on this site. Most of us who have written lessons here are professional players and/or professional teachers. We kinda reckon we know what we're about. If there's anything you think isn't covered, ask about it in these forum pages. Somebody will have the answer.

A :-)

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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 Nuno
(@nuno)
Famed Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 3995
 

+1 on all the Alan's answers.

Acoustic and electric guitars are two different instruments. The flute is not harder than violin and violin is not harder than flute. Every instrument is hard when you try to get all you can from it. A good friend who plays horn for more than 10 years told it when we spoke about our hobby some months ago.

Play the instrument that you want to play.

Could I recommend you a book? I didn't finish it yet but it is already one of my favorite books on music (it is similar to another book by the same author that I studied when I started to play bass).

The book title is "Playing Rock Guitar" by David Hodge. David has written many lessons on this site and we have vary lucky because he also answers some questions in these forum.

It is for rock guitar and there are some specific techniques and sections for electric guitars but you can use your acoustic guitar for many, many others.

And welcome to GN.


   
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(@firefak)
Active Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 8
Topic starter  

Would you know of any online sites that would give me great beginner help to start my guitar playing?

This is a trick question, right? Check out the lessons on this site. Most of us who have written lessons here are professional players and/or professional teachers. We kinda reckon we know what we're about. If there's anything you think isn't covered, ask about it in these forum pages. Somebody will have the answer.

I didn't know there were lessons on here, are they free?
A :-)


   
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(@joehempel)
Famed Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 2415
 

Go to the main page. Instead of the /forums, just go to the:

Guitar Noise main page

In Space, no one can hear me sing!


   
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(@firefak)
Active Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 8
Topic starter  

Anything you like - what are your three favourite songs? Start working on them

Since your a guitar teacher, what if they are hard songs? And my friend us telling me I don't need to learn chords.... just tabs. Is this better for guitar?


   
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(@apache)
Reputable Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 301
 

I've only been playing since Jan - so I'm not hugely qualified to answer this, but I would say that yes you do need to use chords.

There is a lot of music/ tab available on the net, and some of it - as in many book is just shown with the chord names over the lyrics. So if you don't know the chords...

The Great Rock Chord Songbook is a good buy, its got some easy and some less easy songs in it.


   
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(@mahal)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 107
 

Since your a guitar teacher, what if they are hard songs? And my friend us telling me I don't need to learn chords.... just tabs. Is this better for guitar?
Even playing rock or metal lead guitar most of your time will be spent "comping" or laying down chords rather then adding fills, lead lines and solos. When you talk to other musicians you are playing with even if nobody reads music you will be talking chords in relation to the lyrics.

The challenge is to go beyond the basic "cowboy " open chords and start using other chord formations that are often tabbed out. However if you play with someone else, say a singer or a keyboard player they will not bring you a tab, they will bring you standard notation score, a lead sheet or at the very least a lyric and chord chart. And you will have to make do from just knowing what chord is laid down at that time.


   
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(@alangreen)
Member
Joined: 22 years ago
Posts: 5342
 

Anything you like - what are your three favourite songs? Start working on them

Since your a guitar teacher, what if they are hard songs?

Then they'll take a bit longer to learn and present more of a challenge. You might even need to leave them for a while and come back to them once you've developed some skills which those songs need.

And my friend us telling me I don't need to learn chords.... just tabs. Is this better for guitar?

Your friend is talking rubbish.

Chords means harmony - almost every song has chords and those that don't are "just" riffing for a purpose. If you turn up for an audition, and they hand you a lead sheet which reads "C, Am, F, G7" or "C, C#dim, Gm, C7" what are you going to do? Ask them to translate it into Tab? You'll be laughed out without having played.

Tabs generally - I have nothing against Tab, it allows you to build up your repertoire quickly and I've used it myself when I just wanted to get something on the performance list without worrying too much about it. And if you know the song then you're going to be ok even though Tab doesn't have much timing information. However, if you turn up for an audition, and you're handed a sheet of little black dots, what are you going to do? Ask them to translate it into Tab? You'll be laughed out without having played.

Learn your chords. Learn to read little black dots. You don't need to be fluent - nobody ever got fired for being able to read a bit of music.

A :-)

"Be good at what you can do" - Fingerbanger"
I have always felt that it is better to do what is beautiful than what is 'right'" - Eliot Fisk
Wedding music and guitar lessons in Essex. Listen at: http://www.rollmopmusic.co.uk


   
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(@greybeard)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 5840
 

And my friend us telling me I don't need to learn chords.... just tabs.
He's no friend.

Leaving out the exceptions, the very basis of every song is .......chords. Guitar chords are what create a "wall of sound" that is what the solo and sung words are projected in front of. Without the guitar chords, you have a whole part of the musical harmony missing.

Listen very carefully to the Who. They have a heavy sound - but only one guitar. Pete Townshend plays what sound like melody lines, but are all chords or partial chords. Listen to their version of Summertime Blues - the sound is all created by chords.

By the way, tab is only a written form of music - you can write chords in tab just as easily as you can write solo lines. One does not exclude the other.

I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN


   
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(@firefak)
Active Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 8
Topic starter  

I love the Who! One of the songs I'm trying to learn is Behind Blue Eyes, but it's proving difficult for me. So currently I should just practice chords?


   
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(@davidhodge)
Member
Joined: 16 years ago
Posts: 4472
 

You might find some help for that here:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/behind-blue-eyes/

The tabs are currently not up with the text (we're working on that, though, and hoping to get it all resolved relatively soon), but if you read the text you'll get some good explanations as to what's going on. Not counting the short little electric guitar solos, though.

This song is definitely a big example of how chords, and not just individual notes, set the stage for how the song is played.

Hope it helps. And neither here nor there, but you can simply hit "reply" instead of "quote." Keeps everyone from having to read the same thing over and over (and over) again.

Peace


   
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(@firefak)
Active Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 8
Topic starter  

Thank you, any other tips guys?


   
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(@kent_eh)
Noble Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 1882
 

Thank you, any other tips guys?

Pace yourself.
Learning guitar (or any instrument, really) is a marathon, not a sprint.

And a quote I saw somewhere (typed from memory):
"In order to learn something new, you have to be prepared to be really bad at it for a while"

I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep


   
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(@firefak)
Active Member
Joined: 14 years ago
Posts: 8
Topic starter  

Thanks, it really is a marathon. Does anyone have tips on Hey There Delilah as well? That's be a neat song to learn and it doesn't seem too difficult.


   
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