Guitar People

[BluE_MeaniE]

Re: Guitar People

You want to get in the habit of picking down on down-beats and up on up-beats. So do that. Down-up-down-up always, even across strings, for eighth notes. Then later on you can make things slightly more efficient, but don't do that now.

[dsadsadsa]

Re: Guitar People

Is there absolutely no way for you to find someone to take lessons from?

A good m8 of mine felt like he was at his best until he started taking lessons, and he improved at a very quick rate.

[Tantric]

Re: Guitar People

I'm effin poor! I can't afford lessons! Any tips I can find are very usefull to me.

[Mr.SouthLyon]

Re: Guitar People

Do you have a friend or family member who takes lessons or is halfway decent at guitar? Since you can't afford to pay for "real" lessons, get some tips or lessons for free from someone you know. That's what I did with drums until I got serious enough to take actual lessons.

[FluorescentArmy]

Re: Guitar People

I'm self taught. I'll record myself doing some mindless improvised shred in a little.
Ok about the chromatics. Like I said, START SLOW. I'll make a small chart:

1234 
DUDU

That's how you would alternate pick. Download a metronome from a site if you can and play your guitar with it. You don't nescessarily(SPELLING ERROR) have to have your guitar plugged in. Just pick with it. Left-Right Hand syncronization is a key part into being able to shred it up.l

Now, just today, I was at a friends birthday party, and we set up a jam session. He was playing some clean blues solo with heavy reverb and I was playing with my distortion pedal on with light reverb and small echo. It sounded cool. Then he showed me his guitar lesson for the week. His guitar teacher gave him some classical piece to learn by J.S. Bach. He's really good at sight reading but I pretty much match up with him at playing. Oh, he's been playing 3 more years than me but I practice much much more. It doesn't matter how long you've played, it's what you've put into the time you've played.

[HansSky]

Re: Guitar People

Yes but theory and numbers are rather different.

Humor me with an example of your own "music theory".

[FluorescentArmy]

Re: Guitar People

If you wanna learn some scales, Tantric, try looking up pentatonic scales. They are an easy way to start learning. Remember, you don't HAVE to stick to a scale. It just makes your music musically correct. To be honest, I don't care about that at all.

[adlp]

Re: Guitar People

Well aside from the fact that I consider metal to be the retarded cousin of the rock genre, to think that you will suddenly get better just because you start playing metal is bull. The only way to get better at something is to practice, practice, practice. Everyone starts with the basics. And you won't get better just by playing a specific genre.

you dont want to start playing metal because the lead guitar is fast and challenging. (metal is sick, tho i prefer alternative rock and indie/screamo) you want to start with a slow song, look it over with tabs, get fast at playing it with practicing for HOURS, and learn faster songs from different genres and you will get better. like what jewpin said, dont be focusing on one genre, be open to classical and flamenco guitar pieces too. learning some of that stuff can make you an all around good guitar player. take lessons when you can, or buy books with sheet music AND tabs, and compare what you find easier and stick with it. try to learn songs with alternative picking (like fingerstyle or hybrid picking) and practice hammer ons, pull-offs and tapping, so you can play things faster. also you should try to make up your own stuff. ive been at guitar for 3 1/2 years and this helps tons.

[FluorescentArmy]

Re: Guitar People

Well, it depends what kind of metal you are listening to. Death metal and hardcore metal are extremely easy to play. Heavy metal is getting up there. The solos require more than 15 minutes of learning to play them. Most power metal bands, like DragonForce, throw together a whole bunch of "cool sounding" licks and riffs to make a song. Some of these licks are actually pretty difficult ONLY because you don't have a major label and can't get the 4000 effects the use per note. I find some progressive metal difficult to play. I have learned one Dream Theater song, Pull Me Under, and I love it. Just the thrill of being able to play it is like WOW to other people. I am gonna learn Under A Glass Moon when I get my new guitar next month. I'm coming up on 3 years on Christmas. I've come a loonnng way. Not was far as I wanted to go. This summer: Get up, go to Idlewild and Work, come home, play guitar, sleep, repeat. On days off I will tend to my social life.