(no subject)

[mandie_rw]

YAY I HAZ A GUITAR! (And a vacation, despite work starting tomorrow.)

I've been telling my mother for a month that I was going to buy a (cheap) guitar as soon as I got my first paycheck from my summer job, and last week she remembered that my stepdad got her a guitar, at least ten years ago if not more. She never ended up having time to really learn to play it, so it disappeared and of course nobody could remember what happened to it (did we get rid of it? Is it in the attic? Or the basement? Who knows?). I've been looking for it ever since she told me about it, and I'd almost given up and decided they'd got rid of it, because how many places can a guitar hide? It's not like it could be hiding in a box or bag, and our house isn't that big! But last night at 2am I was poking around the basement again, absolutely determined to find the thing if it was anywhere, and there it was, lurking in a corner. Yesssss.

And I haz a vacation because my stepdad, my mother, and my sister left yesterday morning to visit his sister and her kids in Washington. They'll be gone until next Sunday. Ahhhhh. *stretches happily* They're going on vacation, but I get one too...from them! Hee. And, well, they get one from me. I think everyone's pleased with this arrangement. Although my sister is 14 and as charming as all 14-year-old girls are, so I think I got the better deal. *smirk*

Anyway, the actual point of yammering on in an otherwise pointless post is to tell you all I'm making a filter for my music and guitar-learning antics, and see who wants to be on it...because I know the majority of you are costumers, and may or may not give a crap when I'm super-excited about learning a new chord or whatever. (The ones who friended me because we have similar obsessions with certain 1960s bands, I'll put on there automatically. Me learning guitar is closer to our similar interests than my usual posts, I think!) This looks like it's going to distract me pretty effectively from sewing for a little while, though!

It's going to be super-funny when nobody comments...

Comments

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's great! yay!

I learned to play the guitar after I was out of college. I had gotten really into the Beatles again and I decided I wanted to learn how to play the guitar so I could play Beatles songs. And so I did!

It's a really fun instrument to play, I think. You just have to stick with it past the point where your fingers are sore. One other thing - I started on an old guitar too - and the strings were really high off the fretboard (that's called high action) and so it was hard to play because it hurt more. I nearly gave up, except the guitar suddenly broke irrepareably when a friend tuned it too tightly and it was just too much for it. I ended up getting a new one with nice, low action and it made a world of difference. Yours may be fine, but if that starts to be a problem, you might try a different guitar and see if it's easier to play before deciding you don't like the guitar.

Also, the guitar was something I found easy to just sort of fiddle with at night, while watching TV - at the beginning, you mostly need to just get faster and switching between chords, and doing just that while you're watching TV or whatever worked for me. Of course, I didn't have a DVR then, so there were more commercials. ;-)

In any case, I think once you get past that, it's really really fun to play. If you have any questions or whatever, feel free to ask!

And definitely keep me on your filter! :-)

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Hah, that's funny, because that's pretty much why I decided I wanted to play too - I listen to all these Beatles (well, and Stones and Who) songs, and it finally struck me that hey, I WANT TO PLAY THESE! And I've always loved music...well, except when I played the clarinet for two years in elementary school, and didn't really care about it, and so didn't practice and was no good at all. XD

And thanks for the advice, I will definitely ask you if I have any questions! And I can tell I'm definitely going to be dealing with some pretty sore fingers very soon...brilliant time to decide to learn, when I'm not done hand-sewing a costume. Oops...oh well! Right now the guitar is interesting me more than my sewing - shocking! =)

[padawansguide.livejournal.com]

:-)

There are a ton of rock songs that are easy with only 3 or 4 chords (I think Angie is one of them) - so you should be able to play things you want to sooner than later.

I found that a lot of the Beatles ones are a little more difficult. I think the easiest ones to start with might be their covers of 12 bar blues tunes - like Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey, Rock and Roll Music, Roll Over Beethoven (that one is pretty easy), etc. Most of those are only 3 chords.

You can find chords to nearly anything online - just search on the name of the song and "chords" or "tab" and you should find it!

I'm excited about this! :-) yay!

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

Hi, just a drive by post from Padawan's friends list.

First, I second everything she's saying and just felt like weighing in with a few suggestions of my own:

1. Definately check your action, but also consider using lighter strings if you find it hard to fret the notes correctly. It can help, especially when learning barre chord shapes.

2. Barre chord shapes are a really good investment early on because you can get a lot of different chords out of each shape. Quite a few Who tunes use them.

3. Learning scales as well as chords is good too. You don't necessarily have to solo, but it will help you when playing riffs.

4. Youtube is a really good resource. Seeing something really helps.

5. Keith Richards does some...unorthodox things to his guitars. He often takes the bottom E string off, and then tunes it to open G tuning. This doesn't mean that you can't play Stones tunes, it just means that what your playing might not sound exactly like what he's doing. I don't know if Brian Jones, Mick Taylor or Ron Wood ever did or do that though, sorry.

Hope those help. Have fun!

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Yay, a drive-by posting! I don't get many of those! ;)

And thank you so much for all your tips; they definitely are helpful!

And that bit about Keith was definitely helpful at this particular time, as I was noodling around with some Stones tunes yesterday! Ah, Keith. Unorthodox is the right word. XD

[snowywolfowl.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of help. I didn't know that when I was first mucking around with "Jumpin' Jack Flash", so learning that really explained why my version of it sounded more like Ritchie Blackmore than Keith Richards. :-)

Actually altered and alternative tunings are really common in classic rock, with Neil Young, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell and several others using them fairly often.

I also realized I forgot to mention what the tuning was, so here it is. The strings are low to high.

Open G = DGDGBD

Not sure what more I can give you right now that would be helpful instead of overwhelming. So good luck, and have fun!

[llyrafantasyfae.livejournal.com]

While I did friend you for costuming I wouldn't mind being on the other filter.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Yay! No problem! =)