4 replies to this topic

[Therev86]

Evening all, i'm Jim, im 26 just picked up my guitar a week ago, it's a fender strat lookalike called "elevation" one of those, £50 and comes with everything you need, phono lead, practice amp etc..

I have spent years procrastinating at the thought of learning to play guitar and recently while, listening to some operatic metal i decided it was time to stop air-guitaring in the car and get on with learning it, so here i am. I work long hours and so fitting in practice can be a bit tough but the first three days i spent reading a beginners guide to the guitar and learnt some basic chords (G, Am, Em, C, C add 9, D) but found following the book to be a bit hard going, and the videos that accompany it seemed totally out of sync with what i was studying in the book, today i had a day off work and spent a mammoth 8 hours practicing and watching the tutorials on YouTube from Marty over at Guitar Jamz.com and can somewhat comfortably play Green Days "Good Riddance (time of your life)" in as much as i can change chords fairly quickly and it's easy to follow what song im playing, i'll admit i impressed myself with my progress only having spent 3 days and a total of 4 hours prior to today sat down and practicing.

Do you think this was the right way to go? I found watching his chord progressions in the video and playing along much easier than following the notation in the book and my progress was much quicker, although my fingers hate me right now but having heard myself playing a song now i've got the bug to keep going, my long term goal is to be able to play everything from Black Sabbath, to Trivium, Slipknot etc.. but bends, hammer ons, pull offs et al are all well out of my league for at least the next few months, im currently happy learning the slow easy stuff while i learn the chords before i move on to anything more advanced, so yeah thats me i look forward to seeing you all around the forums and hopefully becoming a more pro-active member here.

[eddiez152]

Welcome to the forum !

What ever works for you is a good start. You will and should get into the details later. Most of all have fun, thats why you started.

eddie

[karcey]

G'day Jim, Welcome

Therev86, on 06 August 2012 - 05:15 PM, said:

Do you think this was the right way to go?

Absolutely. Anything you do towards playing music is the right way to go.
Make sure you look after those hands though. They're a valuable asset when it comes to playing guitar and we wouldn't want you to knock them around.

Keep in touch.

[Therev86]

Thanks for the warm welcomes

I would be ignorant to never study the theory of guitar, whenever i get unstuck or simply dont understand anything i will head to the books to read up on it, i aim to know as much as possible about my instrument and next week will be taking it to my local music shop to get it professionally setup as although it sounds ok, it does feel as though the action could be a little bit too high so i just want to get it the once over and maybe get some new strings fitted as the ones that came with it feel quite cheap and i find myself needing to retune it every hour or so with continuous playing, i've also bought a few picks of different sizes and find the .73mm nylon ones to be the most comfortable for my current style of playing, im challenging myself to now nail the F chord, i find holding the first two strings with the first finger rather difficult but from what i have read this is almost always the most difficult for a beginner, but by constantly adjusting my fingers and strumming until it sounds perfect i will get there

[mset3]

Therev,

You're off to a great start. I think everyone has had a problem with the F Chord when learning. Barre Chords also seem to be an obstacle. Keep at it and you will find you will master them in no time.

Welcome to the forum.

Mike