Beginner acoustic player

Knifey_Spoony

Hi, to keep this short im basically looking for advice on learning how to play. Ive been told by a couple of people already not to bother "wasting" money on lessons. Would you all agree?? I bought a songbook last wk and am gonna try teach myself. I can get the chords etc (just have to practice them loads me thinks). The strumming is the hard bit though. What do you guys think? Any advice? Will simply practicing do the trick? Or are some sort of lessons advisable? I have a tuner, guitar, song book, so am i sorted?? Any advice greatly appreciated

disgruntled

I really don't think lessons are a waste of money at all. I tried the self taught approach for for a while myself but didn't really feel like I was progressing much and I finally decided to get lessons a little over a year ago. I really regret not doing this long ago because its really helped my playing a lot. In my opinion I think for the first while teach yourself, get used to the instrument, learn a couple of songs, basic chord shapes and perhaps some scales also. There are loads of site with free tab on the net but I'd recomend you download Powertab and get tabs from powertabs.net. Then once you have the basics down look into lessons, they are well worth it imo. If your in Dublin I'd recomend Thomas Brunkard, he really knows his stuff.http://www.thomasbrunkard.com

jcoote

Blinky1 wrote:

The strumming is the hard bit though.

i really struggled with strumming and basic rhythms etc and my solution was get a bodrahn and just used my hand to play it.. its a great way of losening up your wrist (no jokes please ).. as for the chords scales etc just keep practicing and practicing... i found getting going was great but lessons definatly help after u have the basics sussed

bigman

MIKE GOT SPIKED THEY'RE ****IN AMAZIN!
PLAYIN THIS SUNDAY IN MORRISIES KILKENNY @ 4 ALL WELL COME!!! :cool:

anyway some people need lessons some dont deside which one you are and get on with it! every time you learn a new chord gan easy song containing that chord and play that song over and over again!it may seem boring but it worked for me!i thought myself!

feylya

Jesus, what is it with people advertising gigs here? And MSG are quickly becoming stupidly over hyped.

Get one of your friends that plays to show you some stuff and go from there.

Giblet

feylya wrote:

Jesus, what is it with people advertising gigs here? And MSG are quickly becoming stupidly over hyped.

Get one of your friends that plays to show you some stuff and go from there.

They have a notable presence in Dublin, I doubt they could be be called "stupidly over hyped"

jcoote

people are very easily aroused by a great band that they can get up there and talk to and check out their gear and what not.. thats mgs all over people are excited about something this promising comin out of ireland thats all it is.. but the whole advertising tottally out of context is gettin a bit old alright i agee with u there feylya

feylya

Giblet wrote:

They have a notable presence in Dublin, I doubt they could be be called "stupidly over hyped"

I know they have but I can't go to an Irish music website without seeing "MGS rox" or something equally biased. What I've heard of them (and it's only a couple of songs), I really don't like. One of their songs is "Whiskey for me tae" or something isn't it? That's cashing in on Irish a bit too much for my liking. But hey, I don't have a record deal, I don't have an album, what do I know?

jcoote

i think the novelty and funny lyrics in "whisky for me tae" cancels out the "hey look we're irish" thing... i don't know anyone doin that kinda thing (bar floggin' molly).. and as u said before the "cookie monster" singin doesn't appeal to u so straight away your gonna be negative about them.. i like them because they do so much more than the metal bassis that most of their songs have... just my opinion.. hype around something u don't really like is really annoying and can make u hate ****...take reality tv for example ...i ****in hate reality tv

feylya

Well....well...they smash guitars! I don't like people that smash guitars



BTW, I am aware of the circumstances surrounding that.

jcoote

i'm not fill me in

feylya

Gig in CarrickMacCross or somewhere like that, some DJ plugged out their backline, Conall turned round, told him to plug it back in so he did. They carried on until the dj plugged it out again. Conall dropped his guitar, it fell on it's head, snapped the neck through the fretboard (apparently). He spoke with the dj, turned around and saw what happened to his guitar and proceeded to smash the crap out of the rest of it... This is all second hand information btw.

jcoote

nice one never heard that one... do u know what gutar it was???

feylya

His silver Schetcer apparently. Some choice "words" were said to the dj apparently...

jcoote

when was this do ya know...thats a lovely guitar ever really considered gettin one though.. i would've hurt that dj in fairness

feylya

A couple of months. It's on the forum, in the gear section in a thread, 2 or 3 last on the first page called Conall's guitar or some such.

So, strumming guitars eh...

jcoote

good stuff i'll look at that...strumming gutars ???

feylya

The topic...

jcoote

sorry i lost my mind there (seems to happena lot)... yeah i'm not a natural guitarist at all at all i really had to try like crazy t get everything goin... funny the only easy bits for me were like tapping and hammering and pullin and harmonics and all that... i have good imagination tho so that makes up for my shortcomings... struggle with anything yourself

jcoote

that is what u meant innit

feylya

Pick a few songs you want to learn to play. Learn to play them perfectly. Pick more songs. Learn those. Read everything you can find about playing. Apply it in your playing.

jcoote

wtf???

feylya

I was replying to the original poster...

jcoote

copped that after my post sorry didn't get a chance to edit

Knifey_Spoony

Thanx for all the replies Trying to perfect U2's One at the mo. (trying being the main word there!) Any other "easy" songs you can recommend for beginners?

jcoote

any oasis songs or beatles... tom petty maybe

Le Rack

I got lessons for two years and they taught me sweet F all. I quit for three years but picked up the guitar a few months ago and taught myself from notes on the net, and now with lots of practice Im playing better than some friends who got lessons!! So go for it dude teach yourself, "play it and play it like it was your life". Quote from ex who encouraged me!! Well the edited version!!!

lemon_sherbert

I've only been learning for about 4 months, but I've been going to lessons and they've been really good. Not too expensive either. I pay for a block of ten at a time, so you can stop any time. I really like it, and i can still teach myself other songs at home, while I learn the techniques in my lessons.