Thread: Guitar players out there?

Here's a question for you guitarists to talk about:

Do you learn tabs or chords? Which ones do you learn? Any recommendations for a beginner?

I mainly play chords rather than solos (and badly at that ^^) because i'm just starting out. I get them from www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs

Originally Posted by Garry

A legend & master of the instrument , he'll be remembered forever ..

Yes he will be!!! I was about to buy one Les Paul, when i decide to left my Band.. i regreat that! I play guitar since i was 16..im now 30.. but in this past 5 years i have quit bands!
I have a Ibanez Paul Gilbert a Marshal and a Zoom 8080 Super! Just misse those days..

I started playing bass when I was eight. My Dad had an old Silvertone bass and amp that I learned on. He played about four different instruments from mouth harp to mandolin and guitar including some old Martins and Gibsons. He had a D-18, several D-28s and his favorite 35. I can remember a Gibson Dove and a Hummingbird but he always liked the Martins because he played bluegrass as well as both of the other types of music...Country and Western! When he died he was playing an old Ovation.... sold all of the nice ones. Oh, well, you know how musicians are!

I bought my first bass, a Harmony semi hollow body followed soon after by a Fender Precision. I played that Precision for years. It always sounded good and never let me down. Played it through an old Ampeg with the top that flipped over showing the tubes. If the P bass with one pickup was good the Fender Jazz bass with two had to be better. I traded the P (one of my dumber moves) for a Jazz sunburst and I was set. High school rock band took me all over. I played the Jazz through a custom built Traynor 300 watt amp (it had a big fan in the side to cool the tubes) with four 15 inch JBLs (ran em in a series). I was the stud canary.

I played professionally for years playing country rock/ blues (Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker, 38 Special, Stones, Eagles... everything) with a Musicman Stingray through a Gallien Krueger 400B (it sounded like a tube amp) thumping an 18 inch folded, 12 inch up top Cerwin Vega cabinet. Liked this a little better than the Ampeg SVT. I e-qued through a parametric equalizer. Play any room and no boom or rumble. Just blow your shorts off tight bass that thumped you right in the chest.

Learned to fram on guitar over the years playing James Taylor and Gordon Lightfoot fingerpicking style for my personal pleasure. Do a little Chet thumb bass and finger style. I play Ventures, Johnny Rivers and some Carl Perkins. I have been doing this through a Fender Strat, Taylor 710 and a Guild orchestra model for the campfire. Fingers get sore with oldness (I know those Itis boys and Arthur is the worst of the bunch). Thanks for listening to me ramble on... yea, we did Led Zeppelin too!
Denny
300WSM

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

Do you learn tabs or chords? Which ones do you learn? Any recommendations for a beginner?

I've tended to learn songs that I like, either just because I like them, or to gig them or to teach me a specific technique.

When I first went to Oz I was definately a legato player, but the other guy who was in the band was a really good picker/ sweeper so I thought "I cant let him be the only one to do that" so thats when I started working on my picking hand. So I chose songs that would let me develop that side of my playing, like "As I am" by Dream Theatre. The solo on that is basically one long picked shred-a-thon..!

In terms of chords, I've never learnt them! The only theory I've gone for is interval studies and to learn the basic modes and scales. All you really need is major and minor pentatonic, lydian, ionian and myxolydian (for the major scales) then dorian, aeolian and phrygian for the minors. Everything else is basically one of those scales with a note sharpened of flattened!

Phrygian Dominant? Its the phrygian with a major third. Harmonic minor? Thats the aeolian with a raised seventh. And so on..!

Once I'd learnt those core scales I got a book called the caged guitarist and learnt the intervals in the back so I would know all the other scales just from changing the core ones.

I remember playing with a jazz guitarist once (and I dont play jazz!) and just jamming. He was like "you're not too bad for a metaller, do you know XYZ scale?" I just said no, I was playing pentatonic with a few chromatics thrown in and ending the licks off beat..!

From those basic core scales, I just pick notes to form the chord sounds I want. If you know where your root, third and fifth are you can basically play any rock song and any basic arpeggio out there. All Malmsteens sweeps are based off the 1-3-5 shapes.

The caged guitarist book has a load of chord maps at the back as well so as long as you know your intervals, you're sorted!

Learn the core scales then learn the intervals! Thats definately the thing I would recommend!

I started taking lessons almost 2 years ago and had aquired 2 acoustics, a Fender beginners model and a Takamine acoustic electric. After developing hand problems, complications from Diabetes, I had to give it up. I wound up giving my eldest niece the Takamine. I enjoyed folk/country and western swing. Was really getting into playing some of Simon & Garfunkel's tunes. I'm hoping to pick the guitar back up, but will have to have surgery before I can do so and that will have to be whenever disability comes through for me.

I think you just broke my head Stu.

The most recent song i've been learning is 'House of the Rising Sun'. It has a fun solo and the strumming pattern is a good one to learn.

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

I think you just broke my head Stu.

The most recent song i've been learning is 'House of the Rising Sun'. It has a fun solo and the strumming pattern is a good one to learn.

hang in there! guitar is a really quick one to learn. it took about a year for me to get better than anyone i knew when i first took it up back in high school. excluding my brother, who started a couple years before me. if you have the passion, it's just a case of practicing scales as often as you can stand, and you'll feel it quickly.

ciao

Originally Posted by sidneykidney

Here's a question for you guitarists to talk about:

Do you learn tabs or chords? Which ones do you learn? Any recommendations for a beginner?

I mainly play chords rather than solos (and badly at that ^^) because i'm just starting out. I get them from www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs

I've given guitar lessons for 15 years, so I am biased, but I would recommend that you try taking a few lessons. It is amazing how much more progress someone can make when given direction.

For my students that time and money is an issue, I set them up with a book that is appropriate for where they want to get and then meet once a month to review where they are at. In my experience, even that limited amount of interaction with a professional can easily quadruple your rate of improvement.

I play a little classical on a Cordoba.

I too used to play classical guitar but sadly stopped a year ago. I really want to pick it up again though.