teaching yourself guitar

Chord dictionary are unnecessary in the long run. If you want to be a good guitarist, you should learn how to build chords. Not have to memorize thousands of voicings.

 

ok, help me out here, because I am a total beginner - what do you mean by "building" chords?

 

Like, make up chords, as far as I know.

Actually, it really wouldn't hurt to memorize the basic chords at least. From there, you can start playing around with all the different chord shapes, altering them and such, and see what you can come up with. I myself figured out how to play the chord "F" by shifting the fingers from the "C" position. Later on, I look in the chart and it says "F major". I remember being pretty impressed that day, lol.

 

Learn the major and pentatonic scales. Google them if you must.

 

Wow, this is like learning a new language! I'm a bit overwhelmed.

 

Get a book of the basic open chords: G, C, A, D, F, etc... Teach yourself old folk songs like Iv been workin on the railroad type of stuff, and Woodie Guthrie songs. than, when you get your ear tuned to the chord progressions in music, you can grow, and play yer own style. the Woodie guthrie part sounds funny, but alota excellent guitarists get their start that way.

 

You don't need a book to learn the basic open chords... this is internet, man.

 

No, I'd need a book, because I don't like reading a lot online, and my printer's down!

Today I learned how to break a string and how to replace it. I had to figure it out myself.

Ken (old boyfriend) used to change all his strings every time he broke one. Should I be doing that? How often should I change strings? Anything I should know about changing strings?


I wish I had some help learning to get it properly tuned. I've heard I'm not supposed to store it tuned, that I should loosen the strings. Why?

 

I've only ever broken a string once.... I haven't changed my strings since last November or so. So I dunno about changing.. some people say that you should change strings once a month at least. () But whatever.

To get it properly tuned, you should buy an electric tuner.... they can get a bit pricy, though (cheapest I've seen is around $10, going all the way up into the $50's). My guitar has a tuner built into it, so I never have to worry about it.

And yeah, you always want to loosen the strings when you store it, especially in the summer. The strings will get tighter in the heat, bending the neck in the process... after a while the strings will ring on the frets when you play it.

 

I really want to learn to tune by ear though, I think it'll be good to know.\

How loose should I keep the strings when I'm not playing?

 

Learning by ear will take time you just have to be patient, and don't stop playing for long periods of time (a week even, while you're learning).

i just loosen my strings with about half or a full turn of the tuning pegs... it really doesn't matter, just as long as they're loose.

 

why would I stop playing while I was trying to learn???

 

Tuning by ear, you have to at least have a piano. Or perfect pitch, which is kinda rare, and one has to be born with it.
If you get one string in tune using a tuner or piano, you can tune the rest of the strings to it using your ear. I would suggest learning a bit of guitar and general music at first, so you know what in-tune and out-of-tune sounds like.

Even if it's not in tune, you could tune all your strings to one string, so it's at least in tune with itself. This is OK if you're playing by yourself, but don't let it become a habit.

 

I don't know.

 

What about using a pitch pipe to tune? They seem to be a bit more portable than a piano! One came with my guitar.

I learned how to break strings today!

 

Yes, pitch pipes are fine too.

 

You telling me it's impossible to memorize the sound of low E? Gimme a break. You don't need perfect pitch to tune a guitar by ear. If that was so hard to do, I'd like to know how anyone can sing different notes in a song. They sure don't use a pitch pipe to get the first note then go from there or anything of that sort.

Perfect pitch isn't necessary for any reason. It's just a freakshow kind of thing as far as I know. All singers can't have perfect pitch or it wouldn't seem so odd when someone had it. But they can all sing the notes. Anyway, that was a tangent.

Good luck learning guitar. The hardest part is before you get the basic chord changes down. After that you can start playing some real songs, which is when learning gets fun. It amazes me how simple a lot of songs are. If you're a Dylan fan he has lots of easy ones. The strumming pattern may be another story, but as for the chord it's pretty simple. Blowin' In The Wind is D, G and A. It Ain't Me Babe is G, C and D. So on and so forth.

 

I mean, one would need perfect pitch to be able to tune it starting with nothing. Everyone can develop relative pitch, of course.

And if you've noticed, a good deal of singers usually have accompaniment, like a piano or guitar or even orchestra. That usually gets them going on pitch. Normally, if you're just singing alone with no audience, you just start on a comfortable pitch and take off from there.

 

I'm sure I will be able to memorize the sound of a low E. But when I say I'm a total beginner, I mean it: I have to learn the sound of a low E first.

 

If you know Day Tripper by the Beatles, the first note is a low E. I use that as a point of reference. Play a little closer to the bridge to get something like the sound in the song. That'll make it more recognizable. Of find your own reference for it. Whatever works.