Learning to play the guitar?

[Upinflames]

F.

Bloody F

That's where I'm up to

[ben5575]

Exactly the same!

If I hear Califonrnication one more time...!

[RedAndy]

but once you crack F you have barre chords ... so you can play 99% of songs easily enough

[President Merkin]

Upinflames said:

F.

Bloody F

That's where I'm up to

Top tip for F major Play E but keeping your index finger spare, shifting the chord over to your middle, index & little finger. Move the whole lot up one fret & marvel at my teaching foo.

[cherryowen]

RedAndy said:

but once you crack F you have barre chords ... so you can play 99% of songs easily enough

It opens up a whole palette of stuff like m7, dom7, and maj7 chords (depending on which string one is playing the root of the chord), and is fundamental to playing guitar.

I would, however, go back to something I mentioned previously on this thread about learning where - relative to any given root note - the third and fifth notes are. Just yesterday, I watched a Charles Cornell video on Hans Zimmer's soundtrack to "Interstellar". It's based around just three chords - Fmaj7 / G6 / Am, and all three can be played using the D, G, and B strings which still sound fantastic.

[Pupp]

This is so basic it hurts, but a revelation for me with electric has been moving away from my practice amp only ever used at low volumes, to acquiring a dedicated headphone amp to use with decent cans.

I’m sure there are practice amps out there with much better low volume resolution than the very old Bullet I have, but using cans through a Mustang Micro really reveals what your interactions with the instrument are doing (or more often not doing in my case).

If you’re lucky enough to live in splendid isolation then a good amp turned well up can’t be bested, but for those of us who have to think next door/family/ I don’t want to inflict this etc, I think the Mustang Micro and cans route is a game-changer.

[RATATTAK]

Pupp said:

This is so basic it hurts, but a revelation for me with electric has been moving away from my practice amp only ever used at low volumes, to acquiring a dedicated headphone amp to use with decent cans.

I’m sure there are practice amps out there with much better low volume resolution than the very old Bullet I have, but using cans through a Mustang Micro really reveals what your interactions with the instrument are doing (or more often not doing in my case).

If you’re lucky enough to live in splendid isolation then a good amp turned well up can’t be bested, but for those of us who have to think next door/family/ I don’t want to inflict this etc, I think the Mustang Micro and cans route is a game-changer.

The best amp I ever bought is the Fender Mustang Micro ... £100 worth of goodness that allows me to pick up my electric guitars at any time without fear of bothering anyone

[RedAndy]

cherryowen said:

RedAndy said:

but once you crack F you have barre chords ... so you can play 99% of songs easily enough

It opens up a whole palette of stuff like m7, dom7, and maj7 chords (depending on which string one is playing the root of the chord), and is fundamental to playing guitar.

my stubby fingers never culd bridge the neck properly without fuzzing other strings... so I opted for Powerchords instead and lots of effects.... then discovered drop-D powerchords and that was it - play along all day with my fave bands!

[chemistry]

Pupp said:

This is so basic it hurts, but a revelation for me with electric has been moving away from my practice amp only ever used at low volumes, to acquiring a dedicated headphone amp to use with decent cans.

I’m sure there are practice amps out there with much better low volume resolution than the very old Bullet I have, but using cans through a Mustang Micro really reveals what your interactions with the instrument are doing (or more often not doing in my case).

If you’re lucky enough to live in splendid isolation then a good amp turned well up can’t be bested, but for those of us who have to think next door/family/ I don’t want to inflict this etc, I think the Mustang Micro and cans route is a game-changer.

If you have a Mac, iPhone or iPad then I recommend getting an audio interface (something like the iRig2) and the (free) Tonebridge app. You just type the song you want to play into Tonebridge and it sets up the correct virtual amps/cabs/effects to match the tone from the original. Garageband (free on all Apple computers/phones/tablets) also has a pretty good range of virtual amps/cabs/effects too and allows you to record and edit. You can use both top play along with songs and backing tracks on YouTube, all through your headphones etc.

After that, try Moises, another app (best paid for, but it's cheap) which allows you to isolate or remove the guitar from any song in your library. Isolate it to hear just the guitar, to make learning it easier. Remove it to create a backing track....then record the resulting 'performance over backing track' into Garageband using the tones from Tonebridge!

[Pupp]

Thanks; some great info and suggestions there

[otolith]

A looper is a nice thing to play with while noodling away on your own. Most multi-effect pedals come with one these days.

[Upinflames]

otolith said:

A looper is a nice thing to play with while noodling away on your own. Most multi-effect pedals come with one these days.

Yes, next purchase.

I've got an old keyboard too which lets you record and loop so I've taught myself a few chords so I can do a 12 bar on the keyboard, loop it and play along

[Pupp]

Now, you’re all going Katie Tunstall on us…

[SWoll]

Pupp said:

Thanks; some great info and suggestions there

Indeed. Just checked and our old iPad Air that gets very little use these days still runs Tonebridge perfectly so have invested £20 in a TC Helicon Go interface via Andertons that arrives tomorrow.

Thanks for the tip chemistry.

[HiAsAKite]

RATATTAK said:

Pupp said:

This is so basic it hurts, but a revelation for me with electric has been moving away from my practice amp only ever used at low volumes, to acquiring a dedicated headphone amp to use with decent cans.

I’m sure there are practice amps out there with much better low volume resolution than the very old Bullet I have, but using cans through a Mustang Micro really reveals what your interactions with the instrument are doing (or more often not doing in my case).

If you’re lucky enough to live in splendid isolation then a good amp turned well up can’t be bested, but for those of us who have to think next door/family/ I don’t want to inflict this etc, I think the Mustang Micro and cans route is a game-changer.

The best amp I ever bought is the Fender Mustang Micro ... £100 worth of goodness that allows me to pick up my electric guitars at any time without fear of bothering anyone

I'm not sure it was the "best" amp for me.. my Marshall VS65R with its valve breakup on the clean channel when using hjeadphones wins that prize ..
...but its big, and heavy..


But the mustang micro is so quick and easy to use, I can go anywhere in the house with it, it and does a pretty good job in audio terms. Definitely money well spent, and I probably use it 60-70% of the time over the Marshall out of sheer convenience..

[RATATTAK]

HiAsAKite said:

I'm not sure it was the "best" amp for me.. my Marshall VS65R with its valve breakup on the clean channel when using hjeadphones wins that prize ..
...but its big, and heavy..


But the mustang micro is so quick and easy to use, I can go anywhere in the house with it, it and does a pretty good job in audio terms. Definitely money well spent, and I probably use it 60-70% of the time over the Marshall out of sheer convenience..

That's what I meant really. My Marshall rarely gets used these days.

[otolith]

It’s a toy really, but I bought a Spark and it’s fun. I only really play to amuse myself though.

I also have a Fender Acoustasonic 15 Acoustic Guitar Combo Amplifier and a Boss VE-8 Guitar/Vocal Processor - does things like adding vocal harmonies as well as adding reverb etc.

[chemistry]

SWoll said:

Indeed. Just checked and our old iPad Air that gets very little use these days still runs Tonebridge perfectly so have invested £20 in a TC Helicon Go interface via Andertons that arrives tomorrow.

Thanks for the tip chemistry.

Great! Let us know how you get on…

[Rod200SX]

Would really benefit from monitors but if you've an audio interface and a half decent PC, some amp sims are fantastic for creating the cranked sound at sensible volumes. Can sound fine enough through decent PC speakers, too.

99% of my playing at home now is doing through archetype plugins, so much fun to experiment on and they sound killer whilst being cheap. Worth a nosey or even a free trial if you have the facilities to plug your guitar in.

[chemistry]

Rod200SX said:

Would really benefit from monitors but if you've an audio interface and a half decent PC, some amp sims are fantastic for creating the cranked sound at sensible volumes. Can sound fine enough through decent PC speakers, too.

99% of my playing at home now is doing through archetype plugins, so much fun to experiment on and they sound killer whilst being cheap. Worth a nosey or even a free trial if you have the facilities to plug your guitar in.

I do much the same; most of my playing now is through my computer (Mac), with all the 'tones' generated by Tonebridge, Garageband, Amplitube, etc. The sounds are amazing (unlike my playing...) and it's so easy to play along with backing tracks and lessons, record yourself, etc. The added bonus is that it's all done at family friendly volume (in fact, I usually play through DT 770 wired headphones).

It took a bit of getting used to initially, but now I just find it all incredibly convenient. I think this guy sums up the experience pretty well: