Noobie Struggles - Reminiscing

NorioDS

Someone mentioned struggling to learn an F-chord in the beginning and it got me to remember all the things I struggled with...

A-chord, no problem, E? E-minor, sweet! But D! Omg that was the hardest thing for me to learn in the very beginning. And then after that, it was F and all the other barre-chords, of course ?

I remember my pinky paining from D and my 1st finger paining from barre-chords.

And then, years later, Meir was teaching my "Tears in the Rain" and THAT requires some serious stretching and quickish chord-changes. Hehe, amazing to think back on what used to be difficult for us.

Like right now, I can't sweep to save my life. I imagine in a few years that will be a thing of the past and I'll laugh off how hard it used to be ?

What do you remember struggling with?

AlanRatcliffe

Aside from the ubiquitous and demon-inspired F chord of early learning, the only things I can remember struggling with were not techniques, but rather pieces - Bach's Bourée , Vai's Eugene's Trick Bag and The Attitude Song (which I never mastered - too much a plectrum piece).

LMinnie

Bmaj7 - the pinkie does not bend that way!

Root chord changes - going from G to a C to A to D continously until my fingers didnt get caught up in the strings.

I still dont like them ...play mostly in barre and power chords these days.....I reckon if I tried to play a root chord progression i'd stumble thru all of them...

Squonk

F was a challenge for me, but I mastered it and it's second nature now.
I battled to get Message in a bottle at first, quite a stretch. I saw Sting do it live on The secret policeman's ball or other ball and he made it look so easy.

NorioDS

Yeah message in a bottle IS quite a hard one. Practising 3-note-per-string scales REALLY helps with the stretches. Give it a go. Start between 6th and 9th frets and then move all the way to the 1st -- helps to get you stretching.

Renesongs

I still struggle with Every Breath You Take - Police - standard tuning ☹

AlanRatcliffe

Message in a Bottle I don't find difficult, but I always struggled with Every Breath. However Gareth (VV) told me recently that Summers doesn't use a chord shape to play it (which is what I've always done), but rather plays it more like an arpeggio.

Riaan-Combrink

[quote author=Alan Ratcliffe link=topic=1005.msg8802#msg8802 date=1220537152] I always struggled with [i]Every Breath[/i]. However Gareth (VV) told me recently that Summers doesn't use a chord shape to play it (which is what I've always done), but rather plays it more like an arpeggio. [/quote] Ah-ha! My favourite topic :) Allow Andy to tell you in his own words: "[i]to play it properly, you have to place your index finger on the low E string at the 5th fret, your ring finger on the A sting at the 7th fret, and your pinky on the D string at the 9th fret. You hold that position as you arpeggiate the first two chords, only moving your index finger to play the third of each chord on the G string. If that's too much of a stretch, you can Iift the index finger off the 6th string immediately after you pick the first note, or substitute the middle finger for the ring. The Dsus2 and Esus2 chords involve holding a simple fifth shape on the A and D strings and using the pinky to reach for the ninth on the G string[/i]." [img][/img] Next section of song a few chordy arpeggios ... [i][/i] And for the newer members, may I strongly recommend my basic Andy Summers homage ... :D http://www.guitarforum.co.za/guitar-players/andy-summers/ BTW, I could never play the open chord version of F (where index finger has to hold down both the E and B)! Murder ... still can't do it. Also, as a mainly acoustic player, could never master A-shape barre chords. E-shapes were easy, but the A-shapes always sounded muffled. On electric it's a breeze, but as a novice really struggled on acoustics. Cheers Riaan C

whusmaname

The dreaded F-barre, obviously, about 13 years ago...

Since then, I found that both of the aforementioned Police songs have helped me with Dave Matthews' Sattelite... which brings me to what I struggled with... the rhythm of a different feel to 4/4. Sheesh!!!

Renesongs

I still struggle with Every Breath You Take - Police - standard tuning

I cant believe I just quoted myself ??? - However being a rather sly and lazy guitarist I just tune my D string up a tone
i.e. E A E G B E and then it becomes a piece of putty.

Renesongs

whoops

Riaan-Combrink

Renesongs wrote However being a rather sly and lazy guitarist I just tune my D string up a tone
i.e. E A E G B E and then it becomes a piece of putty.

A-ha! ?

First one after the break then!

Riaan C

Renesongs

First one after the break then!

Got it ? Unless you have a spare guitar. BTW don't you just hate watching those guys that have to tune to weird keys every other song and then start telling lame jokes while they doing it -

Riaan-Combrink

Renesongs wrote Got it ? Unless you have a spare guitar. BTW don't you just hate watching those guys that have to tune to weird keys every other song and then start telling lame jokes while they doing it -

"Ja, you know Tuning is not the capitol of China, hey ... ha ha ... hey, barman ... how about another jaggie-bomb?". Aargh >☹

Wessel

On the day I got my first electric Manfred Klose came to jam with me. He was our schools guitar hero. He made the big mistake of playing the tapping part of Van Halens eruption for me...It sounded like his guitar was going to explode. In the following week I started to learn the tapping piece. Its a joke now but that was the hardest and most time consuming thing I have ever learned. Not even really knowing wat tapping was. It took a while before I could pick good with all the tapping the whole time.

So in short the thing I have struggled the most with is that tapping piece from Van Halen.

Manfred-Klose

I remeber it like yesterday. those were the days.

He made the big mistake of playing the tapping part of Van Halens eruption for me

i remember your whole family was there watching this crazy kid playing piano on a guitar.

whusmaname

Some of the jokes I've heard have been pretty lame, but other times I've almost wet myself, I was laughing so hard.

Ooh! Tapping is fun. Have you tried "Thunderstruck" by ACDC? It has to be done one-handed. That is the part that I STILL can't do too well.

Satriani

mmmm Norio has just reminded me about how essential and useful learning Tears in the Rain is. I urge you ALL to learn it. It's a beautiful song, and also very good for learning to stretch out your fingers. Everyday of teaching I hear excuses like 'my fingers aren't long enough' and blah blah blah. IT really has nothing to do with your fingers. It's all about Thumb placement and rotation on your thumb.