Beginner Guitar Tips?

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Don Firth
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 05:31 PM

Well, how the hell about that!? When I confessed my mistake directly above, I wound up the 100th post on this thread. First time I've ever hit the century mark and I wasn't even trying.

This proves that confession is good for the . . . um . . . something . . . I guess. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 05:54 PM

Well I can't say I understood really any of the stuff about tablature. Do you think you could try and explain that again?

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Don Firth
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 06:59 PM

This is about as good an explanation of how tablature works as I have seen.

Clicky.

But an additional little thing that whoever did the short example of Guthrie's "Hard Travelin'" added was above the tab—the colon (:) showing the downbeat and the periods (.) indicating where the other beats came in relation to what the thumb and fingers are doing. Nice touch.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: GUEST,BadGutz
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 07:41 PM

Play everything exacly backwards.

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Don Firth
Date: 11 Aug 06 - 09:39 PM

Well, BadGutz, if you do that, all you can hear is "Paul is dead."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 01:14 AM

Sorry if this is getting annoying but bear with me. I'm still not 100% sure on what the /e or /d and especially the /a-b mean. I also am not clear on the G chord and the other notes above the tab.

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 03:45 AM

Nevermind. I understand it now.

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 10:32 AM

Get a copy of Oak Publications' Beginning the Folk Guitar by Jerry Silverman. You can pick one up on Ebay. At one time in the 1960s this was the instruction book that everyone used, and the information is just as useful now as it was then. Silverman gives you a really interesting selection of songs to work on instead of the usual beginner stuff.

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Johnhenry'shammer
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 03:05 PM

One question I do still have though: sometimes when I look at pages with the chords to a song (but not the tabs) it'll say something like D/f# or something. What does that mean?

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 04:57 PM

That usually means to play a D chord with an F# in the bass. That's harmonically okay, because an F# is a note in the D chord (D F# A).

That sort of notation (chord-symbol, slash, note) is often used to indicate things like a "walking" bass, which is sort of like a bass-run. For example,

D/D - D/C# - D/B - D/A (or A/A).

Here, you would play a D bass (4th string open), strum or pick the top three strings, play a C# (5th string, 4th fret [fret it with the pinky]), strum or pick, play a B (5th string, 2nd fret [fret it with the 1st finger]), strum or pick, then play an open 5th, and strum or pick.

This sort of thing is a lot easier to show that to explain.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 05:35 PM

I agree with don firth, that it is not all in the right hand. I find with finger picking and particuarly melody picking the left hand is very important, pulloffs, hammer ons, slides, bends,use of additional bass notes based on the pentatonic major scale[ which are executed withthe left hand]. a common mistake that beginners make is to assume that there is only one position for a chord, lets say D major,and not find other inversions .not to work out where modal chords are as awellas minor chords.finally I ADVISE YOU TO MAKE A DIAGRAM OF THE GUITAR FINGERBOARD.and learn where all the individual notes are and where they are repeated in different positions.And then to get some basic music theory, so that you understand the difference between major, modal, minor, chords and why they are different.

Subject: RE: Beginner Guitar Tips?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 12 Aug 06 - 09:16 PM

IMHO you should also get used at the earliest opportunity to working in alternate tunings, ie Open D (to start with) then Open G, and finally Open C.

Some may say that this would lead to confusion, but not so.

Just as a baby is born with the ability to learn two (or more ) different languages in infancy, so is a beginning guitarist a blank slate on to which can be imprinted many new musical ideas.