Learning Acoustic Guitar

[Bocco]

Please do watch out for transitions in temperature and humidity - it can affect your guitar worse than you'd expect and sometimes cause some real damage.
When I was living in southern France I bought a guitar there, and when I moved back to the Netherlands I always tried to make sure its condition only changed gradually (store it a little warmer than my other guitars at first) but it still got a warped neck. I could get it repaired for 100 euros, but if the guitar had been of worse quality it probably would not have been that easy.
And don't try to learn the more difficult chords too quickly - you don't want to get demotivated. It is more important to speed up your chord transitions before you learn any difficult chords.

[notsofasteddie]

So, I got my guitar on Saturday and am absolutely in love. And my fingertips on my left hand are stinging as I type )

I ended up getting an Alvarez AF 60- http://www.alvarezguitars.com/instrument/af60 It turns out that most guitars bodies were a little to big for me to strum comfortably. This fits me perfectly and still has a really big rich sound. Nice craftsmanship and materials too for a $300 guitar. The action is comfortable enough that I've been playing with it for more than an hour a day even with my virgin fingers.

So it's August 2016, will your first Amsterdam show be at Melkweg or Maloe-Melo?

I'm so jealous!

[Epsilon]

ahh the F chord ...I've seen more than one person give up the guitar because of that one . It'll come. Maybe use your pointer finger on both the bottom strings . The F is used in many a folk song in the key of C ...C,F,G songs ...You can always transpose ... eg - C,F,G = D,G,A ... the E chord (with little finger) the basis of many a rock song , and in my guitar teaching days was what I recommended for would be rockers to master 1st ...it opens the whole neck when you learn your E barre chord
and is easy enough to learn the minors / 7ths from that position in any key...good luck


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barre_chord

[Willjay]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfUuhvXshLs

You can hear all the music today thanks to the digital revolution, My memories are with the people I had the pleasure to serve over the years. I first heard Rory at the Briggs Farm, she knocked my socks off, so much sound from one woman.

[KeyMonCha]

How did i miss this topic?!?!

...Good luck Geeky... Stick with it, and you'll improve week on week... Might be worth getting a cheap nylon string classical/flamenco acoustic, as you can pick one up really cheap, the strings will not screw your fingers up like a steel string, and the neck is wider so it should encourage your fingers to stretch... If you play woodwind, then your finger control should already be pretty good, so that's a massive hurdle you should easily confront...

And use youtube for lessons... It's an awesome resource... Just don't get intimidated.

[Lemon Haze]

Awesome that you've decided to learn the guitar! The Alvarez is a decent Axe, should last you a long time if you keep it in good shape.

Justin Guitar has a great YouTube channel for guitar lessons, especially for beginners. He's got all sorts of lessons on chords, songs, practicing etc, might want to check that out and see if you find something you like.


http://www.youtube.com/user/JustinSandercoe


The first song I ever learned was Heart of Gold by Neil Young, uses a few open chords and uses different chord lengths, so some are one bar long and some half bar, good tune to check out.

For the F chord, try placing your index finger on the top two strings first, then put down your middle and ring after that. If you can keep your thumb from hooking over the neck, so have it behind the neck of the guitar sitting straight up and down, that will help as well.

Have fun, great instrument to check out!

[Slip & Sal]

Anyone know a good site for bass guitar learners? Sorry to hi jack your thread a bit.

[KeyMonCha]

Anyone know a good site for bass guitar learners? Sorry to hi jack your thread a bit.

Unfortunately not... But if you fancy destroying your hands like i did, try this guy:



...Your skin will melt, but it's a fun way of doing it.

[gromit]

after the government raided Gibson guitar and took tons of rare woods that were legal and two million dollars in costs to fight them ,...after no charges and the confiscated woods returned ,...with no apologizes i may add,....Gibson has come out with a limited edition les paul its called the government series II ,its made of the wood stock they took and had to return ,...its a must have ,....enjoy playing guitar monkey,.....

[Lemon Haze]

Just make sure you don't react like this guy if you have trouble with the F chord.

[geekymonkey]

High y'all!

Thanks for all the support as I was starting out. I actually played for my friend's beach wedding ceremony this weekend, and so I can say project turn Geeky into a guitar player is going well. I played with an insanely talented mandolin player (who really made it easy for me), and the songlist included some gypsy jazz, some bluegrass, some Bach, some country, and John Legend's "All of Me" for the bride.

I've been learning flatpicking technique. It's been bringing me too much joy.

Roll on my party peoples!

[Willjay]

Great to hear your guitar playing is going so well, and congratulations on your "Gig", when do you go on tour

[ed the head]

Oops, I did it again

[KeyMonCha]

Congrats, Geeky... You'll be playing like a demon in no time!

[EasilySuede]

Anyone know a good site for bass guitar learners? Sorry to hi jack your thread a bit.

Here's a bass how-to for Sir Paul's jaunty playing on the psychedelic classic, Rain ("the weather's fiiiine...").



Like some of Entwistle's bass playing, it's the "lead guitar" for the song.


EDIT: and a brilliant 20+ min. discussion/dissection of the song
(inc. tunings, chords)...