My Introduction

[VernaD]

Hello fellow music lovers.  My name is Verna and am 70 y.o. My birthday wish was to learn to play the guitar. I started about a year ago and am learning  by using YouTube and other great sites on the web.   This site seemed like it will help me on my musical journey. 

[Peggy]

Hi Verna,

Awesome to think how much creativity has been unlocked by a Birthday wish!!

 

Welcome to the community! Nice to have you join/jump in. 

Peggy

[Mahesh]

Welcome aboard Verna.

I'm happy to see the self motivation being so strong. Make yourself at home!

 

Regards,

Mahesh

[Richard Tracey]

Hi Verna - welcome and I hope you find this a nice place to hang out.

[VernaD]

Thank you all for the warm welcome.  I have a slight problem;  no matter how much i read about tabs or how much I have had it explained to me (on you tube) I DON'T GET IT!  (yes I just hollered that)  I find it so frustrating.  It seems almost like people have many different ways of doing it (writing tabs).  Well shucks, I'll just write my own that make sense to me.  The trouble there is I still can't read anyone elses tabs.  Is there a super simple way of learning this??????????

[john]

Welcome aboard Verna!

 

On tabs, do you know where it is you don't get it? My guess would be timing without knowing more.

[VernaD]

 John,  You are partly right I think because I have had timing trouble with songs that I'm unfamiliar with.  Other than that, it all seem like a bunch  of numbers and lines, letters and curly cues.  I look at it and just seem to go brain dead.

[john]

Can you try and explain the basics to me? It's a great way to quickly expose where you are having difficulty. Starting with the basics, what are the horizontal lines? What does each line signify? What are the numbers?

[VernaD]

I think I understand the basics;  The lines are the strings E-A-D-G-B-e;  The numbers are the frets to be played; if the numbers are placed in a vertical line, it is a chord.  Now, that one really throws me.   When I have tried to play a song with tabs but a three minute song could be an hour long when I play.  I don't at all understand what measures are and think that my lack of music theory is probably the reason for that and a lot of other problems I'm encountering.  I sure appreciate your help.  Thanks!

[Just1L]

It may help to do a session of Guitar Lessons. If nothing else, you'll be right there next to someone you can get hands-on instructions with. If something doesn't make sense, you can ask more questions on the spot. I'm only assuming you know how to play at least 4 or 5 of the basic chords? If not, I would learn those before the lesson so you don't have to focus on them.

 

Welcome to the forum by the way.

 

Randy

[VernaD]

Thank you.  I know you are quite right about lessons with a teach sitting there with me.   I have entered the realm of the elderly and as so I have a limited income.  I would love to have lessons but alas, I will just plug along the way I have been.  I do have a feeling that it will all make sense in time.

Verna 

[john]

You have been playing guitar for about a year... and roughly how much practice do you put in during your average week?

 

In general I would suggest two things in the early days:

 

learn chords, and songs you are familiar with

learn scales: major, minor and blues pentatonics. Then learn to play them in different keys / positions on the guitar.

 

There are other scales but those 3 cover a load of songs.

seperately look to learn 3 main time signatures: 4/4, 2/4 and 3/4. There are others, but those cover many many songs

 

in learning time signatures you will learn about measures. You will learn how to count rhythms.

 

Slow songs down so that you can play a song without breaking rhythm... i.e. Let the difficult bit to play set your tempo (speed of playing) while focusing on precision/accuracy. Once you can play it in time all the way through you can gradually speed it up to the right tempo. That said, I tend to practice 3 ways. As slow as needed (just outlined), as fast as I can (to improve speed of transitions), and lastly at the correct tempo. Separately I used to practice chord transitions, back and forth between two chords, then back and forth between another two... and so on, each time trying to get the transitions right while making sure every note that should sound does so nice and clearly.  There's way more but it gets you started. Last point would be to have a set practice regimen, like 5 minutes on accuracy, 5 minutes on speed, 5 minutes on correct speed. Try that for chord transitions, then scales, then full songs, maybe focusing on a new song every couple of weeks. As you improve and your speed of learning improves you can start learning more songs.

 

all the time add to your knowledge of chords, and things like picking techniques and finger style guitar techniques.

 

use your ears, coupled with knowledge of the song, look at lyrics and chord transcriptions rather than full tab, maybe even video tutorials on YouTube to get started

 

THEN revisit guitar tab and learn detailed versions of songs you already know how to play at a basic level. Otherwise you risk putting yourself off and taking the fun out of playing.

 

 

[VernaD]

John, your advice has been priceless.  Many of the things you mentioned I already do or have done.  One of my main problems is; I get to many things going on in my head at once and so it make my learning process kind of slow and a bit disjointed.  I try to practice every day  even if I can only get in 10 or 15 minutes.  When I first started I would practice 2-4 hours a day (after my fingertips got calloused).  That was 24/7.  Now I actually give myself a day or two 'off' each week.

Again, thank you for the advice, I truly appreciate it.

  

[john]

2 hours ago, VernaD said:

I get to many things going on in my head at once and so it make my learning process kind of slow and a bit disjointed.  

 

Which is exactly why you change the purpose, so you can try and manage the "too many things going on" scenario. Even if you are talking about non guitar related distractions, changing focus on purpose like that keeps your focus fresh, and should make it easier to keep concentrating.... though it wil take a bit of perseverance until a habit is established before real benefits kick in.