Hopefully, some advice...

frankus

Sorry to hear about your finger. My mate has what he describes as "carny hands" my little finger is longer than his index finger ... he's a far better player than me - if I play him a tune I'm working on he's got it in minutes and I like wide stretches - he rethinks them on the fly. sickening!

If you watch Guthrie Govern or Clapton or perhaps Robben Ford you'll see pinky is tucked away, in Guthries case often on the other side of the neck.

Most "well rounded" guitarists aren't that well rounded they make an art of disguising they're playing to their strengths.. BUT knowing our strengths and weaknesses is a bloody difficult thing to do, or even come to terms with.

bingefeller

Learn minor pentatonic in all positions and go from there.  

Barney

whatever your next subject is that you are going to learn ...whether scales ..arps ..chords ect ....spend a lot of time on the one thing dont deviate from it ..i found this out recently...make sure you master one subject before moving on cos they will be the building blocks for what will come later....

TinLip

I've got the Learn & Master guitar series with Steve Krenz. It's pretty good but it definitely is a marathon rather than a sprint. You're not going to be soloing after week 1 but it gives you a great understanding of the fundamentals and makes sure you don't pick up any bad habits.

I still think a lesson in person with a teacher is the best but I feel this is a good second place.

Anyone else used this?

LastMantra

cacophony said:

i seem to be continually overwhelmed with what i `should` be learning.

What do you 'want' to learn?

cacophony

well, how to play to a decent standard!, i know it is a marathon, i`m not dopey enough to think i`m going to do it in a couple of months (if ever!) but every source i read seems to espouse some surefire way of improving that involves one set of theory or another. i know that patience and practice are the two planks that run through all guitar playing, but, i wondered if there is one, method, system, theory or piece of knowledge that makes all decent players on here agree, must be learned.

if you go on the lesson page on forums such as UG, and read every lesson, then every lesson will tell you that it has the key. it is melting my brain and causing it to run out of my ears. 

Barney

cacophony said:

well, how to play to a decent standard!, i know it is a marathon, i`m not dopey enough to think i`m going to do it in a couple of months (if ever!) but every source i read seems to espouse some surefire way of improving that involves one set of theory or another. i know that patience and practice are the two planks that run through all guitar playing, but, i wondered if there is one, method, system, theory or piece of knowledge that makes all decent players on here agree, must be learned.

if you go on the lesson page on forums such as UG, and read every lesson, then every lesson will tell you that it has the key. it is melting my brain and causing it to run out of my ears. 

i would learn the major scale in all positions and spend a good while on it until you do really know them ...but stay on route and dont deviate until your very good and comfortable with it ....to many people try and learn to much and end up frustrated..reading your post you could be going down that route...just take time and whatever you choose to learn ..learn it well...bad foundations will cause a house to fall down ..so best to get it right at the start and build on it instead of patching up later..

frankus

cacophony said:

well, how to play to a decent standard!, i know it is a marathon, i`m not dopey enough to think i`m going to do it in a couple of months (if ever!) but every source i read seems to espouse some surefire way of improving that involves one set of theory or another. i know that patience and practice are the two planks that run through all guitar playing, but, i wondered if there is one, method, system, theory or piece of knowledge that makes all decent players on here agree, must be learned.

if you go on the lesson page on forums such as UG, and read every lesson, then every lesson will tell you that it has the key. it is melting my brain and causing it to run out of my ears. 

I'd say the only surefire way to ensure patience and practice is get a good teacher who you trust and get a good feeling for making the right kind of progress.

LastMantra

LastMantra said:

cacophony said:

i seem to be continually overwhelmed with what i `should` be learning.

What do you 'want' to learn?

cacophony said:

well, how to play to a decent standard! 

Yeah, but my point is is that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/28933/john-frusciante-plays-the-guitar-wrong#latest

Do you want to play a bit of everything, do you want to come up with your own unique style?

Who inspires you?

Nomad

cacophony said:

well, how to play to a decent standard!, i know it is a marathon, i`m not dopey enough to think i`m going to do it in a couple of months (if ever!) but every source i read seems to espouse some surefire way of improving that involves one set of theory or another. i know that patience and practice are the two planks that run through all guitar playing, but, i wondered if there is one, method, system, theory or piece of knowledge that makes all decent players on here agree, must be learned.

if you go on the lesson page on forums such as UG, and read every lesson, then every lesson will tell you that it has the key. it is melting my brain and causing it to run out of my ears. 

There are only two things necessary to play guitar...

1. A guitar.
2. A way of getting notes out of it.

Everything else is optional. If the magic bullets, panaceas, and super-approved methods are frying your brain, ditch them. Just sit with the guitar and make notes. Put on some music and jam along with it. When you hit notes that sound crap, try different notes. When you hit notes that sound good, play around with them. You don't need to understand any of it. The doing of playing guitar is fretting strings and twanging them - nothing more, nothing less.

Panama_Jack666

Learn songs and whatever inspires you to keep learning!

LastMantra

Wisdom for @Nomad

Alnico

After i had been playing electric for about a year i got a knock on my bedroom door and the best piece of advice i've ever had, still to this day.

My Dad taught me, or at least he taught me the basics and then taught me how to learn to play by ear. He had noticed that whenever i played i was just playing *Bits* of songs so maybe i would cover 10 different songs in 10 minutes. He said "It's no wonder you're not progressing, you're playing is good but you're not really playing anything. You need to play a song from the very start to the very end".

So he got me to get out a piece of A4 paper and write out the top 10 songs i really wanted to learn to play.

I always learned / practiced by playing along with my Hi Fi so he told me to record those 10 songs onto a tape and ONLY play those songs until i could play along with the band from start to finish.

He said.............

"If you concentrate on being *Part* of that band and playing as if you're *Part* of the entire sound they're making, you'll be a much better player. Most guitar parts sound disjointed when played on their own because they are supposed to be part of a band mix so stop pretending you're impressing your mates with endless showing off and play as if you're on stage. A good guitarist knows his parts backwards, can play with his eyes closed and he knows when to let rip and when to shut the fuck up" !

If you try this structured approach to songs, maybe it will help. In those days there was no you tube, google or even very much tab so now there's so much more opportunity available. If you get stuck on something, there's so much resource to get you going again.

If you can learn 10 songs properly, you will sound better and feel better about it than playing riffs and bits of 20 songs that you can't play from start to finish.

Really hope that helps you out man.

kin

Agree with Alnico and Nomad . I Started playing again after a long lay off and went the route of method books/ dvds, trying to memorize scales etc, pretty dull.

I downloaded the free trial of Transcribe last night and had more fun and played for longer working out and playing along to Skynryd's I know a little, reminded me of being 14 again and trying to work the whole of 2112 by ear.

Playing should leave you with a smile on your face or what's the point.

Alnico

Also, try downloading and using RIFFSTATION.

It really is one of the best learning tools i've ever seen.

Covers every aspect and it allows you to slow the track down and even isolate the guitar.

Clarky

my take on this is that repertoire is king..

learn songs.. lots and lots of them..

technique, theory and general knowhow you'll pick up along the way..

try not to get too bogged down with endlessly playing exercises and scales, and reading volumes about theory... cos that's the quickest path to boredom and ultimately turning your guitar time into a chore..

Alnico

Clarky said:

my take on this is that repertoire is king..

learn songs.. lots and lots of them..

technique, theory and general knowhow you'll pick up along the way..

try not to get too bogged down with endlessly playing exercises and scales, and reading volumes about theory... cos that's the quickest path to boredom and ultimately turning your guitar time into a chore..

I have to agree with @Clarky on this entirely. My point was to learn songs in 'Batches' for want of a better description, so that you learn them properly before moving onto the next batch and avoid only knowing parts of songs, however Clarky raises a very valid point here. You tend to find that certain phrases, chord progressions and riffs from one song, appear in another and often the two songs are quite unrelated. The more you learn the more you will find the time spent learning one song will give you 60% of the knowledge you need to play another, if that makes any sense to you.

On a very basic level, try playing 'Wild Thing' and then see how many other songs you can fit those chords into using a different tempo and rhythm. A lot of songs share very similar chords and riffs so the more repertoire you have, the more confidence you will gain and quicker.

I also have to completely agree with not turning guitar playing into a chore. Yes you need to push yourself and it can be frustrating at times but it must always be fun. 

cacophony

there is lots of good advice in these posts, thank you to all, this is the sort of stuff i want and need. i do jam along with songs, but find that i only play sections of them, not bothering with the bits i know are beyond me, so the "learn to play xx number of songs, completely" is good advice. i value this chaps, thanks.

Frankieabbot

I am doing something now that I wish that I had started earlier. At first I was doing what probably most beginners do when starting. Guitar and chordbook and playing and learning the basic  major minor and seventh chords. Getting nowhere really until someone got me a songbook for Christmas. I like REM and received a songbook that contained the usual words and chords...but also with tablature and notes on the stave. I can now see where the notes are played on the fretboard with the TAB and see above where these notes look to be on the stave. Also I see chords played with only 2, 3 or 4 notes (rather than my usual desire to play as many strings as I can.....that's why we play grande barre chords isn't it?). So, I'm learning triads, tablature and notes all in one place. It's great playing a chord with only 3 notes rather than trying to barre everything. It's motivational too.....makes me want to play for longer more often.

cacophony

just had a look at `riffstation`, that looks very interesting, thank you. have a wisdom...