Help me with my guitar 'playing' please.

[budfox]

Hi all.

I'm a rare visitor to the music forum but there seem to be many knowledgeable people here.

In short I've been trying to learn (electric) guitar for many years and I'm getting nowhere. When I got my guitar I worked through some simple lesson books and indeed had a few lessons. After a few months I could play a good selection of open chords, some basic barre chords and generally strum away to a few songs.

Roll forward 15 years and I can still do just that. I've had a few more lessons and tried the usual websites/youtube (Justin Guitar and good old Marty Schwartz etc...), but I've no idea how to progress.

I'm stuck in 'boring chord hell' but now I have plenty of time to learn, and this time I'm determined to get better. I just don't know how...

Thanks for any help.

Steve

[budfox]

Oh hell I posted a big long reply and it all went wrong.

Here's the shortened version: Popular music that everyone knows. A bit of Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Adele, Neil Diamond.... The sort of tunes that Justin Guitar teaches really.

I'd like to be able to strum some popular songs and make them sound better than just boring old strumming. I'd also like to play a few 'Rock God' solos one day :-)

[budfox]

Yes, I have been giving Justin Guitar another go and I'm also looking at the technicalities of blues playing. That does seem a good starting point.

I also bought a Zoom G1 so that I can record little loops and then play over the top of them to help my timing and understanding of the fretboard.

Determined to get better now...

[budfox]

Sorry all, been ignoring this thread.

Thanks for all of the advice, I'm certainly giving things a better attempt now.

[budfox]

red997 said:

I'd suggest playing some tunes you enjoy - nothing worse than thinking I want to improve, but I don't know how...
what are your weaknesses ?
What do you want to play ?
Focusing on where you want to get to can help.

I've been playing for 35 years (inc professionally) and you never stop learning, progressing - hell I worked out a progression in seconds a couple of days ago that I just could not master 10 years ago - it became intuitive;

Try not to focus on the tech (it can be all encompassing these days) and listen to the guitar

Above all enjoy it - and don't stress - we all hit blocks along the way !

Weakness? Well it might sound weird but I don't think anyone ever in my entire family played any kind of musical instrument. So part of me thinks "I'm not musical". That's emphasised by having been trying on and off for so long and never feeling like anything is becoming natural. (I got the hang of the basic open chords easily enough but as in my original post, that's where things ground to a halt).

Other weaknesses, well not being able to give myself any kind of structured learning. I'm quite technical and analytical and whilst there's clearly a scientific basis to music theory, I always prefer "do this, this and then this... and then this will happen". Learning guitar doesn't feel like that.

What songs? Well the Siggi Mertens tutorial on "While my guitar gently weeps" gives a good example of a song I'd like to be able to play. Then "Angie" by the Stones or "Make Me Smile" by Steve Harley is another. Pretty "middle of the road" stuff really. It's almost like I want to be told which song to learn before moving on to the next.

The other thing I'd say is that I want to play my electric guitar because it's easier, but I'd much rather be able to play the acoustic as it sounds nicer.

Anyway, back to Siggi. (I don't find his lessons too easy though, can't really see which notes he's fretting).