161–170 of 239 posts
How do you know what to do with your right hand?
Most books I've (admittedly, casually) read and most tabs on the internet are surprisingly silent about this.
I tried picking up a guitar this past week, and was overwhelmed. Just playing a basic chord was a struggle. How do you get your figure to press down just right on the string and not interfere with another. Amazed by people who can play effortlessly. The post encouraged me to try again. 15 min a day sounds like a reasonable practicing goal.
You can play a ton of songs with like 5-6 open chords. Find a song you don't hate that just uses G, C, and D majors, and drill the hell out of it until it's easy to transition between those. Way more fun to practice with a real song. You may pick up A-minor or something on the bridge of that song, which is nice. Pick up open A and E majors and E minor on top of that base and you can play rhythm on like 50+% of all gu…
I tried picking up a guitar this past week, and was overwhelmed. Just playing a basic chord was a struggle. How do you get your figure to press down just right on the string and not interfere with another. Amazed by people who can play effortlessly. The post encouraged me to try again. 15 min a day sounds like a reasonable practicing goal.
Warning! If you're middle-aged and thinking of picking up the guitar, you should realize that the public image of guitarists has shifted from "sexy gods" to "annoying hobos" sometime in the last two decades. If you are at least partly motivated by popularity (and who isn't), maybe pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now, not in your imagined past. So in a sense, yes, it is sometimes too late :-(
It's never too late to not give a fuck what people think
Warning! If you're middle-aged and thinking of picking up the guitar, you should realize that the public image of guitarists has shifted from "sexy gods" to "annoying hobos" sometime in the last two decades. If you are at least partly motivated by popularity (and who isn't), maybe pick another hobby that actually helps people be popular now, not in your imagined past. So in a sense, yes, it is sometimes too late :-(
As someone who has been playing for 35 years or so, here are some observations... First and foremost, guitar is a pretty straightforward instrument for beginners. There's a reason it's the most popular instrument in the world. If you put in the effort, you can be playing something musical in a few months, and proficient in basic folk/rock music in a couple of years. It doesn't take "talent". It just takes effort. Som…
> Picking is much harder than fretting. Is it? I've been playing classical and folk for a long time and I think picking is far, far easier. Maybe picking is harder in other styles, like electric guitar?
If I ever win the lottery, I'd love to learn to play the guitar, learn a few foreign languages, contribute to open source software, make a bonsai tree, read all the books I have in my apartment that are collecting dust, [a long list of other stuff I'd like to do]. I don't want a big house or an expensive car or "bling". I just wish I had the money to buy time.
You don't need to win a lottery to have the time to learn to play guitar (multiple foreign languages - yes you do). It is actually quite difficult to practice more than 15 minutes every day because of sore fingers and frustration. Lottery or no lottery - if you really want to do it you will be able to find 15 minutes in a day.
It was much easier to make progress when I was a feckless teenager.
I tried picking up a guitar this past week, and was overwhelmed. Just playing a basic chord was a struggle. How do you get your figure to press down just right on the string and not interfere with another. Amazed by people who can play effortlessly. The post encouraged me to try again. 15 min a day sounds like a reasonable practicing goal.
You can play a ton of songs with like 5-6 open chords. Find a song you don't hate that just uses G, C, and D majors, and drill the hell out of it until it's easy to transition between those. Way more fun to practice with a real song. You may pick up A-minor or something on the bridge of that song, which is nice. Pick up open A and E majors and E minor on top of that base and you can play rhythm on like 50+% of all gu…
The "consistent policy" of barre chords made a lot of sense to me, and still does.
It was mostly due to the rhythm technique of most of the guitarists I like (John Frusciante, Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Jimi Hendrix, etc) being very embellished. Much easier to do when the shapes are always the same.
This is why I suck at guitar after 15 years (although I stopped for several). I just don't stick with it enough.