I need help... BAD

Ok here is what I have going on, my girlfriend picked up an acoustic for me I have been tinkering trying to learn but I am really struggling, I have got very large hands (10" span from tip of my thumb to tip of my pinky) I find it difficult to only be on 1 string at a time, I also find my wrist getting sore after an hour of attempted practice, even after several repositions. I really want to learn but I am finding this to be discouraging. Please help me!

That what happens when you first start man. We all go through similar stuff but it will get better. My finger tips are really fat, well I'm not a circus freak but they're fat enough to where it easy to bump a nearby string. You'll find a way to get better, maybe even go to a guitar shop and a take a few lessons. That's should help. Stick with man it's worth it once you get the hang of it. good luck. :)

About you wrist... try to relax and don't over practice. People can last hours of practicing if they're relaxed (now theres a thought). Also bad posture at the start might be a bitch to fix up later. And to fuel your current "over enthusiasm" state, like noticing sez go find a good teacher at a local guitar shop or find a good books on basics. Lack of progress can really be a drag and discouraging.

Enjoy :)

And oh yeh, don't worry about big hands they can actually be good if you use them to your advantage. Later you'll realise having large hands will let you stretch out to other frets (this is a good thing by the way, people like me have to practice stretching to reach 5+ frets, not that you need to all the time but its always an option).

If you get a teacher you'll pass the the beginning period (which really su*ks !) faster .

I took lessons for the first 5 or 6 months , then I moved on by myself , learning from books , internet and so ... I have to admit , those lessons were really helpfull .

Try to find other people who play and start jamming with them, even though your a beginner. Learning the skills needed to jam along with other people are indespensible. Plus it's fun and you can learn alot, and it's free. :)

few things...

1. do you even like the guitar you have?
2. how long do you practice?

now the reasons..
1. If you like playing the guitar but not the one you have, switch. Get another or something.
2. Like the other post said, don't overpractice. When you start, do yourself a favor. Realize that to really learn to PLAY is going to take a LOOOONG time. To play a few things and have fun, is another thing altogether. Start slowly sounding every note clearly and the rest will come in time.

Keep reading the message boards and searching for sites, you'll get it if it really gets you..


best of luck

Is there any song that you like very much? Perhaps your favorit idol? Download the song's tab (just google.com and search for "XXXXXX tab"). That's the best way if you ask me, cause after a while (days or maybe weeks) you will find yourself playing sections of the song or even the whole song.. Once you are there, found a bassplayer who also like the song and before you know it; You got a band!

Good luck

Ps. If you're not sure of which song you like, let me suggest Led Zeppelins "Stairway to heaven" or Metallicas "Nothing else matters"! They both have really easy-played intros and correct tabs are all over the net! Ds.

Hey if all else fails and you still have problems playing on only one string at a time, try a bass guitar. As everyone knows, good bass players are always hard to find. Also you might find the larger strings and longer neck a lot more comfortable.

Thats true, I got my mate's bass and damn its nice to play. It was good to play something different but not that different :) Help me gain strength too, those strings take more out of my fingers

bass is fun. that's my beam of radiance for today.

Bass kick ass.. David Ellefson, that's all I got to say..

Bass freakin sucks. I started out as bass. You're a tool (as a bass player). When has rock or any other style been based around the bass instrument? Even if you do end up learning advanced slap techniques, when are you going to implement them (or be allowed to implement them) and how much more is there to learn in bass playing techniques? When do bass players ever get hired besides as a fill in because the original bass player died of boredom. If you want control of the music play guitar. Unless it's the 60s and your name is Jack Bruce. That guy was cool.

(Buy a beginners book for guitar, buy tab books for your favorite albums (you don't want internet tabs until you know the difference) and mimick them. But don't mimick anybody after 1990. Then mimick other people. That's how you learn.)

u need to 'set' ur muscles in ur hand to work round all of the fret board, and u need to relax ur hand, mind and breathing and all of your body eventually as u do so all the time u play or practice..it gets better eventually but not if u force it. otherwise ull strain.

start with the 1st ans 2 nd finger at the 1st string and place em the 1 & 2 frets resectivley move upwards ill u reach string 6 and downwards again, move towards frets 2/3 and do the same till u do all ur fret board. then do it with 2/3 fingers, 3/4 fingers, 1/3, 2/4, 1/4. that way u concentrate on placing the tips of ur fingers on the string ur trying to play and u get to find out what discomforts you. when u try to practice other complex stuff.

bass is cool, if no one implements music around the bass then do it yourself, ever heard anything by squarepusher hes a bass player also and his music is drill and bass...

its all bass lines colliding against drum loops.

its like that with the bass cus most ppl follow the same pattern in creating a band.. just do some of this and some of this keep to the same time sigs, verse ..chorus..verse..bridge chorus and we have a song,... thats boring...

besides there are various bands that have amazing bass players and its always very nice to listen to there lines, the guiatr has more spotlight cus the media has dubbed it like taht just like the singer always get the limelight..since when do u listen to the media ???

Lessons are always good to get, but if you are too poor just stick with it. Eventually you'll get through the akward fingers and strings are confused *hides under bed*.
I like playing with a bass player, but being a bass player seems boring. I guess everyone find joy in different things, but I don't see how after playing guitar you could decide that the bass is superior. Then again that would be an opinion coming from a guitar player who's never even attempted playing a bass guitar. It intimidates me for some reason, and i'm not sure why.

A cohesive, good sounding bass line over a chord progression is a f**kload harder to improvise than a wanking pentatonic solo over the same progression. It's so easy to solo over F, Em, Dm, C, but as a bass player you would have to think something like F, A, C, E, D, B, G, E, D, F, A, C, B, G, E, C. Now the reason this is harder is that you are responsible for outlining the chords - the notes matter (that, by the way was ascending and descending diatonic 7th chords). As a guitar player, you can pick any note you want. Bassist aren't tools unless they're in Blink 182 or some other dumbass band. Good bassists are integral to good music (picture Dream Theater or Tool with a bassist only hitting the root notes...)

Ever heard of Victor Wooten? Stu Hamm? Bill "The Buddha" Dickens? John Myuang?

Guess I should've stated in small print that I was just voicing my opinion (strongly, I appologize) and I honestly do believe bass players are important too. They do have to outline the chords and they are an integral part of rock music. I suppose I'm biased, being hired as a rock bassist after just under a decade of jazz bass playing. That was a while ago though.

I guess when you write "bass freakin sucks", you can expect someone to disagree. Even though this is a guitar site, they're are some bass players here like myself. The bass plays completely different than a guitar. This is why peeps who only know guitar show little respect to the instrument. While the guitarist learns one set of skills, the bassist learns another. A guitarist can get away with just knowing how to play an E dominant chord, the bass player needs to know what notes make up that chord (previous post), but also what notes can work as passing tones. So he/she needs to know what scale works with that chord. So the thought process on a bass line threw a 3 minute song is equivalent to a 3 minute solo on guitar. And if that's not enough, the bass player must not only think of the chord progression but what the drummer is doing also to be able to lay down a good rhythm or groove. That's probably why it's so hard to find good bass players and if you find one consider yourself very lucky.

My answer to why the bass lacks so much in most music. Because alot of bass players are taught by guitarists. Not saying guitarists are bad teachers but the bass is quite different. Bass players should be taught by bass players, better yet bass players should start of in jazz band in H.S. There they learn to sight read which is important for the skills above.

If your good at bass and possess the skills above, the bass is one of the most lively and inventive instruments to play. Sadly though, there are so few who do represent such a skill. I picked up a bass first for that very reason.

As a matter of fact, I too picked up the bass first before guitar, played it through HS in the jazz bands, through university jazz and in various combos up until a few years ago. I started playing rock guitar maybe 2 months after I picked up the bass. I guess what I was trying say was, in my opinion, just as there's got to be some sucker in front of the grill at McD's so you get your Big Mac, there's got to be some shmuck pounding out the root in decent time in rock music. For what it's worth, rock bass should be classed as another percussion instrument. I've never started a band as a rock bass player (meaning never played in a rock band where the bass was anything more than a backup instrument), but I've been in countless bands where, sure, the band would've sounded like crap live if it weren't for the bass, and the bass/drum groove, but I'd be in multiple bands at the same time, playing the same sh*t because nobody else really wants to get stuck with it. I'm sure there's quite a few rock bassists out there who can pull some pretty quick and complicated riffs, but compared to the freedom you get on rock guitar, who cares. Makes for a decent conversation though.

I guess you can say that there are some people who are made for the instrument and some people who aren't. I don't see how there is less freedom on a bass than a guitar, if that were the case you should look into being a pianist since they can do far more than a guitarist can. It's just a different way of playing, and hardly not schmucks. Although if I saw a bass player just playing root notes, I wouldn't think he/she was a schmuck but I wouldn't think very highly of it. Then again in rock music, especially todays music I think guitarists who only play power-chords and finger pick open chords are the same. I think you mean the player not the instrument. Listen to John Myung, Cliff Burton, or John Paul Jones if you want some kicking rock bass.