Completely New To Guitar
NocturnalOats
Nov 13 2007, 02:49 PM
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Hello everyone, I just bought an electric guitar last week after wanting one for a while because I am sick of just being a music listener who sits back and enjoys the talent instead of creating it themselves. I want to do something about it and I've decided that nothing is going to get in my way and I'm going to play the guitar until the day I die laugh.gif Ahhh, I just love music so much--it seriously is my life and I wonder why I waited so long to do something about it.

The first week I got the guitar I played for about 16 hours that week and all I really did is learn the notes from some book on the first 4 strings, played a few lame songs within the book, and did chromatic exercises to increase speed. I think they were chromatic exercises, but I kind of just made stuff up and tried to get my fingers moving fast and more used to the fretboard.

1-2-3-4 1st - 6th string

4-3-2-1 back down

Up until the 12th fret, then rinse/repeat.

I then registered for this website because I want to do stuff that I KNOW will improve me and make me the best I can be. I've heard good things about this place and you typically get what you pay for and I'm sure it beats sifting through random crap on the internet.

There is a problem I'm having though. Even the "Beginner Kick-Off" course is too complicated. The videos are pretty short and I don't really understand the text that accompanies the videos. After watching the videos and reading all of the text for those 6 lessons, I still don't know what power cords are, especially scales (what the heck is a scale, the text was soo complicated I wasn't sure what it meant or what to do), barre cords, etc.

I feel like I am retarded even though I attend a top university with a 3.75 GPA with a double major in philosophy/biomedical engineering. (lol, I am definitely not bragging or anything I'm just wondering why I don't understand these "beginner" lessons; something must be wrong with me, not quite sure what it is yet.)

What should I do guys...I'm going to stick with playing the guitar no matter what but my motivation and inspiration is already waning because I feel so overwhelmed by all of this. Man, I am so lost and confused...

I have a feeling I will be posting A LOT in this forum, so prepared to get sick of me : (

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This post has been edited by NocturnalOats: Nov 13 2007, 03:03 PM
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Twibeard
Nov 13 2007, 03:24 PM
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From: Norway
QUOTE (NocturnalOats @ Nov 13 2007, 02:49 PM) *
I feel like I am retarded even though I attend a top university with a 3.75 GPA with a double major in philosophy/biomedical engineering. (lol, I am definitely not bragging or anything I'm just wondering why I don't understand these "beginner" lessons; something must be wrong with me, not quite sure what it is yet.)

Hello mate, welcome to GMC. I started 1 month ago and I'm really surprised how things change after 2-3 weeks. If you are a University-guy why not then start the theory lessons written by Andrew: https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_fo...?showtopic=3351

bcnu
Twibeard

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Saoirse O'Shea
Nov 13 2007, 07:07 PM
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Welcome to GMC NocturnalOats,
+1 with Twibeard - Andrew's theory lessons are amongst the best I've ever seen - both in hardcopy bookform and on the net.

Another suggestion is to have a look at the 101 videos as these give a lot of spoken explanation along with the written text. Also, and as you've already done so wink.gif , shout for help - it's a friendly site and forum and people here are very generous with their help, time and advice.

Cheers,
Tony

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Chris Evans
Nov 13 2007, 07:45 PM
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Hi NocturnalOats smile.gif

As tony has said, this is a great and friendly site, with a whole wealth of info available to you.

Good luck smile.gif

Chris

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mattacuk
Nov 13 2007, 07:45 PM
Lets go fishing!
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Hi Nocturnal Oats!!

First off I love you name, its really original. I would first like to make you aware that you may post as many questions as you like - I will not get sick of them i promise wink.gif

Ok so the first thing to do is break everything down for you, so you dont feel too lost ! I know it can be very daungting when you start out. There seems to much to learn, and pretty soon you can start to loose motivation if your not carefull ! smile.gif

You see when Kris made Guitarmasterclass.net, i Belive his primary goal was to keep learning Guitar "FUN" and if you have watched any of his lessons you will know how crazy he is laugh.gif but he does a good job of keeping you motivated.

But motivation is the key to success primaraly. If you have motivation, learning key skills and concepts becomes alot easier and alot more fun.

So just how do you keep yourself motivated? That varys from person to person. Speaking for myself only, I can tell you a few things i did to keep myself motivated when I first started out!!

Do you have any favorite guitarist? Pretty much everyday i watch my favorite guitarist play ! Be that on youtube, DVD, or whatever i find this is a really great way of focusing on my end goals. Its ok to want to be able to play like your heros, infact this is what gets most people into guitar in the first place. For example,I am trying to combine all the techniques of my favorites into some of my own!

I often visualise what i want to acheive and i usually end up getting there. At the start it is important to take bite sized goals, and working through them peice by peice. This keeps up motivation because you see things happen infront of you!

So moveing on, I see you are struggleing with the begginer lessons - but that is ok! and I assure it does not make you a "retard" as you mention wink.gif

I would recommend taking your time over each of these beginner lessons. Try not to jump around too much. If you do not understand some of the concepts Kris mentions, or the accompanying texts - Just ask questions in the forum and we will do our best to answer.

The key to learning fast and efficently is often working through things SLOWLY. This I find applies so much to learning guitar skills. Keep working on a lesson untill you feel you are happy with your progressand that you understand the key concepts (again you can ask us if you dont understand something specific).

Moveing onto musical Theory. I myself love musical theory,and it really helps makeing music a whole lot easier. But there is so much to take in at the start, it is often best just to take things at face value and just have fun. If you feel you really wish to learn more about theory - well that is great and there is much help and advice available to you on this board. But theory is not always nessacary to make great music!!

If you check out some of Pavels marvelous works, he will tell you that you can acheive greatness without it !

That said, the I would definatly recommend learning maybe just the basics as this WILL help you in the long run.

The point I am trying to make is of course, learning theory is a great idea but it is not the be all and end all wink.gif

I really hope I have been of some help, and not confused you too much wink.gif

regards

Matt

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Spiderusalem
Nov 13 2007, 07:52 PM
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Posts: 569
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From: San Francisco, California
QUOTE (mattacuk @ Nov 13 2007, 10:45 AM) *
The point I am trying to make is of course, learning theory is a great idea but it is not the be all and end all wink.gif

I really hope I have been of some help, and not confused you too much wink.gif

regards

Matt


I think you just out-did everyone else in the "helpful" department. where is your senior status badge? Every day that goes by you dont have it is injustice I tell you... blink.gif

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lliber
Nov 13 2007, 08:10 PM
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type in the search box for David O Toole lessons ( chords in the key of....) and check out his basic chords for beginners they are great and he gives a simple and clear explanation and are really nice and slow absolutey great for beginners at the end of one leson you will see just how quick you will improve just keep at it, i am no great player myself but i am having a great time at GMC learning and day by day it gets better and better


steve
spain

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mattacuk
Nov 13 2007, 08:13 PM
Lets go fishing!
Posts: 5.526
Joined: 21-December 06
From: illinois
QUOTE (Spiderusalem @ Nov 13 2007, 06:52 PM) *
I think you just out-did everyone else in the "helpful" department. where is your senior status badge? Every day that goes by you dont have it is injustice I tell you... blink.gif


No Spidey, your just too kind wink.gif

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DeepRoots
Nov 13 2007, 08:21 PM
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Some great advice here!

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MickeM
Nov 13 2007, 08:26 PM
Born of NWOBHM, Moderation Team Leader
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Top university with majors in some heavy subjects guy... I think the answer is pretty simple. You're trying too hard! And while trying too hard your using the wrong side of the brain! Shut down the parts that needs to understand all of what you're doing, why you're doing it and such.

Strike a power chord and listen! Does it sound right? Well if not, do it again, work on your technique until you get it right, use your ears instead of your brain (though sound coverts to signals transmitted to the brain for interpretion in the sound centra yeah I know, told you to shut that part of the brain off didn't I? wink.gif )

No really, just use your visual for watching the videos and follow what's done, skip the understanding part for now. There's plenty of time for that later. Use your ears and make the long dream of you playing "Smoke on the water" come true laugh.gif It's an excellent riff to start with.

Remember: Don't think too much, Listen! smile.gif

And welcome to the forum!

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Scott Gentzen
Nov 13 2007, 09:06 PM
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From: Centreville, VA, USA
QUOTE (NocturnalOats @ Nov 13 2007, 01:49 PM) *
I feel like I am retarded even though I attend a top university with a 3.75 GPA with a double major in philosophy/biomedical engineering. (lol, I am definitely not bragging or anything I'm just wondering why I don't understand these "beginner" lessons; something must be wrong with me, not quite sure what it is yet.)

What should I do guys...I'm going to stick with playing the guitar no matter what but my motivation and inspiration is already waning because I feel so overwhelmed by all of this. Man, I am so lost and confused...


I was where you are almost a year ago. I don't practice nearly as much as I should, so I'm not really where I could be on skill level but I'm working on it, and I am motivated.

I do have a question for you. Your posting seems to be more about having a problem understanding the theory behind the lessons rather than the mechanics of playing them. Is that true?

I think it's intentional that the beginner lessons are relatively theory-free and I think it's kind of a good thing. You can play without knowing why what your playing works (Angus Young still denies knowing any of the theory behind what he does). I think the beginner lessons are mostly intended to get you started playing something (anything) relatively early...to get a new player to the "this is cool, and not *that* hard to do" point. I think that going into too much detail would make that beginner learning curve that much steeper.

That's not to say that the beginner lessons aren't a challenge for someone that's never played a guitar before. They definitely can be. There's a lot to playing that isn't obvious looking at someone playing with the eyes of someone who never has. I spent a lot of time staring at my hands wondering why they won't do what I want them to. It does come eventually though.

I try to just break it down piece by piece. Like on the Power Chords lesson....I beat on each chord without the video til it sounds OK and then move to the next one. When I'm comfortable with them, I try moving up the neck between them and eventually start to try to play with the video and backing tracks.

On the theory side, I think Andrew's theory lessons are fantastic. If you're starting with zero theory knowledge (like I did) it'll take some re-reading to start to understand it, but it does start to sink in eventually.

Some of the more advanced video lessons get into explaining the theory more. I watch David Wallimann's lessons and they help me understand more about scales and modes even though I'm not really up to playing the lessons yet.

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Henrik Skotth
Nov 13 2007, 09:13 PM
GMC Tech & Community Manager
Posts: 443
Joined: 19-December 06
Welcome to GMC, NocturnalOats!

Event though I've worked for GMC for almost two year, I'm also just starting up with the guitar. I got mine a couple of weeks ago and I'm just getting started.

This week a new series will begin on the GMC blog where I write about my quest to learn to play using GMC smile.gif It will include a lot about where I start out, how I use the different resources available here (including this forum!), and it will also include quite a lot about problems that I run into ('cause there are a bunch!), how to get past them and so on (including additions and improvements that GMC will make for us beginners). You are very welcome to read and comment based on your own similar experiences!

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Muris Varajic
Nov 13 2007, 09:25 PM
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Reading Andrew's theory lesson will help a lot,and 101 lessons of course. smile.gif
Plus you can always ask everything you want in forum or in "ask instructor" sub-board,
options are really endless and I wish you fast progress. smile.gif

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Asphyxia Feeling
Nov 13 2007, 09:29 PM
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i was about to post, but alas, matt already slew this topic too! hahaha smile.gif

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Andrew Cockburn
Nov 13 2007, 09:58 PM
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Welcome!

Everyone has given my theory lessons good press (thanks all!) - If you want to dig into them there are lots of people around here that you can discuss the finer points with, we are all very happy to help!

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mattacuk
Nov 13 2007, 10:00 PM
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From: illinois
QUOTE (Andrew Cockburn @ Nov 13 2007, 08:58 PM) *
Welcome!

Everyone has given my theory lessons good press (thanks all!) - If you want to dig into them there are lots of people around here that you can discuss the finer points with, we are all very happy to help!


Andrew can we count some more 96th notes please? ! laugh.gif wink.gif

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