Any help would be appreciated. Gadani fucked around with this message on 03-07-2006 at 12:54 AM.
It's not something people hear about.
actually learning all the theory
having solid technique (this is more important than you might think)
good/appropriate pacing
more motivation to keep up the practice during the week (getting your moneys worth for the lessons)
etc
1: What style of music / guitar playing?
2: What can I afford for lessons/ equipment?
There's the basic's of guitar that every guitar player needs if you're going to just play an electric or accoustic guitar, Check with your local musical instrument store to find out who the local instructors are and then ask around to find out who is a quality teacher.
The reason I ask about style of music is because there is also Classical Guitar which is considerably different than standard guitar playing. The strings are typically plucked using 4 fingers of your hand (little finger isn't used) with strumming mixed in when needed. It's more intensive training and takes a LONG freaking time to get really good, plus to sound halfway decent you have to spend quite a bit of money to get a really good Classical Guitar. (my best friend's Takamene (sp) classical guitar costs upward of $1500 and some can reach over $10,000) If you've seen the latest SubWay commercial with thier new Bistro Steak Sandwich (yummy!), the guitar music playing in the background sounds like Christopher Parkening, whom I consider the best living example of classical guitarists. The best place to find out about classical guitar is to contact the local college music department and ask who is in the area that can teach classical.
Standard guitar uses plastic or metal picks to do your strumming and picking, the guitars are typically cheaper and more widely available. Also because of the use of many standard chords, the standard/modern form of guitar is relatively easier to learn than classical.
I guess I plan on playing rock music.
So when I became a certain age, my father decided it was time for me to learn an instrument and he chose guitar. He had me take lessons. My teacher taught me Classical guitar. I learned arpeggios and how to read music.
I was pretty much ruined in my father's eyes because I couldn't sit down with the rest of the family and "pick and grin". I didn't know how to play by ear. If they were all playing a song in the key of G.. they all just knew what chords went where. I was handicapped by needing a sheet of music in front of my face.
I gave up after 3 years of lessons.
The short of it is, if you can't learn some of it on your own.. don't bother getting lessons. You need the ear. I lost my chance to learn by ear by having to rely upon the sheet music.
Vernaltemptress fucked around with this message on 03-07-2006 at 02:12 AM.
Playing by ear/improvising and taking lessons are not mutually exclusive because they're both a part of becoming "good" at your instrument(s)
imo Kegwen fucked around with this message on 03-07-2006 at 02:29 AM.
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Nobody really understood why nem-x wrote:
Learn the basics on your own first, then go to a teacher.
imo
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith
Guitar Hero is good if you want to build up stamina, or if you just want to have fun butchering Bark at the Moon.
Anyhow, after that I basically played along with CDs and figured songs out from tabulature (my dad has all the Guitar World magazines cataloged back to like 83). Later on, like in 96-97 when I actually started doing original stuff I was lucky enough to have a decent group of similary interested/influenced and fairly talented friends to jam with and exchange ideas. It worked for me. Then I played in some punk bands and free-jazz/noise stuff so I didn't really know any of the stuff I'd figured out anyhow. Maybe at that point it helped on a subliminal level, but now that I'm trying to do stuff that has more complicated structure and room for little flourishes and earcandy, I really regret not taking the lessons for longer and paying more attention to the actual theory.
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Maradon! had this to say about the Spice Girls:
Look if nickelback, drowning pool, and system of a down can make it big by playing the same 3 shitty chords and screaming really loud, then I contend that you don't have to have a teacher to play a guitar.
Godsmack.
1 CHORD OVER AND OVER Sakkra fucked around with this message on 03-08-2006 at 04:37 PM.
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Check out the big brain on Maradon!!
Look if nickelback, drowning pool, and system of a down can make it big by playing the same 3 shitty chords and screaming really loud, then I contend that you don't have to have a teacher to play a guitar.
perhaps if you want to play well you might want one
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Peanut butter ass Shaq Sakkra booooze lime pole over bench lick:
Godsmack.1 CHORD OVER AND OVER
Yeah but they're wiccan so we have to do the PC thing and let them do whatever the fuck they want without question.
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Kegwening:
perhaps if you want to play well you might want one
Oh, well that's a different story!
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Maradon! stumbled drunkenly to the keyboard and typed:
Oh, well that's a different story!
Wicca is less of a religion, and more a phase teenage girls go through.
That will help build and stretch your hand/finger muscles, and you don't have to plug it into anything.
Acoustic guitars are FAR more easier to push down the strings on the frets than an electric.
But if you already have an electric, then all you really have to do now is either take a few lessons to get started, or buy the self help books and work on your scales 'n such.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."
-- George Herbert Walker Bush
quote:
Nae Model 2000 was programmed to say:
The short of it is, if you can't learn some of it on your own.. don't bother getting lessons. You need the ear. I lost my chance to learn by ear by having to rely upon the sheet music.
Bullshit. "learning by ear" only happens once you've had years of experience and know the instrument as if it were a part of you. I didn't learn how to play by ear with my Saxophone until around my 5th or 6th year of playing it.
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We were all impressed when Kaiote wrote:
Wicca is less of a religion, and more a phase teenage girls go through.
QFT
I'm still snickering.
sigpic courtesy of This Guy, original modified by me
quote:
Densetsu had this to say about Captain Planet:
Bullshit. "learning by ear" only happens once you've had years of experience and know the instrument as if it were a part of you. I didn't learn how to play by ear with my Saxophone until around my 5th or 6th year of playing it.
Not bullshit. My father, my uncle, and most of my cousins were all self taught. One of my cousins has a hugely popular country band in Phoenix, another writes gospel music that other country singers pay her for. Nobody taught them a thing.
My most famous cousin taught herself to play so well she now has an amusement park named after her.
If you don't have talent, you can't buy it from a teacher.
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Naeing:
Not bullshit. My father, my uncle, and most of my cousins were all self taught. One of my cousins has a hugely popular country band in Phoenix, another writes gospel music that other country singers pay her for. Nobody taught them a thing.My most famous cousin taught herself to play so well she now has an amusement park named after her.
If you don't have talent, you can't buy it from a teacher.
Not everybody learns the same way, and not everybody has talent from day 1. Almost all of the most talented artists in the world weren't worth a damn dime when they started out, and got where they are through endless hard work and practice. Practice, frequently, under tutelage.
In fact, it's unbelievably rare for any human being to show any innate talents at all without serious dedication. Maradon! fucked around with this message on 03-11-2006 at 01:44 AM.
There isn't a guitar teacher made that can teach a guy to learn to play music by ear. That is something that comes naturally.
What I am saying is you have to learn that on your own through practice and goofing around with different pieces of music.
"oh hey.. this sounds good with this song" Whatever.
A teacher can help you fine tune the mechanics of the art, but he can't help you learn to play by ear.
Not everyone was meant to be a guitar hero.
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This insanity brought to you by Liam:
SMOKE ON THE WATERFUCK YEA
Like fire in the sky.
My advice, pick up a cheap guitar that sounds good, If you have the money get one acoustic and a beginer strat replica for cheap with a small practice amp.
And just pick at it. If you are serious about it, you'll run up and down the neck making funky noises and off key notes. You'll try to figure out how to play your favorite songs to how figuring out how to keep your guitar in tune.
Don't bounce around from styles too much and stay focused on a handful of songs you like. If you spread yourself across different genres so early, you will get frustrated and drop it like a sack of dead babies.
The only reason I can really remember picking up a guitar, was because I was an avid Iron Maiden and Metallica fan. I picked up a guitar wanting to play the song ONE, which had floored me that such a song was playing on the airwaves, considering all I could hear of them is when my brothers would play the records.
Thats when I became the anomoly, my brother tried to learn guitar, got help from a guitarist that was trained and couldn't learn squat, couldn't even play mary had a little lamb and twinkle twinkle little star (both seem to be a staple of people just learning guitar). For some reason, I just started picking at it untill I found the magic notes. And played the first 4 notes of ONE. From there I was hooked.
But thats just me, I always think someone should play an instrument. Or at least give it a try.
Get a guitar and give it a shot... if it doesn't work out then... well... thats why God made pawnshops.
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How.... Nae.... uughhhhhh:
I don't think you are getting my point. Maybe I am not wording it well.
No, you explained it perfectly well. You weren't good from the start, so you gave up after practically no time of trying it. You don't get good at playing an instrument in just a few years of casual play (Casual is defined differently for different people). Three years is not enough time to be good at playing any instrument. Most people who end up in symphony orchestras or become hugely popular have finished college, playing music all the way through, and many major in it.
Your arguement is, "I had a teacher for 3 years, I sucked, so teachers suck."
All that "learning by ear" does is let you play improvisation. Ever been to a symphony? You know those stands in front of them? Those stands hold sheet music. 
quote:
Densetsu had this to say about Duck Tales:
...
You know those stands in front of them? Those stands hold sheet music.
Golllly, I wonder were all those guitar players hid the stands at concerts?
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Everyone wondered WTF when Peter wrote:
Golllly, I wonder were all those guitar players hid the stands at concerts?
Because playing a few different rhythms several times over the course of a set of 2-3 minute songs is tha same as playing through a long, ever-changing symphony.
I had to memorize songs for Marching Band. It's not like it's all that difficult.
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Everyone wondered WTF when Densetsu wrote:
Because playing a few different rhythms several times over the course of a set of 2-3 minute songs is tha same as playing through a long, ever-changing symphony.I had to memorize songs for Marching Band. It's not like it's all that difficult.
(Probably not the best example, but the best I could think of)What about Opeth(Or any progressive music for that matter?)? Their songs are like 13 minutes long with many different variations and they don't have sheet music stands on-stage.
edit:grammar Gadani fucked around with this message on 03-12-2006 at 12:26 AM.
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How.... Gadani.... uughhhhhh:
(Probably not the best example, but the best I could think of)What about Opeth(Or any progressive music for that matter?)? Their songs are like 13 minutes long with many different variations and they don't have sheet music stands on-stage.edit:grammar
You're missing the point.
Just because you use sheet music to reference to while playing, does not make you a bad musician. That even the best musicians in the world will have the music in front of them as a reference.
There are many types of music, and many types of musicians. And every single one of them that becomes even remotely "good" has worked very, very hard at it.
