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[Sticky] --> Share things you've learned about guitar

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(@ginger)
Reputable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 393
 

the only thing I have learned...is that i need to learn alot more... :)


   
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(@saber)
Reputable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 350
 

I've learned you can never be done. But you can be more done next week then you are this week.

"Like the coldest winter chill. Heaven beside you. Hell within." -Jerry Cantrell


   
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(@matteo)
Honorable Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 557
 

Hello all

I come back to the thread after seven or eight months. I'd like to add just another thing: since music is all about rhythm, try to develop a good sense of rhythm from the beginning. One of the best thing to do is to listen to as many different songs you can in order to train your ear to figure out different rhythm patterns. I mean I do not like reggae but I listened to some Bob Marley's songs in order to understand what is playing on the off-beat or muting. Every kind of music could gives you a lot from a mere rhythmic point of wiew: from pop/rock tunes a la Oasis you could understand the use of sixteen notes, from the blues the shuffle rhythm, from sixties or seventies music a la Creedence Clearwater revival you could get the syncopation patterns, from hard-rock or 80's pop could learn you straight eight notes rhythms, from rhyhm and blues a la Otis Redding you could get anticipation and so on.
I mean knowing where the notes are and how to play them is great (that's definitely what I should try to learn!), but you can't decently play any song, neither the simplest one, if your rhythm is faltering. Also don't forget that most of the songs could be played with just a few chords so at the beginning you will probably get more trouble from your right hand than from your left one!
So to learn to play a few of the most common patterns (of course listening them on a instructional cd or on some Internet sites like David Hodge's beginner songs lessons) and then try to understand to which songs they could be applied, is a must. Once you've learnt a sizable set of patterns you could play, at least from a rhythmic point of wiew, almost any song you listenand that's exactly when you could go ahead learning most interesting chord vocings or if you like them solos (which of course will be a lot better because you will play them with excellent groove).

Matteo


   
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(@thedonutman)
Eminent Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 22
 

hope nobody has said this one (sorry if they have)

get strap locks, now!!


   
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(@pearlthekat)
Noble Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 1468
 

what i've learned about guitar in the three and a half years that i've been playing....

i've learned all the basic chords. thought i could change fluidly betwen them but still have trouble at times. ditto for the barre chords.

i can play a lot of easy strumming songs but when i try to go to the next level it gets exponentially harder for some odd reason....the most advanced song i can play right now is blackbird. i'm working on stairway to heaven. sun king is a bit hard, too.

having goals is a good thing but they're hard to stick to on a daily basis so i now have yearly goals. my main goal for this year is to build up my repetoire to have ten songs that i can play and sing to on demand.

i've learned that a good guitar teacher is hard to find but that you can learn something even from a bad teacher simply because they know more than you. but lessons help a whole lot.

i'm learning to strum and sing at the same time something that i think i should have been working on probably two years ago. but back then i was too engrossed in just the guitar part to learn the singing part so i'm starting now. i'ts a little easier than i thought. when i say that i'm learning to strum and sing at the same time don't mistake that for me saying that i'm learning to sing because i still can't sing, so i've learned that i'm in need of voice lessons!

i've learned the notes on the fretboard and i'm learning how to read music in a very rudimentary way. i've learned the very basics of music theory.

i'm finding out that no matter what the guitar is better than me and probably always will be. no matter how much i learn or how long i play there's always going to be things that the guitar is capable of but i'm not. so the guitar always wins and you just have to live with that.


   
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(@ldavis04)
Reputable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 228
 

i'm finding out that no matter what the guitar is better than me and probably always will be. no matter how much i learn or how long i play there's always going to be things that the guitar is capable of but i'm not. so the guitar always wins and you just have to live with that.

I don't think it's a matter of win/lose. It's more like building a relationship with the guitar. Just like any relationship, it takes work, sometimes alot of work...and just like any relationship, there are good days and bad days...but, by the end of the day, you find that the relationship is worth the effort and that it has enriched your life....and hopefully, the lives of those around you.

I may grow old, but I'll never grow up.


   
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(@chuckster)
Prominent Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 938
 

hope nobody has said this one (sorry if they have)

get strap locks, now!!

I hope you didn't learn this the hard way. :(

I've had a lot of sobering thoughts in my time.
It was them that turned me to drink.


   
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 P0RR
(@p0rr)
Estimable Member
Joined: 21 years ago
Posts: 141
 

what I've learned:

1. I'm never gonna become "good"
2. I enjoy playing
3. you don't have to be "good" to enjoy playing

keep the faith...


   
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(@clazon)
Honorable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 502
 

I still need to get a string winder and some strap locks, but otherwise all I need is a decent amp/guitar/set of effects pedals/guitar cables/etc...

:roll:

The limitation of money is quite annoying!

:D

Hopefully I can rectify the leads/guitar/strap locks and string winder problem this summer.

"Today is what it means to be young..."

(Radiohead, RHCP, Jimi Hendrix - the big 3)


   
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(@Anonymous)
New Member
Joined: 1 second ago
Posts: 0
 

What I've learned;

1) Strap locks are a good idea if you like to move around....quite...a...lot.... and don't want the guitar hanging from one shoulder

2) Try everything! Don't think "Ooh that tab says Intermediate, I'll skip that", you won't get better by playing your 'confortable' songs

3) It suprising how much difference new strings can make


   
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 sean
(@sean)
Trusted Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 69
 

WOW loads of good advise ........ obviously straplocks are the way forward!!

"A word to the wise ain't necessary -- it's the stupid ones that need the advice."

Sean


   
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(@catsworth)
Estimable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 104
 

WOW loads of good advise ........ obviously straplocks are the way forward!!

Yes.....yes they are.....get straplocks now..........everybody.....

<<Rushes off to buy shares in every company that makes straplocks.....

Rumour has it that if you play Microsoft CDs backwards you will hear Satanic messages.

Worse still, is that if you play them forwards they will install Windows.


   
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(@stan-ton)
Trusted Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 60
 

I started at 46 and have been playing a year and a half...my progress is very slow but because of my affection with music I've stuck with it. Im half way through stairway to heaven, which I can play reasonably,and I can stick my chest out and say I'm proud of this, some might say, small achievment.


   
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(@jimmy_kwtx)
Estimable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 115
 

18 years playing- What I have learned--

1) Quality of practice is better than Quantity. 20 - 30 minutes of practice focusing on one thing each different day i.e. on technique, chords, songs riffs, scales etc. is better than 4-6 hour daily practices where you are all over the place in what you practice.

2) Play with as many different people as possible. Do not be a snob if you are better than some one beacuase you will always find someone better than you. I still learn from some of the students I have. Their "mistakes" are sometimes my inspiration/muse.

3) Your own "style" will come don't put un-necessary pressure on yourself. If some one says you sound like such and such -- then -- GOOD! you didn't practice all the stuff that that particular guitarist played to sound like his/her total opposite. The biggest thing would to broaden your influences and listen to all types of Music.Many of the "great" guitarists we know can be picked apart to find out their influences.

4) Guitar is like riding a bike. You'll never forget.

3) and finally you are never to old/young to play guitar or any instrument that can bring joy to others through music.


   
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(@pearlthekat)
Noble Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 1468
 

I started at 46 and have been playing a year and a half...my progress is very slow but because of my affection with music I've stuck with it. Im half way through stairway to heaven, which I can play reasonably,and I can stick my chest out and say I'm proud of this, some might say, small achievment.

not a small achievement at all. i couldn't have begun to play that song at a year and a half. i'm three years into this and i can barely play the beginning part. it took me about a month to get past the first measure.


   
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