Most bands i like, the songs are hard to play :'[

Well I'm a "novice"
So these bands song are hard to play in my opinion :(

Hinder
Nickelback
Seether
Offspring
Foo fighters
Paramore
Good charlotte
Lostprophets
Eric johnson
Nirvana
Rise against

And these are just a few :D

In my opinion those bands aren't in the "hard to play category" but clearly we are at two completely opposite points in our playing. :rolleyes: My advice... forget about it... maybe try and work out a song or two but don't kill yourself over it. Practice a bunch of easier songs, and then when the time comes, get back to those.

What I used to do when I first started out and I couldn't play very much of anything, other than stuff I made up myself, was to play lead/solo along with my favourite songs. It didn't matter whether I was playing the right or wrong notes, just as long as it sounded ok.. SO obviously a basically level of scales/soloing is required but nothing more than that..

Also, another thing that helped me get along with music was power-chords.. both the 2-string and 3-string variety.. though starting with the 2-string power-chords makes it much easier, obviously. You take the two most basic barre chord shapes and strip them down to 2 or 3 strings. Let's use the A chord in the E-shape barre chord, and the D chord in the A-shape barre chord, as examples:

The A barre chord using E-shape:
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|--2--|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|--4--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|--3--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|

The 2-string power A chord using E-shape:
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|--3--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|




The D barre chord using A-shape:
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|--3--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|--3--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|--3--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|

The 2-string power D chord using E-shape:
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|--3--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|



Note that you are only playing the 2 strings and all the other strings are muted/not being played.. To play the 3-string power chord, you just add an extra string... There is more to it of course.. the theory of it would most likely suggest that a 3-string power chord would contain the 1st, 5th and 7th note of the scale.. but that could confuse things if you're just starting out...

One last example.. this time of the 3-string power A chord using the E-shape as a foundation again:
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--x--|-----|-----|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|--4--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|--3--|
||-----|-----|-----|-----|--1--|-----|-----|


Once you get the timing, feel, tone, rhythm etc working, then you will be able to play more and more of the song.. Start off slow and easy and work towards getting to the point of playing the proper chords and so forth..

These bands are definitely not in the "hard to play" category. These are the songs that you learn as a beginner pretty much lol. You said you were new so thats ok. Just remember that you have YEARS ahead of you of not being able to play songs. Everyone still practices so keep at it.

Eh, keep trying to learn what you want to learn and don't think something is too hard to play. If you think it's too hard then it will be too hard.....kinda like a mind trick. Just my opinion anyway....

I did it the hard way. When I first started guitar, I bought the tab book for the first Van Halen album....Took me a while, but I learned that whole album as a beginner.

Originally Posted by: Federation
Eric johnson

That is the only one you named that should be in the "hard to play" category.

Give it time. Practice. The songs from those bands will get easier with time. Try to play them now. Practice and come back to them in the future. You will be surprised how easy they really.

Except for Eric Johnson. That will remain hard for quite sometime, unless you get extremely good extremely fast.

I'll give you Rise Against. Their stuff is all power chords, but its quick changes and long slides.

Learning to play songs that are "hard to play" is one of the best ways to better yourself as a player. Get some tabs and just work on it until you can do it. You'll end up pushing yourself to be better and you'll learn some new techniques and tricks by doing so.

Sometimes we try to digest too much at once, like an "All you can Eat" Buffet.
Take Eric Johnson off the Menu for a while. You also may want to remove a few others for now. Say ones that may use alternate or Dropped Tuning.

Focus on a band or two that may have a common style to how you play now.
If you haven't reached that point, then choose only one band.
Offspring would be a good choice, especially songs off the album "Smash".

Another little trick that I sometimes use even now, is to miss entire chords while playing.. in many cases you can play the first chord of a bar on sheet music, then just let the chord ring-out until you get to the next bar and then play that chord and let it ring-out etc.. When there are other musicians playing their parts, it really doesn't matter that much as long as it is not the guitar that is meant to be driving the song along by itself. In a 4-bar piece of music there might be 10 chord changes.. for example:

123bpm, 4/4

|| E B/E | A/E E B/E | E B/E | A E B/E ||

Here you could just play the E chord in the first bar, then A in the next, then back to E again, then back to A again in the last bar. Of course it won't song right without the rest of the band playing their parts.. and even with them, it will still not sound quite right because it is missing chords.. but it will get you through until you get used to the timing and so forth..

Originally Posted by: JFRICK
I did it the hard way. When I first started guitar, I bought the tab book for the first Van Halen album....Took me a while, but I learned that whole album as a beginner.

on a similar note, my mom's boyfriend got me metallica's "kill 'em all" tab book for my 15th birthday, not knowing my budding ability level. my two previous tab books had been 'beginning lead technique' and 'blues solos'. needless to say, the "hit the lights" solo tab kept me awake until 2am every night, and i nearly broke my guitar because of that book.

but hell, i learned how to alternate pick at 196bpm pretty quickly, so who's complaining?

there is a maturity level that comes with learning (or trying to learn) music that is above your ability level. you have to take what you can from it, but understand that you might not fall asleep at the end of the day saying "wow, i really nailed that." i got into some bad habits with my sweep picking, and i took a few days just to sit down and re-learn most of my right hand technique. wasn't fun and it didn't exactly make me feel like a pro, but we all have to accept that we're not as great as our girlfriends think we are sometimes. ;)

:eek: offspring shouldnt be TOO hard, they just play powerchords pretty much

i pretty much started out playing sabbath cause its bassically all power chords and then i went to ozzy now i can play malmsteen, just keep practicing