Guitar is a famous instrument. If you can play guitar, you are so cool. Many pepole learned guitar, but they gave it up. What Destroyed My Soul And What Didn't? Now, I am going to tell you my guitar learning experience. you can learn it well like me.
roughly 6 weeks ago with a little back knowledge from previous
musical ventures (I had a friend try 'teach' me which just involved him
showing off and me eventually just drinking!) and after comparing the
two approaches to learning I've made a few conclusions!
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My
first teacher wasn't much of a teacher, we spent more time discussing
why I didn't know the names of every metallica song, who Dave Mustaine
is or educating me because I hadn't seen Spinal Tap (I must admit the
latter was certainly a lesson well spent!).
Unfortunately because
my friend spent more time showing off and bragging about how amazing he
was at guitar I never learned anything and lost the desire to pick up a
guitar ever again - and on top of the practical failure in teaching
approach I feel he didn't offer the advice he should have in selecting
equipment or essential background theory knowledge.
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After
selling my Dean Dime From Hell Baby (3/4 size) I only picked up my
acoustic very occasionally, strumming the few basic chords I knew and
pretending that in an alternate reality (where musical talent didn't
exist and war murdered the children of inspiration and expression) I
could be a god. Trundling along with nothing more than a shabby
rendition of 'behind blue eyes' and a heavy sigh I had truly given up
hope.
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A light at the end of the tunnel! After a
whirlwind change of pace in life I find myself romantically
attatched/glued/no-more-nails'd to a shit hot professional guitarist.
Watching him skillfully noodle away my desire to learn and passion for
the guitar is rekindled - and nearly 6 weeks in I'm working on
everything from chords and picking styles to modes, legato, sweep
picking, string bends and slides!.. (I now also have a beautiful baby
Ibanex RG350EX who now set up properly plays like a freakin' dream -
totally kick ass!) The approach to teaching that has got me this far in
such a short amount of time has made for an invaluable learning
experience. I've learned tips and lessons to avoid falling into common
traps and pitfalls that later in my playing (as my teacher experienced)
would have needed to be corrected...
I hope they benefit you as much as they have me!
In absoloutley no particular order:
Things I have learned that every newbie should be told (and a very brief overview of each thing)
*Please
note I am in no position to teach guitar only share the knowledge that
has been passed on to me so far :) For demonstrations of anything that
you don't understand I reccomend finding some awesome shred guru to take
you under their wing or at least demonstrate what confuses you!
-*-*-*-*-
Equipment
My
first guitar was and is ... firewood. Its horrible to play, as well
made as an argos wardrobe and is painfull to use for the fingers and the
ears! This guitar put me off playing and I was convinced to buy a Dean
(although I was advised to get a 3/4 size due to my tiny, microscopic,
midget hands - and now I'm perfectly happy with my full size Ibanez. Go
full sized!) and scrap the £80 piece of gosa I started with. The better
the guitar the easier it will be to play and the less likely you are to
want to throw it out of the window, burning and chopped into little
pieces.
Theory
As boring as it sounds,
theory gets you places fast.
I thought theory lessons would be long and arduous and the concept of
having to read sheet music alone scared the crap out of me. Once I
realised that as a beginner I don't need to understand the inner
workings of a grand orchestra to piece together sweet home alabama I
started breathing a bit easier!
- Scales are very
very very important to any newbie who wants to play lead (especially
crazy ass metal heads who want to shred as badly as I do) one day.
Knowing scales also helps you understand why certain notes are in
certain chords and makes scary chords like D7sus2 less scary.
Any
lick or
solo
will be based on a scale (I didn't know this) so learning how a scale
works/what it looks like and memorising them means that I now know what
notes I can and can't use to make a cheesy power ballad solo in B minor.
The
first scale I was shown was A minor - a scale that has become very
close to my heart as well as the bain of my existance. Learning this
shape meant I could play any major or minor scale on the fretboard by
just moving the shape to a different fret and/or starting the scale on a
different fret (If I play the shape of A minor with my 1st finger on A
(5th fret) of the low E string I'm playing A minor but if I play the
same scale through starting with my 3rd finger on C (8th fret) on the
low E string I'm playing C major.)
- Key is also
very important! If you don't know what key a song is in then how can you
work out what chords or scales are used in it? If you know that a song
is in A minor then you can work out what chords are in it. this may not
seem important to need to know now - the tab you've just looked up shows
you what chords are in the song - but later when you get bored of the
same 3 chords repeating themselves and want to add a bit of spice to the
song you'll need to know what notes you can and can't get away with! I
found that understanding how a key works, what scales and chords are in a
certain key and all that...suddenly as a guitarist I have more
confidence because I understand why I'm doing what I'm doing.
- Arpeggios relate to chords. an arpeggio is the first, third and fith note of the scale and played together make a chord.
They're not as fear inducing as I expected to be honest
and prove very useful! You don't have to play the 1st, 3rd and 5th in
that order and can play them anywhere on the fretboard you like to make
the shape easier to play. This one I think makes for a fun practice
excercise and an excuse to
crank the amp up and really piss the neighbours off.
- Modes
made my brain hurt. Not necessarily an essential thing for a beginner
to know...but I suffered so I think you should too. This is my simple
explanation that I hope doesn't make your brain turn to gelatenous
mutant coconut.
Modes give a scale a slightly different feel for
whatever style you want to play in (phrygian gives you a more mexican
feel for example). Modes are major or minor scales with raised or flat
notes and can be remembered as follows (this one tickled me when I was
told it):
I Discovered Penis Last Monday After Lunch
I - Ionian ( Major Scale )
D - Dorian ( Minor Scale with a Sharp 6th note )
P - Phrygian ( Minor with a Flat 2nd note )
L - Lydian ( Major with a Sharp 4th note )
M - Mixolydian ( Major with a Flat 7th )
A - Aeolian ( Minor Scale )
L - Locrian ( Minor with a Flat 2nd and Flat 5th )
*Sharp = a semi-tone higher (one fret - eg, 8th to 9th fret)
*Flat = a semi-tone lower (one fret - eg, 8th to 7th fret)
And
the modes are in this order because it works out that If you play A
Ionian you could also say you are playing B Dorian, C Phrygian, D
Lydian, E Mixolydian, F Aeolian or G Locrian depending on the note you
start on.
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Thats all the theory my brain has been
required to cope with so far but has made my progression as a guitarist
far more efficient and much more understood than I ever got with
attempted self teaching or my previous guitar 'teacher'.
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THE FUN BIT
Practical work
I
found practicing before wasn't at all productive when I didn't know
what I was meant to be practicing...or more importantly why. My long
term goal (for this time next year) is to be a
shred demon.
Shred demon in a year sounded pretty impossible 6 weeks ago, but there
again 6 weeks ago I didn't think I'd be starting to learn how to sweep
pick by now.
I found that having lots of techniques to work on was
better than perfecting only a few. I get bored easily and would rather
switch between scales, endurance excercises, alternate/down picking,
legato, sweep picking etc and gradually improve on everything than say
be kick ass at chords and legato but not know the first thing about
speed picking or bends and have messed up picking habbits.
Finding
the right position for your arm and wrist over your guitar will help
make playing it so much easier. If you have the wrong hand position then
you're not gong to get the best sound when you pick/strum! Holding the
pick correctly (NOT LIKE A PEN) has also been drummed into me.
Muting
strings is a useful skill which will probably crop up everywhere!
Within my first week of learning I was using palm muting to play For
Whom The Bell Tolls.
Legato
I like legato. Its
fun to do and once I built up a bit of muscle on my fingers and they
got the idea of what was going on I didn't find it particularly
frustrating to pick up. Legato (hammer ons and pull offs) seems to make
everything
twice as fast with half the effort. Yay!
Endurance.
No point in being able to play the chord sequence for Offsprings 'I
want you bad' if you have a dead arm by the first chorus. Simple :D
Timing
is more important than speed. Being able to play 5 notes consistently
at say 60 bpm is better than messily and out of time at 120 bpm! I
constantly made mistakes and didn't understand why whenever I used to
attempt anything harder than twinkle twinkle little freakin' star it
fell on its face. Realising that Master of Puppets sounds better when I
play it right and slowly made me realise how much
stress I put myself under going for it at full speed.
Finger Strength
and stretching fingers. I was given message in a bottle as a good song
to practice stretching my fingers. Its really simple to play and gets
your fingers used to the biggest stretch you should ever really need to
pull off! Simple legato excercises over scales are good for building up
strength and endurance as well as keeping scales fresh in your mind.
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The
most important thing to remember is why you want to play the guitar! It
wont happen overnight so keep your goals and ambitions at the forefront
of your mind and don't let people like Yngwie Malmsteen or John
Petrucci destroy your soul too much! We won't be newbies forever!
Happy playing and I hope this has helped at least one person out there become a better musician!
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