Need Practising Advice

[James Davies 1155]

I practice every day and have done since I bought a Guitar  ( Ten months now! ) but....although I try to learn everything a novice needs to know, there just seems no end to what I should learn,Scales, Chords, Progressions etc and on it goes! At present and with my limited knowledge, I think perhaps I am trying to run before I can walk! The reason I mention this is because I'm now advised to study and know every note on every string on every fret! What I'm practising at the minute, said Chords etc, I'm worried it's beginning to get too much! My memory isn't great (I'm 69!) and thought I was progressing slowly but surely, now I'm starting to panic! I will never stop trying to play the Guitar properly! but I need help, HELP!!

[James Davies 1155]

On 22/09/2024 at 18:01, Dad3353 said:

 

Changing from one chord to another comes with practise, the slower the better to get there faster. Take some regular exercise time (5-10 minutes every day without fail...) to finger the chord, then change to the next one, looking only for accuracy, not speed. Slow but sure is the way forward. This applies, whatever chords you're going from/to.

Intervals..? Easiest to imagine from a piano keyboard point of view, but it's exactly the same principle for all instruments. Take as a starting point the note 'C' on the piano. An interval describes the distance to the nexrt note played. From 'C', for example, playing the next 'C' on the keyboard gives an interval of an octave (there are eight notes in Western music, so 'octa' for eight...). From the first 'C', if we play the 'B' below the octave 'C', that an interval of seven (written in Romain as 'VII'...). Next interval from the 'C' to the next one down ('A'...), we have an interval of 'VI' (Yes, six...). Keep coming down from our first 'C', we play 'G' (interval 'V', of five...), then 'F' ('IV'...), 'E' ('III', or three...), 'D' ('II'...) and back to 'C'. Any note from 'C' can therefore be designated an interval ('VII' gives us 'B', for example...).

This is easy enough to visualise on a keyboard, as it's only the white notes, and from 'C'. The same 'logic', can be applied, however, if we had chosen to start with 'D', except, in order to play the same intervals as with 'C', we have to use some black keys. 'D' octave is easy enough, but a semitone down from 'D' (the same interval is 'B' starting from 'C'...) will be 'Db'. I'll leave you to work out what the other interval are, starting from 'D'; it's a good exercise to hammer home the understanding. Do it again for other starting notes, too, for fun.

It works in the same way for guitar, of course; on the open low 'E' string, the 'VII' is the Eb at the eleventh fret. Play an 'E Major' scale on that string and you'll see how it works.
Does this help..? 

 

On 23/09/2024 at 23:44, Dad3353 said:

 

I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that this ^^ is a typo, and that you meant '2024'..? 

 

[James Davies 1155]

On 22/09/2024 at 18:01, Dad3353 said:

 

Changing from one chord to another comes with practise, the slower the better to get there faster. Take some regular exercise time (5-10 minutes every day without fail...) to finger the chord, then change to the next one, looking only for accuracy, not speed. Slow but sure is the way forward. This applies, whatever chords you're going from/to.

Intervals..? Easiest to imagine from a piano keyboard point of view, but it's exactly the same principle for all instruments. Take as a starting point the note 'C' on the piano. An interval describes the distance to the nexrt note played. From 'C', for example, playing the next 'C' on the keyboard gives an interval of an octave (there are eight notes in Western music, so 'octa' for eight...). From the first 'C', if we play the 'B' below the octave 'C', that an interval of seven (written in Romain as 'VII'...). Next interval from the 'C' to the next one down ('A'...), we have an interval of 'VI' (Yes, six...). Keep coming down from our first 'C', we play 'G' (interval 'V', of five...), then 'F' ('IV'...), 'E' ('III', or three...), 'D' ('II'...) and back to 'C'. Any note from 'C' can therefore be designated an interval ('VII' gives us 'B', for example...).

This is easy enough to visualise on a keyboard, as it's only the white notes, and from 'C'. The same 'logic', can be applied, however, if we had chosen to start with 'D', except, in order to play the same intervals as with 'C', we have to use some black keys. 'D' octave is easy enough, but a semitone down from 'D' (the same interval is 'B' starting from 'C'...) will be 'Db'. I'll leave you to work out what the other interval are, starting from 'D'; it's a good exercise to hammer home the understanding. Do it again for other starting notes, too, for fun.

It works in the same way for guitar, of course; on the open low 'E' string, the 'VII' is the Eb at the eleventh fret. Play an 'E Major' scale on that string and you'll see how it works.
Does this help..? 

 

On 23/09/2024 at 23:44, Dad3353 said:

 

I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that this ^^ is a typo, and that you meant '2024'..? 

 

[James Davies 1155]

Hi, Yes I did mean 2024!

can I ask you if I'm trying to run before I can walk? As a beginner I practice every day and thought I was doing at least average! but when a friend asked me if I knew the names of every note, on every string, on every Fret! My brain hurts but I see his point, Of course I know all notes repeat after the Twelth Fret and can name a particular note on a particular string, at a particular fret...if you can wait the ten mins it takes me to work it out! It's starting to affect my practising...Help!

[Dad3353]

12 minutes ago, James Davies 1155 said:

... but I need help, HELP!!

 

Some slight confusion here, methinks..? Learning, and playing, the guitar (other musical instruments are available, I'm told...) has to be, first and foremost, FUN..! No, it's not easy-peasy, and doesn't come instantly, but the FUN is as much, if not more, in the journey, and is never-ending. That being said, I'm not sure that the term 'study' is really appropriate in your case, for what you're doing. One important aspect of learning is to get the fingers working mechanically, and use the exercises to reinforce, at the same time, the 'muscle memory' that comes with repetition of movements. To this end, the playing of solo notes, and naming them aloud, is really just a 'warm-up' exercise, done systematically at the start of one's practice session, and needs no more 'study' than that. You will not be expected, nor will need, to pass an exam on note-naming, but the knowledge that these little exercises instils is insidiously locked away in your brain, and will serve for decades to come, with no further effort on your part. It's like wielding cutlery to eat a meal; there's no (or little...) conscious effort, but the food gets to the mouth without any furrowing of the brow. This, because, as a child, these gestures were repeated for long enough.
Relax, James, and take the time to just enjoy what you can do already, in the firm and certain knowledge that, shortly, you will be able to do yet more. It's not a race, and we all do this at different paces; do this at your pace and that's fine. There is no way of swallowing all aspects of guitar playing, music theory, chord structure, picking techniques etc at once, so choose your areas of interest wisely, work on them slowly, and ignore the rest until you're ready for 'em. What can you play, currently, and what would you like to be able to play..? We can give concrete advice on specifics if we know where you are, and where you'd like to head. Any help..?

(Don't forget that very important element, to ensure success : always have a very big bucket of Patience to hand...) 

[ezbass]

Taking up any musical instrument is a permanent learning journey, there’s always something new to take on board, be it a scale, chord, technique , whatever. However, as Dad says, it should be enjoyable. When I first picked up the guitar as a youngster, I was taught some chords and I had a book or two, but what I did most of all was learn tunes that I liked and wanted to play and I didn’t get too bogged down with scales and theory. This may not have been the wisest course with regard to musical proficiency but, 50 years on, I’m still playing and playing tunes that give me pleasure, not what some book, course or latest internet craze tells me to. What makes you smile, when you’re playing? Do that more and the other things you want to learn, but give you trouble at the moment, will become easier. You may not ever perfect everything to your personal standards (who does?), but you will perfect some things and that’s not bad.

[randythoades]

Probably like many on here, I echo @ezbass.

 

I was taught a few basic chords and learned the pentatonic scale and a couple of riffs out of a book. The rest was just picking it up gradually over the years, asking questions of other players, watching live bands in pubs and seeing how the guitarist played. Nearly 40 years later I still don't know proper chord theory, or dozens of proper progressions or all the fancy scales. I know the major and minor chords, barre chords, major and minor pentatonics and I know the progressions that work in the music that I like. That is pretty much it. I can play almost everything that I want to play without too many problems, might not be the same as the record but where is the fun is that, it sounds like me!

I learned the note pattern on the E and A strings and once you get the pattern of how those notes fall and relate to each other, you just repeat that knowledge onto the next string and so on, but starting from a different note. And everything below the 12th fret is just repeated above the 12th fret. As @Dad3353 says, just by going through things like that will just embed into your brain and you end up using it unconsciously.

 

So to summarize. Don't get caught up in the 'you have to learn this, this and this...', just get to the point where you can play along to the songs you like and you will inevitably enjoy it more. Once you enjoy it, you want to play more, you gain experience, knowledge and muscle memory thus making something else a little easier when you want to learn something you can't currently do.

[James Davies 1155]

Thanks so much Guys! Yeah, I've been pressurising myself to Learn and Play stuff too quickly! But now I realise I need a Structured learning curve! I can "just" about scrape through House of the Rising Sun, meaning every now n then I make it without fluffing the Chords up...too much! After ten minutes or so practicing Scales, I've been told to practice stuff in bite size pieces which I must say seems to be working!So, at the moment I'm trying to play "Don't Cry"by Guns n Roses and my Chord changes are, well let's say not quick enough....yet! I do so enjoy the Journey so far and the ten months I'm in thus far excites me very much! My finger tips are finally hard enough to allow me to practice around an hour Every Day!

I appreciate you Guys nursing me, but there isn't any way I'm going to Stop what I Started and learn how to play this Acoustic Guitar.!

I hope when I check back here in a few months, I hope I will realise how far I've managed to get with all the Advice and Pointers I've had!

Keep it coming Guys!

[Dad3353]

30 minutes ago, James Davies 1155 said:

... my Chord changes are, well let's say not quick enough...

 

They will be amply quick enough if you play at a much slower tempo (about half-speed..?). Preferably with a metronome, and slowly (very slowly...) increase the tempo by a small notch every week or so. That way it'll come up to speed all on its own. The fastest way to play fast is to play slowly, trust me.
It sounds as if you're doing well (or, indeed, very well..!). Hope this helps.

Douglas

[ezbass]

One of the advantages of YouTube is the ability to slow down the playback, without affecting the pitch. So you can play along at a speed that you can manage, then up it until you're at full speed.