I’ve been playing for about 3 months now and have been very into it ever since I started. I’ve never had lessons, but I learned most of the basic chords and have been playing the hell out of them to tabs I found online. My problem is is that I don’t know where to go from there, I don’t know how to further my skills as a guitarist. My eventual goal is to be proficient enough to write my own tunes (and I’m not content with sticking with a couple of power chords!) So if anyone out there has any suggestions on how I should approach learning guitar please share!
Some extra info, I play mostly rock tunes and I currently own an acoustic (I’m trying to focus exclusively on playing this for now), classical, and a (crappy) electric guitar. (For those wondering, no I’m not some spoiled rich kid, I’m just lucky enough to have been given the classical and electric for free).
Find a good teacher or book. Don’t be afraid to start playing styles of music that you don’t like, because many of them will improve your technical skills better than rock anyway. Right now I’m playing jazz and folk music and I hate it, but I’m getting a lot better because of it. Keep practicing increasingly complex chords, and you’ll soon find that you can master a new chord in 5 minutes instead of 5 weeks.
If you want to write songs, study some music theory maybe and just play around with your guitar and see what happens. Don’t worry about sounding like any other band out there, just see what comes out and if it sounds like your favorite band or something then great. If you want nice guitar solos, practice lots of scales and different melodies with them. If you want lyrics, try looking at some poetry. I don’t care what style of music you like, good lyrics will make your songs so much better. It doesn’t have to be emotional or anything like a lot of poetry, but at least try to avoid repeating the same thing throughout the whole song like a lot of bands out there seem to do.
only practice songs you like, and want to play, for instance, i started a few months ago, and as the background chords are supposed to be far easier, i stated on them for Good Riddance (green day). But i didn’t reallt want to play that part, so just for fun, i tried the lead. And believe it or not, because i had the drive, it was 200% easier!
Just keep shredding!!
Do lots of scales over and over till you can do them in all keys with a blinfold on. Play till your bones are touching the strings. And then one day youll be able to smash a beer open over your head and rip up a fiery solo.
Hey, right now I’m working on my barre chords (tough but fun stuff) and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to play them properly. Right now my barring finger is kinda poking out of the neck… dunno if I’m supposed to do that.
When I was working with barre chords, my teacher told me to just worry about transitions. She said if I just practiced that, the sound would come by itself and all the strings would eventually sound out… and what d’you know, she was right!
Just work on getting the right hand position and being able to quickly find that position. Play songs with barre chords and keep going in the song even when your barre chords don’t sound right. It comes on its own (or at least it did for me).
ok, ive been playing for a out two years now. im self taught, though im better than anyone at my school (not to sound conceded or anything). barre chords… um, i dont really know about taht stuff anymore, i make up my own chords, and i dont play any elses music anymore, so i dont knwo chords taht go to otehres music. all i can say is keep it up, its always worth it. if anything, get into some pretty crazy, metal-esque stuff, if your into it. i have found numerous bands that im completely in love with for their technicality, and musicianship.
Wow, thanks for all the advice guys. I have another question though… what areas are important for me to be working on at this point? Playing scales? Working on hammer-ons/pull-offs/string bending? Should I try to play a really challenging song or just try to perfect my playing with simpler ones first?
