So im teaching myself acoustic guitar any tips? taught myself a couple of chords this morning.. my hands dont move quick enough though.. ooh and i can play greensleeves already...
That sounds like pretty impressive progress! How long have you been playing? I think my own learnings I got bit backwards in that the first two intros I learned were 'Sweet Child of Mine' and 'Under The Bridge', took bloody ages! I'd suggest maybe picking up a tablature book by an acoustic artist you're fond of. Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash or something. Lots of open chords you'll be able to practice, and without knowing improve your strumming. Nick Drake would be canny tricky mind as he used alternative tunings on most of his stuff.
It's useful learning to read tab (if you can't already). Just keep practising those chords. It's pretty easy teaching yourself to play the guitar if you have the patience.
A good exercise to do is to see how many times a minute you can change between two open chords (E & A, for example) and then keep trying to beat your score. Or after you have done it a few times start setting yourself targets. This was one of the first things I used to do when I started playing guitar and it definitely helps! Good luck!
Practice changing chords in the dark, that way you get used to moving your fingers instinctively and not by looking where each one should go.
There's the Pheobe from Friends method, which is not at all useful but I just watched the episode yesterday; "Okay, I don't know the names for the actual chords, so I call them what shape my hand looks like when I'm playing them...Old Lady, Bear Claw, Pyramid..." It could work for someone.
Heheh.. I love phoebe!! Named my cat after her I tried learning the geet when I was 17-20 then got bored, the recently started up again.. Nearly nailed Blackbird
Tips? Hhmm ... try licking the underside of a cow. It may not help with the guitar but it'll be a fun exercise to do when you need a break.
learn classical. tis the way *nod* failin that, make sure you practice scales, arpeggios an chords, as that's the foundation of music. it also depends on how good you're lookin to get. if you wanna be virtuoso standard, the best thing really is to get a teacher. if not, pick up things from internet sites and friends and make sure you practice. the chord changes are hard at first, but its all a matter of practice. keep everythin flowin an smooth whenever you can. rhythm is half of what makes somethin sound good. if you get wrong notes an stop, then you've got it all wrong, but at least get the rhythm half of it faultless (there are plenty of ways to blag guitar an cover up mistakes. that's how i've been learnin since i was 8) =) good luck
Like Jesik said, practice your scales! Practice all the scales you can learn! Majors, minors, jazz... It's all good! Scales do absolutle wonders for any musician, it improves your reading ability and technical skill without you realizing it. That will also help tremendously with getting faster fingers. And also like Jesik said, if you fuck up, at least fuck it up well and keep going! My first music teacher taught me that "if you're gonna fuck it up, fuck it up with style!" Good luck though dear
thanks for all the tips guys.. not done much practising lately cos ive been so busy licking cows but ill be sure to get right back on it..
I've never followed any proper methods... Never had a teacher, or spent hours practicing scales or chord progressions... I just learnt and came up with my own versions of techniques by trying to play my favourite songs... I'm a total "feel" player. It's probably not the way most musicians do it at all... but I don't want playing guitar to turn into a "chore" by thinking that if I dont sit down for 2 hours a day learning scales I wont be able to play worth a shit... I think i'm pretty good the way i've done it, as I want to keep it fun. As I think it should be.
