Guitar Playing Advice?

So I recently took up playing the guitar recently. I took lessons when I was like 13 or so, but I moved away from where I was taking lessons. I also got frustrated and eventually gave it up. My instructor was a good player, but not a good teacher. I learned nothing about music theory or any basic stuff.

Now, about 10 years later, I decided I wanted to get back into playing. One of my friends plays in a band and he has given me some advice so far, but not any real lessons. I’ve also got a couple books on music theory to help with the technical aspects of learning an instrument.

Any advice on getting started from guys out there who play? I’ve been practicing for about 3 weeks now, just basic open chords, some barre chords and simple scales. I practice 1-4 hours every day, depending on what I’ve got going on. I am just looking for some advice and direction from guys who have been playing for a while. Thanks.

I’m not a guy, but I’ve played bass guitar for 30 years.

Outside of a few tips here and there, I’m basically self taught. If you love to play, you won’t give it up, let the frustrations become a challenge to you.

The best advice anyone ever gave me was; find a comfortable strap and learn to play standing up. The bass can be a heavy instrument after an hour of lugging it over your shoulder. Best to get used to this position, so your shoulders won’t be screaming at you when you perform.

Good luck and enjoy.

it aint really necessary to play up to 4 hours a day to get better, if u really love playing, shred that ax, but if ure lookin to just improve technique at this point dont play for more than two hours a day, better yet, play for one hour and at the other end of the day play for another hour.

If u really want to play for 4 hours a day just spread the hours out, it does help trust me. I’ve been playing for about 3 years and i’m pretty good right now, only just got back to playin it since october though cos i broke my wrist.

If u play for hours straight i find if u take even just ten minutes break for a drink or something then go back to it, u’ll find u play a lot more smoothly, i dunno the mechanics of this, but its cool.

Some songs to learn:
Smoke on the water - Deep Purple (if u dont know this already i’d be really REALLY shocked)
For whom the bell tolls - Metallica (all the way through, beginning to end, works wonders for practising power chords)
Enter Sandman - Metallica

Also for scale practice and general knowledge, get this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Incredible-Scale-Finder-Easy-Use/dp/0634014900/sr=8-8/qid=1169560333/ref=sr_1_8/026-2159288-9613241?ie=UTF8&s=books

This book helped me greatly with scales

Anyways i’ll leave ya to it

Happy shredding,
Cymreig

[quote]Yo Momma wrote:
I’m not a guy, but I’ve played bass guitar for 30 years.

Outside of a few tips here and there, I’m basically self taught. If you love to play, you won’t give it up, let the frustrations become a challenge to you.

The best advice anyone ever gave me was; find a comfortable strap and learn to play standing up. The bass can be a heavy instrument after an hour of lugging it over your shoulder. Best to get used to this position, so your shoulders won’t be screaming at you when you perform.

Good luck and enjoy.[/quote]

That is so true, I play a big ass Yamaha 6-String bass guitar and even though I have padded strap, after a 1 - 1 1/2 hrs show my arm feel numb…weightlifting has really helped me, and also getting massages :slight_smile:

To the OP, sounds quite good what you are doing, just stay consistent (well that’s the key to about anything) and see if what you’re doing improves your playing, hook up with other musicians that are preferably better than you to challenge you, don’t just stick to one genre or style, listen to the greats and learn about the history to inspire you!!! Also what is always part of my practice regime is to play along with music that I like…try to figure out songs without the sheet music etc…
What will really improve your playing but teach you also a lot about yourself is to play in front of people! But that might be for a later stage…

Have fun.

…btw Yo Momma, what kind of Bass Guitars do you own, and who are you “Bass-Heros”?

Thanks, man. Actually I don’t already know Smoke on the Water. Like I said before, I only played briefly when I was younger, sold all of my stuff, and just got back into it about a few weeks ago. I’ll check those songs out though. I can play the intro to Enter Sandman decently, thats about it. My friend basically told me the same thing as you; practice basic stuff and techniques for a half hour or so, then find songs you like and try to learn them. He said that’s what keeps you interested. On the days when I was practicing for a long time, I was just looking up different songs and trying to play parts of them.

[quote]Cymreig wrote:
it aint really necessary to play up to 4 hours a day to get better, if u really love playing, shred that ax, but if ure lookin to just improve technique at this point dont play for more than two hours a day, better yet, play for one hour and at the other end of the day play for another hour.

If u really want to play for 4 hours a day just spread the hours out, it does help trust me. I’ve been playing for about 3 years and i’m pretty good right now, only just got back to playin it since october though cos i broke my wrist.

If u play for hours straight i find if u take even just ten minutes break for a drink or something then go back to it, u’ll find u play a lot more smoothly, i dunno the mechanics of this, but its cool.

Some songs to learn:
Smoke on the water - Deep Purple (if u dont know this already i’d be really REALLY shocked)
For whom the bell tolls - Metallica (all the way through, beginning to end, works wonders for practising power chords)
Enter Sandman - Metallica

Also for scale practice and general knowledge, get this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Incredible-Scale-Finder-Easy-Use/dp/0634014900/sr=8-8/qid=1169560333/ref=sr_1_8/026-2159288-9613241?ie=UTF8&s=books

This book helped me greatly with scales

Anyways i’ll leave ya to it

Happy shredding,
Cymreig
[/quote]

[quote]Cymreig wrote:
it aint really necessary to play up to 4 hours a day to get better, if u really love playing, shred that ax, but if ure lookin to just improve technique at this point dont play for more than two hours a day, better yet, play for one hour and at the other end of the day play for another hour.

If u really want to play for 4 hours a day just spread the hours out, it does help trust me. I’ve been playing for about 3 years and i’m pretty good right now, only just got back to playin it since october though cos i broke my wrist.

If u play for hours straight i find if u take even just ten minutes break for a drink or something then go back to it, u’ll find u play a lot more smoothly, i dunno the mechanics of this, but its cool.

Some songs to learn:
Smoke on the water - Deep Purple (if u dont know this already i’d be really REALLY shocked)
For whom the bell tolls - Metallica (all the way through, beginning to end, works wonders for practising power chords)
Enter Sandman - Metallica

Also for scale practice and general knowledge, get this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Incredible-Scale-Finder-Easy-Use/dp/0634014900/sr=8-8/qid=1169560333/ref=sr_1_8/026-2159288-9613241?ie=UTF8&s=books

This book helped me greatly with scales

Anyways i’ll leave ya to it

Happy shredding,
Cymreig
[/quote]

If you play Smoke on the Water, keep it to yourself, there are some songs that have been raped so badly they should just rest in peace…

[quote]Eisenbeisser wrote:

…btw Yo Momma, what kind of Bass Guitars do you own, and who are you “Bass-Heros”?[/quote]

Quickly, so as not to hijack this thread…

Stanley Clarke
Jaco Pastorius
Marcus Miller
Carl Radle
Bootsey Collins

I’m a Fender gal. See the pics in my profile.

[quote]Eisenbeisser wrote:
Cymreig wrote:
it aint really necessary to play up to 4 hours a day to get better, if u really love playing, shred that ax, but if ure lookin to just improve technique at this point dont play for more than two hours a day, better yet, play for one hour and at the other end of the day play for another hour.

If u really want to play for 4 hours a day just spread the hours out, it does help trust me. I’ve been playing for about 3 years and i’m pretty good right now, only just got back to playin it since october though cos i broke my wrist.

If u play for hours straight i find if u take even just ten minutes break for a drink or something then go back to it, u’ll find u play a lot more smoothly, i dunno the mechanics of this, but its cool.

Some songs to learn:
Smoke on the water - Deep Purple (if u dont know this already i’d be really REALLY shocked)
For whom the bell tolls - Metallica (all the way through, beginning to end, works wonders for practising power chords)
Enter Sandman - Metallica

Also for scale practice and general knowledge, get this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Incredible-Scale-Finder-Easy-Use/dp/0634014900/sr=8-8/qid=1169560333/ref=sr_1_8/026-2159288-9613241?ie=UTF8&s=books

This book helped me greatly with scales

Anyways i’ll leave ya to it

Happy shredding,
Cymreig

If you play Smoke on the Water, keep it to yourself, there are some songs that have been raped so badly they should just rest in peace…[/quote]

LOL, yeah, they dont even let you play it in the music stores around me, not just because their sick of hearing it either, cos people butcher it

Learn Theory start with this:
http://lessons.mikedodge.com/ -Go through the entire beginner to advanced series

Try to learn stuff by ear. Start simple. Listen to everything you can

Learn by watching your favorite players, I was suprised early on how much I learned by just watching Zeppelin’s Song Remains the Same

Jam with others. See if you can find people to jam with, but let them know your experience level. One hour of jamming with people is equal to a week of practice-especially if you jam with more experienced people ie; a drummer that can keep time :wink:

The is a wealth of information in the form of DVD’s, books and the internet. Use everything you can get you hands on that interests you.

At this point, EVERYONE is better than me. My friend in a band and I talk alot about music and stuff at work, and I am always asking him questions about different things. I am into alot of different genres, but two of my favorite guitarists are Slash and Tom Morello. As far as what I want to play, being a Morello fan I like alot of metal/funk type of stuff. I have a blues book, too. I am also a big Buckethead fan. But my friend who plays told me after a while we could get together and play, so I am looking forward to that. That helps keep me motivated.

[quote]Eisenbeisser wrote:
Yo Momma wrote:
I’m not a guy, but I’ve played bass guitar for 30 years.

Outside of a few tips here and there, I’m basically self taught. If you love to play, you won’t give it up, let the frustrations become a challenge to you.

The best advice anyone ever gave me was; find a comfortable strap and learn to play standing up. The bass can be a heavy instrument after an hour of lugging it over your shoulder. Best to get used to this position, so your shoulders won’t be screaming at you when you perform.

Good luck and enjoy.

That is so true, I play a big ass Yamaha 6-String bass guitar and even though I have padded strap, after a 1 - 1 1/2 hrs show my arm feel numb…weightlifting has really helped me, and also getting massages :slight_smile:

To the OP, sounds quite good what you are doing, just stay consistent (well that’s the key to about anything) and see if what you’re doing improves your playing, hook up with other musicians that are preferably better than you to challenge you, don’t just stick to one genre or style, listen to the greats and learn about the history to inspire you!!! Also what is always part of my practice regime is to play along with music that I like…try to figure out songs without the sheet music etc…
What will really improve your playing but teach you also a lot about yourself is to play in front of people! But that might be for a later stage…

Have fun.

…btw Yo Momma, what kind of Bass Guitars do you own, and who are you “Bass-Heros”?[/quote]

Is that a totally free site? If it is, thanks. I posted that eventually I can jam with my friend who is a really good player. When you say watch them play, do you mean just see their technique, how they play etc.? I have Pulse by Pink Floyd on tape. Maybe I should go back and watch that again.

[quote]Rocky101 wrote:
Learn Theory start with this:
http://lessons.mikedodge.com/ -Go through the entire beginner to advanced series

Try to learn stuff by ear. Start simple. Listen to everything you can

Learn by watching your favorite players, I was suprised early on how much I learned by just watching Zeppelin’s Song Remains the Same

Jam with others. See if you can find people to jam with, but let them know your experience level. One hour of jamming with people is equal to a week of practice-especially if you jam with more experienced people ie; a drummer that can keep time :wink:

The is a wealth of information in the form of DVD’s, books and the internet. Use everything you can get you hands on that interests you.[/quote]

Learn your scales and practice them. Once you learn the basic patterns, all you need to know are where the root notes are on the top 2 strings and that should get you started.

If you want to improvise/solo I would memorize the circle of fifths. If you have a book on theory that should be in there.

Also, If you have someone that you want to emulate (Hendrix, Clapton, Vaughn, etc) Listen to them as much as possible. Play along with the CD’s. Eventually you’ll start to hear there influences come out in your playing

understand the difference between playing and practicing.

practice with a goal for each session. when you’ve reached that goal take a break.

learn with a metronome. always. if you don’t you will suck no matter how many technical things you can do.

the metronome will not lie to you, but your ears will. and your brain will. when you come across something technically challenging your brain will stretch the time and you’ll think you’ve pulled it off, when in fact you haven’t. and you will never know because you didn’t use the metro.

bad time is the one reason why there’s so many players who can do lots of sophisticated technical stuff, but they aren’t really that good because people don’t want to listen to them. good time is what makes even the simplest chord progressions come to life.

just about anyone can play the chords to “back in black” but very few players can make it rock enough so that people are drawn to listen. to jump in and start swing their head. the difference is good time.

learn with a metronome.

Playing is an art and it requires a lot of motivation. While you practice your scales/chords, pick a modest song to learn. It’ll give you the motivation to learn to play increasingly challenging themes.

Playing involves a neural adaptation. After a day of good practice you may have a couple days of bad practice. You didn’t get worse - you’re just noticing inevitable fluctuations in your playing. These will fade as you pack time in your belt.

Like weightlifting, playing is very specific. Playing a scale with good speed, tone, without interruptions won’t immediately carry over to playing a solo riff with speed, good tone, and without interruptions. Focus on perfecting a couple licks scales; when they’re good, move on to a different lick/scale. Practice them up and down the guitar neck.

Don’t fall into the speed trap. Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are incredible speed players, but only because they have the incredible tone to go with it. Work slowly, emphasizing the best tone you can get out of every note.

Try playing every lick and scale without interruptions, skipping strings or notes, without buzzing sounds. Find the perfect pick strength - picking to hard will make for unbearable music (with few exceptions), and picking that is overly soft comes across as wimpy if not in the right melody.

You should have good vibrato technique. It would be painful to listen to Satriani if he had no vibrato - it adds emotion content to your playing.

Finally, at 3 weeks under your belt, youo’ll be able to pick and learn a lot of cool songs, but only a lot practice will give you the skills you’re after. Joe Satriani likes to put it this way: Practice it until you can play it in your sleep.

Of course, be aware that learning a song will often come excrutiatingly slow - or it’ll feel like. You’ll often spend whole afternoons learning a single lick and perfecting it.

To get his tone, Steve Vai would pick a note or two and play them for hours on end, focusing strictly on making them sound better - with vibrato, bends, different rythms, slides, pull-offs, hammer-ons…all with those couple notes.

Good Luck!

Good work can come in two ways:

  1. Discipline, or
  2. A lot of motivation and enthusiasm.

Ever been into something so bad that a whole day had gone by and caught you by surprise?
I’m an engineering student and I see it all the time. There are those 3 individuals that keep getting top grades - straight A students. Then there are those that are just plain enthusiastic about their field. They can’t stop asking questions, and love to figure out different ways to solve a problem. It’s these last (very few) individuals who are most likely to make the best contributions.
Discipline will get you a great job or gig. But enthusiasm will always drive you to do something more.

[quote]swivel wrote:
understand the difference between playing and practicing.

practice with a goal for each session. when you’ve reached that goal take a break.

learn with a metronome. always. if you don’t you will suck no matter how many technical things you can do.

the metronome will not lie to you, but your ears will. and your brain will. when you come across something technically challenging your brain will stretch the time and you’ll think you’ve pulled it off, when in fact you haven’t. and you will never know because you didn’t use the metro.

bad time is the one reason why there’s so many players who can do lots of sophisticated technical stuff, but they aren’t really that good because people don’t want to listen to them. good time is what makes even the simplest chord progressions come to life.

just about anyone can play the chords to “back in black” but very few players can make it rock enough so that people are drawn to listen. to jump in and start swing their head. the difference is good time.

learn with a metronome.[/quote]

this is good advice! Timing is something most beginners (including me) neglect and it makes all the difference!!

If you find it to boring to use a metronom, then you can find many different drumbeats and backing tracks with different speeds and styles online…thats what I use…it will expose your timing weaknesses brutally…but it helps you improve a lot

just a couple things. First, the poster who said metronome is spot on. I’m primarily a drummer and can’t tell you how many guitarists I’ve played with who just can’t keep solid time. Worse is when they turn around and yell at me for screwing up the beat. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but drummers and bassists generally keep better time than guitarists but get blamed for rushing or dragging all too often when the guitarist can’t keep it solid. Sorry, just had to get that little rant out.

As far as tips go:

  1. Learn to read music. I know a lot of people will probably disagree with me on this. You’ll hear things like “I’ve played for X number of years and can’t read music” or “so and so famous musician didn’t know how to read music and he/she did fine.” While that’s true, it’s not going to hurt you to learn how to read and it may help you at some point. Tablature is a great tool, but generally lacks rhythmic notation. It’s one thing to know where to put your fingers on the fretboard but if you don’t know when to pick or strum, you can’t play the song.

  2. Learn whole songs. I can’t tell you how many songs I’ve learned bits and pieces to over the years but can’t play through start to finish. If you like a solo, or riff, or chorus, etc… from a particular song, take the time to learn the whole thing. You may or may not ever get the chance to use that little lick you like in your playing. But if you’re ever jamming with other people and someone says “hey, let’s do … Do you know it?” it’s a pretty great feeling to say yeah, and then nail the whole thing, start to finish, solos or whatever included.

  3. Learn to fake it. At some point you’ll be jamming with people who will start playing a tune you don’t know. You can either sit out until they’re done, or learn to watch other guitarists and bassists and pick up what they’re playing and fake it.

  4. Practice figuring out songs by ear. Pick a song you like, get it on cd or mp3 or whatever, and sit down and try to figure out how to play it. Then, when you think you’ve got it, check the sheet music or tab online and compare. It’s really good practice for training your ear and helps you to associate chords, progressions, and scales with how they sound.

If you want to take it a step further, it’s really helpful to not just figure out how to play the song, but transcribe it. Actually sit down with staff paper and write out how you think it should be played. Do this with songs you have access to the sheet music for and check it when you’re done. It’ll really help you get better at reading music.

Sorry for the long post, hope some of this helps.

Jay

Everything posted so far has been good advice. I would suggest to first learn:

-Basic Chord Theory(understand why a major chord is a major chord)

-Learn scales

Learn the basic position Pentonic Scale in the Key of E. Practice it all over the fret board. After learning the pattern practice it in all keys. The same goes for the seven modes.

Also a great web site I have found to learn some of the basics of theory and playing is: www.cyberfret.com. I have been through this whole site and definately suggest at least giving it a quick glance.

When I started learning scales I learned a fun trick that really helps youn learn how each scale can be used and how it will sound(actually recommended on a joe satriani dvd: When playing a scale(lets say you are playing E Ionian) leave the top string(the low E) open. Hit this string and then start playing part of the scale on the rest of the strings. When the E string stops ringing go back and hit it again.
This will give you an idea of how the scale is going to sound over the root note and makes practicing scales and soloing by yourself, a lot less tedious and boring.

Hope this helps. Stick with it, as you get better it will become extremely rewarding.

Thanks for all the feed back everyone. I am going to buy a metronome very soon. I know they are important, I just needed the money to get a decent one. The metronome can help build speed and technique, because once you master a scale or a lick at a certain BPM, then you bump the BPM up and try to perfect it at that speed.

Mikey, I found that cyberfret.com website last week and bookmarked it. It is a really good site, and I like the visual and audio examples. I’ve been learning basic chord theory, like what makes a chord minor or major, triads, progressions etc. I am trying to get as much knowledge as possible.

I’ve also memorized all the notes on the 5th and 6th strings. Just basic stuff like that. I’ll take the advice about learning the E pentatonic scale all over the fretboard. I’ve been trying to learn the Five forms of the Pentatonic Scale, but this is kind of difficult at first.

Once again, thanks everyone, it’s great to hear back from people who are passionate about music like me. It’s also nice to hear people be positive instead of the “I know it all and I’m better than you” mentality I hear from some people.

[quote]Dre Cappa wrote:
Thanks for all the feed back everyone. I am going to buy a metronome very soon. I know they are important, I just needed the money to get a decent one.
[/quote]