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beginner lessons

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(@1st_act)
Posts: 82
Estimable Member
Topic starter
 

Hey,

I have a suggestion for the Begginer song lessons. Somewhere in there could all the pieces be brought together so we can see how the song should be laid out, start to finish? Also, an audio clip of the song start to finish would be a giant help...

Thanks for listening

1st

 
Posted : 16/03/2006 6:31 pm
 Mike
(@mike)
Posts: 2892
Famed Member
 

I think the RIAA would have a problem with a song from start to finish. Nevermind the bandwidth issues GN has now.

I think David mentioned before why the lessons were laid out like that. I can't remember off hand, but I think it had to do with working on one thing at a time getting it down and then moving on to the next. Could be wrong though.

 
Posted : 17/03/2006 2:55 am
(@davidhodge)
Posts: 4472
Member
 

I find myself of mixed minds whenever this subject comes up. The few times I have put together tabs of the songs from start to finish I have been bombarded with questions that pretty much showed the people asking them didn't read any of the lesson text. They simply went to the TABs and tried to play them with various degress of success.

I've also found that many people learn something better when they have to get involved in putting it together. Even if that means literally cutting and pasting together a song sheet. How much time and effort, in all seriousness, does it truly take?

But the main thing that I write these lessons in stages. As much as I'd like to, I don't do this as my full time job - I have to write whenever I manage to make time in my schedule to do so. So I'm constantly working with different bits and pieces of lessons and it makes them a lot easier (and faster) to write, particularly the music.

I've noted many times that these are supposed to be lessons and not song transcriptions. The idea here is to teach you things you can use in any song you play, not just the one being used as the lesson subject.

Much of my stand on this has to do with the subject of copyright, which is also one reason why you don't get a whole song and also why you don't get me (or anyone else) singing along with any song arrangements. We're lucky that this site gets away with what it does in that regard.

(NOTE: That statement is not meant to turn this thread into a discussion on copyright, publishers or the general unfairness of life as many people see it. Any such discussion in this thread will be deleted by mods. Put it on the "Opinions" page if you have a burning desire to do so.)

But there's also another, practical, reason why you don't get MP3s of full songs. I live in an area where we have no DSL. I've got dial-up. And incredibly slow dial-up at that. It usually takes me the better part of three to five hours to send Paul the MP3 files that accompany the lessons. The shorter they are, the better chance I have of sending them. When I try to post up songs on my Soundclick.com page (and note the use of the word "try"), it can take longer, a lot longer, because they are whole songs. And that's not guaranteeing that it is sent successfully.

I've been working with Paul on the idea of doing Guitar Noise Podcasts, and this is one of the roadblocks we're currently dealing with. Ultimately, it will be easier for me to record something, burn it to disc, send the disc to someone (via snail mail) and have him or her upload it for us. But that's way too much work for a lesson, particularly since every piece you need is in place.

But, having said all that, I'm more than willing to entertain suggestions. After all (and many of our long time readers will confirm this), we didn't even used to have MP3s, or sound files of any sort. Growth and change is just a part of life, no?

Peace

 
Posted : 17/03/2006 2:59 am
(@1st_act)
Posts: 82
Estimable Member
Topic starter
 

Thanks for the quick reply. I totally understand.

I have a pretty bad "musical memory". Unless I've heard the very recently, I have a hard time remembering what it's supposed to sound like. I think, from now on, as I start to work on a lesson, I'll buy the song from walmart downloads to get a better sense of it.

Thanks,

1st

 
Posted : 17/03/2006 12:33 pm
 geoo
(@geoo)
Posts: 2801
Famed Member
 

I have a hard time remembering what it's supposed to sound like. I think, from now on, as I start to work on a lesson, I'll buy the song from walmart downloads to get a better sense of it.

Thanks,

1st

I have the same problem but instead of buying it (Unless I REALLY like it) I go to amazon.com and listen to the 30sec sample. Its usually enough to give me the idea.

Hope that helps

Geoo

“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)

 
Posted : 17/03/2006 12:39 pm
(@anonymous)
Posts: 8184
Illustrious Member
 

I've been working with Paul on the idea of doing Guitar Noise Podcasts

I told you guys nine months ago that you would eventually have a podcast. :lol:

https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16581

 
Posted : 17/03/2006 12:52 pm
(@grump)
Posts: 15
Active Member
 

Thanks for all the articles, answers to question, etc..... I've really wanted to thank David in particular but I'm starting to find that I have a hard time doing that given the help that others have provided.....Hummm, maybe I don't, :lol: to heck with the rest...

Seriously, thanks to all.

Do you have a suggested ordering for lessons? I would like to see a string from starter to advanced for music theory and lessons.

Also, is there a practice regime that I should be following for faster improvement (i.e. scales, strumming....)?

Grump :evil:

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

~ Albert Einstein

So why is it that I keep playing guitar???

 
Posted : 18/03/2006 11:44 pm
(@davidhodge)
Posts: 4472
Member
 

Do you have a suggested ordering for lessons? I would like to see a string from starter to advanced for music theory and lessons.

Also, is there a practice regime that I should be following for faster improvement (i.e. scales, strumming....)?

Hi Grump

After requests, this is probably one question I get more than any other. And there's not one good answer for it (currently). When I started writing articles and lessons for Paul (six and a half years ago now - where does the time go? :wink: ) I had no agendas. I was simply writing things based on questions that were on the forum pages or that people wrote me about directly.

But after I wrote the first Easy Song for Beginners lesson (Horse With No Name), things got very crazy, both for me and the website. We went from getting a couple hundred hits a month to the fifteen million or so a month (which translates to about a million and a half individual users) we get now. Thankfully the requests and questions, while much more numerous than before, did not grow quite as proportionately!

In all the time I was writing, it was mainly by request and not with a thought-out "method" or schedule in mind. As it stands now, the easiest path is to start with the "Absolute Beginners" page and then take the Easy Songs for Beginners lessons in chronological order up to the point of "blues trilogy." Plus put Eleanor Rigby in there either right before or right after Three Marlenas.

One of the (many) reasons why it is so hard to order the lessons and columns is because, as noted, the articles and lessons here at Guitar Noise are read by quite a few people and all of them are at different levels in their guitar lives. And, as I'm sure you know, everyone tends to learn different things at different rates. One person may be a whiz at changing chords. Another may excel at strumming. And yet another may shine whenever given a chance to solo. I have a hard enough time teaching my group classes of ten students, let alone this many!

What helps is knowing more about you, where you're at with the guitar, what type of goals you have, the music you like and listen to, and numerous other questions. Feel free to write me privately, either via the PM on the forum or at my email:

[email protected]

And I'll be happy to discuss things with you.

I hope to be meeting with Nick next weekend to discuss some thought in this matter - one being a "lesson planner" forum page where people can get advice from other teachers as well as from their peers.

And I'm also hoping to spend time this summer trying to make more of a curriculum of what we've got here on the site. "Trying" is the key word there. I'm deathly afraid that there might be a heck of a lot more material to deal with than I'm thinking!

Hope this helps.

And, by the bye, my thanks for your kind words. And also my thanks to everyone else here at the Forum pages. It's great to be part of a community like this one!

Peace

 
Posted : 19/03/2006 2:18 am