[FF5]Knix Posted February 18, 2008 Share Posted February 18, 2008 As I have taken up the guitar as a past time for around 6 months now, teaching myself from the bottom up, I thought it may be fun to show some basics for all of those who fall into one of these categories. 1) Always wanted to learn guitar, but felt they were too old. 2) Always wanted to learn guitar, but felt it was too hard. 3) Think Guitar Hero and all the spinoffs of the game is same as playing guitar All I am going to do is show you some easy basics of the guitar, and introduce some "riffs" for you to practice on your own... Here is the anatomy of an acoustic and electric guitar... The acoustic guitars sound eminates from the hole in the body of the "soundhole" or "rosette". The electric guitars sound eminates through a magnetic device called a "pick-up" which captures the vibrations of the strings when "plucked" and carries the sounds through a cable which attaches to an amplifier or "amp". Even though i am left-handed and thus cursed to wall the perverbial guitar desert for eternity, I wil assume most of you play or will play right-handed. So in the sitting position, the guitar will rest as follows.. or Your left hand will "fret" the strings...hold down the strings at certian locations while strumming the string with your right hand. Your Right harm will rest over the top of the guitar around your armpit allowing your right hand to hang over the strings where you will "strum" the guitar". Your left hand or "fretting hand" should come from underneath the neck of the guitar and only the tips of your index through pinky fingers actually touch the string. Your thumb in the meanwhile will rest in the middle of neck of guitar. This called the "classical" position allows access to all 6 strings of the guitar and if done correctly will allow you to play the strings you want, while not muting an adjoining string (unless you want to, but more on that another time). So you got your guitar on your lap, hands in the right place....what's next? To pick or not to pick. This is a pick or "plectrum" as called in England. They come in all shapes, sizes, material, colors, widths, etc, etc. You can either use a guitar pick or your thumb to strum at the start. If you have a guitar pick...hold it like this.. Ok!, Guitar = Check, sitting position = check, fretting hand = check, strumming hand = check. Now let's rock!....Kidding! Ok this is just the beggining and I just provided a the real basics. I'm going to end this post and continue on a 2nd one to break it up a little, and then show you what those stringy things are, and how to play them, and teach you the basics of TAB, guitars own language which requires no one to have to learn music notation if they don't want to! To be continued... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triggerhappy Posted February 19, 2008 Share Posted February 19, 2008 Maybe you should have been the one to write this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[TNT] Sonic Goo Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 It's true! If you play your guitar like this: or this: or this: you'll end up dead! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ONYX Posted February 24, 2008 Share Posted February 24, 2008 Nice work Knix, Sounds like a "mid-life crisis" thing, I know all about that, I started learning drums at 47, with the goal of gigging by 50. I did it and have been doing it since,,,,,,good luck to you Knix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[FF5]Knix Posted August 28, 2008 Author Share Posted August 28, 2008 First off, sorry about not continuing this post as was my intention. Got crazy busy and next thing I know...boom here we are after searching the forum and having a "Oh s--t!" moment. I will get back with this, teaching TAB, riffs, terminology, etc. Promise To Goo- Don't know about the first guy, but obviously yes to the other 2 (Who coincidently were lefty like I am *scared*). Thankfully only drummers are known to be the ones to spontaneously combust. To Onyx- Thanks M8, appreciate the words of support. Yeah I am a strong believer that while harder, one is never to old to learn new things (those with dementia not included). Through a lot of frustration/trial and error, I feel I have moved up from "No officer nobody is being mutilated, I was just playing Stairway to Heaven" to "Holy crap I just memorized how to play 'One'...and it sounds like it too...just slower..with some muffles". I have also started listening to different types of music and bands that I did not listen to before, just to hear how the lead plays. So it's very gratifying to teach yourself something and obtain a certain level of aptitude. I decided to hire another teacher after firing my first one after 3 lessons over a year ago. I figure that based on the time I have to play, I can't progress much further on my own. So my first lesson with the new teacher is tonight..we'll see. My youngest son Griffin (5) likes the drums, so i bought him a starter 3 piece drum-set and a lesson book with CD... This one but blue So let's hope he doesn't spontaneously combust. Regards to all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[TNT] Sonic Goo Posted August 29, 2008 Share Posted August 29, 2008 (edited) The first guy is Ian Curtis of Joy Division. (As portrayed in the apparently rather good movie Control). They're basically the granddaddies of the short sharp chord sort of guitar playing currently popular. Some songs: Isolation (fan video) Love will tear us apart ( ) Edited August 29, 2008 by [TNT] Sonic Goo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[TNT] Sonic Goo Posted October 3, 2008 Share Posted October 3, 2008 . (It seems high is in.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[TNT] Sonic Goo Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 (edited) Does anyone know what device the guitarist is holding here to get that continuous tone? (Slightly different angle) Edit: nevermind, it's an Ebow Edited October 21, 2008 by [TNT] Sonic Goo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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