It's my dream to play the guitar. I've some experience with instruments. Played the fife in the marching band in primary school. Played the harmonica in the harmonica band in secondary school. Never really learned to read notes.
My dear husband bought me a guitar on my last birthday to try learning. Have signed up a course. Instructor said I should be able to strum Happy Birthday tune after 8 lessons. That's just in time for my husband's birthday :P .
Glad to be here to have some guitar friends. I'm going to need a lot of help and advice.
WELCOME!
This is a GREAT resource for players of ALL levels. Just remember to have fun, that is what it is all about!
Bigfoot's advice is essential.
That's why they call it playing music.
Don't be discouraged when you hit a plateau and you feel you aren't progressing. This is going to happen from time to time. But you aren't really stalled, your body and mind are just probably recoiling for a giant leap forward. Keep the faith, progress will happen and one day you will look back at your early struggles and wonder why they seemed so difficult. It's like writing the ABC's in kindergarden or pre-school. Seemed terribly hard then, but now it's second nature.
When learning something new and difficult, try this (a study in a university said it works for the majority of people).
Play the difficult passage as quickly as you can correctly for 2 minutes. (Sometimes it is better to divide long passages into smaller segments). It's important to play it correctly, as you don't want to practice a mistake.
Take your hand off the guitar for 2 minutes.
Repeat.
Most people learn the difficult passage quicker this way than if they play it continuously. I certainly do. You might too.
Do learn to read music, not just tab. It's more work at first, but when you progress to a certain point, it will make everything else in music, including your guitar, easier.
One more thing, you found a nice forum full of nice people. I've been to quite a few guitar forums, and this is the most well-mannered one I've found. Welcome!
Enjoy,
Insights and incites by Notes ♫
Bob "Notes" Norton
Owner, Norton Music http://www.nortonmusic.com Add-on Styles for Band-in-a-Box and Microsoft SongSmith
The Sophisticats http://www.s-cats.com >^. .^< >^. .^<
This is great. Thanks Norton for taking time to write those words of encouragement. I understand the divide and conquer method you mention. Actually some of the terms you mentioned are still new to me.
Thanks!
