Learning the Guitar

Reference materials

2010-02-28T21:58:00.000-08:00

With the internet there is so much material to reference regarding learning your instrument.

I've been invited to a friends wedding and know that a guitar will be passed around the residents' bar once the day is coming to a close. I know that very few people would want to hear my Rush instrumental song being beaten out of an old acoustic guitar so, I'm now trying to learn a few '3 chord wonders'. You know the type of song I mean? something for everyone to sing along to... a song very easy to play and one that everone knows the words to the chorus, at least.

There's a great site I stumbled upon.

http://www.guitarnoise.com/easy/

Here you can check the list of some great songs which have been easily arranged to learn on your guitar.

There's a good range too. It's not just The Beatles. There are Plain White T's, Coldplay and White Stripes, too.

Two other great resources are iTunes and of course YouTube.
There are a good selection of free and paid short video clips in iTunes which you can subscribe to and work with. YouTube is a great site and there are thousands of clips. You know the drill put "learn guitar" in the search window and you'll have enough content to keep you occupied for hours!.

If you've 9minutes 22seconds to spare have a listen to the Rush track I'm still trying to get under my belt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78D00dYOBrM

all the best

What strings do I use?

2009-12-17T01:57:00.000-08:00

A set of new strings will cost roughly €10 (I did a little "googling" and found that my guitar idol Alex Lifeson uses "Dean Markley Blue Steel Custom Lights" these are only $4.95 on Amazon!)
The questions to ask before your string selection are;
what type of guitar am I playing? how good am I? what am I going to be doing?.

There is a huge string choice and lots of great sounding terminology; phosphor-bronze, nickel, nylon, heavy gauge, light gauge, 10's, round-wound and pressure wound to highlight just a few.

Generally speaking for acoustic you can use nylon and metal strings. Phosphor bronze strings are for the acoustic guitars and they are a gold coloured string.

Electric guitarists need the nickel strings - these are a sliver colour and the first four strings (EADG) are a wire wrapped around a central wire core . The last two (B and high E), are a plain single wire.

For me - as a beginner lead guitarist - I use a 9 gauge string. The 9 means the thinnest string (E) is 9 thousands of an inch thick (guitarist dont work in metric) . The 9's are thinner than a set of 10's where - you guessed it! - the thinnest string is 10 thousands of an inch thick. Being thinner the strings are easier to bend and allow the beginner to get the hang of techniques without having to strain too much.

The 10's are probably the most common choice for rhythm guitarists and 9's for lead guitarists, the 10's tend to be a bit stronger than the 9's so can take the constant strumming abuse.

Don't forget to change the strings all at once and after fitting each string, give them a gentle tug to pull them away from the guitar. This will help stretch them out before the final tuning. If you trim the ends to make them neat mind your fingers; the cut points are sharp.

And finally if, like me, you love your gadgets try the battery powered winder like an Ernie Ball Battery Powered String Winder. They are great for speeding up the string change.

You'll notice the new strings, without the dirt and acid from your fingers, sound 'brighter' and cleaner. The sound of a G chord on a set of new strings is a beautiful thing.

How long to get really good

2009-07-23T03:56:00.000-07:00

I read a few recent articles about a book called Outliers - The Story of Success - by Malcom Gladwell. There is a chapter in the book called the 10,000 hour rule.
The chapter describes the process of how people have become exceptional at what they do. His examples include The Beatles and Bill Gates.

The simple conclusion is that in all cases these exceptional people spend hours practicing, starting from a young age, and they accumulate a sum of practice time that most other people never even come close to which is - you guessed it - 10,000 hours.

So, whether it's Bill Gates programming 8 hours a day, 7 days a week for 7 years before dropping out of Harvard to start his software company or The Beatles playing 7 hours a night in the Hamburg clubs before hitting the big time, is all about putting in practive time.

If I translate my 3 musical stages into banked practice time what do I get?

1. I played in school in a garage band for 18 months in the late 70's. Practice time ? say 300 hours.
2. I sang in a cover band for 3 years in the mid 90's during which time I played the guitar during practice sessions and had the benefit of working with talented musicians. Practice time ? say 200 hours.
3. Over the last 6 months I have averaged 1 hour a day. Practicing, scales, drills and learing my favourite riffs. Practice time ? say 180 hours.

So, doing the maths 300 + 200 + 180 = 680 hours.

Wow, I'm almost 10th of the way there.

But let's put this into perspective. At my current practice 'rate' of 1 hour a day it'll take me another 20 years to hit the 10,000 hour magic number.

That's OK! because as anyone who puts their backside on a chair and puts in some practice knows, you do see results and you see them quickly. 10,000 hours may be what's needed to make you brilllant but even 10 hours or 100 hours' practice makes you better too.

Then, once you can play 'that' riff, song or chord which once eluded you, the wonderful satisfaction you feel makes you want to do that 'extra' hour, which will take you one step closer to the magical 10,000.

happy practice

Which drills are the best

2009-07-22T07:52:00.000-07:00

Finding your way around the guitar is daunting. But the best drill I found for removing the fear of shifting up and down the guitar neck is from Troy Stetina's 'speed mechanics' book. I'm a 'fan' of his methods not a promoter of his :-) .

He uses a basic minor pentatonic scale shape see figure below
( in this case its A minor) The larger root note being an 'A' at the 5th fret.

E|-5-|---|---|-8-|---|
B|-5-|---|---|-8-|---|
G|-5-|---|-7-|---|---|
D|-5-|---|-7-|---|---|
A|-5-|---|-7-|---|---|
E|-5-|---|---|-8-|---|

If you shifted up the neck one fret and played
you'd be playing an A# minor pentatonic scale, one fret further to the 7th fret; a B minor pentatonic ..etc

E|-6-|---|---|-9-|---|
B|-6-|---|---|-9-|---|
G|-6-|---|-8-|---|---|
D|-6-|---|-8-|---|---|
A|-6-|---|-8-|---|---|
E|-6-|---|---|-9-|---|

Anyway the 'theory' isn't too important in this case just the 'shape'.
Use this shape to work your way up the neck fret by fret then all the way back down.

It'll only take you a few minutes and your left arm will probably get tired (naturally, stop if it does).

Try to use alternate picking too. This means pluck the string 'down' then 'up' down up down up
It's a great habit to get into. Believe me as a beginner you'll want to pluck every note downwards
persisting with the alternate picking from the start means you wont have to 'unlearn' it and you be able to play faster.

Anyway once you've mastered that - you can go on to hammering on and pulling off your notes with the same drill. I'll try to cover this in the future or take a look on you-tube - there are loads of brilliant clips there for guitar learners and improvers.

Happy 'drilling' and if you've any others to suggest - suggest away !

newbie

2009-07-17T02:29:00.001-07:00

This is my blog. It's a blog for people who love music.

Especially for people who are trying to make music. Any kind of music - their own or even copying an idol.

Me - I recently picked up my guitar 20 years after putting it down. And before you ask "No! I didn't forget where I'd put it" :-)

I'm suffering from sore finger tips and the frustration of trying to musically run before I can musically walk.
But I feel different now - I've grown a little and I have a new found quality - Patience. So I'm tapping away with my scales and taking my time and already I can see I'm making progress.

learning

2009-07-17T02:28:00.000-07:00

So as my metronome clicks back and forth I practive my scales and Troy’s insanely challenging drills.

Why?

Well it’s simple. I can’t play the guitar and I really want to play it well so I’m trying to do it right.

Oh believe me it’s not just drills, drills, drills there are the riffs too. Bits and bobs I just love. Some Pink Floyd especially Comfortably Numb. The Kings of Leon have some great riffs you can pick up nicely, too. Their song Arizona is just fantastic and satisfying for a beginner.

But my favorite is La Villa Strangiato by ‘70’s band Rush. It’s a 9min 22sec instrumental. I can completely and utterly NOT play it but 1 day I will. This song is why I’m trying to learn guitar properly, doing it right, taking my time. Because it’s for me, for a deep intrinsic satisfaction of doing something tough and beautiful all at the same time, and for once in my life the bar is set so incredibly high. The song just moves me one many levels. You may not like it – that’s OK. But you may understand me. I mean everyone has ‘a song’ that just does ‘it’ for them, don’t they?

What’s yours?

Learning the guitar

2009-07-17T02:24:00.000-07:00

It’s never too late to pick up a guitar and start learning, wouldn’t you agree?. I‘m sure that applies equally to other instruments too. However, in my case it is the guitar.

I’d messed about musically in my teens at school with a couple of garage bands- not garage music that was unheard of – but literally playing music in your dad’s garage with a couple of mates and never got further than that.

I wanted to play the lead bits but I was rhythm and just banged out chords. We were bad but had fun.

I put the guitar down around my 19th Birthday and have picked it up over 20 years later still wanting to scratch a lead guitar itch.

I’m now approaching leaning with a little more maturity and patience. I have bought a great couple of books by Troy Stetina. A speed guitar merchant. I’m not into the speed stuff myself but ‘respect’ to Troy he’s good! Very good.