Question to you guitar players out there.

[Agent D]

How hard is it to learn the guitar? I wanted to learn it for quite some time and Mark has inspired me to actually try. I couldn't play the recorder.:( Hey, maybe I'll have better luck with the guitar!;)

[Rune]

Guitar is by far the most fun instrument i've ever played. I played piano for 10 years and absolutely HATED it. I think in the first month i had my guitar, i practiced it more than i ever practiced piano in 10 years (sad i know).

Anyways, the way guitar works is like this. It's a give and take relationship. The more you put into it, the more you'll get back. If you play it once a week, you can't expect to be playing like tremo after a year, and that brings up another thing: patience. Skill will come, if you work up gradually in the difficulty of the songs you play, you will get better. If you just go for the hardest song you can find, yeah you'll be able to play it, but you'll lose a lot of time because you focused souly on that.

I mean i could probably play the worlds hardest piano song, i'd just have to practice it for a LONG time. But that doesn't mean i've accomplished anything but being able to play that particular song, it doesn't make me any better.

The best aspect of guitar is that it's a perfect outlet for emotions. Happy, angry, sad, i always go to my guitar and after i'm done i feel loads better.

Your fingers will hurt when you start playing, but don't let it stop you. Anyone can play guitar, it's just that each person is different. If you're willing to practice it then yes you will be able to get good at it. If you just do it once in awhile, i make no guaruntees.

[Agent D]

Thanks, Rune! I just have to find a place to get lessons. Which do you suggest I start with first, acoustic or electric?

[Rune]

It depends on how serious you are about it and how devoted to it you intend to be.

If you want to get good and intend to stick with it, definately start with an Acoustic. Play that for about 6 months to a year and your hand muscles and finger strength will be really strong.

After that amount of time get an electric and it'll be like butter, playing electric will be mad easy compared to acoustic.


Now if you just want to play it kinda as an offtime hobby, just get a cheap electric and a small amp and fool around whenever ur bored.


I started with an acoustic and i'm glad i did. i wouldn't be anywhere near as good as i am on electric if i didn't start on my acoustic first.

[Agent D]

Cool. Thanks. I am still torn though.:P I want to put as much effort into this as possible, but doubt it will ever be anything more than a hobby. I think I'll get an acoustic first. That's what everyone has been telling me.;)

[Bridge of Clay]

If you just go for the hardest song you can find, yeah you'll be able to play it, but you'll lose a lot of time because you focused souly on that.

so true!!! that happened when I tried One Last Breath... it´s a higher level of what I can do... I barely know chords names! :P

[Agent D]

Lol, Marcos. Dang, I guess it'll take some time before I can pull riffs like Mark. But it'll be so worth the effort.

[Rune]

practice makes perfect.

I've been playing guitar for 11 months, been writing for 5. I have 11 songs, which i know are nowhere near as good as even the worst creed song, but who knows. I love playing them and i really get into them so meh.

Most of them have kinda a medium rock crunch to em, the rest are softer or mellow.

I have a 9/11 song with a chorus i REALLY like, and i have a few others i think are cool, and i have 1 or 2 i think suck lol

[Agent D]

Hey, Rune, don't sell yourself short. It's better than I can do.;)

[Rune]

perhaps, but you haven't started yet, so u never know

[hide_tremonti]

I mean i could probably play the worlds hardest piano song
Can you play Chopin?

Agent D - have you considered gettig a classical guitar? They are the hardest to play because of the wider fretboard and the higher action...but it should set you up for acoustic/electric later on.

Anyway, good luck on your guitar quest.

[Rune]

i never cared much for classical guitars...they just piss me off.

Besides you can get an acoustic with higher action as well, and it'd be better cuz you're on steal strings so the tension is higher = stronger hand muscles and stronger callouses

And yes i actually can play one chopin song lol Sonatina in something, i forget lol.

It has two movements that i've done, sonatina and rondo....maybe that helps?

[Agent D]

Um...what's the difference between a classical guitar and an acoustic?

[Rune]

classical has nylon strings (classical acoustic), and the other has steel strings (normal acoustic)

[Agent D]

Ah, okay. Gotcha.

[Rune]

anything else ya wanna know?

[Agent D]

Not as of yet, Rune. But thanks! You've been mega-helpful!:D ;)

[Rune]

any time

[Unforgiven Fan]

learning the guitar needs a lot time for practicing and dedication..I know that for sure because I play left and right handed...but if you have the will power to play and you truely love playing the guitar it should not be a big problem.

[creedgirl111]

Originally posted by Unforgiven Fan
learning the guitar needs a lot time for practicing and dedication

Too true. I used to have a helluva time playing songs. Now I've realized I won't get any better unless I practice more. I love to play guitar and it's about time I got serious about playing it.

Hehehe... :embarass: The hardest piano song I can play is Fur Elise.

[Agent D]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys.


Practice won't be much of a problem. God knows I have plenty of time on my hands.;)

[creedgirl111]

My problem is I don't have a whole lot of time to practice.

[Rune]

i make time

[creedgirl111]

I'm making more time now.

[Agent D]

I was just looking at guitar tabs and they confuse the hell out of me. Can someone explain it to me (even though I haven't begun my guitar lessons yet)?

[Rune]

well the numbers tell you where to fret on what strings

The letters on the left (EADGBe) are the strings on the guitar, E being the lowest, thickest string, and e being the highest toned one.

[hide_tremonti]

Originally posted by Rune
And yes i actually can play one chopin song lol  Sonatina in something, i forget lol.

Can you play Ballade No1. in G Minor, and Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca, Rachmaninov's Flight of the Bumblebee?

Agent D: Read these sites if you want to learn TAB.
http://guitar.about.com/library/blhowtoreadtab.htm
http://www.zentao.com/guitar/tab/

[creedgirl111]

Heeheehee... I can't even read normal music for guitar... I can only read tabs. IMO, guitar tabs are really easy to read, once you know how.

[Rune]

no hide, i cannot, i hate piano with a passion.

[Agent D]

Sorry for all the questions :embarass: But what does fret mean?

[Rune]

what fret you put your finger on and press is called fretting

[Agent D]

Okay, gotcha. Thanks!:D

[Rune]

no problemo, dickwad..............lol @ schwarzaneggar.....

[Bridge of Clay]

tab is easy... but you know when you have sheet music? I can read for piano, but not for guitar... I don´t get it... kinda like that sheet music on creed.com , they have the tab below, that helps me, but the sheet music itself ... I have no idea what I´m looking at

[hide_tremonti]

I like Tabs...they're good on the hard disk :D

[Agent D]

What are pickups?:embarass:

[hide_tremonti]

They are the things on an electric guitar that senses the energy from the vibration of the strings (by magnetism). They then turn it into an electric current.

Read this for more:
http://www.blueshawk.info/how_pickups_work.htm

[Agent D]

Oh, okay. Thanks!

That was my last question I swear!:P

[hide_tremonti]

Are you sure? LOL.

[Agent D]

Yeah, I'm sure.:P

[Bridge of Clay]

hhhhhiiiiiiidddddddeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

I got your the wawo tab you tabbed... I have no problem with the finger picking, I already got it and can play it really well! :D

But the chorus part... I can´t! I dunno if it´s my strumming, I guess not - I get the strumming sooner or later... I dunno, those chords are weird, and sound weird... I´m not saying you´re wrong, I mean it´s my acoustic guitar...

what do you think it´s the problem? maybe coz I don´t have distortion? Mark uses the same chords on acoustic? :confused:

[hide_tremonti]

I don't remember tabbing WAWO!

I play the clean chorus like this (or something similar):
----3-----5-
-6--3--5--5-
-5--5--4--7-
-3--5--2--7-
-3--3--2--5-
-3-----2----

Dirty Chorus:
------------
------------
-5--5--4--7-
-3--5--2--7-
-3--3--2--5-
-3-----2----

Listen to the song for strumming. If they're sounding weird, maybe it's your barring finger that's the problem, you may not be barring the strings so that you can hear all of them ring clearly.
Keep working on it!

[Bridge of Clay]

yep, sorry for that... it´s the tab I printed from tremonti.net...

I printed DSD and WAWO and mixed the sheets of paper for an accident.... you tabbed DSD! lol! :) hahaha sorry!

I saw a friend of mine playing it today... he plays different but it still sounds the same :confused: he uses simple chords (3-5-5 for C, for example )

[hide_tremonti]

Which song (the one your friend was playing) are you talking about?
I tabbed DSD because I couldn't find a slightly correct version on the net.

[Bridge of Clay]

he was playing wawo...
I play DSD according to your tab . It really is the best I could find, nice job!

[hide_tremonti]

First off, he was playing power chords. You (if you played according to the tab) were playing sus chords.

It may sound the same because your barring finger might not be strong enough (causing it to mute the higher strings).

Also, the first clean chorus is played with sus chords, the distorted choruses are playing with normal power chords.

-I hope that helped.

[Bridge of Clay]

hmm! It did! so, on acoustic I should keep to the same tab???

[hide_tremonti]

Yep. It's better to stick with a correct tab. :)

[Bridge of Clay]

:)

[Marty]

My 2 bits:
One of the greatest things you can have when learning guitar (besides having a teacher) is a friend or someone you know who is better than you jam with you. You will learn more on your own that way, and excel more. Guitar becomes a adventure, and a challenge. For example, I wanted to learn One Last Breath and With Arms Wide Open, One Last Breath I did first because it has less amount of hammer-ons and pull-offs, because I need work on them. Set goals for yourself, and as Rune said, practice practice!

Thats all I have to say, the rest has already been said. Good luck!

And btw, commenting on the classical guitar, one day when you can play Mosart on the guitar, things like shredding will be a piece of cake. Besides, Mosart sounds better than a normal shred. :)
________
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[Agent D]

Hey, guys how do you tune your guitar to drop d?

[Bridge of Clay]

Drop D is easy! just turn the E (6th string) so it can sound like the 5th string when you´re fretting the 5th fret, or the 4th string! :)

[Agent D]

Thanks, Marcos. Is that what most of Creed's songs are tuned in?

[Bridge of Clay]

I think so...

many rock songs are on drop D!

creed has some on open d, though: DADADD I know how, but I can´t tune like that...

and a few others... Hide is on B, I guess :confused:... it´s complicated... Mark is the man!

[hide_tremonti]

Mark uses:
Standard Tuning (for some)
Drop D (for heaps)
Open D (for SHWM)
Open D5 (for AYR, FM, MS, Weathered)
Open Bb (for Hide)

-Remind me if there's more, LOL.

[Rune]

whoa whoa whoa, that is NOT how you tune to drop D

You turn down the low E (6th string knob) to lower the pitch, and you turn it down so it sounds like the A string (5th string) when you press on the SEVENTH fret, not the fifth

If you do it with the fifth fret your guitar tuning is gonna be way off

[Agent D]

Can you use an electronic tuner to help you tune to drop d?

[Rune]

yes, hit the low E string and turn it down (towards you) until the tuner reads D

[Bridge of Clay]

:wtf: wtf???

but D is the 5th fret of the 5th string (6th being the thicker), isn´t it???

oh, I guess someone taught me wrong...

[hide_tremonti]

Yes. That (5th fret, 5th string) is D an octave higher than what you want. So tune your 6th string an octave lower than the pitch made from 5th fret, 5th string (or just the 4th string) which is a D.

[Bridge of Clay]

that´s what I thought!!!

but I still don´t get what Rune meant...

[hide_tremonti]

Basically what Rune was saying was:
You pluck your low E string, then turn the knob (that matches with that string) so that the pitch goes down until your tuner registers the note as a "D".

[Bridge of Clay]

it made sense to me now!

[hide_tremonti]

Good. :) I'm glad it does.

[Bridge of Clay]

hide, wht´s your name btw??? I got blanked now :(

[hide_tremonti]

Sal.
:)

[Bridge of Clay]

now I know!!! I saw your PM!!! :)

I got confused... I wasn´t sure if it was Sal or Ben... so I guess SAid Eyes is Ben... hehehe

sorry for that!

[hide_tremonti]

LOL. No prob.
We're both Sydney siders anyway. :)

[Bridge of Clay]

I guess that´s the reason! lol!