What's your goal?

mike_l

Gassage said:

mike_l said:

And productively work through the pile of books I have.

Mine is not to split infinitives on guitar forums.

I have a pile of books which I need to work through. Once I've worked through them all, I can then go back and work through them again (ad nauseum).

 

I'm also looking at ways to reduce piles......

Gassage

mike_l said:

Gassage said:

mike_l said:

And productively work through the pile of books I have.

Mine is not to split infinitives on guitar forums.

I have a pile of books which I need to work through. Once I've worked through them all, I can then go back and work through them again (ad nauseum).

 

I'm also looking at ways to reduce piles......

Anusol HC.

mike_l

Gassage, I don't think Anusol works on piles of books...........

rlw

Started about seven weeks ago from scratch at age 62.  Finding it very hard at the moment and struggling to make chord changes with any speed and to make longish stretches - four frets is proving tricky.  The mind is certainly working more quickly than the body at the moment.

My goal is to be able to play a recognizable tune by next November - something like Key to the Highway/Born to Lose kind of thing.  Not complicated but it feels like a big challenge to me right now.

EricTheWeary

rlw said:

Started about seven weeks ago from scratch at age 62.  Finding it very hard at the moment and struggling to make chord changes with any speed and to make longish stretches - four frets is proving tricky.  The mind is certainly working more quickly than the body at the moment.

My goal is to be able to play a recognizable tune by next November - something like Key to the Highway/Born to Lose kind of thing.  Not complicated but it feels like a big challenge to me right now.

the basics of a lot of pop/rock/ blues songs contain relatively little music. For example verse riff, chorus riff, middle 8 riff. I remember reading there are usually about 17 seconds of new music to learn to get the basics of any pop song ( riff+other riff+ other riff= 17 seconds). So, if you wanted , for example, to do the Clapton version of Key to the Highway note for note that's quite a big peice of work but a working version ( the kind that would work for a pub jam or cover version) would be a fairly small amount of actual music to learn, it's just then applying that to the structure of the song. Haven't heard the Big Bill Broonzy version for a long time and I suspect the basics of that are more challenging than the Clapton one but the same principal applies.Hope that makes sense.
So, depends what you mean by 'recognisable' as to how big a challenge that is. Having done a few gigs this year with a blues band we played almost nothing note for note, just key phrases like intros and riffs, and we played in front of people ( okay not many) and got paid ( okay not much) and everything!

mike_l

EricTheWeary said:

. Having done a few gigs this year with a blues band

And it's only January the 2nd................

rlw

EricTheWeary said:

rlw said:

Started about seven weeks ago from scratch at age 62.  Finding it very hard at the moment and struggling to make chord changes with any speed and to make longish stretches - four frets is proving tricky.  The mind is certainly working more quickly than the body at the moment.

My goal is to be able to play a recognizable tune by next November - something like Key to the Highway/Born to Lose kind of thing.  Not complicated but it feels like a big challenge to me right now.

the basics of a lot of pop/rock/ blues songs contain relatively little music. For example verse riff, chorus riff, middle 8 riff. I remember reading there are usually about 17 seconds of new music to learn to get the basics of any pop song ( riff+other riff+ other riff= 17 seconds). So, if you wanted , for example, to do the Clapton version of Key to the Highway note for note that's quite a big peice of work but a working version ( the kind that would work for a pub jam or cover version) would be a fairly small amount of actual music to learn, it's just then applying that to the structure of the song. Haven't heard the Big Bill Broonzy version for a long time and I suspect the basics of that are more challenging than the Clapton one but the same principal applies.Hope that makes sense.
So, depends what you mean by 'recognisable' as to how big a challenge that is. Having done a few gigs this year with a blues band we played almost nothing note for note, just key phrases like intros and riffs, and we played in front of people ( okay not many) and got paid ( okay not much) and everything!

I appreciate that there probably isn't a lot to learn about playing a stripped down blues but the actual, physically doing it  is where I see my challenge lying.  The musical side of it seems relatively easy compared with making my fingers do what my head is telling them.  I know - practice, practice, practice ..............

And by recognizable I think I mean a flowing piece without (huge) gaps for chord changes.  It'll take time and a lot of patience.
And thanks for the comments too.

mike_l

@rlw Have you tried "Hey Joe"? Constituted of C/G/D/A/E chords. You can play these as open or Barre chords. As you've just started (and I mean absolutely no insult) start with them as open chords. Then when you advance a bit more, you can play the same song with barre chords. It's a great piece for getting the chord changes good.

viz

Gassage said:

mike_l said:

And productively work through the pile of books I have.

Mine is not to split infinitives on guitar forums.

@gassage - He didn't!

EricTheWeary

I pretty much skipped a lot of guitar basics and went to playing blues shuffles. In the long run it probably hasn't done me any favours ( the peak of my musical career probably being bottom of a festival bill to Motörhead but I can't play an F barre chord properly - Ooh, autocorrect knows Motörhead ! ) but getting the feel of a shuffle adds a lot of movement and can transform a 3 chord strum. I also used to put a lot of dampened chords into a shuffle ( something I've gone back to in playing a lot of reggae and ska) which can also hide some clumsy chord changes.
You probably know this but a blues shuffle feel roughly chops a beat into two thirds and a third. So, if you strum ( any chord) down and up playing straight you normally count 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and etc. To make it into a shuffle feel you strum down but then strum up quicker / shorter, just catching the top two or three strings ( so the feel is very roughly two thirds of the beat on the down strum and one third on the up strum).Now that can sound messy but if on the down strum on counts 2 and 4 you damp the strings with your picking hand it tidies it up. So, as you strum down you rest the fleshy bit of your hand on the strings and then strum ( without the damp) up as before. So the sequence goes Daa Da Thump Da Daa Da Thump Da Daa Da Thump Da ad infinitum.
Be loose with it and you'll recognise the feel and be a one chord blues God.
If that doesn't make any sense then please ignore!

EricTheWeary

mike_l;463453" said:

EricTheWeary said:



. Having done a few gigs this year with a blues band And it's only January the 2nd................

As I had my 50th birthday in 2014 I am now officially allowed to be absent minded!
A few gigs in the last 12 months!

mike_l

EricTheWeary;463635" said:

[quote="mike_l;463453"]EricTheWeary said:



. Having done a few gigs this year with a blues band And it's only January the 2nd................

As I had my 50th birthday in 2014 I am now officially allowed to be absent minded!
A few gigs in the last 12 months!
[/quote]

Sorry, I just couldn't resist a bit of piss-taking......

EricTheWeary

...watch it or I'll hit you with my rolled up copy of the People's Friend. Now, where did I put those Werthers... :-?

bigjon

rlw;463416" said:

My goal is to be able to play a recognizable tune by next November - something like Key to the Highway/Born to Lose kind of thing.  Not complicated but it feels like a big challenge to me right now.

My top tip would be to use a metronome set to an INSANELY slow speed - say 60 clicks per minute using 2 then 1 clicks for the 2 syllables of the 'Humpty' rhythm of Key To The Highway. When you've COMPLETELY mastered it at that speed, move the metronome up one notch per day, no more. Within a month you'll be playing it 4 times as fast, after about 6 weeks you'll be at the same speed as the record.

rlw

bigjon said:

My top tip would be to use a metronome set to an INSANELY slow speed - say 60 clicks per minute using 2 then 1 clicks for the 2 syllables of the 'Humpty' rhythm of Key To The Highway. When you've COMPLETELY mastered it at that speed, move the metronome up one notch per day, no more. Within a month you'll be playing it 4 times as fast, after about 6 weeks you'll be at the same speed as the record.

Yours insanely slow is my insanely fast at the moment :-)

bigjon

rlw;463839" said:

bigjon said:

My top tip would be to use a metronome set to an INSANELY slow speed - say 60 clicks per minute using 2 then 1 clicks for the 2 syllables of the 'Humpty' rhythm of Key To The Highway. When you've COMPLETELY mastered it at that speed, move the metronome up one notch per day, no more. Within a month you'll be playing it 4 times as fast, after about 6 weeks you'll be at the same speed as the record.



Yours insanely slow is my insanely fast at the moment :-)

So slow it down still further - 4 clicks followed by 2 clicks at 60bpm on x02xxx then 4 clicks followed by 2 clicks on x04xxx, for instance. That would still only add 2 weeks onto the time it took you to reach full speed once you start increasing the click speed by a notch a day :-)

EricTheWeary

This probably doesn't explain what I was on about any better!

hubobulous

For me, its a number of things:

1. To play live more. I'm a shy performer, so need to work on that, but I love the experience and I think as a whole. our band puts on a good 'show'
   
2. To compose more. I really want to create something from scratch that makes me smile and chuffed that it came from my brain into reality, most likely with a personal story as its influence. Knowing that I'm probably the only person who truly knows the ins and outs of why each chord/lick/effect was chosen, yet that it can muster completely different emotions in listeners that had nothing to do with why I created it - if that makes sense?
   
3. To learn new techniques such as slide, hybrid piking and a larger arsenal of things I can call upon when improvising.
4. To surprise myself. To play something and really smile since I don't know where it came from
5. To play more acoustic guitar and put together enough songs to play a live set with my wife singing. But I'd like to add my personal twist of effects and arrangements to feel that any song we play is either 'our version' or a great rendition if taking someone else's song and being faithful to the original

That would make a great year for me.

MatthewShreddery

To play more tastefully.

To finally make a start on an album.

To gig more.

lloyd

My only goal has ever been to be in a band.

I like learning songs of other peoples and playing them on my own to a certain extent, but without the other people it makes less sense. I write riffs and bits and bobs too, but again, I need other people to turn them into full songs.

Playing music (cover or originals) with a group of others is great, even better if there's some people watching.