Q. I am thinking about taking guitar lessons and I am wondering if there are any similarities between it and the keyboard.
I have played the piano for about 5 years, so i have no problem with reading sheet music. However I don't know how to read guitar tabs so I was wondering if it is hard to learn in comparison with the piano.
A. No, it's toltally different, in piano your left hand is playing the bass clef and the right is playing the G clef, with guitar your left hand is turned upside down, the only good thing is that your fimilar with the G clef music, you just have to learn where the notes are on the guitar. Tabs are confusing once your use to reading music notation, the lines represent the strings of the guitar, and the numbers represent the frets that you have to play in, zero meaning to play the string open, and an x means that string is not to be played. The piano don't hurt your fingers like the guitar does, you have to have calloulses before you can play the guitar wihout pain. I think all that it's going to take is for you to learn where the notes are on the guitar, and get those callouses. Guitar is not as easy as eveyone thinks it is, maybe if your going to play just a few chords it's easier, but not if your going to learn how to play correctly, chords, notes, and where they are on the guitar, and how to use your fingers, the nails on the left hand have to be very short, and if your going to play finger style or classical you have to have a little nail shaped just right on your right hand. If you've played piano for five years I don't think you'll have any trouble, it may be confusing at first, but I think you'll be able to adapt. Good luck, and if you want to try some sites for guitar here are a few.
http://www.jamplay.com/
http://www.billbrutal.com/
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/
http://www.justinguitar.com/
http://www.worldguitar.com/
http://www.guitar-lessons.com/
Hope these give you some sort of idea about guitar playing.
What is a good way to start learning guitar?
Q. At the moment I've just been trying to teach myself scales, and to be able to play them without looking. Is this a good way to start? Or should I start with chords or something else?
By the way, I have been playing piano and sax for 5 years, so I already know how to read music.
And one more thing, is it bad to play without a pick? I like playing without one better, but is it a bad idea not to use one? I don't want to start any bad habits
thanks!
A. Learning the basic open chord (CAGED), barre chords, and major, pentatonic, and minor scale patterns. When I bought my 1st guitar, it had a DVD which taught me all the above except for the major and minor scales. From there I spent the next several months playing tabs (which I really wish I didnt do. It doesnt matter if you can read music, you need to practice reading on every new instrument you play. I had been playing sax for 6-7yrs and trumpet for 2 at the time I picked up guitar so I skimped on it).
I think any type of playing is a good start. You need to get your fingers under you ASAP.The first song I learned was Californication by The RHCP, which introduce moving lines and used the open Am and F barre chord. From there, (about a week later) a friend gave me a death metal song to learn (it was The Faded Line by Lamb of God, which scared the hell outta me at the time adn was way too hard), and within the time it took me to get that down I learned how to alternate pick, palm mute, and improve my overall feel for the instrument. Some months later I got into Jack Johnson and I mix my metal and chords to improve both at the same (Johnson popular stuff uses nothing but barre, open, and 7 chords great starter to get into basic chords. The song Banana Pancakes is where i started). Then more random stuff, I learned more metal, acoustic songs, and anything I could play with moving lines (the hardest thing about guitar is getting familiar with it, and being able to move freely around it). Jazz, progressive rock, and much harder acoustic songs followed.
I think the biggest factors that will guarantee success are practice time (and content) and music theory. You should know basic chord theory with piano, and its pretty much the same idea but you tend omit and invert a lot more notes in guitar (ex: 13 chords are 1,7,3 (or a 10th),13). For jazz and anything acoustic-like, I find it easier to fingerpick or flick with my fingernails, but to I use a pick every once in a while to stay sharp. Using one or not isnt a bad habit, just know that the sound will change if you dont (I play electric and my amp's clean and crunch setting are for fingerpicking and if I forget to change the levels and use a pick, the sound is incredibly aggressive and almost vulgar).
I used this site a little too much when I was learning to help with guitar chord shapes, especially when you start to see chords like Emaj13#11
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/index.php
and double check your own voicings (works about 80% of the time):
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/chord_name.php
How does learning scales help you make guitar solos?
Q. I'm SO confused. I've been playing guitar for about 4-5 months. I know some scales, but I don't see the point of them, other than just warming up. People say they help you 'create your own' guitar solos or something. I don't understand. I'm not a musical-theory-piano sort of person, I don't think "oh that note/chord/etc is an E minor! It is an eighth note!". NEVER. I barely understand that stuff. Obviously I'll have to learn some of the theory stuff, but really, what do scales have to do with solos?
Also, are there "rules" for making a guitar song? Or do you just fool around with chords and such in random places? -_-
A. If you see no point to learning scales then I see no point in you learning them either! There are people who post questions here having learnt every scale and mode they can find and then ask what they should "do" with them - I don't see the point in that.
It sounds as if you have a long way to go in learning how to play the guitar (which is fair enough after only a few months). You need to carry on learning the basics. If you make progress you will either discover the need to learn and apply scales in your playing or you will decide that, because of the type of playing you do, you don,t need them. For examples, if all you are ever going to do is play chords to accompany a melody or finger pick tunes based on open chord shapes you can probably get away with knowing nothing about scales.
Powered by Yahoo! Answers