Today was even busier than yesterday, and I only had a half hour to practice. I spent a few minutes reviewing my chords, then doing some chord changes. I finished with a little practice of Three Little Birds, and even a recording.
I'm finding its getting easier for me to focus on strumming than my fretting hand, but I'm still not perfect yet. My fingers are also hurting less. My middle finger mostly doesn't hurt any more, but my ring finger still has the blister.
My thoughts were correct that I sound much better than I hear while playing. I tried recording myself playing Three Little Birds, and it sounded great. The chord changes were slow, and didn't sound too good, but the chords themselves sounded nice. I think I am getting good at this.
Tomorrow I should have a little more time to practice. We will see.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Learning Guitar, Day 5
Today was pretty busy so I didn't get as much practice in as I usually do. I also only did 2 sessions of chord changes, getting around the same number as yesterday. My biggest problem right now is going too fast, and having the chords sound bad. I suppose that's the point of the exercise, but I prefer hearing the chords playing nicely. I also sometimes zone out a bit, and forget what I was doing, or where my fingers were supposed to end up. However, I'm getting better at playing only the correct strings, even at my fastest strumming.
I practiced playing Three Little Birds a bit more, but only the chorus. I found the chord changes easier, but it still took long enough for me to notice. I think I'll start recording myself to see how I sound when I'm not playing it, as it may actually sound just fine.
Hopefully I'll have more time to practice in the next few days. I'm going back up to school on Sunday, and I'll probably need a structured practice schedule when that happens, to make sure I get in everything I want to practice. I'll work that out soon.
I practiced playing Three Little Birds a bit more, but only the chorus. I found the chord changes easier, but it still took long enough for me to notice. I think I'll start recording myself to see how I sound when I'm not playing it, as it may actually sound just fine.
Hopefully I'll have more time to practice in the next few days. I'm going back up to school on Sunday, and I'll probably need a structured practice schedule when that happens, to make sure I get in everything I want to practice. I'll work that out soon.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Learning Guitar, Day 4
Today brought very rapid improvement on my chord changes!
D-A: 58
D-E: 50
A-E: 54
These were not the best sounding chords, but my fingers were in pretty much the correct spots. What helped (surprisingly) was a tip I saw on two different websites. They recommended strumming at a certain rate, and not waiting for your fretting hand to be ready. Eventually it will speed up to match the other hand. It sounds crazy, but it actually worked.
My fingers were hurting less today, at least for fretting. Anything else that uses my finger tips (like some typing, and unlocking seat belts) still hurts a lot. Maybe some calluses are finally forming?
Overall I am feeling more comfortable picking up the guitar and playing with it. Maybe I'm getting better at this? :)
D-A: 58
D-E: 50
A-E: 54
These were not the best sounding chords, but my fingers were in pretty much the correct spots. What helped (surprisingly) was a tip I saw on two different websites. They recommended strumming at a certain rate, and not waiting for your fretting hand to be ready. Eventually it will speed up to match the other hand. It sounds crazy, but it actually worked.
My fingers were hurting less today, at least for fretting. Anything else that uses my finger tips (like some typing, and unlocking seat belts) still hurts a lot. Maybe some calluses are finally forming?
Overall I am feeling more comfortable picking up the guitar and playing with it. Maybe I'm getting better at this? :)
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Learning Guitar, Day 4
Another day of practicing my chords. I can make them ring out most of the time.
My chord changes are really speeding up now. Here were my results for today:
D-A: 34
D-E: 31
A-E: 37
These were again after 4 trials of each. I'm finding the D-E to be the most annoying. Sliding my index finger back and forth really hurts, and it starts to feel like the string is going to cut through. A-E is becoming much easier, as I found I can basically leave my middle and ring fingers in the same relative positions. After I slide my index finger back (going from E to A), I can usually just put down the next two fingers easily, putting my ring finger down a string of course.
I am still a little stumped by strumming. I feel like I am playing too hard/loud, so I switched to a slightly lighter pick, and watched a few videos on strumming. Most recommended loosening up, and making sure to use your arm. It seems like this will be mostly practice as well to make sure I hit the strings just right.
I also noticed today I have been sort of cheating with my left arm. I've been sitting cross legged which lets me rest my left arm down. This may be hurting my playing abilities, and it might prevent me from building needed muscles in my arm, so I'm going to try not to do it any more.
And I have the first signs of blisters on my fingers! I don't think I've ever been this excited about that before. Add to that my speed increase with chord changes, and I think I am learning at a good pace. And I am already seeing signs of my fast learning when I re-watched the video on one minute chord changes. Apparently 8 changes is extremely good for a beginner's first try. I got 15 on my first try.
I can now play the intro to Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl. The video I watched uses a barre chord, but only part of it that is simple to learn. It still takes me a little time to get into the right positions and it sounds chunky, but that is just practice.
More tomorrow!
My chord changes are really speeding up now. Here were my results for today:
D-A: 34
D-E: 31
A-E: 37
These were again after 4 trials of each. I'm finding the D-E to be the most annoying. Sliding my index finger back and forth really hurts, and it starts to feel like the string is going to cut through. A-E is becoming much easier, as I found I can basically leave my middle and ring fingers in the same relative positions. After I slide my index finger back (going from E to A), I can usually just put down the next two fingers easily, putting my ring finger down a string of course.
I am still a little stumped by strumming. I feel like I am playing too hard/loud, so I switched to a slightly lighter pick, and watched a few videos on strumming. Most recommended loosening up, and making sure to use your arm. It seems like this will be mostly practice as well to make sure I hit the strings just right.
I also noticed today I have been sort of cheating with my left arm. I've been sitting cross legged which lets me rest my left arm down. This may be hurting my playing abilities, and it might prevent me from building needed muscles in my arm, so I'm going to try not to do it any more.
And I have the first signs of blisters on my fingers! I don't think I've ever been this excited about that before. Add to that my speed increase with chord changes, and I think I am learning at a good pace. And I am already seeing signs of my fast learning when I re-watched the video on one minute chord changes. Apparently 8 changes is extremely good for a beginner's first try. I got 15 on my first try.
I can now play the intro to Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl. The video I watched uses a barre chord, but only part of it that is simple to learn. It still takes me a little time to get into the right positions and it sounds chunky, but that is just practice.
More tomorrow!
Learning Guitar, Day 3
Today was spent practicing the three chords I know. I had no problem remembering them, and little problem getting them to ring clearly.
I started trying to see how many chord changes I could do in a minute. I started a timer for 1:05. got the first chord ready, and started mashing my fingers at the one minute mark. I counted each chord individually. After 4 trials, here were my best number of changes:
D-A: 24
D-E: 21
A-E: 20
I could feel myself speeding up, but the pain in my fingers made me take a break between each practice session. However, I still found myself placing fingers one at a time. Once I have the calluses built up, I will just need to practice to reach to my target of 60 in a minute.
I tried playing a bit of a song! I could play the chorus to Three Little Birds by Bob Marley reasonably well.
I've discovered one reason I am struggling sometimes to get my chords to ring clearly. When I hold the strings for long enough, they leave indents on my fingers. This lets them lift off just enough to buzz or sound dead. If I try to adjust my finger to fix that, the string finds its way back into that groove. Again, this means suffering until I have some calluses.
Also, I'm noticing a weird dull pain in my wrist and forearm. I have a feeling this is from playing too much, and building up the new muscles in my left hand. At least I hope it is. Time will tell.
Despite the pain, I am still just as excited about playing guitar. Obviously I can't wait to be playing songs I really know, but for now I am happy with what I'm doing.
I started trying to see how many chord changes I could do in a minute. I started a timer for 1:05. got the first chord ready, and started mashing my fingers at the one minute mark. I counted each chord individually. After 4 trials, here were my best number of changes:
D-A: 24
D-E: 21
A-E: 20
I could feel myself speeding up, but the pain in my fingers made me take a break between each practice session. However, I still found myself placing fingers one at a time. Once I have the calluses built up, I will just need to practice to reach to my target of 60 in a minute.
I tried playing a bit of a song! I could play the chorus to Three Little Birds by Bob Marley reasonably well.
I've discovered one reason I am struggling sometimes to get my chords to ring clearly. When I hold the strings for long enough, they leave indents on my fingers. This lets them lift off just enough to buzz or sound dead. If I try to adjust my finger to fix that, the string finds its way back into that groove. Again, this means suffering until I have some calluses.
Also, I'm noticing a weird dull pain in my wrist and forearm. I have a feeling this is from playing too much, and building up the new muscles in my left hand. At least I hope it is. Time will tell.
Despite the pain, I am still just as excited about playing guitar. Obviously I can't wait to be playing songs I really know, but for now I am happy with what I'm doing.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Learning Guitar, Day 2
So I picked up my guitar today, along with a tuner, strings, case, and a few picks. I read a good habit to get into is to tune your guitar each time you plan to use it, so the first thing I did when I got home was to try out my new tuner. I guess the microphone in it isn't as strong as I expected, but I got it to work. One thing I kept messing up was which tuning knob adjusted what string. Also, the strings made a crazy popping noise sometimes, but I guess that's normal. Eventually I got the instrument in tune, and boy did it sound good!
I messed around with it for a bit before trying some of the beginner chords, like C, D, E, etc. One site I looked at recommended starting by learning G major, C major, and D major, but the site I am now mostly following (http://www.justinguitar.com/) recommended D major, A major, and E major. I liked this site because along with each lesson was a high quality video, with plenty of details to go around.
I started with the D major chord. The first thing I noticed what how much my fingers hurt. I read somewhere it would take anywhere from 10-14 days to build up the calluses needed for them not to hurt. I guess I'll live with it. I had a little trouble getting the chord to sound correctly, but eventually got it and practiced it for a little while.
I followed up with the A major, then the E major. A was very cramped and hard to get right, but I got it down. E seemed alright, but a lot of the time the B string (5th string) sounded dead or buzzed. I found the problem to be my index finger, and I found that if I move it up slightly the problem goes away. This may mean touching the D string (3rd string), but that's ok. The ring finger is holding that down on a later fret anyway.
I practiced each for around 15 minutes (on and off). One thing I found helpful was using a webcam to match the shot of the end of the fretboard in the videos. I then pulled up a picture from the video of what the chord should look like, and compared them side-by-side to diagnose problems.
After about a two hour break, I came back and practiced these (trying to ignore the constant pain in my fingers) and found I had them memorized, and could play them clearly most of the time. Not bad for my first day. I am still a little fuzzy on the names, but I'm getting there.
The next exercise in that lesson plan was to try switching between chords, and to see how many you can do in a minute. I decided not to try that today with the state of my fingers. I will try that on the next few days though, as a way to see my progress.
I'm so excited to have a guitar now! I can't wait to be able to play a song or two. Maybe tomorrow?
I messed around with it for a bit before trying some of the beginner chords, like C, D, E, etc. One site I looked at recommended starting by learning G major, C major, and D major, but the site I am now mostly following (http://www.justinguitar.com/) recommended D major, A major, and E major. I liked this site because along with each lesson was a high quality video, with plenty of details to go around.
I started with the D major chord. The first thing I noticed what how much my fingers hurt. I read somewhere it would take anywhere from 10-14 days to build up the calluses needed for them not to hurt. I guess I'll live with it. I had a little trouble getting the chord to sound correctly, but eventually got it and practiced it for a little while.
I followed up with the A major, then the E major. A was very cramped and hard to get right, but I got it down. E seemed alright, but a lot of the time the B string (5th string) sounded dead or buzzed. I found the problem to be my index finger, and I found that if I move it up slightly the problem goes away. This may mean touching the D string (3rd string), but that's ok. The ring finger is holding that down on a later fret anyway.
I practiced each for around 15 minutes (on and off). One thing I found helpful was using a webcam to match the shot of the end of the fretboard in the videos. I then pulled up a picture from the video of what the chord should look like, and compared them side-by-side to diagnose problems.
After about a two hour break, I came back and practiced these (trying to ignore the constant pain in my fingers) and found I had them memorized, and could play them clearly most of the time. Not bad for my first day. I am still a little fuzzy on the names, but I'm getting there.
The next exercise in that lesson plan was to try switching between chords, and to see how many you can do in a minute. I decided not to try that today with the state of my fingers. I will try that on the next few days though, as a way to see my progress.
I'm so excited to have a guitar now! I can't wait to be able to play a song or two. Maybe tomorrow?
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Learning Guitar, Day 1
I've decided to blog my learning experience, both to chart my progress, but also to put down any tips I can as a newbie. Be warned though, these tips may be crap!
Today was spent visiting guitar shops. I played with a wide variety of acoustic guitars, having no idea what I was doing. I had actually forgotten how short a guitar is, and had to ask "is this full size?" All of the guitars I played with were full size even though there were a few with a 3/4 size available.
The first shop I visited had a nice sounding guitar for $199 with case and strap. At the third shop I had found a nice black guitar for a reasonable $119. With one more shop left, we drove across town to find another reasonably priced guitar, this time with a cut away. However the salesman didn't strike me as much of a musician. In the end I picked the black guitar, and I'll be picking it up tomorrow, along with a case, strap, and tuner, which will all (most likely) be bought separately.
So what was I looking for when I was hunting? There was a few things that were commonsense, and a few I learned online.
First (and most obvious), I made sure all the guitars I looked at were in my price range. All of the shops took care of that for me by asking first.
Second, I made sure I liked the look of it. Blue? No thank you. Natural wood? Good. Black? Not bad.
Then I considered the supposed condition of it, and the actual condition. Is it supposed to be new, but there is a dent or a nick somewhere? Or if it was used, is the price worth its condition? One used guitar I looked at was only $100, but the wooden piece where the bridge and pins are located looked like had broken off and been glued back on, along with a noticeable dent on the top.
Next, does it sound nice?
Last, how is the action? Action is the distance between the strings and the fret board. If it's too high, the strings can be too hard to press. If it's too low, the strings could vibrate and hit the fret board, making horrible buzzing. Supposedly it's best to have a guitar with a medium action: not too high, not too low. On the same idea, I made sure the strings vibrate correctly when pressing down on the ~12th fret or higher. If they are hitting the board, that's a problem.
Beyond those, I had no idea what I was doing. It was a bit awkward, but since this is all new to me I figured it was ok. The salesmen were a little pushy, but when I mentioned I was still looking they backed off a little.
I'd say today was a success. I ended up with a free guitar pick, I bought a chart with guitar tabs for common chords, and I have a guitar in mind to buy. Tomorrow, the fun begins!
Today was spent visiting guitar shops. I played with a wide variety of acoustic guitars, having no idea what I was doing. I had actually forgotten how short a guitar is, and had to ask "is this full size?" All of the guitars I played with were full size even though there were a few with a 3/4 size available.
The first shop I visited had a nice sounding guitar for $199 with case and strap. At the third shop I had found a nice black guitar for a reasonable $119. With one more shop left, we drove across town to find another reasonably priced guitar, this time with a cut away. However the salesman didn't strike me as much of a musician. In the end I picked the black guitar, and I'll be picking it up tomorrow, along with a case, strap, and tuner, which will all (most likely) be bought separately.
So what was I looking for when I was hunting? There was a few things that were commonsense, and a few I learned online.
First (and most obvious), I made sure all the guitars I looked at were in my price range. All of the shops took care of that for me by asking first.
Second, I made sure I liked the look of it. Blue? No thank you. Natural wood? Good. Black? Not bad.
Then I considered the supposed condition of it, and the actual condition. Is it supposed to be new, but there is a dent or a nick somewhere? Or if it was used, is the price worth its condition? One used guitar I looked at was only $100, but the wooden piece where the bridge and pins are located looked like had broken off and been glued back on, along with a noticeable dent on the top.
Next, does it sound nice?
Last, how is the action? Action is the distance between the strings and the fret board. If it's too high, the strings can be too hard to press. If it's too low, the strings could vibrate and hit the fret board, making horrible buzzing. Supposedly it's best to have a guitar with a medium action: not too high, not too low. On the same idea, I made sure the strings vibrate correctly when pressing down on the ~12th fret or higher. If they are hitting the board, that's a problem.
Beyond those, I had no idea what I was doing. It was a bit awkward, but since this is all new to me I figured it was ok. The salesmen were a little pushy, but when I mentioned I was still looking they backed off a little.
I'd say today was a success. I ended up with a free guitar pick, I bought a chart with guitar tabs for common chords, and I have a guitar in mind to buy. Tomorrow, the fun begins!
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