Best way to learn guitar for beginners

[SeilerBird]

Well HOTRS is a five minute song and the photography was very unimaginative. Not the fast cutting crap you see today and there were three of us so we were able to figure it out. I am glad we did since it is such a cool song and so much fun to play. I have tried it on the organ and failed miserably. I am going to have to get serious about that.

 

[PopPop51]

This is a wonderful thread.
Like so many other high-schoolers of the '60s I bought a guitar and tried to learn informally how to play it, with a Mel Bay book and an LP titled "Play Guitar With the Ventures". I had no formal music training, and neither time nor money for lessons. Of course I maxed out at about a dozen songs before I dropped it for other interests, but I have some nice memories of a group of us hanging out in the evenings, trying (and for the most part failing) to figure out how to make that great music.

 

[SeilerBird]

This is a wonderful thread.
Like so many other high-schoolers of the '60s I bought a guitar and tried to learn informally how to play it, with a Mel Bay book and an LP titled "Play Guitar With the Ventures". I had no formal music training, and neither time nor money for lessons. Of course I maxed out at about a dozen songs before I dropped it for other interests, but I have some nice memories of a group of us hanging out in the evenings, trying (and for the most part failing) to figure out how to make that great music.

I had that record in the 60s. I did manage to learn both the rhythm and lead parts to Walk Don't
Run. It was easy. Later I found out why it was easy. They dumbed down the lead part so even a hack like me could play it. The last band I was in I suggested that we do the song and every one in the group loved it. I didn't even have to relearn it since it was so easy to play the way it was dumbed down. The best part was the rhythm guitar. It starts Am-G-F-E over and over. After learning it I found out I was playing it wrong. It was barre chords so I relearned it and in the process learned barre chords. I was thankful for that forever more.

 

[Back2PA]

Well HOTRS is a five minute song


it is such a cool song and so much fun to play.

HOTRS?  ???

 

[SeilerBird]

HOTRS?  ???

I remember when I was a sophomore in high school. I played drums in a band with two guitar players. One night we went to the movie theater together to see a film that was about an hour of the latest English groups each playing one of the biggest hits. But no Beatles. They had the Zombies, the Honeycombs and the Animals among others. The Animals played House of the Rising Sun and we all wanted to learn how to play it. We didn't have a pad and pen with us so as the song played we shouted out the chords. Am, C, D, F, Am, C, E. We repeated it all the way home. But I was very frustrated since I could not pick it fast enough. I did not realize at the time that it was two guitars that sounded like one.

 

[Back2PA]

OK, I get it. I ran out of room for additional acronyms about 10 years ago. One comes in, one's gotta go

 

[8Muddypaws]

HOTRS was the very first song I ever played in a coffee house.  I played it at rip tempo ?cause I was so nervous.  I probably played it in less than 2 minutes. 

Want long songs?  Try some Harry Chapin.  Sniper.  The Rock Is Gonna Fall On Us.

 

[msw3113]

Another memorable, and easy to learn/play song, was "Gloria" by Them.  Three chords, none barred. 
No matter how bad the band, kids always danced to it. 

 

[SeilerBird]

Another memorable, and easy to learn/play song, was "Gloria" by Them.  Three chords, none barred. 
No matter how bad the band, kids always danced to it.

That was the very first song I learned in 1965 while it was still a hit. I must have played EDA about ten million times in my lifetime. The last band I was in we played it. I loved singing it because of the call and response. That is way too cool. One time I adlibbed right after the line 'then she comes to my room' I added 'she takes out her false teeth and gums me to death'. Killed the band. If you want to torture yourself here is a clip of the clean version.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_vZF6_ChElTdDVUTWZVQjBKYlU/view?usp=sharing

 

[Back2PA]

Three chords, none barred. 

Barred?

 

[msw3113]

It was barre chords so I relearned it and in the process learned barre chords. I was thankful for that forever more.

Barre chords are made by firmly placing the index finger across all six strings on a single fret, like a "bar,"  while remaining fingers press strings on other frets higher than the barre.  Barre chords require hand strength and agility which takes plenty of practice to develop.  The player can make the same chord at more than one place on the guitar's neck.

 

[8Muddypaws]

Barre chords are easier for me than playing a C major in first position.  That chord played for any length of time really hurts because 40 something years ago I broke all 4 metacarpal bones in my left hand.  Quite often I will play it for a few seconds and then switch to an alternative, my favorites being 332033  (Looks like a G, sounds like a C) or an A chord shape barred on the third fret, 335553.  I thought I would never be able to play again after the accident.  The first couple of years after we?re quite painful.  I adapted my ?style? to fit my limitations in that area.

This video is about soloing using the CAGED system but he does a good job explaining how chords work up the neck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qp26KcDrGw. If you get nothing else out of it admire the see through fingers.  8)

 

[SeilerBird]

Barred?

In the 70s I fell in love with playing along to China Grove which uses almost all barred chords including the hard to play 7th position E, which is 079997. I usually played it 779997. I got very good at the song but I could never even come close to playing the lead. I noticed most of the tutorials for the song play it simpler than I did. They used power chords for the E - 079900. The way I play the chord is with two fingers. My index barres the 7th fret and my ring finger barres the 9th fret D G B strings.

https://youtu.be/JU-pzSP0DTY

It is outrageously fun to play.

 

[Tom]

I came to the conclusion some time ago that some of this stuff is anatomically impossible for me 

 

[SeilerBird]

I came to the conclusion some time ago that some of this stuff is anatomically impossible for me 

Tom - every musician has limits, things that other people do with ease that you could never do. I watch Joe Satriani with my jaw on the ground. I can do nothing he does. Watch just the first minute of this tutorial.

https://youtu.be/DDWRYKSIIhE

 

[Tom]

Even watching his subsequent breakdown, I'm saying to myself "not in this lifetime" 

 

[8Muddypaws]

limits?  Today?s limits are tomorrow?s milestones. 

Today I reached a limit and wasn?t able to create a drum and bass track.  I gave up after about 45 minutes.  After cooling down, having dinner and walking the dogs I started all over and was able to build them both in about an hour.  While watching TV.

My friend Larry, the one who toured with ELO and a bunch of other big name acts, says being a guitarist is like being a gunslinger.  There?s always going to be a faster gun coming along.  There are lots of faster guns from my vantage point.

Tom S.  Play that high E as 0-7-9-9-9-12, use your pinky on the 12th fret.  Or try 0-7-9-9-12-12 to add a slightly different flavor.  When everybody else is playing 0-2-2-1-0-0 it adds a something to the mix.

I like weird chords.  It?s gotten me booted out of a couple of bluegrass groups.  :

 

[SeilerBird]

Tom S.  Play that high E as 0-7-9-9-9-12, use your pinky on the 12th fret.  Or try 0-7-9-9-12-12 to add a slightly different flavor.  When everybody else is playing 0-2-2-1-0-0 it adds a something to the mix.

My pinky won't reach the 12th fret. It is pretty uncoordinated. For example I have never been able to play the Chuck Berry power chord with the pinky going on and off two frets up. I have pretty small hands and my fingers are pretty fat.

 

[knucklebucket]

I personally would not recommend buying a uke first. if your not the type that likes it? you will not stay interested very long. I play professionally. I have been playing all my life. but as much as I know some musicians don't like, I did not take lessons, or music theory. my passion for playing was enough for me to stay involved. it doesn't matter if you plan on being great or not, only that you get satisfaction from it. buy yourself an acoustic. sit around friends or campers that play, learn a little here and a little there. you will find over time you have met new friends and learned how to play guitar to any extent. just my two cents.

 

[8Muddypaws]

My pinky won't reach the 12th fret. It is pretty uncoordinated. For example I have never been able to play the Chuck Berry power chord with the pinky going on and off two frets up. I have pretty small hands and my fingers are pretty fat.

Ar Ar Ar.  Somebody once commented that my left hand looks like some sort of fat little spider.  I can identify with that.  The broken bones left me with no visible knuckles.

Watch Howard Alden play.  We opened for him at the start of the Concord Jazz series one year.  (We opened the series for about 10  years). I was backstage warming up and he grinned as he watched.  Then I saw him play and realized he was laughing.  I was playing / singing Michael Johnson?s ?Dirty Hands?.  Gunslingers.  I?m a potato farmer among gunslingers.