aljaxon

thanks for replies, that sounds quite hard but ill give it a go. and as for the reply re muscle memory i guess thats fine. but how about making something up in your head and playing as you go in a kind of right i want to play this note next, and cue the damn wrong fret.

i dont mean fancy impressive solos just very basic simple tunes. like albatross or even better for my example ode to joy from beethoven 9th symphony? lets imagine i try and play the tune. its in my head and im trying to play the next note and im guessing where it is on the fretboard. im not looking at tabs or sheet music or playing from memory. i can usually do that tune ok cos its simple but half way through it goes to the lowest note and its quite a way from the previous note and i sometimes only get it right after 2 failed placements. so my question is how are you able to always select the right note when converting a tune in your head onto the fretboard? is it something you either can or cant do? i can sing in tune quite well and can hear the notes in my head perfectly. but i cannot visualise the fretboard in sounds. i just watched a youtube video about intervals thinking it might be something to do with that. even though i can hear the tune in my head perfectly and sing it, i cant say oh yes that note is an A which would make it easier to pick the right fret. so do i need to be able to put names to the notes in my head? or what do i need to be doing/learning. im not trying to be a goodsolo player, its just inbetween chords in some songs you get the odd couple of infill notes and playing them correctly at first is hard. then its just down to memory

i know this post is very old and the op is probably long gone but i had a very poor condition cheap accoustic guitar for 40 odd years and i was a very poor player, id pick it up and it had several faults and when i tried to play, it didnt sound very good. a combination of guitar and my technique so i lost interest quickly but would pick it up once every couple of months or so. then a year ago i discovered a long time pal played guitar and asked him if it was worth buying a new guitar despite me being a terrible player ie 4 or 5 chords and fingers deadening other strings by accident etc. . he said just buy a second hand one for around £100 then your not really throwing much away. i bought one and it sounded nice, much better than my old one and i made the decision to play or practice a bit more often and discovered youtube is full of free tutorials/lessons and was invaluable for showing me how to try and play my favourite songs and improve my technique.. i went round to a pals house to jam last weekend and he has 4 or 5 expensive guitars and i quickly found he is a worse player than me and he asked why i havent bought a decent guitar and i said im just trying to match my skill level kind of thing. in the same way you dont have to be a formula 1 driver to buy a ferrari but if you cant drive a ferrari is wasted on you. so an expensive guitar would be wasted on you. but a decent one might just inspire you to want to learn to play a bit more. a lot of chinese stuff in other areas is getting better quality so who knows your chinese guitars might be better than a decent guitar. i bought one with wider spaced strings and even just over a mm more gap between strings made it easier for me to not sound so bad. i'd been blaming my fat fingers but realised it was only 5% fat fingers and 95% poor technique. play minimum 15 mins a day i was told and ive trie to do that. you will become a better player. once a month or so. no chance.

dad ive always been a tight git. i just go on ultimate guitar its free. plus ive just started learning to use fl studio which was given to me for nowt so i can make my own drum beats and backing stuff. dunno if you need to have a face book account to wacth this but here is a very short clip of my doing my best Ian mcCulloch impersonation. i was only going to put the chorus bit in and was virtually mouthing the lead up lines but decided to leave them in. ive watched youtube clips of echo and the bunnymen live and i can safely say i "p1ss" all over what he can do nowadays on the high notes. he needs to go on ultimate guitar and transpose it down a bit lol. https://www.facebook.com/alan.jackson.7731/videos/2532299470293234

i dont have enough time to learn everything about playing the guitar. theres loads i am not going to try and learn unless it naturally falls into place as my technique improves and a song needs it. but so far like i say theres only 2 songs out of about 50 that cant be played with what i call open chords. im currently trying to get my fingers to do what i want them to do. eg going from an Am to a Cadd9 my little finger is very slow to move. and on sunflower the little intro was hard a week ago but now its almost easy if i leave out one note on the last bit. i practicing picking quietly even while watching tv. sometimes up to 2 hours a day. i can definitely see improvements. even over the last week. my approach has been - hear a song. think yeah lets try and play along to that and then learn to do so as accurately as possible. its been a lot of fun so far. im finding out my weaknesses and ive been trying to improve on them. not just sticking to the same open chords that ive done since the 1970's. when practicing i focus on what i cant play, instead of what i can play. when im jamming with a pal or singing to myself or missus (or neighbours through the walls) thats when i stick to playing to what i can play. im popping round to a long time pals this evening first time for a jam. is that the word? could be interesting. i think im going to surprise myself at how crap i really am lol and might see what other areas i need to brush up on.

thanks for taking the time to reply. the songs i currently play all with open chords are candy paulo nutini your ghost kristen hirsh wonderwall, stop crying your heart out, stand by me, all oasis, chance big country, never tear us apart mistify inxs long and winding road, rain, ticket to ride, strawberry fields, across the universe beatles , tomorrow, born of frustration james, closer kings of leon, fake plastic trees radiohead fix you, a message coldplay every one of us rick astley, impossible james arthur sonnet, verve, they dont own m,e richard ashcroft, wish you were here, pink floyd killoing moon echo and the bunnymen all for you cian ducrot - high pitched leprechaun transposed to lee marvin. hate to see you cry alan hull. most of calum scotts non dancy stuff. back for good take that, holding back the years simply red davig grey babylon oldies like cant explain cant get enough of your love sunny afternoon and even tried the new post malone country and western stuff. loads more. and for the finger picking i practice soldiers eyes jack savoretti dust in the wind kansas love song elton john which ive mastered and now trying to sing in time to it. started solsbury hill. got the first bar under my belt!!! and every day if i hear a song i write it down and try to do a version. i have a problem with memory so use ultimate guitar for their chords and lyrics plus the fantastic transpose. there are maybe 2 or 3 songs pout of all that lot that i can sing in the same key as the original. well i can sing all of them in key but only like a choir boy. to give it power and raspiness i have to transpose them all down. ive seen people do triads? is that almost the same thing as what you are suggesting? 3 or 4 finger chords up and down the neck?

you have to remember we are talking about me here and the sound i'm creating. barre chords sound rubbish. open chords sound fantastic in comparison. so i use them. i dont care about whether i should be learning to play barre chords. virtually every song i play sounds great with open chords and a capo. i am intrigued by only using 3 fingers and leaving the rest open. like the intro 2 chords to breads make it with you which when i play sounds great until i ruin it with the 2 barre chords

i think some songs are played on electric guitar with barre chords where it doesnt matter at all if there are f# bflat etc. but on an accoustic these chords sound terrible. so i transpose them to open easier chords it sounds much better. you must agree on an accoustic open chords are a million times better than barre? i forgot to mention ive got accoustic guitars only. as for simplifying you are preaching to the converted!!! and at 63 ive come to the conclusion im not going to be a brilliant guitarist, havent got enough time left on this planet. i need every trick in the book to help me. so ive given up on trying to get barre chords sounding as good on an accoustic as open chords and instead devote my practicing hours to learning other stuff. but thanks for the advice!!

ive done some reading and some cheap machine heads are bad and you cant tune down to get it in tune because they just go out of tune too quick, likely by carrying on turning down by themselves. so you have to go lower and then tune up to get it in tune. thats what the seller told me tune back up. and it helped a tiny bit. but they still just turned by themselves no doubt encouraged by string tension. i mean they arent going to tighten up are they? i looked at the design and the worm is designed to be forced in one direction and hence persuaded not to turn. but it can and does. only a tiny bit but thats all it takes. but not now. its perfect thanks to the tiny washers making the screws actually do their job. thanks for trying to help Dad 3353. guitars arent as difficult to set up as people think. i am a builder and diy mechanic and there is nothing i wouldnt take on myself. ive made nuts from scratch even widened the spacing from std. shortened and packed saddles up. plus ive got a ruddy great big hammer.

ive sorted it. i dismantled one completely. the tiny screws in the centre of the button are supposed to tighten the button (windy bit) down so its tight to turn. or at least stiff. but even when its tightened up fully and at the bottom of its threads the button was free to turn in the slackening direction only. . much much much more willing to turn in the direction of slackening as opposed to tightening where it was as stiff as you would expect. the pathetic wave washer supposed to apply tension is wholly inadequate. far too thin and flimsy. so i simply fitted another washer over the spindle that the button keys onto so that the screw when tightened actually makes the button stiffer. luckily i have washers down to 3mm ID. and this made it so that the button was stiff to turn in either direction. 2 hours playing last night and what a lovely sound. i realised if i tuned it previously within seconds one or more of the strings would go ever so slightly out of tune and it always sounded funny/bad. im crap at playing a guitar but i can tune one by ear without having to press any frets. sadly with this same tuneful ear i can hear how crap my singing is. the tuners are very similar to these. fully enclosed. https://www.stourmusic.co.uk/product-page/eko-s300v-maple-sunburst

please please forget the strings. it has absolutely nothing to do with them. the post or machine head shaft that the string is wrapped around is in direct contact ie meshed or geared with the worm. so if one turns the other turns. to go back to a moped the speedometer is driven by a cable with a worm at the end of the cable. the worm gets turned by an axle. im going to look at the problem myself by dismantling one.

ive taken a string off. and the button is free to turn. very free. no resistance at all either direction. i put a string on and there is nice tension when tightening but if i go to slacken its got the same zero resistance in fact its easier to turn it with a string on. and its almost as if its wanting to spin that way. and im sure with the vibrations during playing they are turning in the slackening direction.

i use that knot method for restringing, ive done a dozen re strings. restringing is not the problem. my other far cheaper guitar is fine. imagine going to the finger part of the tuning peg its called the button but i didnt know that and its not a very apt name. its the winged part like on a wing nut. . if i try to tighten the string its got a nice resistance and behaves as you would expect. but if you go to release the tension or unwind its as if its very slack and very happy to unwind and was on the verge of unwinding all the time. there is no resistance to unwinding and with a slight touch it moves far too easily. surely someone else has had this problem? ill wait for an answer. if not ill take one to bits and see whats going on but i am reluctant to do that just yet. and when you say the strings tension stops it from moving thats the opposite of whats in my mind. surely the more tension on the string the more its trying to be unwound.

ive just tried to learn to play the guitar in earnest this last year after being a 3 chord only strummer for the last 40 odd years. i am finding it very hard to learn picking as my brain is very slow at remembering things. its taken me months to learn stuff like the picking on elton johns love song and going from an a minor to a cadd9 on dust in the wind takes an age cos my little finger wont do what i want it to. i am a fantastic singer but have zero range. ive been jamming with a friend fortnightly and he hates me cos he learns to play a song but in order for me to play it i transpose it to suit my voice or to play easier chords and use a capo. so then he has to relearn it. we are thinking of doing an open mic session at a pub soon. he was in a band for a time. ive only flirted with it as a teenager. ive never taken any lessons, my grandson aged 10 is and im watching his development. i use youtube guitar lessons all the time how to play songs but my technique is very poor. and my biggest battle is not getting too frustrated that i put the guitar down. my neighbours hate me cos i play and sing along a lot and we have thin walls. i joined this forum because i need help with a technical issue on my accoustic. im a builder in my early sixties, i have small fat stubby fingers that deaden adjacent strings. i might make some false finger ends unless you can buy them. im into tinkering with old classic mopeds and have a few other bigger motorcycles. im unhappily married and have 2 kids and 2 grankids both to my daughter. i own my own house, own a van but im pretty much skint. i hope thats enough of an introduction. hello everyone.

ive recently bought a new eko accoustic guitar and the tuners slowly come loose when playing so the strings go out of tune. i took it back twice and he said he'd changed the strings both times but he hadnt. and he said he'd replaced one tuner and the rest were ok in his opinion after he'd tightened them. ive given up on the seller helping me. so i want to modify the tuners so that they are stiff like on a much cheaper tanglewood accoustic. the nuts were actually slack so i tightened them up, no difference. and the tiny screws seem tight. i am a diy mechanic and if it was a moped engine i'd just put some lock washers on or some plastic shims in the right place. or put sawdust in the gear compartment. but it isnt a moped engine so thats why i am here lol. so can they be repaired or modified? im yet to dismantle one fully to see why they are loose. i just thought i'd ask on here first. when i tighten a string there is resistance on the oval winder bit as per normal. but if i even touch the oval bit in the direction that loosens the string it moves all to easily. and when i play it goes out of tune after a few minutes. my tanglewood has "stiff" tuners and stays in tune for up to half an hour or more depending how thrashy i get. and even then its only the odd string. any help or advice appreciated before i reach for the big hammer and tig welder.