OT – Guitar… How to measure progress, 1 Year in

As it says…

Got a cheap guitar for Christmas last year, so just under 1 year in to playing (with) the thing.

Have definately progressed, and as wife said at the weekend, the guitar hasn’t faded away to the garage / loft.

Not sure that I’ve got as far as i’d like with playing actual tunes, just yet…

… so wondering – what stuff should I know / be abe to do???

You’ll never be as good as you want to be when playing the guitar.
But saying that, I’d hope to have started looking a bar chords one year in.

You’ll never be as good as you want to be when playing the guitar

Yep – started with that attitude. Musical numpty me, so any progress was regarded as a bonus.

Have been playing with B & F barres – and there respective shapes going up the neck. Can’t consistently get the barre finger to fret out the treble strings, without some buzzing, but have been improving…

Been doing some power chords, with right and left hand muting (much more practice required though 🙁 )

Also been playing with hammer on / pull offs and minor pentatonic scales…

double trouble posting glitch

Depends what you’re trying to learn, I’d concentrate on

Open chords minor and major
Barre chords, do the E shapes, don’t bother with A shapes
Strumming patterns
Forcing changes ( do chord progressions. d to g to a back to d for example) learn some of the more common progressions.
Where the notes are on a guitar, and play a simple plucked tune

I started playing about a year and 3 months ago. Firstly I used a site called justinguitar for learning chord shapes and strumming patterns after some advice on here. After a few months I started having lessons as well. They brought my playing on in leaps and bounds.

Barre chords are pretty much sorted now but the F was an absolute nightmare and only recently can I do it instinctively and accurately.

I do get a bit obsessive though, I have really put the hours in.

Also how are you getting on with scales. These are a great way of getting accurate finger movement around the neck. Though anybody listening around the house will want to kill you soon enough 🙂

Sounds similar to the OP only about a year of usage and mostly make plinky plonky noises with a few bends and pull offs, but tend to just stick to blues scales notes so that I can pretend there’s an awesome blues riff between each plink or plonk, and it’s easy to string together some form of 1,4,5 blues. Gives me pleasure, which is enough. Everyone else can get ear plugs.

How are your strumming patterns ?

Took me a while to figure out or be comfortable with interpreting strumming patterns.. then at some point it just clicked and I can’t believe I used to have so much trouble with them

emsz – good advice.

I do find changes to open G cause a little hestitation, especially C to G… getting the little fingers onto the treble strings 😐

I think I initially concentrated a lot on what the fretboard hand was doing, with less emphasis on the right hand – and a subsequent lack of musicality.

Trying to get the strumming / picking more in time has made my efforts sound more like music!

ETA – mrs rkk01 has asked for some noise cancelling headphones for Xmas 😳

Keep it up guys.

Not sure that I’ve got as far as i’d like with playing actual tunes, just yet…

That’s a goal for you right there!

Barre chords, do the E shapes, don’t bother with A shapes

I don’t really agree with this, as long as you know the difference between the E and A shapes (Both major, root on 6th and 5th respectively) then it won’t hurt. Well, it’ll stop hurting after a while 😉

Do you have a song you really want to play? Is there a song that made you want to pick up the guitar? Learn the chords and try and play along – you can imagine you’re playing the awesome lead parts if you want! You’ll progress, being able to play the chords, then you can learn a couple of easy licks from it, before you know it you can play the whole song!

Scuzz, it’s just that for the amount of hassle they are, there just a bit pointless? I think there’s just more productive things to do

For me it was learning a couple of specific songs that helped with barre chords both E and A shaped.

I didnt set out to learn them. They both just kind of happened along the away. Especially trying out Jumping Jack Flash … a great chord sequence in the verse and chorus both musically and for learning both shapes… give it a try

Barre chords, do the E shapes, don’t bother with A shapes

Reasoning?
EDIT: Redundant – if you think they are hard just wait till you see some of the other stretches/barres and jump straight to them down the fretboard whilst fingerpicking

I agree other stuff is easier than doing a barre but you will be a limited player if you stick to open stuff

It all depends on what you want to be able to play /what style you want

IME you can be excellent in one style or average in lots – for example I can play the blues and slide guitar but you aint paying to listen to me and i some way from an expert- ie I am average so I stopped and only really do classical – I can play other stuff but not at all well

Overall work on having a better left hand for chord shapes and a better right hand for rhythm – many ways to achieve this depending on what you want to play

Ok, I’ve smaller hands than most of you I bet, and that makes it a bit of a pain, but I’ve always thought the A barres are just a bit pointless, name a decent tune that uses them?

Edit: junky, not really hard to learn, just not really worth it I suppose

Definitely don’t avoid the A shape barres-it’s one of the defining characteristics between my able and less able students. If you’re tackling them one year in then you’d be making good progress by the standards of most of my students (currently around 90 per week all aged 9-19).
As for learning to play whose tunes, this really is where a decent guitar teacher comes in-they should have a huge pedagogy that will include numerous whole pieces that students of all abilities can play. Do you have lessons?

As a bit of market research, I’m contemplating offering lessons via skype. Anyone think that this is a good idea?

I do have lessons – between 1 per fortnight to 1 per month, depending on my own and my teacher’s commitments…

Lesson format tends to be more on the theory / what to do side – with me practicing in between lessons. We also tend to jump around a bit depending on how either / both feel.

This w/e was power chords. Previous before that was blues and natural scales, before that combining picking short riffs interspersed with chord sequences

I’ve smaller hands than most of you I bet, and that makes it a bit of a pain

I have a bigger hand that you try getting three fingers on much lower down the kneck – swings and roundabouts

Boys dont cry the Cure???
I am not going to win awards for my knowledge of pop music

Skype could well be a good option I suppose it depends on the cost and how well you can teach over the internet- I have a mate who teaches me when required but I am mainly self taught

Sounds good. You having a new guitar for Xmas? So far 10 of my students are! It reminds me of Xmas when I was growing up 🙂

new guitar for Xmas?

Mmmm – has been mentioned in the rkk01 household….

Very much like the looks and sound of the small Epiphone semi-hollow body – ES-339

Oh god! 😳

Look, all I meant was along with everything else you have to get your head around, E barres are more important to learn than A barres. I’ll shut up now LOL

A barres are just a bit pointless, name a decent tune that uses them?

In addition to what others have said any song which has any combination of I, IV, V, VI will benefit (it’s easier finding a song that doesn’t use one of these progressions!)
Google ‘four chord songs’ and I’m sure there’ll be at least one decent song for you!

As for Skype, good idea! I would encourage additional jamming sessions though – the latency with Skype would prevent doing the things I remember most from my old guitar lessons!

i’ve been trying to play guitar on and off for over 20 years (am still rubbish though 😳
i did go to a couple of guitar teachers in the past,but the last one was a real w&nk3r (first he forgot that he had a lesson with me/i cycled with my guitar around 5 miles to get to him/this was the second lesson.
2nd lesson (he actually remembered this time).he had to “put me in my place” when i was trying to show him my attempt at sanitarium riff. he said “oh that’s easy to play” then he played it wrong too 😆 needless to say i never went back to him again 😉 now though i just cannot afford guitar lessons.

the main thing about the guitar is to enjoy playing.don’t worry about how good/bad you are (i don’t anymore).just keep playing whenever you feel the urge to,and you will improve 🙂 good luck 🙂

emsz – Member
Scuzz, it’s just that for the amount of hassle they are, there just a bit pointless? I think there’s just more productive things to do

Pointless? nah, if you want to play further up the frets in more than a monophonic way, then they are an essential part in your development. The earlier you learn them the better, as if you leave it, they could become a struggle at a later date, once you get set in your ways.

They are also essential in getting flexibility and strength into your hand. In that sense, I’d start to learn how to barre a D C and G as well as E and A, you’ll probably not use them too much(if at all, I’ve only used a barred D in a few classical tunes(classical uses alsort of barre shapes and runs.)), but as a hand exercise they are very good.

At the end up the complexity of what you can play is limited to the suppleness and strength of your hand. barre chords are very important.

rkk01 – Member
emsz – good advice.

no it’s not.

The Epiphone 335’s are good guitars-i habe a casino that I still use from time to time. The wiring can be dicey on them, but a shop will sort it for you.

Sorry rkk01, apparently in your first year you need to master all barre chords including all the really odd ones that you’ll never use, and don’t forget all your dims and adds probably for good measure!

🙄

Sorry rkk01, apparently in your first year you need to master all barre chords including all the really odd ones that you’ll never use, and don’t forget all your dims and adds probably for good measure!

who’s saying master? If you read between the lines, you’d realise all i’m saying is as a beginner, the most important thing you can do is train your hand for strength and suppleness, barre chords are essential to that. the odd ones I’ve said, which will take years btw, also help(that’s just a personal suggestion, as I doubt many will teach it, just something I picked up on my own years ago.).

progress will be much quicker with a stronger hand than not. you’re not going to get that by avoiding barres.

This is his second year btw, that should all be about mastering barres, starting to learn scales, and promoting finger independence(on both left and right hands.).

Who said anything about avoiding barres I just said learn e shaped ones first 🙄

emsz – Member
Who said anything about avoiding barres I just said learn e shaped ones first

emsz – Member
it’s just that for the amount of hassle they are, there just a bit pointless?

🙄

Now now guitar lovers lets play nice or I’ll be forced to clamp a capo over both your lips

I meant A barre are a bit pointless ( obviously there not, but ist year all that) !!!

You accuse me of not reading/ understanding what you meant and then do the same thing!!

classical uses alsort of barre shapes and runs

Indeed it does hell those crazy fools even finger the same chords differently depending on what comes before and after.Some even play the same notes elswhere on the guitar

FFS on STW we can argue over what barre chord you should learn first…really folks lets all get out more

PS I still miss Jah Wobble* still on these guitars threads 😥

* Stw long timer who fought depression and took his own life leaving a wife and two kids so nop jokey comments please

To be honest I think most of Emsz advice was spot on. I would start with the E shape barre chords first and master moving them up and down the fretboard. Not necessarily because they are more important but because they are easier. Getting a good grip on something helps to motivate you and encourage you on. Barring A shapes is a lot harder and after a while you realise that very few people actually do a “proper” A barre but actually just use the fourth finger to cover all three strings. Now that is a lot more useful and practical – but it takes a bit of time and practice. Barring E shapes is so much easier.

In terms of speed and comfort what I used to spend ages doing when I first started as a kid was just zipping between chords. G,C,G,C,G,C, throw in a D. Same with E,A,E,A,E,A, power B chord. In many cases don’t worry too much about it being “musical” it was drumming the patterns into my fingers so that they got comfortable doing it and I can change between all those chords without even looking at my left hand. And even with those handful of open chords you can play thousands of songs. [Check out the Axis of awesome video on youtube for a humorous explanation of how many songs you can play with just 4 chords).

And keep going. The guitar is an ace instrument and perhaps one of the best for being able to go from complete beginner to someone who can knock out something recognisable as music very quickly.

Fellow guitar learner here (ahem more than a year in … not so good …)

Practice often, more important than long sessions.

Find someone to practice with and/or get lessons – this is probably my number 1 tip – it’s so much more rewarding when it’s social

To me it’s all about songs, whilst I practice chords, chord transitions, scales etc, but it’s songs that make you want to play. I’m proud to say I stopped to listen to a busker in the high street and gave him a couple of quid on the basis he’d send me his arrangement of “that’s entertainment” – I love that song.

I have a great app called mysongbook – it has the chords and song lyrics and scrolls though them whilst you play – you can also print out similar from interweb and use that a “sheet music”

Do you have a cappo – great bit of kit – let’s you play different chords using the shapes you know

Aside from finding songs you like (and can sing along to based upon your voice range) it’s amazing how many songs use basic same chords eg G, EM, C, D

Meh i hardly ever use full barre chords, power chords ftw 😛 can still do all the “proper” ones but its not really worth it for the sort of music i play. To the OP, I’d suggest learning some songs you like, more rewarding than just learning chords and randomly stringing them together.

“I have a great app called mysongbook – it has the chords and song lyrics and scrolls though them whilst you play -“

Oh oh … I’ve been meaning to print my own song book for ages… now I don’t have to !!

Cheers

emsz is kinda right, I’ve been playing for 20 years and very rarely do I use a barre A shape, but that’s not to say I never do.

Look at Justin Guitar[/url] if you haven’t already. I’m using this from time to time and learning new things all the time. I’m in no way a fantastic guitarist, but then I don’t play in a band and I really only play for myself.

Just enjoy it, unless you’re auditioning for Muse next week then don’t get too hung up on what you don’t know.

Wow had some chorus pedal effect there

JUstin guitar is very quickly becoming the way to learn a guitar – his beginners course is one of hte best Ive seen and the intermediate and forthcoming advanced courses are just as good.

Also youve go the beginners songbook which if you havent started on full songs this is a great place to start.

Indeed it does hell those crazy fools even finger the same chords differently depending on what comes before and after.Some even play the same notes elswhere on the guitar
FFS on STW we can argue over what barre chord you should learn first…really folks lets all get out more

I’m not really arguing, just responding to a sarcky smilie, I just disagree that barres should be left to the side, especially after a year in. I reckon they should be concentrated on as like I said, strength is the most important point at this stage. You’ll generally struggle if your hand is weak when you get more complex, and you’ll not get strength without properly stretching your hand..

Then again, if all you want to do is play a few chords, batter in, ignore them.