henke on 3/2/2011 at 16:15
I've got an acoustic guitar in the corner of my bedroom. A few times a year I get it into my head that I'm gonna learn how to play the damn thing and become a rockstar. The process usual goes something like:
1) hear a cool, yet simple sounding song, think "shit, I could play
this!"
2) tune guitar and look up guitar tabs online
3) try to play the intro to the song
4) give up after 15 minutes and go play some xbox instead
Well today I was listening to this really cool acoustic version of White Stripes' "You don't know what love is" and I figured "shit, I could play
this!". So I went online searching for tabs, but I found something else instead.
(
http://www.songsterr.com) www.songsterr.com
This is no mere tabs-site. What makes this site different is the built-in Flash-application which
plays the songs out for you. Making it alot easier to get the rhythm of the song down as well as the tabs and chords. Perfect for newbies like me. I've been strumming on (
http://www.songsterr.com/a/wa/song?trackPos=0&id=259) Redemption Song for half an hour here and... it doesn't sound half bad if I say so myself. Ofcourse I can't quite hit the G- or C-chords fast enough for it to sound smooth, but otherwise, yeah, gettin there. The site also categorises songs in difficulty-levels, and mentions which type of guitar it should be played with. The only thing wrong with it, as far as I can see, is that there aren't very many songs on there. Though I'm sure that'll change with time as it seems to be a Web 2.0 thing where users can upload their own tabs and stuff. Check it out! :cool:
demagogue on 3/2/2011 at 16:34
I've been using (
http://www.tabledit.com/) TablEdit & (
http://www.power-tab.net/) Power Tab for about a decade now, so long that I should probably look for updated programs, but they do the job, and are free.
It really comes down to which program has the biggest archive in its format. TablEdit has a ton of folk and jazz songs, so that did it for me. I went through a Django phase and would just slow the tempo down and play the solos over and over until I got them. Power Tab has a lot of popular songs.
june gloom on 3/2/2011 at 18:56
I have an acoustic guitar as well, but I have never ever been able to play it properly because my left hand lacks dexterity. By which I mean a couple of the fingers are incapable of moving independently of each other. :(
henke on 3/2/2011 at 19:07
Oh, that's interesting demagogue. I had no idea applications like these existed until today.
Quote Posted by dethtoll
By which I mean a couple of the fingers are incapable of moving independently of each other. :(
Yeah I got that too. Some of those chords require you to twist your fingers in ways which are NOT NATURAL :mad:
SubJeff on 3/2/2011 at 20:18
I always hoped that Guitar Rising would come out eventually so I could get back to playing. I've all but forgotten how.
demagogue on 3/2/2011 at 20:40
Quote:
Quote:
By which I mean a couple of the fingers are incapable of moving independently of each other.
Yeah I got that too. Some of those chords require you to twist your fingers in ways which are NOT NATURAL
It's all muscle memory.
If I could point to one thing that made me feel most comfortable on the fretboard, it was just doing chromatic scales & variations up and down the whole board.
The most helpful for me was starting on low-E: 1st fret, open, 2, 1, 3, 2, 4, 3, then to the next string: open, 4 (on prev string), 1, open, 2, 1, 3, 2, ... etc., to the top string (remember 4->5 string only goes up to 3 frets). Then take it back down (3, 4, 2, 3, 1, 2, etc.). Then you can do it all higher up the fret (then instead of open, you slide your first finger down). Also alternate picking, up, down, up, down. I did this a few times before bed, and in a few weeks my fingers went straight to the notes and my picking speed went way up.
Then you can get into arpeggios and weird chords, and learning some songs. And that's where those programs come in so handy! But chromatic scales & alt-picking was like the foundation on which everything else got built, at least for me.
But yeah, like SE I haven't practiced hard-core like I used to in years, pretty much since law school. The muscle memory is still there, but it's all sluggish and lame. But it comes back fast if you start practicing, so I think the scales and practice are worth it.
Xorak on 3/2/2011 at 22:20
I took a slightly offroad route. I started out playing classical guitar with a pretty hardcore teacher who would stand there watching me play holding a ruler in his hand with which he'd perfectly align my hand to the 'proper' grip. He also didn't want me playing anything that he didn't teach me, and stressed pracitice with the chromatic scales - just up and down over and over, but also using different techniques like hammer-ons and pull-offs and even harmonics. When I started, I was so bad, that he'd hold my fingers and do each hammer-on for me until I could properly do it myself. On my own, I learned how to play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and after playing some of it for him he was mad that my grip was all screwed up.
I only practised under him for about 4 months, but when I bought an electric guitar and started playing regular stuff I was amazed how easy it was. His lessons really transferred over well. Just one hour of practice every single day and you
will get good at it. Find some guitar tabs of Paganini's caprices, they are really good for working on precise finger techniques all the way up the neck.
This (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CAJtu2nHLw) guitar duel from the movie Crossroads was the ultimate goal for so many years of my life.
june gloom on 3/2/2011 at 22:49
The problem is that my left hand is actually semi-paralyzed since birth. It's a damn shame, and while it doesn't get in the way of my typing or anything like that, anything requiring a lot of dexterity like playing guitar is impossible.
Xorak on 3/2/2011 at 23:21
deathtoll, you should try playing left handed guitar. It kind of requires starting over, but you can use your right hand to do the fretwork.
demagogue on 3/2/2011 at 23:44
Quote Posted by dethtoll
The problem is that my left hand is actually semi-paralyzed since birth. It's a damn shame, and while it doesn't get in the way of my typing or anything like that, anything requiring a lot of dexterity like playing guitar is impossible.
Django Rheinhart, arguably the most influential and technically dazzling guitar soloist ever, only had 2 working fingers on his left hand. The other three were burnt stumps from a fire when he was 18, he largely left dangling to the side or simple bar chords at best.
So you have no excuse! :mad:
Edit: (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iJ7bs4mTUY) video! I'm still amazed.
Edit2: Granted semi-paralyzed for all fingers is different than 3 out of commission but 2 still in top form in Django's case.
