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Hello. I bought a guitar. Yesterday, I had never held a guitar before. Today, my fingers hurt. I am excited. I want to keep practicing, but I know my fingers need to rest.
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Sep 24, 2020 01:23
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 00:43 |
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Zaphod42 posted:That's a good lookin' guitar. Good energy. Remember its a marathon, not a sprint, and what really matters is that you keep playing every day and don't put it in a closet, rather than doing a zillion hours in a single day. Good advice. It is right next to my desk. I decided to practice over the lunch hour, which I think should help me be consistent. Thinking ahead to Minnesota Winter in COVID-times. osker posted:Nice! Do you still have the Deluge? When you get acquainted with your new guitar can you fiddle with the two and report back? Yep! It's got the live looping mode in their latest major update, which should be fun to practice against, and I'd like to use it as another instrument in the synth tracks I've been making. I think it'll be a good while before I can play well enough for any of that, though. Last time I actually had to play to a beat instead of programming a piano roll was in high school.
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Sep 24, 2020 01:50
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Today I started playing songs with the couple chords I have learned. Holy cow that is crazy fun. It reminds me of playing racing video games, where you just do laps over and over, trying to improve your performance every time through. Getting my fingers in the right places in time is a struggle, but I'm surprised how often I am able to strum the correct strings. Love it.
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Oct 1, 2020 03:14
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osker posted:Nice! Do you still have the Deluge? When you get acquainted with your new guitar can you fiddle with the two and report back? I want to give this a shot. I have a mixer (Behringer Xenyx 1002B) into which I run my synths. The output from that is connected to the Deluge's line-in jack. I want to hook the guitar into the mixer, to treat it as another instrument going into the Deluge. Each line on the mixer has has an XLR mic jack, and also 1/4" jacks labeled "line-in" and "ins". When I hook the guitar into the "line-in" jack without a DI box, I get what sounds like a quiet, noisy signal. When I hook it into the "ins" jack, I get no sound whatsoever. So I think I need an active DI box (e.g. Behringer DI100) to turn the unbalanced instrument-level signal into a balanced, mic-level signal to run into the mixer. To get a good sound, I can get an amp modeling pedal, like a CabDryVR or something, and put distortion or other effect pedals before the amp modeling pedal. To put it in diagram form (dash is 1/4" unbalanced, equals is XLR balanced): [guitar]-->[effect pedals]-->[amp modeling pedal]-->[DI box]==>[mixer] Is that all right?
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Oct 4, 2020 14:51
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I'm a month into owning my first guitar. I've been practicing pretty much every day. It's so much fun, it's the highlight of my day. I'm finding the C, D, and Dm chords to be hardest. I can usually get them quickly when I'm just practicing the chord shapes, but when I try to play them in time, I have a real hard time getting my fingers down accurately. Anyway, it'll come. I haven't learned F or B yet. I'm planning to take the guitar back to the shop I bought it from to have them give it a setup. The E and A strings are very buzzy. I tried tweaking the saddle height, but it didn't fix the problem, so I'd rather have someone who knows what they're doing just give the whole thing a once over.
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Oct 23, 2020 12:57
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I've actually gone the opposite direction, from noodling around on synths for the past year or two, to just now learning guitar. It's already changed so much about how I think about composing music. Learning to play real songs, even at the complete beginner level, has opened up to me how songs are structured. I'm starting to learn how real songs use different (or sometimes the same!) chord progressions in each section. Guitar is also both more and less restricting than playing with synths. It's more restricting in that it's only physically possible to play certain chords, and as I'm only six weeks in, I only know like a dozen anyway. But it's less restricting in that I can just poke a different fret and just see how it sounds. If I want to try a sus4 here I can just do that in the next go around without having to stop the song and go find the note and tweak it in the roll and restart the song and then change it back if I don't like it. It's so much more immediate. As I get more skilled, I can definitely see using the guitar as a tool to compose for my synths, just because it's an easier way to hear and play with different ideas.
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Nov 8, 2020 16:44
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Man, eff barre chords.
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Nov 13, 2020 01:30
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This is probably the most boring observation on practicing in history, but I'm gonna share it anyway. I'm still working on the full F barre chord, so I've been doing practice drills switching between C and F. Yesterday, I decided to try using it in songs. It's still hard to get it down in time for beat 1, but I'm getting there. But when it comes time to change out of F into C, my fingers just instantly snapped over to where they belong, before my brain even thought about it. I actually stumbled the first time it happened because I was so surprised at how quick it happened that I had to double-check that it was correct. Practicing is neat!
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Nov 26, 2020 15:46
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NC Wyeth Death Cult posted:Are you playing a barre where you put your pointer finger across the first fret or are you keeping the open grip of the C and moving fingers? Across the first fret, yeah.
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Nov 26, 2020 18:54
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Excellent bird guitar.
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Nov 28, 2020 00:54
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I just picked up a THR10. Anyone have any favorite settings on it that they like to play with?
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Nov 29, 2020 19:07
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After about 2.5 months of playing every day, I finally changed the strings on my guitar for the first time. I was just using whatever strings it came with. I put 9s on, because that's what I saw recommended for beginners. The old strings were definitely heavier, maybe 10s, I dunno. The biggest difference I notice is longer sustain. The lighter gauge is definitely noticeable. I have to be much more careful about not bending the string out of tune, or the high E string off the fretboard entirely. Kinda frustrating to suddenly be worse at playing, haha. I'll get used to it.
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Dec 8, 2020 03:53
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I think the issue is Major Scale vs Major Chord. Major scales have the WWHWWWH setup. So for example the key of D Major is D, E, F#, G, A, B, C. Major chords have the 3rd of that note's major scale in them (also called the major third interval). The third scale degree of the D major scale is F#, so the chord Dmaj is D, F#, and A. Minor chords have the flatted third (or minor third interval). So the chord Dmin is D, F, and A. Whether a given chord is in (or "diatonic to") a key is determined by whether all of that chord's notes are in the key. So Dmaj is diatonic to the D Major scale. Dmin is not diatonic to the D Major scale because F is not in the D Major scale. If your chord has neither a major or minor third interval, then it is neither a major nor minor chord. ADAD has no third, it's just first and fifths, so it's not a major or minor chord. All of the chords that are diatonic to the D Major scale are D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bmin, and Cdim.
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Dec 9, 2020 20:19
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ewe2 posted:That was useful for explaining what diatonic means, but what does it actually do? What use can you make of it? If it's just a rule of 18th century Western harmony that would get you into trouble if you're writing a fugue then I can see see the application but if I want to understand a bass chart I don't need to know what is specifically diatonic to the scale, I'll either be surprised or unsurprised by the progression. I mean if you want to play a major chord, then it's useful to know what a major chord is. If you want to play blues then you should probably know your 7 chords. If you want to know why some of the notes in your melody sound good over their harmony and others don't, or how you can use that dissonance to build tension in your melody, then it's good to know what notes are in each chord of your progression. If you just want to play stuff that sounds good to you, then carry on, my friend. This all came up because a guy was suggesting using a D power chord in place of a D major. That's going to have a different feel (which is fine! but it's still not a D major chord).
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Dec 9, 2020 20:56
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ewe2 posted:Ok I can see if I want to be patronized I just have to post here. I was merely asking what the point of discussing diatonic notes was in relation to scales (obviously its about describing scales), I didn't need to be talked down to about what major minor and 7th chords are. But you do you, obviously this is what you live for. I apologize, I didn't mean to be condescending. I was trying to explain how I have found the concepts useful (how the chords in a key, notes in a chord, and notes in a melody related to each other, etc). I should've phrased it from my perspective.
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Dec 9, 2020 23:27
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Carth Dookie posted:If you squint hard enough these look like teles. Mostly just wanted to post the GS mini I got for Christmas. homewrecker posted:The GS Mini is a fantastic guitar, I have the mahogany model and it is such a joy to play. What are some reasons to prefer the smaller Taylor guitars to the full size ones? I'm looking to get my first acoustic, and was planning to get a full-size 114 or 214, but I also see the GS Mini and A12 recommended a lot.
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Jan 15, 2021 16:21
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homewrecker posted:For me it's just personal preference - I'm a smaller person and also at the time I bought it, the physical space I had available for playing and storage was limited, so the GS Mini was more comfortable and convenient for my needs. I think it does sound great for its size but at the same time I'm sure that it can't exactly compare to a full size model. Thumposaurus posted:If you're just playing at home a dreadnought sized acoustic can be loud as gently caress. Carth Dookie posted:Depends on your circumstances. Thanks, all. This would be my 2nd guitar, I've been learning on an electric. I think the A12 is winning. I'm more in the tall-and-lanky category, so I think the short scale length of the Mini and GT series may be a negative. Meanwhile the smaller and more comfortable body on the A12 gives it an advantage over the 100 series, since I'll mostly be playing indoors to myself. And bonus, a local guitar shop has one in stock, so I don't even have to deal with shipping.
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Jan 16, 2021 14:19
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Went to the store and picked up that A12e today. Never held an acoustic before, I'm surprised at how light it is. Sounds great, nice and loud, no fret buzz. The scale length is only 3/4" shorter than my electric, but the neck feels very stubby, I guess because of where it sits on my knee. Excited to play more on it, and also not be tethered to my music station.
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Jan 17, 2021 21:33
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Amniotic posted:Always nice to have something in reach as well as the longer-term goals. Do you have any low difficulty stuff you work on to practice dynamics and feel to go along with whatever high end noodling you're aiming for? Lemme tell you getting an acoustic will make you real aware of how bad your dynamics are. My wife's upstairs and is like: wow that thing's loud. My garbage fingerstyle Thumb-3-2-1-2-3 has never sounded better though. Amazing stuff. Guitar is really fun, guys.
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Jan 19, 2021 00:54
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"If Lee was to play a simple chord, like, maybe an A." "...I can do that." Ahh, what a good video.
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Feb 5, 2021 15:59
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I'd like some advice on barre chords. When I play an F chord during a song, I notice that it sounds like crap. I think it's going way out of tune. If I play each note of a normal open chord into a tuner, the fretted notes are either in tune or a little bit sharp. But when I play the F, all six notes are between a little and extremely sharp. I've tried loosening my grip, which seems to help, but they still don't get down in tune, and I start to lose notes (especially the C on the B string) from lack of pressure. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here? Is it just a matter of learning the "right" amount of pressure to keep them as in tune as possible, or is there something else I should be looking at?
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Feb 6, 2021 02:34
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Thanks all for the feedback. I think the action is OK. Using some tortexes as feeler gauges, the strings seem to be right at 0.5mm above the first fret. The notes are tuned fine if I just use one finger in the first fret on each string. Seems like pressure and where I'm placing the bar are probably the culprits here. I stopped myself on a few bad sounding chords, and the bar was usually more towards the middle of the first space than right up on the fret, which is maybe why I'm pressing so hard. Thanks for pointing me in this direction. creamcorn posted:all the advice you've gotten thus far on how to get that barre to sound better is good, but if you want to just play an F chord during songs the barre is honestly super impractical a lot of the time. try just playing an f major triad; there're tons of ways to play it on the neck, but a really good easy voicing for it is xx321x. this voicing will work for literally any major chord, your root is on the D string. You know, I've been wondering if that was the case. I've been using the full chord to practice barre chords, so I skipped the "smaller" F version. It's been on my todo list to learn the xx3211 voicing, but I'll also play with muting the first string. One worry I have with that vs the full barre chord is how "thin" the four string chords sound. I've mostly moved to using open D/F# instead of just D for that reason (it also does that cool moving bass line thing between G and Em). But I should learn it regardless and see how it sounds. Maybe songs that use Fmaj use 4 and 5 string chords more often anyway (C, Am, Dm, etc) so it's less noticeable than songs in G? Thanks for the suggestion.
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Feb 6, 2021 20:58
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That looks cool as hell
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Feb 8, 2021 13:43
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I storm out of Guitar Center, a sea of broken capos in my wake. You'll thank me later.
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Feb 14, 2021 16:02
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Carth Dookie posted:got an hour of guitar practice in at work today. Love working from home. Finally, a use for phone meetings
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Feb 18, 2021 03:23
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mango sentinel posted:If I were still shopping for a basic acoustic in that price range I would get a Taylor Academy 12 if I could find one or EJ200SCE for one with electronics. Try a Yamahas FG830 if you wanna stick to the lower end of that range. Yessir. After doing a bunch of research, I chose the A12e and I love it.
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Feb 22, 2021 17:52
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I'm moving on from cowboy chords into stuff like scales and arpeggiating chords with a metronome. It's a little dull, sure, but it's super cool when I'm able to look at the ceiling and pick out three or four different chords on different strings in a row before fumbling. Being able to accurately navigate six strings across less than two inches of space blows me away.
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Mar 4, 2021 12:45
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S.W.O.R.D. Agent posted:I'm in my 30s and my wife got me a guitar for our anniversary (I've always wanted to learn to play), but had a kid a month later. We're finally at a spot where I feel like I can devote some time to practice every day. FWIW I have really, really liked Justin Guitar. I started from nothing last September, have played at least an hour pretty much every day since then, and I'm now at the start of the Intermediate grades (which are also going to be revamped over the summer, like his Beginner grades have already been). I have also done some of his theory and transcribing lessons. I can't give you ideas for other places, but I can at least give Justin a big thumbs up.
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Mar 4, 2021 15:54
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Good Soldier Svejk posted:In advance of a new guitar joining the flock tomorrow (hopefully) I thought I'd go through a catalogue of my current collection. I hope you'll all indulge me as I reflect. I enjoyed this post
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Mar 11, 2021 15:21
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I have been wanting to get straps for a while, and y'all's conversation about Couch straps a little while ago pushed me over the edge. It's my first time playing standing up, and it's super fun. A little bit of getting used to, and not being able to cheat by looking at the fretboard for playing individual strings (scales etc) will take some extra practice, but overall it doesn't seem to have affected my playing much.
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Mar 20, 2021 00:00
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Oh Captain, my captain. (But for real that intro jam with Rabea and Pete from a few days ago was killer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lUAqVCfsdw )
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Mar 20, 2021 00:56
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The exotic woods thing is ~complicated~ (which is the whole point of your post, but I find it a fascinating topic so I'm going to write about it anyway). It's easy to say something like "don't buy South American rosewood because that's one more tree they're taking down in the rainforest." But actually, the question being asked isn't whether to take that tree down, the question is whether the land the tree is on is more valuable as an exotic wood plantation, or clearcut for a farm or some other purpose. So maintaining demand for exotic woods is actually good, as it increases the price of the wood and therefore the likelihood that the landowner will choose to grow it. On the other hand it's bad, as it increases incentives for illegal logging of protected forests which contain those woods, or establishment of poorly maintained plaintations to make a quick buck while destroying the land for the future. So you don't want to eliminate the market, but you also don't want to encourage illegal logging. That's where fun international regulations like CITES come into place, where they're trying to thread the needle between making those trees economically worthless by outlawing them, without also destroying their ecological value by encouraging illegal logging. It's tough! There is no such thing as ethical consumption under capitalism, but I don't think that's an excuse to close your eyes, either.
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Mar 20, 2021 13:20
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mango sentinel posted:Near me there's a whole like two week long luthier training you can do but it's like a full camp experience where they offer housing and you build an entire acoustic from scratch. It's like $3000+ (not including materials.) That actually sounds pretty awesome.
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Mar 29, 2021 03:28
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Me, 6 months ago: I don't understand why these people have so many guitars. I'll just stick with this one until I really learn to play it. Me, today: Well, I have a superstrat with two humbuckers and an acoustic. I should find out what this single coil thing is all about. So I have three guitars now. I was browsing local shops and found one that sold a couple models by a local luthier. Made my way to his own website and found this demo model he built a long time ago and was selling at a steep discount compared to the rest of his stuff. Went over to his house tonight and bought it right from the guy who made it. We chatted for a bit about guitars and woodworking. He's into making basses now. Been playing it for 2.5 hours straight and I need to stop now because my fingers have stopped functioning.   
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Apr 3, 2021 03:08
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Snowy posted:That guy fixed everything I don’t like about teles, I love it I'm glad y'all like it. His current models use a humbucker in the neck with a split switch, and he also does custom models if you'd rather have the P90 style.
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Apr 3, 2021 13:52
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I just had a guitar breakthrough in the car this morning. I've learned songs in open position with a capo, and I've lately been learning barre chords, so I've been thinking about how to translate the open position chords into the barre chords. So I'd think like, OK the first chord is G with the capo at the first fret so it's actually a G# which is an E barre shape at the fourth fret. Second chord is D which is actually D# which is an A shape at the sixth fret. Then this morning it clicked. You just need to figure out the root chord and the relative chords in open position, then it always follow the same pattern. If the song is I-V-VI-IV in open, then in barre chord shapes it's E-A(up 2 frets)-Am(up 4 frets)-A. Or whatever chord substitutions, but you get the idea. No need to math it out. Of course this isn't news to anyone, but I actually laughed out loud in the car when it clicked. Fun stuff.
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Apr 4, 2021 15:06
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Also known as the "rat king".
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Apr 8, 2021 16:22
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So what's the deal with telecaster bridges? What's the purpose of the huge chunk of metal? Why don't other guitars feature a similar chunk of metal? I like having it there, the lip works as a reference point to rest my palm against when not muting any strings, but otherwise what's it for?
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Apr 17, 2021 00:51
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Life goal: get "that good bwang bwang bwang sound" laser etched into my tele bridge.
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Apr 17, 2021 02:00
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 00:43 |
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Speaking of tuning, I've been practicing tuning by ear (no beef with tuners, just seems like a good skill to have). I tune the low E string with a tuner, then turn it off and do the rest by ear. I've noticed when I check the tuned strings open against the tuner, they are all sharp. Presumably this is because fretting the reference string pulls it a bit sharp, and this adds up working down the strings. How do you resolve this? Is it better to tune them all accurately open with the tuner? Or is this sharpness actually a good thing because the strings will often be fretted anyway, so it will actually be more in tune with itself? Is it actually the case that I'm just doing a lovely tuning job, and if I did it well then the open strings would be in tune with the tuner? Does it matter?
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Apr 23, 2021 14:53
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