New player - opinions please

[guitarxan]

Welcome to the forum and the brother and sisterhood of guitar players. It is a journey of fun and life long learning!!!!

Play the HELL out of your guitars. Try new things, for example, get a good tuner and try alternate tunings. Especially try E-Modal....you would be shocked how many fun songs you can cover with just single or two finger chords. CSN say hello.

As you develop, you will find that your taste in how different guitars sound will start to guide you. Don’t get hung up on the name or price. Play what works for you and above all else, HAVE FUN!!

[rmp]

Bill, where are you in MASS?

I'm in Leominster, there's a person here still working and doing setups.

Let me know via PM if you think you want to give it a try.

She (Dianne) is VERY good, she's been doing this for bout 35 years now, she's meticulous, smart and thinks out everything she does. many years ago now, She worked out of the Wurlitzer chains which out in the greater Boston area back about 20/30 years ago.
I trust her with anything, and I have some very expensive guitars.

[Walterc]

rmp, I am in Ashburnham. I have a new guitar coming Monday and hope it does not need a setup. Does this Dianne work at a store? Contact info would be very useful for me eventually. --Walter

[Dloz]

A lot of good advice so far. The only mistake you can make is to stop playing. If you've gotten this far, there's only few uncontrolled reasons you should ever stop. Now enjoy, have fun & look forward to the moment you play a tune & somebody recognizes what you're playing. Really work & enjoy going from learning the guitar, to someone who plays guitar, to someone who is a guitar player. There are so many kind, non judgemental folks here that offer a ton advice with one common interest...guitars! Playing them, buying them, selling them, trading them, but mostly playing them.

[Slothead56]

Congratulations on taking up this wonderfully rewarding Hobby/avocation/activity/challenge. What I am about to say is NOT meant to be snarky or sarcastic....

Delete the link to AGF from your computer and spend the balance of 2020 learning to play. The internet is a great tool for learning (something I’m guessing most AGFers did not have back in the stone ages) but it can be a rabbit hole. Learn to play and come back when you can transition to a Bm with ease.

[Billinmass]

Originally Posted by rmp

Bill, where are you in MASS?

I'm in Leominster, there's a person here still working and doing setups.

Let me know via PM if you think you want to give it a try.

She (Dianne) is VERY good, she's been doing this for bout 35 years now, she's meticulous, smart and thinks out everything she does. many years ago now, She worked out of the Wurlitzer chains which out in the greater Boston area back about 20/30 years ago.
I trust her with anything, and I have some very expensive guitars.

Hey thanks for the tip. I’m in Norton so that’s a bit of a haul but if we stay locked down much longer it will likely becomes closer!

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Billinmass

I still don’t know what I’m doing and what matters most! Many thanks in advance.

There's no point in chasing after things that other people like. Once you become somewhat fluid on the instrument, you'll have a better sense of what you like or don't like about the two guitars you own. Until then, just play the two guitars you own.

[Rixtoy]

Hey! Another refined (old) dude taking on slaying the dragon here.

Only a few months in and my simple minded conclusions so far (for me, anyway) . . .
- Buy the best (I guess that means most expensive) guitar you want to afford. My logic is "if not now, then when?" . I am 70.

- A milestone moment for me was when I transitioned from what I felt was "practicing" to what I now consider "playing". I practice golf to prepare to play a round of golf; you practice a play to prepare for a performance - I don't plan on performing and found I just like having the instrument in my hands, even if all I am doing is fretting exercises, or scales or cross-picking (look it up). SO, I now grab my guitar to "play" it. someday I will be able to play a song, but I want to enjoy every moment with the instrument until then on the journey.

- the common wisdom (and, it is correct) is to "just keep playing" and that is true. I am convinced my fingers won't do the things required, but I go as slow as possible and the muscle memory and training does improve things. so, just keep playing.

- Having started with free online videos from well-meaning people, then buying a series of online tutorials from a reputable source I have concluded that all this guitar training stuff (approaches, techniques, tools, exercises, etc.) include THOUSANDS of different information points. I liken them to the pieces of a watch. after two months all I had were hundreds of pieces of a watch lying in front of me on a table - but, I wanted to know what time it was - i.e. - playing something recognizable, and found just moving the pieces of the watch around on the table was not cutting it. So, I started taking private lessons from someone who is studying jazz guitar at our local university and is experienced in guitar instruction.

I am 5 weeks in and am nowhere close to learning melodies, but I trust him. As I told my wife, we are using the "Karate Kid School of Guitar" technique. Remember the movie? The kid wanted to learn Karate and all Mr. Miyagi had him doing was waxing his car and painting (Wax on - wax off; brush up - brush down). What he was actually doing was training his muscles in strength and memory to be available when the time came to actually do the moves.

So, I am doing very general fretting exercises, alternate picking and cross picking, finger spanning exercises, just a touch of open chords, etc. to train my hands and fingers for what is coming. And, I am good with that. My breakthroughs ( able to play relative clean notes at a little faster pace each week) come each week through playing. Expect to be frustrated , but slow and clean works for me. He can importantly point out bad habits with technique, finger and hand posture, etc. That may his most important role at this point.

This may not work for you or others, but I like doing what I am doing, so who cares but me on where I am - I will be telling what time it is soon enough.

As a note, I did buy a Yamaha LL16 ARE because I want a solid wood guitar. Am I able to play it like a 5 or 10 year veteran? Nope - but it makes me happy.

Good luck.

[JBCROTTY]

Originally Posted by Kyle76

Just get a decent guitar with a good setup from a place that you trust and start playing. You can’t possibly know what you like at this point, so don’t worry about it. Ease of play is far more important than anything else, even solid woods. Once you’ve played awhile you can trade up, but right now just get something to learn on and forget about everything else for awhile.

^^^^This^^^^^

[Dbone]

Welcome

[rmp]

Originally Posted by Walterc

rmp, I am in Ashburnham. I have a new guitar coming Monday and hope it does not need a setup. Does this Dianne work at a store? Contact info would be very useful for me eventually. --Walter

PM Sent.

Br,

[TBman]

Welcome to the forum!

What is important is that you have a guitar that makes you want to pick it up and play, and it is easy to play (setup). As you develop as a player you may want to try other guitars for the variety, which is fine.

Many of us have multiple guitars and for us its part of the fun of playing the guitar.

[donlyn]

Hello Billinmass,

A lot of Massachusetts clinging to this thread. #metoo
Plus you got that 'RP' guy in here from Virginia, near No. Carolina. He's very nice and very knowledgeable. Hey Randy!

Good luck on your guitar journey. I'm old in years and old in playing. Been at this a while. At some point before too long (next winter) you will want to look into humidification for your instrument(s?). Just a heads-up.

About the 'Wurlitzer' mention, I bought a few instruments at E.U. Wurlitzer starting when they were at West St, then Newbury St, then, Commonwealth Ave, and finally Massachusetts Ave, where the company died about 20 years ago. Purchased there, and still have, my Gibson J 200, Taylor 355, and Gibson Les Paul Standard.

Just for my own curiosity, how do you fret your A chord? I'm self taught, and I got it out of a Mel Bay book when I started out. If you put the tip of the index finger directly on the 'G' string, you do it like me. Does cause a bit of a traffic jam at the second fret. Seems it's not too usual, but it gives me a lot of finger flexibility to quickly change around a lot of stuff through that A and into the D positions. Of course I also cheat with the index second fret mini-barre too, sometimes with the 7th added on the E string.

Look, it's a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun too. And a source of personal satisfaction.

Enjoy,
Don
.

[Billinmass]

Sounds like I fret it like you. Index finger on G, middle finger on D and ring finger on B. I like the anchor finger learning to go from D to A quickly and also just sliding the anchor up to the first fret to play an E chord. It seems to make my life easier although I’m still kinda slow on the chord changes. That’s pretty much my sole practice focus at this point. I can play all 3 of those chords well, but can’t keep the strumming tempo while changing between them.

[donlyn]

Originally Posted by Billinmass

Sounds like I fret it like you. Index finger on G, middle finger on D and ring finger on B. I like the anchor finger learning to go from D to A quickly and also just sliding the anchor up to the first fret to play an E chord. It seems to make my life easier although I’m still kinda slow on the chord changes. That’s pretty much my sole practice focus at this point. I can play all 3 of those chords well, but can’t keep the strumming tempo while changing between them.

Hey Bill,

Yep you do. Don't 'fret', your changes will become lightning fast and totally second nature. Not only will you be able to navigate that E - A - D sequence backwards forwards and all over the place, but also throw in A -Amaj7 - A7 by manipulating your index finger only, and also add both of these sequences into one, and start throwing in some D and G variations, since you now have fingers free to pick out notes you never thought you could and chords you still don't know the name of. Which all combines very nicely with your cowboy chords in C and G and more loose fingers to go all around the world, including some silly B chord variants and all the minors and other strangers you could ever want. You'll have enough passing notes under your thumb to pass "Go" every time you shoot through an octave.

All aboard. Next stop "hammer-ons and pull-offs".

Don
.