Starting from Scratch

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Gilgamesh

New member
Hello friends,

I'm a total noob at guitar, at the ripe old at of 24...

I'm graduating from overseas university studies in May. I'll be coming home to Singapore and should be sticking around for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, I have no job - finance majors aren't terribly in demand these days. So I have decided to spend my time in extending myself through music - namely acoustic/electric guitar.

I've had a few private lessons but the point I mostly learned is that I really need to practice scales more just to improve my finger agility/strength etc, and thereafter I could just learn songs via tabs. However, having spent a little time looking around SOFT, there's a wide world of stuff I can't seem to understand. Three things bug me especially:

1) Music theory - general theory, tuning, harmony...
2) Electric guitars and their differences - tone? pickup modding... @_@
3) Electric guitar effects... I don't know anythinggg

The thing that scares me is that a lot of kids get into music when they were young, like in secondary school and had all the free time in the world to hang out at music shops and stuff and learn, learn, learn...

Me starting so late, I feel like I don't have the benefit of all that time and experience, nor do I have the benefit of peers who'll teach me such things. Most of my friends are like bankers/scientists who don't seem to have time for music anymore and certainly don't have time to teach me!

My goal is to be able to play in a band - actually at this point I'd be happy if I were technically proficient enough to jam with friends! So I guess what I want to know is: besides spending time just practicing scales and chords to improve my playing ability, what can I do to fill the gap in my knowledge?

Are there dedicated schools I should attend, or should I stick to private lessons? Or is there some group of people I can hang out with who can teach me such things on a buddy-buddy basis? Yeah, there's Google but I don't think they have Singapore-specific advice...

Thanks for your help, folks :)
 
The internet will definitely be your best friend... For my case learned almost all my stuff through the net. Probably this few sites would be useful
All Guitar Chords Chords, Metronome, Lots of stuff!
ULTIMATE GUITAR TABS ARCHIVE | 300,000+ Guitar Tabs, Bass Tabs, Chords and Guitar Pro Tabs!

About electric guitar differences in tone, the type of guitar + combination of wood, pickup configuration would play a more vital role. You might want to take note of this few particular models of guitar which are more common,

Telecaster (Fender ) normally with 2 Single Coils (S-S)

Stratocaster (Fender ) 3 Single coils, 1 at neck position, middle and near the bridge AKA S-S-S Configuration

Superstrats (namely Ibanez RG, S-series and more, Jackson Dinky, ESP. there's alot more superstrats out there ) Normally spotted with 2 humbuckers or 2 Humbuckers at neck and bridge and one single coil in the middle(H-S-H) . * Note most superstrats also comes with a Floating bridge.

Les Pauls (Gibsons & Epiphone, copies include Edwards,Tokai,Grassroots...)- 2 Humbuckers , Fixed tune-o-matic bridge.

Picture showing a HSH configuration
sc_and_h.jpg


And of course here are some sites that explains throughly:
Tone Woods @ Ultimate Guitar
Difference between Single Coil and Humbuckers
Different Effect Pedals
Some info on Amplifiers (amps are also an important part of your gear)

The thing that scares me is that a lot of kids get into music when they were young, like in secondary school and had all the free time in the world to hang out at music shops and stuff and learn, learn, learn...

Don't be afraid , keep learning and also practice alot and you will reap what you sow.
If you got questions or help needed I'm sure you can ask around here on soft, but remember to use the Search button as there might be other threads on the same topic too.

My goal is to be able to play in a band - actually at this point I'd be happy if I were technically proficient enough to jam with friends! So I guess what I want to know is: besides spending time just practicing scales and chords to improve my playing ability, what can I do to fill the gap in my knowledge?

Learn the scales and chords and at the same time know how to use them, just going up and down won't be of much use. Also you're playing guitar to enjoy it so its best if you learn songs too, and not only the theory aspect of music. As you learn songs, you will come across different technical aspects of the guitar, like:
Alternate picking
Economy picking
Bendings
Hammers and Pulloffs
Sweep Picking
Tapping
Pinch Harmonics , Natural Harmonics and Artificial Harmonics

As for the schools part, ain't pretty sure but I hope the above rescources helped in one way or another. I'd also recommend if you have the computer program GUITAR PRO.
 
Gilgamesh - you're doing it the wrong way around - you should learn songs first before going into scales etc

I mean purely rhythm guitar e.g. just strumming songs.

Once you have a base of at least 100 songs you can play all the way through, then i'd suggest going into scales/soloing etc. (this doesn't take as long as you'd imagine).

You don't want to be playing for a few years and all you have to show for it is the execution of a pentatonic minor scale at a reasonable speed. Better to have a repertoire of pieces you can bash through at will.

Plus, you'll learn a lot in rhythm playing that will make lead playing far easier.



Everyone is trying to be the 'next best lead player'. If you look into it, you'll probably be amazed at how in demand a good rhythm player is, and how little this is realised by guitarists.

Take the average wedding band, for example. You could learn all the songs required to play in such a band in under 6 months (I mean all the songs you'd ever need, then anytime a new and appropriate song comes out, just add it to your current repertoire). And wedding bands pay well.

Then again, you could just practise your scales and struggle through a Satriani solo for the next 5 years ;)

Just something to think about.
 
Oooo, thanks for the input folks.

kris, yes I don't fancy struggling with Satriani solos either. Actually I would be pretty happy if I could play like James Hetfield - he's accomplished enough as a rhythm player, right?

I feel a lot more strongly about playing rock and metal songs - but having said that, I want to ask, does it make sense to start "slow" with the more poppy songs from Oasis, Coldplay, or John Mayer, etc? I mean... I probably can't expect to be banging people over the head with Opeth or King Diamond anytime soon. :twisted:

Brings me to my next point - what the heck is a wedding band? Is that all bands are good for in Singapore, besides playing bars (if they're actually popular enough)? Is that what I'm supposed to aim at, if I'm not performing or writing songs for my own unique band? :???:
 
There're many beginner songs for rock/metal as well if u don't like playing the more "poppy" stuff. Especially if u just wanna learn the rhythm section.

Smoke on the water, Enter Sandman, Paranoid etc.
 
Gilgamesh said:
I feel a lot more strongly about playing rock and metal songs - but having said that, I want to ask, does it make sense to start "slow" with the more poppy songs from Oasis, Coldplay, or John Mayer, etc? I mean... I probably can't expect to be banging people over the head with Opeth or King Diamond anytime soon. :twisted:
Click to expand...

Okay while coldplay, oasis, john mayer are easy to play and stuff, playing those kind of songs do not make you a worse player - nothing at all wrong with playing these songs even if you are already a good guitarist.

my suggestion is play the songs you like most, don't care if its OASIS, GUNS n roses, x japan or what not. Dont care too much what others think of your song choices
 
To Gilgamesh - Hey bro. First up,congrats on being in/wanting to be in the music scene.
(Learn guitar) Hahaa. Well,don't worry man. As long as you have a wanting to learn mindset. I guess you can accomplish alot of things.

Well. IMO,starting slow can be a great option. Here's a number of ways that it can affect you (as a player)

Patience - For example,usually,a player would want to play the song as fast as possible. This means that by learning - challenging yourself to learn something harder than capable. This does not improve the playing skill much however. In some way yes. But it mostly involves the mind. Developing the patience in learning songs.

Tempo/Timing - Metal,I would say,usually involves faster tempos. By starting off slow. You have a basic foundation in when to actually play e.g chords/riffs. Blah2. It develops a basic sense in any genre where a player actually knows the consistency of what he is playing and knows when and/or to come in.

Various tastes - Well. Haha. Does not involve the playing skills at all. By going into this genre expands your taste of music. Hahaha. Well. Rather gives you a particular perspective of what chords,scales and progressions fit into what genres. =D

Well bro. I hoped it helped. This is all I can think of right now. Hahahah. If I have any more i'll state it right here. =)

Oh yeah. This is,in my opinion however. My opinion may differ from other players opinion/perspectives though. =)
 
Yea, I am 21, just started for about 2 months on acoustic, picking up an electric soon. So I would definitely say 24 is not too late! Though I hate to lie so I do feel that earlier would have been better. You will have to put in effort and be committed about it, and get a private teacher! They help in a lot of ways and spare you the weird looks from the very young kids.
 
I'm 26 and I just started too. An instructor really helps speed up the learning process. Very important to learn how to mute your strings properly. Good luck.
 
Thanks for more advice, guys. It's also encouraging to see other "late-bloomers", haha :) What's getting me riled up is seeing how quickly other people (esp. young kids) learn.

In fact, when I took private lessons my instructor mentioned that he would have to learn several songs overnight for weekend gigs.

And here I am struggling for 3-4 days just learning to play the initial acoustic intro of Fade To Black properly (not even the main acoustic riff)... WAAHHH!!! :cry:

I know, I know, the skills don't come overnight. I just feel abnormal for taking so long to learn stuff. I don't mind learning at my own pace, but thanks to the wonders of teh internetz, Youtube will show me demonstrations, paired with free commentary on the mad skillz of the video authors and how they learned the whole song in 2 days flat... :(

What do you guys do when you get frustrated with slow learning progress on a song?
 
Slow learning progress with a song = the song is too difficult for you.

Learn easier songs (to begin with).

It depends what you mean by 'slow', though.
 
I picked up during last year's October, age 26 too.
My friend and I went for beginner classes at the community centre.
It'll be a lot faster to pick up the basics imo. =)
 
Hi,

I'd recommend building up on your finger strength now as it will help in the future.

Here are some exercises that I find useful:

For left and right hand exercises
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/less...ash_course_introduction_to_speed_picking.html

To build strength and flexibility on left hand
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/lessons/guitar_techniques/finger_strength_and_speed_building.html

You might want to check out some instructional videos such as John Petrucci's Rock Discipline as well, there's some pretty good exercises IMO.

Hope it helps and good luck!
 
I haven't been playing for the last few days cos I got really bummed after I discovered my guitar's 6th string is screwed up.

Seeing people still encouraging me to try new practice techniques, this is a sign :) I'll go bring my guitar to a shop and have it looked at. Thanks, tyzjames and all you other lao jiaos (haha)!
 
Yeah I agree with sub on age is not the limiting factor on how fast you learn. I am 33 this year and only got started Dec 08:p though I do not have as much time to practice as I wish to, I will stick at it as it is really damn shiok to play a song by yourself!

Keep listening to more songs, especially guitar centric songs to maintain motivation!
 
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