New to the forum and the learning site.

#1 Originally Posted by: lonniewrights

Good evening, I am new to the forum and the learning site. I am 66 years old and have tried to learn to play a couple of time through out my life but never learned. Going to give it another try since life has slowed down for me and I have time. Any help navigating the learning site will greatly be appreciated. I used a site called Fender play and it was pretty good but left me wanting to understand more of how things work. I know the basic's but not very good at them so practice is going to be my friend.

Welcome

hopefully, like many of us, this time will be the charm.

If you are not "very good" at the basics, maybe start with Fundamentals 1. It might be material you already know and can breeze right through it and move on to Fundamentals 2. From there it is pretty much wide open as to what each one of us want.

The site is massive and hidden behind the search bar. There is likely no subject you could not search for and find a lesson on. But I probably use the Toolbox more than anything to quickly check a scale or a chord. And I use the Jam Station from time to time to practice licks.

I am 62, started in Jan '19. I say this to a lot of my friends. I am old. I would never suggest a person not reach for the stars, but I prefer to look at them. There is material I would love to tackle, but realistically, given the facts that I am a clumsy player to start with, have arthritis a cranky disposition and bad breathe, I like working with material that I feel is attainable within a reasonable amount of time. I love cowboy chords!

If I could talk to myself back then with what I know now, here is what I would tell myself:

1) look for 2 and 3 chord songs at a slow to moderate tempo. This being as low as 60bpm up to maybe 130, this would cover Wish you were here to You shook me all night long and plenty of country songs.

2) practice barre chords 1st learning the major and minor patterns. Make these a priority. On most guitars you can slide down the neck from an E chord (major or minor) all the way down to the D chord on the 10th fret (major and minor). This is going to allow you to play songs and if you can't get the full barre chord right away - I don't know anyone who could, just keep practicing them and they will get better. But in the meantime, while you are practicing these, play songs using "power chords". A power chord is simply playing the 6th and 5th string and if you can get it, play the 6th, 5th and 4th.

Why do I say start this way? It's because I jam with a lot of older people who have limited skills but want to play. And while we sit around and wait for them to fret an open C major - nothing is happening. So, I show them how to play what I have above and we can all have a good time and jam. Alternatively I even have them only play the 6th string but play the correct note and stay time with the rest of us. It's not about perfection its about jamming with the band. Practice when you go home not when you are with us!!

3) practice regularly and learn to step back and regroup when something is just not coming together. Break material down into small sections and work on it until you can reasonably play with some mistakes, not perfection. But if it is not happening, take a break from it for a few days and work on something else. Whatever it was that was problematic a few days ago will seem easier. And regarding mistakes, don't stop, just keep playing, over time, mistakes will clean themselves up. We need to be aware of the area that is causing us trouble, but we have to play through it. I learned a song over the holiday that had a simple part that was just not coming together, but each play through I would concentrate on that area and it improved to where I can play it.

4) songs - learn songs, not parts of songs. Wow this is frustrating when someone only knows bits and pieces and you probably don't want to just play the intro to a song either.

5) theory, theory is good. It doesn't need to be too deep. I wrote a song just to try and figure out why some chords work together. Reading about it is not the same as doing it. If you decide to write a song it will give you a better idea of why the parts fit together as they do.

6) lead or rhythm? RYHTHM. Licks are fine, but should be secondary. If you want to play songs, you need to learn the song and the song is carried by the rhythm, not the flashy lead part which last for about 20 seconds.

7) settle in. It's a huge subject, take your time, enjoy everything you learn and be satisfied that you are learning. Goals are great but I don't have any hard and fast rules. I am thrilled anytime I learn something new.

Best of luck

Bill

https://www.guitartricks.com/course/fundamentals1

Edit: I forgot ear training. We all use tabs to learn songs but if you teach your ears to find the notes, you can be playing in minutes. I use the 6th and 5th strings and once I have the note I can then figure out what kind of chord I need. And believe it or not, there are folks who just hear them and play. I have 2 friends who can do this. That will never be me but I am good with finding notes the hard way.

edited 5 months ago

This year the diet is definitely gonna stick!

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