Where to go from here..

natx · #1 10-13-2009, 12:58 PM

Dear virtuosos,

I picked up guitar by myself a couple of years back. Was piano trained for a long time so all the theory was "transported" to guitar playing and i now play both guitar and piano. I have done strumming and some fingerstyling, but mostly it is just chords while others sing.

The question now is, where do I go from here? How can I learn to play fingerstyle with fuller and more intricate chords and better still how can I learn to play chords with the lead/melody line? Any ideas or material will be greatly appreciated (=

Thanks in advance! (=

NatX

natx · #2 10-14-2009, 02:09 PM

anyone?

dberch · #3 10-14-2009, 02:28 PM

Hi NatX. Not a virtuosos here, but... You have many choices.

1. Start taking lessons. Visit some music stores and ask to speak with their instructors, and see if you can find one you like and that plays the music you want to learn.

2. There are tons of instructional materials on the the web. One of my favorite sites is: www.homespuntapes.com. They have materials for many different styles at all levels of expertise.

3. Or you could start trying to find people in your area who play fingerstyle and hang out with them. Go to your local music stores and ask around.

Good luck and keep us posted! Don't get discouraged. The journey is more than half the fun.

David

ljguitar · #4 10-14-2009, 03:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by natx

...How can I learn to play fingerstyle with fuller and more intricate chords and better still how can I learn to play chords with the lead/melody line?

Hi NX...
Look into teaching materials, teachers, DVDs or YouTube for the topic Chord Melody.

Some great sources are found at AcousticMusicResource dot com, HomespunTapes dot com, Netflix (Fred Sokolow's stuff) etc.

I own DVDs by Mark Hanson, John Carlini, Pete Huttlinger, Tommy Emmanuel, Pat Donohue, Al Petteway, Tuck Andress, Laurence Juber, Mike Dowling all devoted to the topic...

They have helped me immensly...

natx · #5 10-14-2009, 08:14 PM

thank you so much for the input guys (= really appreciate it (= will work to see if i can find these here. West lafayette is quite a closed community =P it's just Purdue and a couple of shops and not having a car makes things worse

will look into the online resources! thanks guys!!! (=

stuartb · #6 10-23-2009, 04:48 PM

nat,

re fingerstyle,

use utube to find a song you really want to learn,

pay to have it transcribed, request the person playing it send you the music, or otherwise get a copy of the exact arrangment. But the key is to have passion for the song.

Then teach yourself to play it one section at a time.

I never learned the basic chords, though most of them are apparent.

I went for fingerstyle songs I had a passion for. During the first year it was very hard. Now I've just finished year 4 and I have many songs under my belt and am working on about 25 songs. Some country blues, some celtic, some old time.

There is an exceptional website if you're into a little country blues type / old timey time of fingerstyle work. It's Eric's Lugosch. He provides the sheet music, and two recordings, and the history behind the music, and a few tips.

I love this site, and have learned a few of the songs. Some are quite challenging. At first they will all seem impossible, but keep working.

link provided.

http://www.ericlugosch.com/lessonhome.html

Candyman is a short, easier song.

I've also worked on Buckdancers choice, Eighth of January (great arrangement), Standing on the Outside (another great tune).

I've had a number of fingerstyle tunes transcribed from utube. That works well also. But sometimes you need a teacher to help you along, if they seem way over your head.

Either way, find songs you love, and then attack them. Don't focus on complicated chords. Focus on songs. The chord structures will work themselves out.

Stuart

rick-slo · #7 10-23-2009, 06:48 PM

Lessons are always nice but you could do worse than just learning a number of fingerstyle tunes from tabs.
Thousands of tabs here many of which are quite accurate (you will need PowerTabEditor)
http://www.tablibrary.com/index.php

TBman · #8 10-23-2009, 08:10 PM

The problem I've found with fingerstyle is that you have to find pieces that are just right for your current skill set. Too easy and you'll get bored, too hard and you'll get bored even faster. Probably the best thing to do (and I should take my own advice) is to find some songs that are fairly easy to play so that you can get a good size library of songs under your fingers. Unfortunately the songs I like the best are way over my abilities - and it gets really boring trying to play something you can't after a while.

Mark Hanson's instructional books are a good place to start. He has a good library to choose from at www.accentonmusic.com

mmmaak · #9 10-24-2009, 01:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Lessons are always nice but you could do worse than just learning a number of fingerstyle tunes from tabs.
Thousands of tabs here many of which are quite accurate (you will need PowerTabEditor)
http://www.tablibrary.com/index.php

Hi Rick, thanks for the link. I had not known of this site before.

One question, though. They claim to be "free and legal". How is that possible when they have more than 200 Beatles tabs among other things?

(EDIT: OK, did a bit of Googling to find out. Guess I was more than a little surprised that the copyright holders would allow it!)

stuartb · #10 10-24-2009, 04:18 PM

I certainly don't look for easy songs. I simply pick the songs that inspire. If it takes longer to learn, at least you have a song you want to play at the end of it.

Stuart

Doug Young · #11 10-24-2009, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmmaak

One question, though. They claim to be "free and legal". How is that possible when they have more than 200 Beatles tabs among other things?

it's simple, it may be free, but it's not legal. They just haven't gotten caught yet. Most of these sites try to get away with posting copyrighted material under the guise of "fair use" or "for study purposes". There is such a thing, but in the US at least, the law for fair use dictates 1) a small number of measures (I think it's 10 - or maybe it's 10% of the song, I forget), and 2) that the measures cannot constitute a complete performable unit, like an entire verse. That allows schools to provide a few bars for chord analysis, for example, but is not supposed to allow a tab site to post an entire tune, no matter how "educational" it may be.

Ray B · #12 10-25-2009, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Lessons are always nice but you could do worse than just learning a number of fingerstyle tunes from tabs.
Thousands of tabs here many of which are quite accurate (you will need PowerTabEditor)
http://www.tablibrary.com/index.php

Nice site ..... Thank you

Ray

mmmaak · #13 10-25-2009, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug Young

it's simple, it may be free, but it's not legal. They just haven't gotten caught yet....

Hi Doug,

So, it isn't after all? My Google search turned up some sites that mentioned they managed to obtain the RIAA's blessing or something like that. Also, isn't this the reincarnation of the huge Powertabs database that was shut down some time ago due to legal reasons? Perhaps nothing has changed and it's just a "rebranding"

Doug Young · #14 10-25-2009, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmmaak

My Google search turned up some sites that mentioned they managed to obtain the RIAA's blessing or something like that.

Hard to believe anyone would just give up publishing rights to Beatles tunes for free :-) Maybe the site is making money somehow and paying for it, but I'd doubt it. Here's the info the RIAA provides on legal sites. Note that they're all basically stores like amazon.

http://www.riaa.com/toolsforparents....al_music_sites