I now have no excuses not to practice. I got a brilliant Orange micro amp for Christmas, and now I have a nearly lag-free audio interface (Thomann t-bone) and Garage Band.

Whilst I can basically sit here and jam, I can’t do it very well. So how did you good people get good? What helped you improve? Inspiration isn’t the problem, I can hear fantastic music in my head all the time, but it just doesn’t make it out.

I think my problem is that my fingers are far to slow, and I don’t have any technique to speak of. So maybe drills or something?

Find someone to play with.

Yeah, not an option 🙂

practice, practice, practice…. have i mention practice already? 😀

no inspiration is a killer though

I am crap at Guitar, I don’t practice enough though. I think someone else did mention practice. 10-20 mins 5 days a week if not every day. When I do that I get less crap

Practice what though?

When you pick up your guitar, what do you actually do?

When you pick up your guitar, what do you actually do?

Noodling.

If you want to get any good, practice NOT noodling. Otherwise it’s the only thing you’ll be any good at.

Either do specific exercises / techniques or play songs.

Don’t noodle. It’s a luxury for the skilled only and a trap for the crap guitarist.

Learn some new scales, I found that helped me when I was stuck in a rut, or learn some new songs that you like. I’m into doing three (or four if I’m feeling all noodley and that) chord punk versions of pop songs from BITD at the minute. It sort of eggs you on a bit more if you can get something recognisable out of the guitar when you pick it up.

I got Rocksmith 2014 for the xbox 360 to try and spur me on but I found it frustrating- too many bad habits already learned I think!

You should be ashamed, my 8yo is about to take his 2nd grade… 😉

I’ve been a noodler/part-timer on guitar and bass for years. Basically just playing riffs and tunes that pique my interest/

In that time I’ve not really had any formal training or study, but all of a sudden stuff is starting to ‘click’ and my level of ability seems to be getting better despite everything. I suppose years of listening and noodling are eventually paying off as practice!

Warm up playing easy strumming stuff – country, Oasis, folk. Play some things that require a bit more concentration that I know well and then move on to work in progress. If I’m feeling really keen and have time I move onto songs I’m slowly putting together using tabs, music or just listening to the original over and over and playing along.

i get on youtube and try to jam along with things. (not guitar, piano. but still)

there are a couple of sites which will allow you to loop up a section of a youtube vid, and even slow it down (quality is fairly poor on the latter tho) – these can be really handy

I also note down chord progressions in a notebook, and sometimes just try to refer to that instead of a computer to see how far I’ve come 🙂

How bad are you exactly?

1 Can you play chords and change quickly between them?
2 Can you bust out some Green day or something equally simple using power chords?
3 Can you play barre chords moving higher up the neck?
4 Can you play a couple of funky basslines?
5 What do you enjoy playing?

You Tube and lots of practise.

My son nicked my guitar and would watch Marty Schwartz,then try playing it.
He now just plays by ear and can pick up most tunes pretty quick.

Learn some songs that you like, and practice them. And practice some more. And then a bit more. Finding others to play with makes a huge difference if it is an option. Find songs that will push you beyond your current abilities, and keep practicing them until you can play them well.

Apart from working through Justin guitar lessons of course find some songs you like and find YouTube tutorials for them. Some tutorials are rubbish but some are great and you learn lots of little moves through doing it as well as being fun.

If it’s too fast at the moment then there is a piece of software called Transcribe! that will slow down the audio and video as well as allowing you to loop sections. After a while you won’t need it but it’s great for getting going

I’ve had a guitar for 28 years and I’m still crap.

I too am crap at guitar but have only myself to blame…..not enough practice. I started lessons, but gave them up as it became clear I was wasting both my money and the teachers time.

I played Piano as a kid, showed some promise and talent but wasn’t inspired, preferred to do other things. I stuck with it for a few years before my parents allowed me to give it up – much to my regret now. Anyway, my practice regime when playing the piano was at least 30 mins a day, 50% of the time drills – scales or other drills the teacher set me to do, and 50% of the time practicing a piece of music.

Practice, practice, practice, repetition, repetition, repetition. It is quite tedious so you have to really want to do it. And be patient because getting good takes time.

The problem I have (excuses excuses) is every time I pick up the guitar it’s not long till the wife complains about the noise or the kids come over and want to join in, so trying to find some alone time is the most challenging thing.

The problem I have (excuses excuses) is every time I pick up the guitar it’s not long till the wife complains about the noise or the kids come over and want to join in, so trying to find some alone time is the most challenging thing.

+1

This is why i am known as Willy One-chord

posting to bookmark, i’ve had a guitar since 93, had lessons in late 90s. was fairly crap then. Left it in the corner gathering dust since early 2000s, planning to pick up again for last 5 years. Actually have done in the last month or so as my 7 year old has just got himself a guitar obsession. Taught him smoke on teh water, seven nation army and wild thing and he has his first proper lesson tomorrow. i have started playing in the evening, my fingers hurt and i keep making stupid frustrating mistakes. But I can still strum and change quickly between open chords, and i remember the shapes well.

Youtube seems great for tutorials.

ordered some new strings (mine have got to be 20 years old) and lusting after an orange micro terror.

1 Can you play chords and change quickly between them?

Yes, most of them.

2 Can you bust out some Green day or something equally simple using power chords?

Yes.

3 Can you play barre chords moving higher up the neck?

Yes

4 Can you play a couple of funky basslines?

Mmm yeah with a bit of brushing up on bass technique

5 What do you enjoy playing?

Tricky. Anything this side of thrash metal really. That’s part of it. If I had a favourite band I’d learn all their songs.

I would quite like to learn how to noodle, tbh, just because. I do learn by listening to songs but noodling is just too quick. I feel like there’s structure of which I’m not aware. I had a classical guitar book once and it had studies and drills in certain finger positions.. guess that’s what noodlers do.

GuitarPro on PC/Mac/IOS/android is a useful tool

Re amps, my wife got me an Orange Micro Crush which is cool. My main amp though I think is a thing of beauty. Peavey Classic 30, all valve.

my fingers hurt

Embrace the pain, it’s just weakness leaving the body! 😀

Embrace the pain if you’re intent on suffering carpal tunnel problems, trigger finger… .

If you can make time:

practice with technique in mind for even just 15-20 mins first thing in the morning. This is for repetive things like chord switching, timing, phrases (riffs), arpeggios. You’re drilling in muscle memory and applying the discipline/framework of specific tasks.

In the evening, play for fun*. Play along to your favourite songs, play to a drum machine, or just noodle about with curiosity. No pressure, just explore.

At all times, listen very closely to all the sounds you make and be openly critical. If you make a mistake, just keep going and correct it next time around. Stopping when you **** up can lead to indiscipline, though sometimes it’s the best thing to do. You’ll get a feel for when a ‘reset’ is the most helpful thing.

Learn to tune your guitar without a tuner and play around with non-standard tuning. Different tunings give you a different perspective and help you out of ruts.

*it should all be fun, even the frustrations!

it’s only the tips that hurt. the skin will soon toughen up.

keeping practice to no more than 30 mins, want to try to do it every day, but that’s not always possible.

Oh, and stop telling yourself (and others) you’re crap. It doesn’t really even mean anything. Nobody knows everything; everyone makes mistakes; there’s always somebody better; and there’s always somebody worse. What makes a good player, to my ears, are players who feel what they’re doing and who find a creative way out of their mistakes.

Ahhh, so years ago I used to strum a lot.. y’no the age of 17 and a few mates got together and we formed a band. Modelled ourselves on Rock of the day, Journey, Van Halen, Styx and all sorts of funk.. it was a giggle..

Then I moved away, lost heart in it all and one day someone offered me a,ticket to a classical acoustic/flamenco concert.. turned out it was by Tomatito (famous flamenco guitarist, like you’ll have heard from him) so I bought an Alhambra Nylon and flapped and twanged and made my brow furrowed with all the gawd damn practice I did to emulate this ere’ flamenco God.
It didn’t work, least I thought I sounded like someone chucking a stick at a wire fence.

Fast forward a few years and my quest continued, all be it at a much slower pace and less constructive practice regime. Instead of watching TV or sometimes watching TV I’d pluck and flick and pick, endless arpeggios and chord sequences por graniana, por lavante, por minera and por rondena… and ghah! I was getting bored. So packed it in, lost the will to practice and learn and honestly thought it all a waste of my time.

But no. The end didn’t come. I’d grab the neck like I wanted to throttle it, some days I sweat so much and cramp up so bad I barely had the strength to place the guitar back in it’s stand. Frustration set in, anger even, cramp mostly and a loss of enthusiasm entailed.

A few years passed, dust settled on the case and one day the case fell over from behind the wardrobe and into my lap. I looked sideways at it, thought I’d get it out to see if it was still in tune (it wasn’t) so sat on the floor of the spare room to reacquaint myself with a work of art that is both the instrument and its ability to make noise.

I flick and pick and flap and tap these days to all sorts of music, soul, funk, disco, county and yes flamenco.. because I know that by holding and cherishing my guitar allows me to focus on something that takes me well away from daily life, I enjoy the noise more now than ever. I play to amuse and learn, to progress sequences unknown and link to simple single plucks, and to centre myself.

Research some material you are interested in, some sound or rhythm or artist or style, copy and emulate, rip off and make your own, play to songs and videos and for a few moments just sit with the guitar in your hands and relax.

YouTube is an endless teaching method output. If you can stomach most of the intros and narrative horsecrap the presenters come out with you’ll find a teeny bit of something out of the 15mins you endure.

Most recently I’ve been watching Bass Players (5 and 6 string mainly) and am amazed at what these guys are doing, but once they just plucked and fiddled and got pissed off and sore at just the thought of “practice, practice and more practice”
Adam Nitti.. bit of Jazz 6 string bass..
[video]https://youtu.be/KE3OaAGozVA[/video]
And for a bit of fun, some basic flamenco techniques
[video]https://youtu.be/YqmE2m3oK3Y[/video]

I think it’s best to keep up interest in playing by mixing up styles and techniques which sound good to you, no one else just you. But mostly enjoy for relaxation when the bikes are muddy and resting, the kids are asleep or the TV is just so damn dull..

Enjoy..

When you practise chord changes do you move all your fingers at once or lead and follow? It’s a formalised means of switching between chords that really drills it home, and embeds muscle memory.

If you want to learn to be creative you need to learn a bit of theory. For example three chord progressions: root, third, fifth and resolve back to root. Then add in the relative minors for breaks /chorus.

Really satisfying jamming you could learn 12 bar blues formula and get your head round pentatonic and minor blues scales. Once those scale shapes are in place all over the neck you’ll have great fun fitting licks over backing tracks (some really good ones on YouTube)

Tricky. Anything this side of thrash metal really.

Phrygian mode and a few power chords will have you away nicely-

I watched a few of his videos and found them helpful, my other half not so much… 😆

Then I moved away, lost heart in it all and one day someone offered me a,ticket to a classical acoustic/flamenco concert.. turned out it was by Tomatito (famous flamenco guitarist, like you’ll have heard from him) so I bought an Alhambra Nylon and flapped and twanged and made my brow furrowed with all the gawd damn practice I did to emulate this ere’ flamenco God.

The father of Las Ketchup, you’ll thank me for that.

If you’ve got the cash, buy an acoustic bass to warm up on as you listen to your fave bands

Or an electric bass, but not as ‘immediate’ as an acoustic.

Glanced at a recent article on ‘musicradar’ about slipknot guitarist mick Thomson saying that playing bass guitar is crucial to his skillz.

Listen to as broad a range of music as possible and play along (bass guitar style) as this will help develop your ‘ear’.

If you have an audio interface, you _can_ play with others. I made a post about it a while ago, but search for jamtaba. Feel free to PM me if you’d like some setup help. It’s essentially online jamming and is great for trying different things.

It used to be hard to learn guitar – you either shelled out for lessons and hoped the teacher was good or bought those utterly useless tab books.

It’s so easy now with all the tutorials on youtube, I’ve been playing for over thirty years but I’ve probably learnt more in the last 5 of those.

Just look up a song you fancy playing and find a tutorial that sounds about right.

See, you actually know loads already. I’m at a similar point, I downloaded a music theory book last night, just to see what I’m missing out on.

Practice is futile if you don’t have the knowledge to start with.

The only time I’ve come on in leaps and bounds was with lessons. Feels weird to sit down with another human and ask them to show you how to play but if you can bear it, it works.

Oh, and stop telling yourself (and others) you’re crap.

This. Some of the best regarded guitarists in the world are “crap” technically.

BB King could make a solo sing using only one or two notes.

Slash is a really sloppy player, it hasn’t stopped him.

That thing Bill Bailey did about The Edge when you turn the effects rig off – some (or a lot of) truth in that.

The Ramones were ace.

Slash is a really sloppy player, it hasn’t stopped him.

Perhaps he is (strongly disagree) but he’s also incredibly dynamic whatever you think of the company he keeps and is as fast as ****

Slash is a really sloppy player, it hasn’t stopped him.

Perhaps he is (strongly disagree) but he’s also incredibly dynamic whatever you think of the company he keeps and is as fast as ****