i am hoping you guys can help me. I am a perpetual beginner, been playing for 6 years having started off having lessons and got on well. However, teacher moved away, ended up jobless and progress has pretty much dried up. I am stuck in a bloody great pot hole, only playing songs with strummed open chords, struggling to get barre chords (can play them ok once I have sorted out my fingers but just cannot seem to get to them in a song) and not got any finger picking or soloing skills.
I have done a few open mic nights and enjoyed it and would love to play live a bit more this year but not sure what I really need to be able to do to be good enough to do so. Can any of you help me please? This middle aged lady would really appreciate your help! Thank you!!
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It it seems to me that it’s a state of mind that’s required more than a level.
Just go for it.
As was said it does not have to be a virtuoso performance if simple strumming is working with open chords you have a basis.
Then pick a song and just break it down slowly getting the changes smooth, slowly working up to the performing tempo.
Once you can move through the changes I would have a basic drum machine or metronome running to help get the timing right.
Once you have the changes down as you said in some ways it's a mindset to make that into a performance so your playing and singing work together for the song.
Never worry about not being overly technical I have seen some truly moving performances over the years over simple strums and a great performance of a song.
Played played and played all my songs until I played them more or less perfectly everytime. Even went through chord progressions if I had the song on in the car.
Before I knew it, I was playing songs without thinking about it. The singing just came naturally while my hands took the rest away.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
One of the guys at Water Rats (sorry, I can't remember who it was) gave us a great tip about using the vocal as a rhythm. Difficult to describe with text, but essentially he was saying don't slavishly follow the same timing as the track you are covering if it doesn't work for you. Use your own timing and vocal to create the rhythm.
As for "when am I ready?" You'll never be ready. It works in reverse, you become ready by doing it. - pmbomb
If the gig is jamming on bepop standards or modal jazz then actually that's quite a lot you need to know but if the gig is a 20 minute set of eighties pop songs at an open mic night what you need to know is the content of those eighties pop songs.
Full barre chords give you the ability to strum common chords in any key, move away from the limitations of open chords but in the context of any kind of ensemble playing they often aren't that useful. It depends but a lot of guitar parts in songs don't really use them that much.
If the aim is to play live then focus on what you will need to know to play live, maybe focus more on the kind of music you want to play and learn how to do that and put the stumbling blocks in your learning to one side.
As a fairly poor guitarist and perpetual beginner I still managed to play dozens of gigs and used an F major barre chord for about ten seconds in all of that.
Feedback
A group of us in my neck of the woods who first met at one of the regonal jams organised by tFB now have a monthly jam going on locally, and we may even end up playing a few gigs this year!
There are some great songs that do not have any lead parts at all, so don't let inexperience with playing lead put you off. As others have mentioned, playing in time is a key thing to focus on if you would like to jam/gig, and have found playing along to tracks has really helped me with tempo and timing.
Your next challenge is to learn to change the barre chords to themselves ... see this video for the basic idea (Did you ever get any joy from examining the Amaj9 to E9 change Viz?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-93m83B8Qk
https://www.oldswannerguitartuition.com/post/stuck-behind-barres
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
i play mostly 3 or 4 string chords, and often just leave the top E open
i usually play in either C or G, with a capo on frets 1 to 4 (very occasionally 5) so that I can play C scale chords or G scale chords
This means I am always playing the same simple shapes over and over, and hence muscle memory does most of the jobs
In C
Dm I don’t play the top string, so don’t need to move hand position to go from C
Em is easy
Fmaj I almost always play Fmaj 7, and don’t play the bottom string
G I play with my bottom 3 fingers of left hand, leaving left index finger to play the C on 1st fret B string, little finger often just plays the D on 3rd fret.
Am is easy
Bm I play in C position, just middle finger on B (2nd fret A string) and my little finger on the D (3fret B string).
In G
G as above
Am as above
Bm as above
C as above
Dmajor I play middle finger F# (low E 2nd fret) and ignore the top E string, but it sounds nice opem
Em easy
F# hardly play top3 or bottom 3 strings, but hardly ever needed
So no B7, Bmajor, F#minor, C#minor, G#, Major 7th etc type chords to remember and move your hand round
And almost all st all of those chords are played without changing my hand or wrist position! Which is what it makes it easier
remember, that’s to make PERFORMING (I.e. singing and entertaining the audience) easier! It’s not to make the most beautiful, technically complex guitar playing
(And for the theoretical of you, yes, I know I am actually playing lots of 7ths, 9ths, 6ths, sus4 and sus2 with that minimalist approach, but that’s no bad thing.
Are you playing electric or acoustic?
How do you practice? Playing scales, or songs? Or just noodle?
How do you approach practice time- is it a block of an hour or so, or do you pick it up and put it down a few times a day?
Can. you harmonise the major scale?
It isn't just practice, practice, practice- it is practicing intelligently.
I've know people who play regularly and haven't really progressed in years because they are going over the same stuff they already know.
With the right approach and the commitment to practice you can get gig ready in a few months to a year.
One thing I will say that almost all students get wrong is to rush.
When forming chords take your time to do it perfectly and work on speeding up perfect form over time.
The wrong way to do it is to imperfectly form the chord and rush to the next one.
All you do with that is to reinforce the wrong way to do it.
It is much harder to unlearn a bad habit than it is to form a new but good one.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
Got rehearsal at 6pm with my guitar buddy that I have done the open mics with but this is all about doing stuff solo!
Thanks so much, I really am so grateful to you all and will be back later!