So every 3 years I try to learn a musical instrument for about 2 weeks then suddenly forget all about it, like it never even happened LOL (I have memorised hiragana twice in the last 2 years, resumed piano for just enough time to do this) (low volume) and lasted with harmonica long enough to do this r o f l)
The other day I was reading Nirvana's blokes suicide note randomly as you do and it reminded me of the timeless, exhilarating feeling of being able to play music with passion. And I just thought "you only live once" so if you're going to do something you had better hurry up and do it. (waiting for lung xray results might have something to do with this feeling also lol).
So I looked on my local craigslist thing and found a 2nd hand Ibanez GSA 60 that is rated like 8.1 on the ultimateguitar commuity website and has humbucker pickups or something snazzy like that for just £70 and then picked up an apparently decent AMP.
I still remember the chords I learnt in the past, c, g, e, em, a, f#, d, bm, but my fingers hurt so much I've just been trying to learn a solo thing instead. I wanted to try power chord stuff but there's no fuckin way I can press the strings and move my hands around like that until they toughen up.
I find recording myself when trying to practice makes me tryhard as much as possible (and we learnt in games like Dota that you won't make much progression in terms of ability/mmr if you aren't dedicating yourself to tryharding!)
So here is yesterday's Day 1 attempt .... and below is Day 2 progression XD
Also here is the video I'm learning from (the tab I found doesn't match up to his fingering whatsoever so I'm just slowing the video down in VLC for now. The problem with this of course is I have no ability to identify what chords he uses inbetween the solos so will go ask on ultimateguitar and see if someone can post them for me).
Er so this is what I look like with the guitar I guess but I have put on a lot of weight lol
Learning an instrument takes a lot of time, you're pretty spot on with your dota analogy
I suggest you check out Rocksmith 2014. It's a great tool to learn songs and is really motivating. With Rocksmith I usually play 1 hour like nobody's business. If you get the old Rocksmith and the Song Import tool you get even more songs. And you can invert the display of strings so it reads a little bit closer to tab.
Looks pretty cool, will wait a little to see if I want to go in that direction. I might be fine doing what I'm doing for a while. I watched the videos about it and it seems cool (lol Marty)
Holy fucking jesus motherfucking christ I've been trying to record a faster run-through of this for literally 4 hours and still can't do it without fucking up every single goddamn time holy shit
I suggest downloading a metronome and tuner , both of which are free on google play/ apple store. Tune it at least once every day, and always practice with your metronome.
The work will pay off with lot's of fun moments, understanding music better, exchanging with musicians, watching people's faces when (if) they enjoy your music will make you so happy
ahaha "if" they enjoy your music :D im a bit shy and wont play to anyone until i am good lol. i guess i am a cross between Mio and Ritsu
i uploaded today's progress but i'm sort of feeling like i'm at the stage where i just want to chill and practice until i am perfect now. trying to play the whole thing through instead of practicing little phrases is pretty stressful, i prefer to just practice the same few bars at a time
its not quite like piano where you can practice a phrase....with guitar you can need to practice the transition between just 2 or 3 notes ...or even just pressing 1 note cleanly lol
You can't go wrong learning guitar, its one of those instruments that has a learning curve that always feels like its paying off. That was the one thing about guitar I've always enjoyed.
If you're having trouble piecing together all the different phrases, even though you've got them down individually, I've always found it helps to start with the last one, then attempt to play the last two cleanly, then attempt the last three together, and so on until you've worked your way backwards to playing the whole song. The reason this is helpful is that it puts the part you are least familiar with at the beginning instead of the end. This way you focus hard at the start remembering the part that is newest to you, and then once you get past it you can fall into the routine of the parts that you have mastered.
Works like a charm for me anyway.
If you want to get into playing power chord style stuff, the best way to develop those calluses is to just put your fingers in that position, put them on the strings and just strum a chord you like. Bend the strings a little bit... wear your fingers in easily. Slide up or down to another chord you like and strum it for a bit. Don't worry about playing fast or anything, you just need to start developing the calluses on those parts of your fingers which just takes time. Once you have them there will be 0 pain ever.
Also, don't get caught up in the fantasy of your equipment mattering at this level. If you aren't spending hundreds of dollars on a guitar, then you don't need to read a website review to know if you are making the right purchase. You are buying a piece of crap. All that matters is that it works correctly. Here are the steps that you should use once you have the guitar in hand in order to make sure that you are buying a piece of crap that works:
1. Tune the guitar with a tuner. As people have said you can download a free app for your phone for this ezpz.
2. Now that you have tuned the guitar, check the tuning at the 12th fret. This is an octave higher than when you were strumming the strings open so the tuner should read the same notes. If the notes are still on tune then you probably have a pretty solid guitar. Just to be sure, also check around the 20th or whatever fret and make sure that whatever notes you play there aren't reading as exceptionally flat or sharp (or the wrong note entirely) on the tuner. This is the main thing that goes wrong with economy class guitars... The neck warps over time and it is no longer possible to keep the whole neck in tune. At this price range, you are better off just buying another guitar that isn't fucked up rather than trying to fix this.
3. Play the guitar for a few minutes, make sure you strum all the strings with different kinds of pressure and make sure the guitar stays in tune. If it easily comes out of tune you'll probably have to replace some of the tuning pegs or other hardware. Your looking at probably between $50-$80 bucks to fix, so consider if the guitar you're buying is worth that extra cost.
4. Hold a chord and fiddle with any and all knobs, switches, and where the cord connects to the guitar. Do you hear static crunching or anything when you mess with any of these things? If any of the knobs or switches cause noise you are looking at wiring inside the guitar that needs to be replaced. Probably less than $10 worth of materials, but you'll likely have to pay some guy who is going to charge you his hourly rate to do it. Noise when you mess with the cable usually means the connection is lose, try tightening the washer around where the cable plugs in and if that doesn't immediately fix it, you're looking at the same kind of internal wiring problems.
Anyone who tries to tell you that the brand you are buying or the wood the guitar is made of or anything else about the way the body is constructed matters is probably an idiot when it comes to this kind of stuff. 95% of the tone of an electric guitar comes from the pickups, which can easily be replaced when you are ready to start caring about how your guitar sounds. There is no magic about any other aspect of the guitar.
Does the neck stay in tune? Does the hardware hold the strings in place correctly? Is the wiring in good condition? If the answer is yes to these questions then you have a functional guitar. From there, the brand of guitar is mostly just about what body type feels comfortable in your hands. If you like the way it feels, you can eventually learn about swapping out the pickups to get whatever sound you are looking for.
Once you reach the point in your life where you think it is worth it to you to commit $500 or more to a guitar AND a similar or greater amount for an amplifier of corresponding quality, then you are ready to start giving a shit about all those other details that guitar reviews are full of. Even at the highest levels, its still 95% about the quality of your pickups and the quality of your amplifier... You're just ready to start caring about a 5% difference at that point.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3lEqA98.jpg)
