Thinking about picking up a guitar

in the short term, before you get into those lessons, I shall teach you to play the main riff of Smoke on the Water. It's that easy.

First off: know your fret board.

if you play a string without holding it down on the fretboard/neck, that's "open" or the 0th fret.
the numbering starts from the top, by the headstock, down to the body (bigger numbers). You note the fret position with the double dots is the 12th fret.

This means, you'll have markers at the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th positions on the fret board (and beyond, but this is all you need).

assuming it's a right hander's guitar and you are right-handed, take your left hand index finger and put it on the 2nd fret (just behind the bar) on the big fat string (the E string).

Pick the string with your right hand (duh).

Now move to the 5th fret and pick

then the 7th and pick.

it should be 2,5,7.

Now for the next part:

2,5,8,7 (do the 8 to 7 faster)

2,5,7 pause 5, 2


That's probably the wrong key, but the shape is correct. The cool thing about guitar is you can change the key (or correct the key) simply by moving where you start. So I had you start at 2, move up 3, move up 2 more, and so on. If I told you the correct spot was really on the A string at the 3rd fret, you could just simply move what your doing to the next skinnier string and the 3rd fret and play 3,6,8 instead of 2,5,7.

In any event, if your wife is unmusically informed, this will impress your wife that you mastered a part of a song so quickly and earn you some rock-god points.

Your welcome.

Dannyalcatraz said:

Good, because amps are the single biggest factor in how your rig sounds. Not how good you sound playing through it, but the fundamental pleasantness of your tone.

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I started with this little 9-volt battery powered Marshal practice amp my wife had. Then graduated to a Crate $40 pawn shop amp. once nice thing about pawn shops is that you are buying "better" gear for the money, since it is used. Thus my $40 amp was likely a 60-100 dollar amp. Versus a $30 new amp which is worth exactly that. though the tech has gotten better...

Not to make Umbran cry, but there's a certain economics to music equipment. It's OK, x-mas is coming, and I played a lot with that little 9-volt amp...

Anyway, here's some other basic learning tips outside of any specific lessons etc:
practice that basic fingering exercise every day on the guitar. If that's all you have time for is 4 runs of that, it's better than not picking up your axe.
practice the Chord song, which is a little ditty I made up where you strum each chord you know 4 times evenly and switch to the next chord you know. Repeat for a few laps.

These 2 physical exercises keep your fingers trained and help you learn to transition from chord to chord and memorize those chords so you can play them when you actually need them. This is like 10 minutes of practice, so don't skip it.

Eventually, you'll need to know what notes are what and where.
Each night, before you fall asleep mentally recite the factoids I'm spewing below and visualize them on the guitar in your mind.

Once you learn the fat string is E and is numbered 1, then you learn that Every Adult Dog Growls, Barks, Eats. Which tells you what notes each string is.

Then you learn that the notes form a loop, and each fret represents a half step. As such, every note has a half step EXCEPT B-C and E-F:
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#

Sharps are just what you call the half step when you go up, flats when you go down. So A# = B flat (don't have a symbol for that). This thing wraps around, so if you start at E and it is 0, then count 5 fret positions to the right and wrap around...

Once you know that these things, then you can mentally compute in your mind what note is on the E string at the 5th fret based on my listing above. When you figure it out, you'll notice a cool thing that is intrinsic to the design of the guitar and arrangement of the strings.

If you work through this computation before bed every night, you will instinctively know where all the notes are on the fretboard, which is useful later.

The about.com lessons will cover a lot of these facts if you don't understand what I wrote yet. But the mental exercise will reinforce and transform the data into learned material. Kind of like practicing multiplication tables as a kid.

If you do it right, you'll see this:

Again, check out justinguitar.com for free lessons, including how to practice. Do not play right after washing dishes or showering until you have calluses.

Congrats, it is very fun and relaxing once you start

I spent some time this evening fiddling with knobs to find a base sound that works for practice. I ran through the faux-scales 5+ times, and then noodled around with the riff Janx suggested. My poor white-collar fingers are a tad tender now, and I can see that buildup of callouses will be called for.

While running scales, paid a goodly amount of attention to not touching other strings - occasionally plucking neighbors to see if they still rang clear. - some of that is going to have to come with added flexiblity and strength, I can see. I can tell when I'm not fingering right, as I get buzz when I don't.

I found the riff quite useful for a few things - I rant it for a while fingering with just my index finger, and then experimented a bit with reaching up with other fingers, so see what that'd feel like. When I was doing that, it led to less sliding my way up or down the string.

Tried picking with a pick, and bare handed. I was getting clearer notes bare handed, so I may tend to that for a while.

And, as suggested, I wiped it down afterwards. Geeze, does that shiny body show that it was touched by a human!

My current target is to do a half-hour a day. I might even get into the habit of using this thread to post on when I do new stuff.

Installing GuitarTuna on my phone - for tuning mostly, though apparently it has some exercises that might be cool.

Ordered a guitar stand, and a power brick for the amp - both have already shipped.

Tried picking with a pick, and bare handed. I was getting clearer notes bare handed, so I may tend to that for a while.

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Plectrum vs Pick vs Hybrid picking: don't worry too much about which way you go. Find what works for you, because there is no inherent superiority in any of those, and you will find legendary players using each style.

Also.from the do as I say, not as I do file: my guitar teacher suggested recording my practices. I did this for a while, and it DOES help. You'll hear things on the recordings that will let you know what you did right or wrong...or if you stumble upon a cool original riff!

And right now, there has never been a better time to be a guitarist, because the technology of the day is so damn powerful. For instance, my comments above about recording your sessions? Well, this is a thing now:
http://www2.gibson.com/Memory-Cable.aspx

Umbran said:

I spent some time this evening fiddling with knobs to find a base sound that works for practice. I ran through the faux-scales 5+ times, and then noodled around with the riff Janx suggested. My poor white-collar fingers are a tad tender now, and I can see that buildup of callouses will be called for.

While running scales, paid a goodly amount of attention to not touching other strings - occasionally plucking neighbors to see if they still rang clear. - some of that is going to have to come with added flexiblity and strength, I can see. I can tell when I'm not fingering right, as I get buzz when I don't.

I found the riff quite useful for a few things - I rant it for a while fingering with just my index finger, and then experimented a bit with reaching up with other fingers, so see what that'd feel like. When I was doing that, it led to less sliding my way up or down the string.

Tried picking with a pick, and bare handed. I was getting clearer notes bare handed, so I may tend to that for a while.

My current target is to do a half-hour a day. I might even get into the habit of using this thread to post on when I do new stuff.
.

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That's excellent, I'm really happy you're taking to it and enjoying it.

Technically, the riff I gave for Smoke on the Water is sloppy to play it on one string. As you learn where the notes are, and why the 5th fret is important (hint: subtract 5 and move to the next skinnier string). Ideally, you can play most notes you need within a 4 fret box*. Which means your hand doesn't need to move down the neck, you just move your fingers to where those same notes are found on other strings within a narrower zone.

*for practical usage, this is mostly true. there are exceptions.

Let me know when you're ready for another easy-bake riff. 7 Nation Army is ridiculously simple, as is iron man. throw in power chords and you'll feel the rock gods awesome power surge through your fingers and out the tinny amp

I don't want to overwhelm you with info. You got lessons to work from. When you get to the chords for D, A and G, I have a song you can learn to play...from the About lessons even...

Keep us posted. I haven't touched my guitars in a while, your new hobby reminds me of the fun I should make time to have.

Whatever you do, avoid the nasty "big box store" brands...

I've seen nothing but bad craftsmanship from First Act (which is carried at Wal*mart) on EVERY instrument.

Even their recorder - $3 for what is supposed to be a C recorder (blokflöte) it was actually a D recorder.
Their violins are horrid. (I sub a good bit in elementary orchestra... those few who have them after week 4 generally have an instrument that won't stay tuned, has a nasty buzzy timbre, and is made of substandard woods.

Their guitars often have uneven frets, and have really low quality machine heads. Of the 5 I've gotten to see students use, 3 have had the tail break. One lost the entire fingerboard off the neck. the 5th buzzed like a harmonica.

The only brand I've seen in WalMart or equivalent that was worthwhile recently has been the low end Fender, mentioned on page 1 of the thread.

When I was working in a music store (and for half a year, running it), there were several less expensive brands that had good instruments in the $150-$200 range. Sunlight Guitars were hit-or-miss; play them (or have them played for you). You can get some really nice instruments by putting in the time.

Be wary of any instrument that is discounted... In some cases, I've seen showroom floor damaged instruments put back on the shelf discounted but no mention that the store repaired them. Ask WHY it's on discount. Used is fine. Repaired is usually not.

I've seen nothing but bad craftsmanship from First Act (which is carried at Wal*mart) on EVERY instrument.

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Just for the record, this statement is only partially accurate. First Act also has a custom shop that does stunningly good instruments that have been used by all kinds of professionals on recordings and on stage, including:

Brent Hinds (Mastodon)
Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
Rick Neilsen (Cheap Trick)
Matt Pike (Sleep/High on Fire)

Etc.

But, to amplify the point of the quoted poster, First Act's mass produced instruments are AWFUL!

They either need to improve their commercial products, or come up with some kind of better name for their custom shop...