Beginner's videos

Most excellent dudes....

I reckon Isabelle's got the fingering better than me already and I've been really practicing... Grrrrrrr. Hey, where's the lead singer?

Don't you just hate PeeJays fingers on the fret, so... well.... 'classical' - I'm having problems on the Am4 getting my pinkie more than a couple of mm away from my ring finger - they seemed to be tied together....You have a luverly action... :cry:

Practice practice practice. Keep up the vids...

D 8)

Dylan, your pic in your avatar is SOOOO cool.

It says "Hey, my name is Dylan, and I'm a Guitarist Anonymous. I took it up a few weeks ago and no matter how hard I try, I can't give up. In fact I've just been done for Playing at the Wheel, Playing Whilst Disqualified and Breaking (a string) and Entering (a music shop). Awaiting court case for Playing in a Public Place."

I get the same problem with the Am4 (Asus4? whatever it's called) chord. A bad habit (the only habit, in fact) I got when I had lessons as a child was to leave my thumb at the top of the neck towards me when playing (near the bottom string) whereas if you leave your thumb lying against the back of the neck you get more flexibility and finger movement (or summat).

Yeah Peejay, you're doing well! I haven't even tried the verses yet. Well done for that.

Very cool videos! Congrats! :D

Keep practicing!

... hehe, the 2 yr old has a Backyardigans guitar (although prefers banging together pot lids) and the 4 yr old has a Barbie guitar.... she just discovered how to use the mike - I suddenly heard all this yowling in the back of the house and couldn't figure it out :lol:

So I have another video but have been wasting the entire day pretty much trying to edit the part where I turn my (cheap) camera on and off... Dylan, what program do you use? Anyway this is me 'shootin the sheriff' in another of those Easy Songs that took me MONTHS to make it sound like a recognizable tune. Or maybe not so recognizable :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2XYFjFXBZw

Anyway this is me 'shootin the sheriff' in another of those Easy Songs that took me MONTHS to make it sound like a recognizable tune. Or maybe not so recognizable :lol:

Hey Stellabloo, I could almost see the wagon train movin' on through and the smell of beans cookin' on a campfire.... :D

Anyone who can take their eyes off the fretboard and give the camera a smile and not lose their place has a BIG DB 8) seal of approval....

Sounds great. I'm messing around with one of DH's join the dots - a catchy if slightly dour number called 'You are my sunshine' - to be quite honest I only decided to play it because it had quite a nifty little ending that sounded like I really knew what I was doing...of course, you have to pull it off without looking.... :roll:

Last night I was sitting out on the veranda, a warm breeze coming in from the ocean, the star were out and I just strummed away to my hearts content - over and over and over and over....again....I realised that I could actually play a tune without looking at the strings or the fret (well, at least I knew what the tune was anyways...)

Video editing - I'm quite lucky 'cos I work with Macs and record off a crappy webcam which had it's own recording software, I use Quicktime Pro to cut the vids up into manageable chunks, then put them together in iMovie. I'm sure you can find some freeware editing stuff for pcs somewhere on the web?

Ate amanha amigos, D 8)

:oops: :oops: :oops: :oops: you are too kind! (after all it's been 345 days since I picked up the guitar and I do confess I had piano lessons when I was 12 which does help enormously).... well I can practically hear the sound of the mob complete with torches and pitchforks as they come to lynch me for mutilating this next classic ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICegQPQgwqg

This was one of the earlier songs I learned - good ol Em! I love U! - and I am more or less just picking the chords as written in the lesson. I'll post some more comments in the lessons forum but there are really only a couple of mandatory riffs required to make this a recognizable song...

I pretty much wasted yesterday afternoon screwing around with video editing and maybe at some point I'll record some 'extended play' versions and convert them to smaller format but this takes more time than it does to record the bloody song in the first place! Which completely defeats the purpose (which is to get a quick one-take video to show everyone that no, you don't have to be a teenage prodigy to take up the guitar).

Right now it's plenty of work getting up early enough to shower, dress, brush teeth, tune guitar and otherwise be awake enough to try and remember to smile during the recording ... so much for mornings slouching around in a ratty bathrobe with my guitar thinking ' hey - that sounded pretty sweet" :twisted:

Great vids stella.

Unfortunately my soundcard has decided to die on me, so I can't really comment on how you actually sound like :lol:

Gotta get that fixed.

Its like having Gilmour in my living room :mrgreen:

Good work Stella! This is probably my favourite piece of music, I'll never tire of hearing it. David Hodge calls this an easy song but I'm finding it really hard :cry: I can just about strum the chords for the verse and I'm driving myself insane trying to learn the solo. I feel motivated to make a new video tomorrow. I suggest you all buy some earplugs in preparation :wink:

Cheers,
Simon

OMG Stella, I've finally managed to listen to your last couple of songs, and :shock: I know you've been playing longer than me but you make it look so easy!

Well done, you're amazing :)

My poor attempt at 'wish you were here'

Sorry Floyd fans.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqMPnKUmcy0

This is a warts and all 'first take', I can play it slightly better when no-ones watching :mrgreen:

Cheers,
Simon

My poor attempt at 'wish you were here'

Hey Simon

Bet my attempt at this classic is much much worse than yours... in fact, so much worse that I'm not even tempted to put it on video...well...hmmmm - maybe.... :wink:

Excellent - how long have you been practicising it?

D 8)

In retaliation for all the wonderful and creative versions of Wish You Were Here (my favourite song in the world) currently being posted on here, I offer you this,my latest half-arsed effort:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZNeT6kMoOg

Its driving me mad, you lot are just getting better and better while I.. well take a look, if you dare.. All I can say in my defence for hoisting such incompetence on you is that if anyone out there thinks they might possibly be THE worst guitarist - or singer - in the world, just have a gander at this.. you will feel much smugger about yourself afterwards :lol:

I'm beginning to see my role here as being the one whom everyone else can sigh in relief at and think 'Well, at least I'm not that bad!'

If there's anyone worse than me -and ok, I know I'm reaching here- please post, just to make me feel better.. you can fake it if you want!

Practise on dudes, I'll be trailing, wailing, in your wake, 'Wait for meeeeeeee..' :mrgreen:

Simon says - harhar - that he has been practicing about 6 mo... now THERE'S your bar...he has raised it 8)

Thank youMost of these songs I have been working on for MONTHS, Riders of the Storm was pretty new after a few weeks..
I am still chewing over the beginner's lessons (started Eleanor Rigby last week but it needs a couple more to be note-perfect with the changes I made 8) )but must admit there were a few .. well many... detours. I think of a song as "done" (with the qualification that every song really needs 5 YEARS to master) if I can pull off a reasonable version in one take (awesome reality check BTW as I'm sure you've all noticed!). Such as:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG1jBhes4ko

...and I finally figured out how to minimize the format so I can upload a longer clip ... I start relaxing into the song but still feel myself tensing up in anticipation of a successful (or at least acceptable) take! Any suggestions?

...think I might have to tie up a new thread elsewhere with my own list of "beginner" songs. No offense, but Friend of the Devil is not necessarily an easy song. I have a bunch of easy (er) songs I learned over the last year and maybe they should have a home somewhere ... I could call it "fake with your smile on" or "the blind leading the blind" 8)

OK I DO NOT practice HOURS a day. Once I learn a song I work on it for 5 minutes or so at a time, once or twice a week. Simple. 15 min = 3 songs which is my daily minimum. I try to do a bit of a theme and start with something easy to warm up. On a good day I can put in 10-15 songs but certainly not all at once! ...scales and all that are good but for a beginner it is OK to just understand what the scales and chords are?... that part of the piano lessons has been invaluable 8)

Yes I'm still suck on Dust in the Wind and in fact it hasn't really improved since last time.

WIll look at the latest links you've all posted asap. Can't stay for now.

x

Jenny. I am ever so slightly in awe of anyone who attempts to sing whilst playing the guitar. Trying to control both hands leaves me absolutly no spare brain capacity to sing (Not that I can sing anyway). Nor can I smile whilst playing, I tend to look like a man in pain :roll: It looks like you had fun making that video
Keep plugging away at that intro, it'll stick eventually :wink:

Stella. Your version of friend of the devil is just fantastic. I'm so impressed 8)

Isabelle. Version 3 is much improved on version 2. Your picking seems much more fluid.

Side note. This is a great thread, I really enjoy seeing my fellow newbs at different stages of the learning process. I really do find it inspiring. Many thanks to all who have posted vids and please keep them coming :mrgreen:

Cheers,
Simon