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Post by HeavyDuty on Jun 15, 2021 10:00:40 GMT -5
I am settled into my new place in NH and have space next to my home office desk for a few guitar stands. I’m a mediocre bass player but am truly bad on guitar, never having really learned on my own or from others. (That hasn’t stopped me from accumulating really good gear, though lol.)
I’d like to start doing daily practice to see if I can get functional on guitar. My musical tastes are broad and varied, but if I was asked to pick a genre to work with it would be the same stuff we used to play with me on bass - everything from late 70s rock through 1990s alternative and grunge, plus power pop. Think REM, Tom Petty, John Hyatt, Collective Soul, Goo Goo Dolls…
I’d also like to learn a few specialty things - my 12 string and resonator for slide. But starting with six string acoustic and electric is probably the smartest thing for me to do right now.
Does anyone have suggestions for how to best approach this? I wouldn’t mind finding an instructor, but to be honest starting on my own is more likely to happen.
Thanks!
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Post by tahitijack on Jun 15, 2021 13:25:07 GMT -5
Have you considered playing keys?
My story: Last August our group seemed to becoming a rehearsal band. Nice to get together twice a week but without a gig to sharpen our focus. No gigs in sight and at least to me probably not even well over the horizon into the winter 2020. So, I packed it in and left the band. I took the time off to set aside my guitars and do some things with the new free time. Buy late fall I thought about learning to play piano/keys, something I'd always thought about, and since I enjoy the research as much as the actual doing, I started reading about keys/pianos. Weeks of this narrowed the field to what instrument I wanted to play. Then a search for on line lessons, which was almost as hard as looking for a keyboard. But in the end I found the right one for me. And so since January I am learning to play keys. Wishing I had done it sooner, but with no worries about that as I am having fun playing songs faster than I did on guitar. The keyboard all makes sense to me as as the old joke goes, when you worry about the next note...you have a one in twelve chance of getting it right... Bottom line is I really enjoy the change and challenge and have set a goal of playing as a solo as backing track wallpaper in a wine bar in 2022 or 2023. Oddly I have a few connections and probably can make that happen... we will see.
hope my story is helpful..play on brother.
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bassngtr
Wholenote
I am all about the bass...
Posts: 146
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Post by bassngtr on Jun 15, 2021 14:07:41 GMT -5
Heavy Duty - you're in NH!! I'm in MA (condolences accepted).
My 2 cents is that if you haven't played in a while, start with an electric until your fingers get tough again. Other than that you're already doing my other advice, which is to keep the guitar on the stand and handy. IMO once it goes into the case/bag, mental inertia makes it far less likely you'll pick it up. And try to play with people in person; I made more progress doing that than in years of solo practice. HAVE FUN !!
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Post by Blacksunshine on Jun 15, 2021 15:08:22 GMT -5
If you've got 9 minutes, watch this Adam Neely vid.
He's great, I watch a lot of his stuff.
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Post by Blacksunshine on Jun 15, 2021 15:44:21 GMT -5
OOPS!
I got it backwards, I read it wrong, disregard any input I've offered, lol
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gdw3
Halfnote
Insert clever statement here
Posts: 81
Formerly Known As: Gordon
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Post by gdw3 on Jun 30, 2021 14:49:04 GMT -5
The biggest difference is chords. Learn the various voicings up and down the neck. Gives you tons of sounds and flavors.
I'd also recommend single note exercises that go up and down the neck, so you get used to the smaller frets.
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Post by ninworks on Jun 30, 2021 16:09:29 GMT -5
If you want to learn to play quickly there is no substitute for a good instructor. Having a lesson to attend every week or two gives you a deadline to practice things and play them for your teacher. An instructor will also help you to develop the correct and very important techniques such as posture, left and right hand positions, picking techniques, and such. They can look at what you are doing and give you specific remedies for your particular issues. You can't get that from an online video unless you happen to accidentally stumble across the one that specifically addresses your problem.
It is a ---LOT--- easier to learn how to do it correctly the first time than it is to correct technical problems you develop from practicing stuff incorrectly for long periods of time due to your not knowing how to do it right. Believe me. I am mostly a self-taught guitarist and have been playing like a man possessed for 50 years. I still struggle trying to overcome bad playing habits I developed when I was in my formative years.
I took some lessons for about a year after I had been playing for 25 years, many of them professionally, from an incredible instructor. He basically taught me how to practice and showed me some techniques I had been wanting to learn for a long time but couldn't figure out on my own. Once I started working on the new stuff the bad playing habits I had developed were inhibiting my ability to play those new things. He was able to look at what I was doing and how I was doing it and made some suggestions for how to correct them that I would have never realized on my own.
Take lessons. Videos are great for after you already have a pretty good grasp for how to play in that they can show you different ideas and approaches for how to play the instrument. Get the fundamentals down first. There is no better way to do that than private lessons. PERIOD!
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Post by hushnel on Jul 19, 2021 9:25:21 GMT -5
I guess, don’t do it the way I did. I purchased a guitar and tuning fork back in the mid 70s. I would purchase songbooks with chord diagrams that had songs I wanted to learn. The only bass lessons I had was being in the orchestra and playing the instrument after a few years on the violin and cello. I didn’t even know what chords I was playing or what key the songs were in. That all came later when I started playing guitar with others. I could kind of figure out what they were from the root. At the time I knew most of the notes on the bass and had a flimsy grasp on chord theory.
I’m a ferrel musician. I told this to Steve Bailey. He said he never heard that term before, I explained the only thing I know about music is what the music itself has taught me. Like an animal learning how to survive in the woods. He said “I Like It.” Most of these guys at Victor’s Bass and Nature camp are on the faculty at Berkeley. Nice guys, alway encouraged me and never pushed theory on me or treated me as a lost cause. Most of the stuff was just words and names I wasn’t aware of, Like Anthony Wellington’s breakdown of the Modes. I did learn a lot from these guys. I don’t know if these instructors were pumping me but I got the feeling they weren’t. Anthony had a knack for breaking down theory into layman’s terms. He pulled me aside after one class and said, you know all this stuff, just not the langage, he added that I was a good bassist, that he heard me play.
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Jim622
Halfnote
Posts: 82
Age: 58
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Post by Jim622 on Feb 17, 2022 20:49:42 GMT -5
For your resonator, look into open tunings, you can sound pretty decent in a short amount of time, and they are fun. I mostly use Open G or Open D. The Stones (Keef) uses Open G a lot, it's kind of country blues sounding to me. Open D is more bluesy. Open E is popular, but I am nervous about stress to the neck on an acoustic, and anything you want to play in Open E can be played in Open D, a whole step lower or by using a capo. Good luck on your new journey. I am trying to learn bass also, but guitarist, at least me, tend to over play on bass. I have to dial it back to sound decent.
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Post by hushnel on Feb 18, 2022 15:20:07 GMT -5
So how’s it going, wondering how many of the tunes you’ve learned, how many from the Guitar Center “NO Play List’ “o). Every once in a while i pick a tune way above my pay grade. This year it’s Chan Chan from the Buena Vista Social Club. I’m actually getting it down pretty well. I finger pick and strum in a Flamenco style. My right arm is a mess with partial paralysis, fused joint at the elbow etc. So I’m really only capable of playing this way. We do what we can with what we got.  |
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