Woo last night i taught myself how to play guitar!

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U2democrat

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I'm so proud of myself! I was just chillin in my room listening to John Mellencamp, my latest obsession, when i picked up my acoustic guitar and started picking out some of the notes. The next thing I knew i was playing the guitar part of "Small Town"!!!!!!!! I'm so proud of myself :D
 
technically you taught yourself how to play 'small town', not the guitar. you'll soon notice there's a pretty big difference in being able to play songs and being able to play the guitar.
 
It's an insane learning curve for guitar, but once you get over that hump, damn it's worth it...

I am 100% self-taught as well. :)
 
I never quite learn guitar playing with my teacher really, whenever something gets too detailed I loose focus so once he thought me the power chord well that was all I needed. I can play great guitar now. I have friends who are quite good and very much into the whole virtuoso thing and they say I'm really good and better than the majority of guitar players out there. :D What you realy have to so is feel the song, you can play anything you want if you get in the mood of the song. Why don't you try coming up with stuff of your own? I love doing that. I have millions of riffs!!!!! :evil:
 
U2democrat said:
I'm really determined to learn....I'm having trouble with chords. Any tips? (I played violin for about 5 years and so i'm fairly good with fingering)

Buy a book called Chord Chemistry.

It maps out every chord you could possibly build with your hand... and even more that aren't humanly possible.

Personally I would recommend lessons. A lot of people will tout the purity of the self-taught method, but honestly it takes just as much work either way.

Good luck with your pursuit. Check out the Even Better Than The Real Thing forum... that's where most of the instrumentalists post.

:up:
 
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How to play chords?

Don't worry about nailing the changes every time. You won't.

The best song I learned to play (and the first) was I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. 3 chords: D, G, A. Those three are also the three most popular chords, so it helps a lot changin between the three.

Also good to practice is Pride. A, G, Em, D.

Practice practice practice!!!

Its very rewarding once you get over the hump. I've been plaung for 3 years now and I've never once regretted a penny I've spent on my guitars.
 
TheBrazilianFly said:


Sad but true. :yes:


i know personally that i can play bunches of songs by a variety of bands, but i'd never say i can play the guitar...i can't really do anything spontaneous, i need to know what part i'm playing beforehand, or have a recording playing at the same time so i can figure it out.
 
IWasBored said:



i know personally that i can play bunches of songs by a variety of bands, but i'd never say i can play the guitar...i can't really do anything spontaneous, i need to know what part i'm playing beforehand, or have a recording playing at the same time so i can figure it out.


You mean you can't improvise? I think that comes with practice and time. Improvising is the best thing, coming up with solos or riffs on the spot is great. There's nothing better than the blues to learn how to improvise. Trying to improvise while a song is being played on the background is also a great exercise and good fun. :wink: I also say that I don't really know how to play the guitar cause by now I have forgotten the names of the notes and even most of the notes really. :laugh: Not that I think that matters so much (I mean Toni Iommi didn't know what he was doing until sometime after and he was making unbelievable, intelligent and interesting music) but sometimes I feel limited and that’s why I want in the near future start taking classes again.
 
TheBrazilianFly said:



You mean you can't improvise? I think that comes with practice and time. Improvising is the best thing, coming up with solos or riffs on the spot is great. There's nothing better than the blues to learn how to improvise. Trying to improvise while a song is being played on the background is also a great exercise and good fun. :wink: I also say that I don't really know how to play the guitar cause by now I have forgotten the names of the notes and even most of the notes really. :laugh: Not that I think that matters so much (I mean Toni Iommi didn't know what he was doing until sometime after and he was making unbelievable, intelligent and interesting music) but sometimes I feel limited and that’s why I want in the near future start taking classes again.

well, i don't play everything i know how to play note for note like whatever band that actually does the song, but i really can't sit down and play random shit and have it sound like more than just random notes. so no solos here...riffs...well, i guess when i pretty much listen to punk rock, no riff i come up with is going to sound really original :wink:

i've got no patience for taking lessons, and i'm convinced the reason i hated playing the piano when i was younger, and trumpet in school, was because i had someone telling me how to do it. i like playing piano parts from recordings, that's fun.

i'm pretty much ok with my limited abilities, i know i'll never join a band that will ever have ambitions higher than just friends messing around. the only thing that sucks is getting stuck in ruts, which is why my guitar didn't come to school with me...i've got no motivation to play it at the moment. in about a week i'll be hit with the realization that it's not here and i miss it...i'll get it and bring it back to school when i go home to do laundry, play it regularly for about a month, and then repeat the cycle...:shrug:
 
DaveC said:
It's an insane learning curve for guitar, but once you get over that hump, damn it's worth it...

I am 100% self-taught as well. :)

I totally agree with this, apart from jamming with friends I have been taught solely by myself and the little bits of info that you pick up from friends. I have been playing for around 7 years and I remember at around the year and a half mark I was so pissed off as I found it so hard to sing and strum at the same time, but surely with an invaluable bit of advice from a friend, to get my strumming right (imagine your strumming hand connected to your foot with a piece of string and use your foot to keep time, a bit like a metrenone) and this helped me heaps. But with all of this said, I still find the guitar so hard, I am such a rhythm player, and I am shit at playing covers, but I looooooooooooove playing- best thing I ever did was learn:wink:
 
Yeah, I need to play guitar more often. I do agree with whst these guys are saying, but U2demorcrat if you keep practing you are your way.;)
 
OzAurora said:
When I play One, I play the F which is like the C shape, except it is played one set of strings higher (does that make sense???) the C shape, but dropped down one string each:scratch:

i could be wrong, but isn't that essentially what an F is? the C moved down a string each?
 
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