Hi there, I am not sure if I am posting this in the right place or not - whether it should be in the beginners section or even the special ladies section.
I have been playing for a couple of years now and feel like I have kind of stagnated. I can play most popular open chords competently and confidently, I will happily tackle learning a new song, I am happy to sing. Most of my playing is still basic strumming at the moment, with a few little bits of plucking thrown in to the odd song that needs it. I am struggling with barre chords but practising with those. I have had a first lesson with a new tutor who I am hoping is going to be able to polish up what I am doing and help me move forwards eventually.
I play twice a week with my neighbours, one of whom plays guitar a bit and the other who is an excellent drummer but has just started to learn to play keyboards to play with us. We have a lot of fun but neither of the guys are particularly ambitious or anything and are quite happy to just plod along as they are. I would not want to stop playing with them as we do have fun but...
OK, so now you know where I am at, has anyone got any ideas of I personally can push my playing forward to the next level. the guy I am having the lessons with is really good but not cheap so I can only have one or two lessons a month with him at the most and a lot of what we are doing is theory based. I feel a bit like I am stuck in a loop of wanting to move forwards but not knowing how to go about it and would really appreciate any help anyone can suggest. I would quite like to be able to do the odd open mic night but not sure if I would be good enough for that yet either.
As I said, any help, ideas or suggestions would be great thank you.
Really disappointed that out of the 120+ people that have read this, nobody has come up with any suggestions!
I am beginning to feel not too welcome here :(
It's definitely nothing personal, don't take it as such.
I'm sad to say that this forum has stagnated a bit over the years and the members are no longer as active as they used to be.
All the usual questions have been asked and answered so many times, over and over, and people are probably a little weary of tackling them once again.
That said, your questions are difficult to answer. They are too generic and there are too many possible answers depending on your talent, your range of interests and your work ethic.
You've taken two very positive steps, learning from a tutor and practising with a band. Both can be very helpful.
When it comes to theory, there are two minds. For me, it's indispensable. It's the only way I can organise my knowledge and my thoughts and my practice. It makes everything easier to remember and understand. For others, it's incomprehensible rigmarole that gets in the way of practising and playing. It sounds as if you're the second type.
So keep playing. Practice what you find hard. Try to play a little every day at least, even if only for a few minutes. Not just the parts you do well, but also the difficult parts. If you dislike barre chords, practice them more. Try to learn some songs from tab, from youtube lessons or from the lessons here on Guitarnoise.
I hope this helps.
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Helgi Briem
hbriem AT gmail DOT com
A good next step to move forward is bar chords. There are two different ways I show people to learn. Practice an open E and open AM chords not using your index finger. Middle ring and pinky finger.
This is not a way to play open E chords in the future but just to help build muscle memory. When you get comfortable doing this just add the index finger to bar anywhere on the neck.
Another way is steps.1) Bar index finger 2) then add ring pinky 3) and then middle. When you feel comfortable combine step 1 and 2 and finally all 3
The reason so many have problems is they attempt to try all 4 fingers at once to do something there not use to
Hi blackjack, I hope you won't get upset at a newcomer to the board replying to your post.
Don't let yourself fall into the trap that cost me a lot of years of not playing! I felt my playing was stagnant, and all it took was an injury to get me to stop playing. Now, here I am, picking up the guitar again and fearing that I might fall into the same trap.
So, here is what I've done: I've gone online and started finding sites that offer (mostly free) lessons and tips. I wasn't a finger-picker (hence my forum handle), so I'm trying to learn some simple finger-style tunes. I'm also trying to improve on reading tabs (I've been a chord diagram strummer up until now). These are small things, and sometimes I find them frustrating because they aren't coming to me as fast as I wish they would, but at the same time, I find some excitement at doing something new!
Duke Ellington said it best: "If it sounds good, it IS good!"
