For those that play guitar

I don't know if I would be considered technically proficient, but I started playing at age 14 or 15-- just taught myself some chords from tablature, and picked up songs by ear (REM, PJ Harvey, Belly, that kind of junk, whatever I listened to in high school). I did have a little knowledge of chord structure and theory from playing trumpet and piano, but the hardest part was probably just breaking in my fingers and playing thru the pain. I can read music but I'm not good at sight-reading so I always preferred to play by ear once I got the idea of chords down.

I don't remember how long it took me to get comfortable and start writing my own stuff. It's only been in the past year that I had a sort of intuitive leap and began playing seriously again after a couple years of slacking. As long as you're not disabled or anything you've got nothing to lose by trying. I never wanted to be Yngwie Malmsteen either, I just like making up things that sound neat. I'm not attracted to incredibly flashy or technical playing to begin with, none of my favorite artists are virtuostic. Once I realized that, the fear of being inadequate stopped blocking me from just enjoying myself.

Best way to get better quickly = play w/other musicians, especially if they're a bit better than you.

Well, if the drummer is any good.

1. make it a point to count time and learn about how bars/measures work in relation to the song structure of pop music. Make it a point to learn how songs are structured and how those parts work together.

A great book for this is How to Write Songs on Guitar by Rikky Rooksby, I cannot recommend this book enough if you are a beginning guitar player. Fuck Mel Bay and all those scale books, this book gives you all the technical info you need regarding theory without making it confusing. It doesn't just present the info, it actually explains how to apply that knowledge.

Every single beginner/intermediate guitarist I showed the book to said it is exactly what they have been looking for. I know because I was looking for this exact book for 12 years before I actually came across it. You can get it for 14 bucks from amazon. Don't sleep on it, you will thank me later.

2. Don't even worry about the fretboard, your picking hand is what really matters. Don't worry about playing difficult chords or having fast lead runs; just figure out one chord, and learn to play that chord with good timing. A single bar chord played in time is worth 10,000 9th chords played with sloppy timing. IOW, it is better to play easy parts in time than complex parts out of time. Chuck Berry has made a career of this principle.

3. Make it a point to find other people to play with. You will learn a lot faster when you play with others. You also have to learn to play with others, which is a lot different from playing alone in your room. Try to find a drummer, and if you cannot find one, play with a drum machine.

I am not much of a guitarist, but 13 years later I can definitely tell you where I made my mistakes. My playing would have advanced much faster if I had applied these principles earlier.

otm etc

Get your power chords down and you'll be able to cover the rhythm guitar part for just about any Nirvana or Hole song in existence.
If you play in drop-D tuning (downtuning the low E string to D) it's even easier, but that's a bad crutch to start off on and you'll suffer in the long run.

And heed Pahmina's advice: play w/other musicians, especially if they're a bit better than you.

Same sentiment :p

FUCK'N RAWK.

Now, another tricky question. Based on the listing I put on my first post.....WHAT GUITAR?!?!?!

G, D, A is all you need.

And don't bother with tab or scales or fancy schmancy chords. Throw a minor chord in there once in a while and you too could write one of the greatest songs ever.

Get a Fender for playing at home. But they mostly sound like shit for everything other than blues. Les Pauls and other Gibsons with similar pickup configurations sound the best. I have a Gibson RD Standard (like Dave Grohl!) and it rocks. I put an active EMG-81 in it though.

I don't think he plays those live anymore. Or did he ever? He did play Gibson Explores for a while.

(like Dave Grohl's!)

And it hit me! sorry....

I have a mom

(that looks like Dave Grohl in a picture that was taken and can be seen in the album Foo Fighters)

Creeped me out when I relized that

And DO worry about the rhythm Aja! I know you don't like me right now - but trust me!

I like you. I never said I hated you. I do trust you with that.

I think I have my own personal style and I just keep ripping it off every time I pick up that guitar and start to play.

If you really have you own style, you're better than anyone who doesn't. Keep ripping yourself off cause before you know it people will like your style and you'll just keep perfecting it. Thats my theory. I don't care a bit to rip myself off cause whoever else I'm playing with has their own style too and once everyone's brought it all to the table its got its own distinct flavor.

Write a song using your "sad" style and see if they like it. There's nothing better for musical youngstaz than being around like-minded musicians. They can ALWAYS show you something you'd never thought of.

I don't know if I could write something. I already sort of did but my mom yelled at me and told me to learn the scales.

Or is your mom going to chop off your arm if you aren't Hammett-ing it within a year??

Our conversation was something like this:

"I like that"

"What"

"Turn that down"

"What did you say"

"I like that"

"Like what"

"What you were playing, but..."

"What"

"It sounds good, but it also sounds like there is something wrong"

"How"

"Like you're off key. You need to learn the scales"

"You liked what I played"

"Yeah, but you need to learn the scales"

Then she told me why I need to learn the scales and how it would help me.

Then she said I could make up my own scales like Sonic Youth.

I don't know what to do.

Your mom's REAL intentions are to turn you into Clint Conley!

Yeah, but she said Clint said any one can play bass. I do find bass to be easier.

Why is that?

Ooh, L7 is on the radio.

You can always flip dat shi.

Plus, I want to get a classic hollow body Gibson with Bigsby, two octave shifters, an early 80s chorus (with overdrive), analog compressor, a dual signal digital delay with matching samplers and a multieffects unit.

sigh

I think I'm getting better with getting a different rythm! I came up with something this morning. It almost sounds Mission of Burma and Jazz influenced. Very weird especially since I very very rarely listen to any jazz at all.

(aja just posted... do i put xpost?)

No spaces in between

One of my biggest guitar influences is Loveless era MBV and that album taught me a lot about when you're layering your shit its better not to use effects. The sound of the strings being ever-so-slightly out of tune with the other tracks creates a natural chorus sound that is so much sweeter than any drippy sounding pedal. I actually do like a few of the new crazy effects I've heard. I pretty much like guitars to not sound like guitars nowadays. Loomer and Blown A Wish and those lead guitar hooks in Only Shallow, Come In Alone and I Only Said from Loveless - those are some of my favorite guitar songs ever cause they don't really sound like guitars. But they DO when you really listen. Just little simple things you can do with the attack can make the coolest effects. Plus you tend to get lazy with your playing when you have cool-sounding effects on your guitar all time time.

Oh my. Now Nirvana's "Dumb" is on.

And don't let your mom tell you to get a Peavey amp cause Sonic Youth uses em.

We have a Pig Nose one. I think she wanted to get that one because it's small. It can get loud though.

I think I'll take a little brake from my guitar.

Basically, that's the model. Only mine is in MUCH better condition, and completely black. No tacky pickguard. I got this pic from teh Ebay.

You're welcome.

whoever said this is totally correct. the international telepaths started when this girl i knew was organising a womens gig and the only bands she could get were male bands with female bass players. i felt sorry for her so i got together with duane and knocked out a few songs and offered to play the gig. prior to this i only knew open chords. a week later i could finally play barre chords and power chords. pressure really works! this of course, is only plausible in a city where the audience are tolerant enough to let you learn to play on stage.

http://www.st.rim.or.jp/~kimu/palm/amp.jpeg

Ibanez ST-9 Super Tube Screamer.

http://www.coastaltown.nildram.co.uk/jim/tubey.jpg

Part of me says sell it, you can't play guitar properly you big fool and part of me is in love with its tubesque loveliness.

If you are looking for a good guitar instruction book, the Fretboard Logic/Bass Logic books by Bill Edwards are the best I have come across by far.

It all depends on what you want out of your guitar playing.

I started playing at 5 or 6 or something stupid. Had my Grade 8 'Rock School' in electric and ABRSM classical guitar at a real early age, could play like Vai and Satch, knew all about jazz theory and harmony, modes, blah blah blah blah, then a couple of years ago started to get really bored!

So I carried on playing classical guitar and stopped playing electric a few years ago; started playing other things; got seriously into making electronic music and sampling. THIS WAS THE BEST THING EVER FOR MY GUITAR PLAYING!

When I came back to electric bout a year or 2 ago I still had my technique, but found that when I pick up a guitar its not cheesy wanky blues licks that come out, I play what I want to hear, not what my fingers automatically assume they should do (through years of studying pentatonic blues scale monsters). I've started to develop my own technique and sound, which I feel is the most important thing.

So the moral of my story is when learning, don't rely too much on learning other peoples licks, songs, chord sequences etc. Just learn how to make the sounds you want to hear.

I apply this to everything I play nowadays, I feel I should have understanding of how the pioneers, innovators did what they did, but I want to play how I want to play.

There

Also, if you're serious about it, there's no shame in taking lessons. If you can find a good teacher (and I'm sure there are both good and bad ones out there), they can help you with your specific concerns and requests, and they can also often give you ideas for practise that make it much easier to stay interested and put in the time to get up to speed.

I learned on a steel-stringed acoustic, which made the issue of hand strength a lot easier. It took me a while and a lot of practise, but once I could play a barre chord on a big acoustic with steel strings, I discovered I could play barre chords on just about anything. The same is kinda true for pedals... once you get to where you have a decent idea of what you're doing without any extra effects, then you can add effects and really use them in interesting ways.