Learning Guitar, and Finding Resources

Bill-Rosenberg

I considered calling this thread “Learning Guitar: Confessions of a Serial Starter”, as
I have tried so many times over the past many years to learn to play guitar. I have been quite unable to get much past playing rhythm using just major, minor, sevenths and minor seventh chords. I did sort-of learn the lead for a few Shadows numbers, but that was it. I have really been in a guitar-playing vacuum, as no-one I know plays guitar, or at least was interested in teaching me. I took lessons with several people over the years, and always ended up learning I-IV-V chord sequences to pop songs. One teacher did take me quite a bit further in a bluesy direction, but I seemed to be getting stuck, always needing a backing track to play along with, and finding that putting on a tape or CD was a bit of a pain.
So it came down to me thinking about what I really wanted to do with my guitar playing, and I realised that most of all I actually wanted to be able to sit down with my guitar and play a recognisable tune that needed no backing track or other instruments. I have no great desire to play for anyone else, although I do think that maybe being in a band could be fun.
In the past two years or so I have achieved what for me is some sort of a break-through, and I have been thinking about what it is that has got me there. I have identified I think three main things that have made the difference for me.
Norio’s plea a few days ago for participation in the forum got me wondering whether I am the only person struggling in a vacuum, or whether sharing my very basic learning process, or journey, would be of interest to any other struggling guitarists out there.
I suspect that most people on the forum can probably perform face-melting shreds while making and eating a three layer sandwich, so my amateurish ruminations would definitely not be for them!
So, have you, like me, also been struggling to Just Get Going? If so let me know and I’ll carry on. Otherwise I’ll shut up!
Next time: the Three Main Things that Made the Difference . . .

V8

Bill-Rosenberg I suspect that most people on the forum can probably perform face-melting shreds while making and eating a three layer sandwich

I tend to distinguish between bedroom players (me) and professionals (e.g they make some money from their instrument) . I'd say we're 80% bedroom guitarists 'round here (at the moment).

So feel free, I think someone will learn something from whatever you have to share - even if it's just inspiration to try something different, it all helps.

Tuckstir

Bill-Rosenberg ...
I don't even class myself as a guitarist.. more a wanna-be, but this year for me the big break through has been a teacher, after also 3 or 4 reboots at wanting to learn to play.
I'm Starting too learn how to read sheet music. ( never Thought I would) learning finger style picking, ( never thought i would actually enjoy it), I've had the courage to attempt one of Norios community challenges, which I actually enjoyed doing, but for me the big thing, any big improvement only comes with regular practice. which I try do every every day, at least 15 mins.

modulator

I have been learning for many years. No teacher, no backing tracks, I really should look into some of the available stuff on the web. I need to figure out stuff by myself mostly, in order to find myself. Even so, I find photos of finger position handy. Seeing/hearing the product helps - you need to know where you are supposed to be going. I struggle with "classical", my sight reading skills will never improve (not putting in enough time), and I cannot put in enough practice. So, after years, I still play what I used to play when I used to think I could play.

Any hints welcome. A lot of us will never reach professional status, but have the need to be able to play well enough to satisfy our own needs.

Bill-Rosenberg

So earlier today Hasie posted about Losing the Groove, which is something that I am sure we can all relate to. I have started and stopped learning guitar so many times I have lost count, but I didn’t really have a specific aim before, other than that I did want to learn to play. That brings me to the first thing that recently Made the Difference for me, and that is Inspiration. I was going to refer to this first point as either Determination or Dedication, but I realised that that was not really correct for me, and the terms also sound off-putting. I listen to lots of different sorts of music, not only guitar, but I always find myself listening more attentively when the guitar is featured. Most of all I want to have fun playing the guitar, and I found that the music that to me sounded the most fun to play was fingerstyle, particularly stuff played by Merle, Chet and Tommy. Now I am well aware that I don’t have a snowball’s hope in hell of ever sounding like any of them, but that doesn’t matter. The style is the thing, and I am aiming for at least a stripped down version of what they do, or did. I thought, Wow! If I can learn Travis picking, at least a basic form of it, then surely I can play anything, right? So that is what I started learning – Fingerstyle, with Travis picking as a goal. Freight Train, Limehouse Blues, Cannonball Rag – that’s where I’m headed, but I’m also picking up lots of other stuff on the way. Actually I’m having so much fun with it now that if I don’t get to Cannonball Rag, it’s OK. The funny thing is, that though I have listened to music all my life, somehow I had not really ever taken notice of the fingerstyle music that I now find so inspiring. I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you lose the groove, then find what inspires you musically, and just maybe that’s the direction to take with your playing.
Thanks for the replies guys. I’m feeling just a little less like I’m in a vacuum now.
The second Main Thing (for me) coming up next time

morph

Eric Clapton's unplugged album has quite a few really nice finger picking songs, Before You Accuse Me, Hey Hey, on standard tuning, Running on Faith and Walking Blues using slide and open G tuning

Exploring alternative tunings is really cool as well

modulator

Inspiration - When I first had a compact cassette pirate recording of "Made In Japan", I immediately started sorting out "Highway Star" on the organ, and transferred that to guitar. Over the years I "learned" a lot of songs by being inspired to play them. This is where a good ear comes in handy.

Resources: One should use them. I spent the data to look at the "Milk n Blues" video, there being Pink Floyd in it. And immediately went to play "Brick" using the D minor at the fifth fret, always played it at first fret. Easy to do, sounds better now, and allows me (about time) to start on that "jingle" between the D minor and F. Just by seeing someone play the chord in a "better" position, I have made huge progress in a song I've been murdering for many years. Yes, video material is handy.

Bill-Rosenberg

Now the second thing that was a revelation for me was also something that blocked me and for years stopped me progressing on the guitar.
It happened like this: I went into a well-known music shop during guitar month, with money in my pocket and determination in my heart. I really wanted an acoustic steel string guitar, and several instruments on the wall that were in my somewhat limited budget beckoned to me. The man in the shop steered me towards one in particular, and I walked out with a shiny new guitar, and the determination replaced by excitement. Well, thus began a long struggle, and plenty of disappointment. The guitar was really hard to play, and I thought that I just had to work at it, and that my fingers would not get so sore once they were toughened up. Also, I figured that the buzzes were bound to disappear once I got into it. They didn’t, I struggled, and eventually gave up for some years. Scratching around on the internet gave me the answer, and I know that almost all of you are going to say, jeez – were you living under a rock or what? Well, I was on my own in a guitar vacuum, and I just did not know about Setup. Setup came as a huge, but somewhat gradual revelation to me. Once I knew about it I took my guitar to a man who did some stuff to it and got it a whole heap better, but I still struggled. Eventually I went off to a hobby shop and bought a very fine, tiny saw and then very slowly and carefully lowered the strings in the nut little by little. I also found that there were some shims under the bridge, and removed some of those. The truss rod also got a tweak, and the net result is that I have a much more playable instrument. All knowledgeable guitarists are free to roll their eyes, but if you don’t know about this stuff, then you just don’t know. Of course, there’s more to setup than just these few points that I mentioned. I just wanted to talk about it because it was such a major thing for me, and maybe there are a few other people out there who are similarly struggling. Also, don’t believe what the man in the shop says. You need to figure it out for yourself.
Lastly, I want to talk about resources, and swap notes. Thanks to the guys who have contributed already. Morph suggested EC unplugged, and I will definitely have a look at that. More about the resources I have discovered later this weekend.

modulator

Did not know about setup? Ha. So did I. Played for a number of years before I heard about the concept, and another lot of years before I actually started working on my guitars. But they were not too bad to start off with. I have posted on the forum about setup before, it is rather silly that one can walk out of a (reasonably big?) music shop with brand new steel string (or classical) in hand, with the nut and saddle too high. I would not expect an intonation and fret job, but really, checking the dip and quickly sanding down the nut and bridge to about comfy specs would not break the bank? Ten minutes? Too many people have tried to learn with strings set way too high. And given up, postponed or hurt themselves. But hey, guitar is sold, ding-ding!

I have a few times asked for a vernier, files, sandpaper, and proceeded to "fix" guitars where I was visiting. Just the right thing to do.

Bill-Rosenberg

Once I had committed myself to really learning the guitar, I looked around at the available resources. I bought a course off the internet, and it did get me going. It’s called “Learn And Master Guitar”, and it’s pretty well put together, taking you through music theory step by step and applying that to the guitar itself. I bought it about five or six years ago for around a grand, but it’s considerably more now.
In the last two years or so what has really made the difference for me has been the internet. There is just so much stuff available for free that it can be overwhelming.
Once again, I guess that most people out there who are really into their guitar playing will find this old hat, but the internet, and Youtube in particular, has completely changed things for me. One has to be selective, and one also has to scratch and sift, but if you know what you are looking for, there are piles of free lessons and tutorials available.

I started with some fingerstyle exercises someone had posted (those ones are gone now, but there are plenty available), and then I plunged right in and learned some tunes.
A guy called Kirk Lorange has a pile of lessons, tutorials, etc at:
https://www.guitarforbeginners.com/Finger-Style-Guitar-Lessons.html
Off his site I started with Over the Rainbow, and a couple of others.
http://www.licknriff.com/ also has a bunch of stuff – I did Manha de Carnaval with him.
This site has a lot of lessons: https://www.anyonecanplayguitar.co.uk/
Adrian here does a very easy version of Freight Train – my first foray into Travis picking territory.
Sandra Sherman is teaching me Satin Doll at the moment.
If you haven’t checked out Justinguitar.com yet, then you really should. He’s not big on fingerstyle, but he has a very comprehensive and well organised site.
Oh, I nearly forgot about Activemelody.com. It’s run by Brian, and he is brilliant. He does some fingerstyle, but not a huge amount. Register with him, and get free lessons every week. He also has a pay section, and I might try that out in the future.
If there is a tab available with the lesson, then I print it out. If not, I have made blank tab pages, and I download the lesson video and write the tab out from there. It’s pretty easy, and I find that I tend to memorise the tunes that I write out a lot better than the ones that I print.
I signed up for a month’s free trial of Truefire while I was on holiday, and checked out a whole bunch of their courses. I seems they make everything available to you during the trial period, so it’s really up to you . . .
I hope that these resources are helpful to you fellow guitarists out there, and I look forward to hearing about some that I haven’t mentioned.
So that’s it: Inspiration, Setup, and Internet are what have made the difference for me.

warrenpridgeon

Keeping motivation to learn new stuff has been tough for me. I'm currently reinventing myself again... I've joined a band and on the business side I've gotten a business coach... One thing he has suggested is a proper day planner... I think if I can put 30 to 60 mins in each day for learning new stuff and SCHEDULE it I MIGHT actually do it. Currently I just let each day "happen" to me... which leads to loss of focus and drive :-(

My journey with starting to learn guitar happened when I started university... I was googling guitar tabs,copying them onto my flashdisk and then going home and trying them out on my dads old acoustic.

Then I got a cheapass acoustic guitar for christmas and continued that same thing... learning chords to be able to play songs. Six months after getting the acoustic I got an electric and that same shenanigans continued.

Later I started reading up on music theory, scales, how to build chords, how to build minors, 7ths etc.

Some time even later I did a berkley online music course which did some ear training and more music theory.

One thing that has kept me going has been that I was committed to playing in my church worship teams... so I kept playing... I probably would have given up on guitar years ago if I didn't have something that kept me going. So when the inspiration waned I was like "flip I've committed to something so I have to keep going"... and did.

So I rate... START A BAND! But that's MUCH easier said than done.