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OT: All purpose Music thread

slamigo said:
How many on here own too many guitars?
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Micklebot said:
how many guitars is too many...

Is more than you can play at one time too many?
Is more than you can count on one hand too many?
is needing to resort to toes to count them too many?
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Can you even have too many guitars? j/k LOL.

I have 5 now after giving away one to a friend. But, I basically just play one pretty much all the time (a PRS Hollow-body 2, a real sweet instrument).
 
I expect the answers are obvious, but I will ask anyway.

What are your tips or insights into getting started? I have tried a few times and can't get over the hump to learn to play guitar.

It's important to me that my kids will learn to play an instrument and I think it would also be easier if I was able to pick it up, too.

YouTube is a resources and I guess the old standard of, "just do it". Practice 15 minutes a day, sort of thing.

I think its the frustration of not picking it up quick. Generally I am pretty good at stuff, and the wrist/hand/finger manipulation is really not natural to me.
 
OD99 said:
I expect the answers are obvious, but I will ask anyway.

What are your tips or insights into getting started? I have tried a few times and can't get over the hump to learn to play guitar.

It's important to me that my kids will learn to play an instrument and I think it would also be easier if I was able to pick it up, too.

YouTube is a resources and I guess the old standard of, "just do it". Practice 15 minutes a day, sort of thing.

I think its the frustration of not picking it up quick. Generally I am pretty good at stuff, and the wrist/hand/finger manipulation is really not natural to me.
Click to expand...
I started very late, bought my first guitar at 22, and I'm still very bad at it. But here's a few things I learned:

- make sure the guitar you buy is at least playable! My first guitar was used and cheap, but the neck was warped and strings were so far from the fretboard that playing any note clean seemed impossible. And I had no clue that it wasn't solely my fault!

- make it fun! Try to learn just enough to be able to play some songs you like. It could be just a riff initially (Satisfaction, Smoke on the Water, stuff like that) to get to play individual notes on one string or two, and then some songs with simple A, D, E chords (Mazzy Star was great for this for me!). At this point normally you will realize how much you still need to learn, and the songs you have more trouble with (could be because of barre chords, a difficult solo, some arpeggio) will make you want to get a teacher to fill in the blanks.
 
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OD99 said:
I expect the answers are obvious, but I will ask anyway.

What are your tips or insights into getting started? I have tried a few times and can't get over the hump to learn to play guitar.

It's important to me that my kids will learn to play an instrument and I think it would also be easier if I was able to pick it up, too.

YouTube is a resources and I guess the old standard of, "just do it". Practice 15 minutes a day, sort of thing.

I think its the frustration of not picking it up quick. Generally I am pretty good at stuff, and the wrist/hand/finger manipulation is really not natural to me.
Click to expand...
What stage are you at and what are you target goals?

Like, can you play the cowboy chords? How about bar chords?

Taking some lessons early can help address early technique issue, how to hold your pick (assuming you use one) for example.

Use a metronome when you practice, especially with drills.

There are some drills you can do that will help build up strength and coordination, like the spider walk, do that for five mins and it will warm you up, you can speed it up as you get better at it and see your progress

anything you can gamify helps with keeping interest, so for example do the spider walk at 80 BPM, see if you can get it up to 90 by the end of the week.
 
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OD99 said:
I expect the answers are obvious, but I will ask anyway.

What are your tips or insights into getting started? I have tried a few times and can't get over the hump to learn to play guitar.

It's important to me that my kids will learn to play an instrument and I think it would also be easier if I was able to pick it up, too.

YouTube is a resources and I guess the old standard of, "just do it". Practice 15 minutes a day, sort of thing.

I think its the frustration of not picking it up quick. Generally I am pretty good at stuff, and the wrist/hand/finger manipulation is really not natural to me.
Click to expand...
During Covid, I used Yousician as I was more like Malcolm than Angus. But I wanted to be Angus and honestly it was working quite well.
 
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Micklebot said:
What stage are you at and what are you target goals?

Like, can you play the cowboy chords? How about bar chords?

Taking some lessons early can help address early technique issue, how to hold your pick (assuming you use one) for example.

Use a metronome when you practice, especially with drills.

There are some drills you can do that will help build up strength and coordination, like the spider walk, do that for five mins and it will warm you up, you can speed it up as you get better at it and see your progress

anything you can gamify helps with keeping interest, so for example do the spider walk at 80 BPM, see if you can get it up to 90 by the end of the week.
Click to expand...
I am a total beginner. I have barely given it a shot. I think I need to come to terms with the fact it may be the hardest thing I have ever tried to do.

I haven't heard of the spider walk before, so I will look that up.

Context is I have wanted to play this song ever since I watched Stanger Than Fiction. As an aside, this is a criminally underrated movie. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you give it a try.



I don't expect it is the hardest song to learn, so I hope I can learn it in roughly a year.
 
OD99 said:
I am a total beginner. I have barely given it a shot. I think I need to come to terms with the fact it may be the hardest thing I have ever tried to do.

I haven't heard of the spider walk before, so I will look that up.

Context is I have wanted to play this song ever since I watched Stanger Than Fiction. As an aside, this is a criminally underrated movie. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you give it a try.



I don't expect it is the hardest song to learn, so I hope I can learn it in roughly a year.
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I see now, there must be a Maggie Gyllenhaal in your life! ;)

Honestly, speaking as a, say, beginner+ at guitar (I can basically play a few chords), I think the hardest part is going to be able to hold the rhythm while trying to sing that song at the same time.
 
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OD99 said:
I am a total beginner. I have barely given it a shot. I think I need to come to terms with the fact it may be the hardest thing I have ever tried to do.

I haven't heard of the spider walk before, so I will look that up.

Context is I have wanted to play this song ever since I watched Stanger Than Fiction. As an aside, this is a criminally underrated movie. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you give it a try.



I don't expect it is the hardest song to learn, so I hope I can learn it in roughly a year.
Click to expand...

If you want to learn this song, the chords are E and A. So, if you want to learn this song, learn how to play the E and A chords. You can just emulate the rhythm by listening to it. That’s probably a better approach than explaining the time signature & rhythm details. The only other thing he is doing is muting the notes by placing the palm of his right hand lightly over the strings so they sound a bit muted. I didn’t listen to the very end to see if there was something different there when the actual band audio starts playing & can be heard.
 
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OD99 said:
I am a total beginner. I have barely given it a shot. I think I need to come to terms with the fact it may be the hardest thing I have ever tried to do.

I haven't heard of the spider walk before, so I will look that up.

Context is I have wanted to play this song ever since I watched Stanger Than Fiction. As an aside, this is a criminally underrated movie. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you give it a try.



I don't expect it is the hardest song to learn, so I hope I can learn it in roughly a year.
Click to expand...

Not a bad choice for for first song to learn,

Because it's open chords, it will take some time to build up the coordination and finger strength to switch and not get buzzing, but A and E, chords are probably The most forgiving chords.

Spider walk isn't directly applicable but will definately help you warm up, and develops finger strength and independent coordination, so do it for a few mins every time you pick up the guitar as a warm up, it should help, but focus on getting each note to ring out clean and not speed, set you metronome as slow as it needs to be for you to keep time.

You can start working on the chords by simplifying it, just use the top two or three strings of each one at first, for the A chord you'll want to either skip or mute the low E string, this way you can get to hearing your progress towards the end goal of playing the song a bit quicker, and as you get better switch to playing the full open chord like you're hearing in the second half of the video you posted

Also, stranger than fiction was a great movie.
 
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Big Muddy said:
That’s likely true. Listening to music on a phone or tablet seems odd to me though. Its like having a shower with your socks on.

Even when I listen to music videos on YouTube which I do often when I'm picking a song I want to learn, or while learning the song, I connect my laptop to my stereo system which is audiophile level. I use iReal Pro software loaded on to my MacBook which provides backing tracks, so the audio comes out of an audiophile system as well. iReal Pro is a good tool for practicing. I’ll be using it in the next few minutes actually.

But everybody has different ideas I suppose.
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Listening to music on my iPhone does not provide the full sound that I prefer; however, it certainly is convenient when I am out and about.

Only $24.99 for iReal Pro app.

I don't have a high end audiophile system. I couldn't in good conscience stand the dollars it would cost. I compromised to avoid the wrath of "she who must be obeyed"!

I have a 5.1 system with Paradigm speakers, Denon receiver, and Anthem P2 amplifier for my main speakers in my living room. The P2 was a risky play by me. :)

In my rec room I have a Denon receiver and 11.1 Paradigm speaker system with an 85" Sony TV. The Denon receiver and 85" TV was another risky play. :)
 
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