I’ve decide to take “learning” guitar in a different direction. I’ve been thinking about my previous post and decided that I want to focus a bit more on the basics of reading music and playing sheet music. While learning to play music like Staind, Cold, Tool, etc. is what I ultimately strive for, I think that I will only get there if I build a good base by starting with basic sheet music.
Given this I was hoping to get recommendation on different books that cover introducing playing guitar. I don’t want something too simple but not too hard either. After all, I need to rebuild my hands up as it has been a while since I was playing.
Currently, I’ve got a couple of books including “Guitar for Dummies”, a book titled something like “Guitar for Beginners: The Fender Method” and a Mel Brooks [??] book. But there are a lot of different books out there, all with a different method of doing things.
If you used one and would like to recommend it, please post it’s title (and if possible author) below. I would greatly appreciate it and it would be interesting to hear what people have tried. Likewise, if you tried to use a book and it didn’t help you or it was frustrating to read/utilize please post that too. What is bad is just as important as what is good.
Are you familiar with the Song “Handlebars” by the flobots? If you aren’t, I’ve posted it below:
The reason I’m mentioning this song is because, first, I love it. I don’t know why, but I’m addicted to it. I love the trumpet solo that is in the song.
A local radio station, Q101.1, here in Chicago created a parody of the song called C Section Scars. While whether the song is tasteful can be debated I think it is funny and worth sharing… Listen to it below:
So I’ve always liked the Jaws theme… I’m pretty sure that most people (over 18) are familiar with this little tune. Now, when I say tune I’m talking specificity about the trademark lead introduction piece; not the entire thing… I’m not even sure that there is an entire thing… Besides the point right now…
Anyway, I put together some music tabs for the song / introduction - this was done quickly and may not be perfect, but my wife said it sounded right… So enjoy!
If you set up your TuxGuitar properly (you need a soundbank installed in to Java) you can have TuxGuitar play it for you — and you can practice with TuxGuitar.
Here is a YouTube video that I found with the theme in case you want to hear the ‘Real’ version or if you have no clue as to what I’m talking about:
I’ve been considering signing up for a course with “MusicianUniversity.com” for the past few days. However, I’m kind of on the fence and would like some feedback from the public…
Has anyone taken a course with Musician University? If so, I’m looking to learn about your experience and your thoughts on the course you took.
I’ve been working on the song for my wife (as it is known) and I have come to a road block with the progression / song… I’m not sure where to take it or what to do next. I’ve come up with a few things, but ultimately I simply don’t yet know enough to write a song — at least a song worth keeping. :-) Anyway, this is why I’m interested in taking the course…
Pretty much any feedback or thoughts would help. Thank you in advance!
The post is asking about a Better Business Bureau for the Netherlands, which is where MusicianUniversity.com is based out of. According to the post, the user has been trying to get a refund, presubmably because they didn’t feel that the services were to par.
If someone can counter this, I invite you to leave a comment at the bottom.
I am going to try to check out a local community college for what I’m looking for… I’d rather play it safe then waste valuable time and money…
Stop by your local record store and pick up something in support! Record stores are still alive and well! (According to an interview with a Local Chicago record store manager, they do pretty well even in a world where CD and MP3s dominate — mostly because of DJs.)
Play this for two minutes (not 99 as the music says), it will exercise your fretting hand and your picking hand much. (Click Image for a larger Rendering).
After you try this, please post a comment on what you think. Was it hard? Was it easy? Does your hand hurt too much to leave a comment?
A blogger receives the award from another blogger (who has received the award already).The receiving blogger is then to pass the award to ten other bloggers. Pretty simple right?
Problem: At this time I only routinely follow six blogs… They are on the far right under Other Blogs… No matter your skill level, I encourage you to check them out. They are all chock-full of information. If you know of another blog that you read and respect — particularly in the “Beginning Guitar” genre, please share!
In keeping with the spirit of the award, I will list the sites following this along with my thoughts on the site. (No particular order) Unfortunately though, at this time I can only list six…
IG Blog: IG Blog (who gave this award to me, Thank You!) is full of information. IG posted a good article on the CAGED system, which I’m currently working though. Aside from that, IG post all sorts of information and provides all sorts of links.
From The Woodshed: I litteraly just found this site today… I’m really sorryI had never stopped by it before… Aside from the interesting read of Joe’s daily progress and notes, Joe post tips and trick on learning guitar. If you don’t know, Joe is studying guitar full time (No job right now) and is trying to go pro. I wish him the best of luck!
Electric Guitar Review: Cary provides a lot of good information and reviews on gear and such. I don’t comment on his site much, but I do enjoy reading about the latest gear.
The Fillmore Five Project: Kenski, similar to Joe of the Woodshed, is working on becoming a professional guitar player. Kenski posts information relevant to beginner players. He has also posted extremely helpful comments within the pages of my blog. I wish Kenski the best of luck, also!
Heartwood Guitar: Though Rob hasn’t posted anything as of late, his blog is chop-full of information for anyone learning guitar at any level. He has a huge list of songs written out for private study. Take a look, you may find something you’ve been wanting to learn.
Pickstroke: Pickstroke has a whole bunch of good information for guitar players of every level. Including songs and other good resources. Pickstroke is also the original source for my post about slowing down music. Such a great tool, I’m glad they posted about it or I’d have never found it.
I know a lot of these sites have already won this award… But if I didn’t pass it back, I’d have no one to give it to!
If I find more sites to give this award to, I will update this posting.
So, I’m suppose to be going to IG’s CAGED series… But I found right now, that I’m not really in the mood to follow something specific… I’m just in the mood, for now, to bang around on my guitar and make “noise” — Though, I do want that noise to sound good, I’m not really following any sort of specific chord progression or material.
What I’m trying to say is sometimes I just want to bang around on my guitar… Is that a bad thing? Does that hurt my learning to just not follow any specific material and to just play random chord with random strum patterns… Oh, all of this is done without a metronome…
What do you think? Any guitar teachers out there? I’d love an opinion from you…
I just saw this on YouTube… I stumbled upon it really, but I thought I’d share.
I know to some people, this might not be particularly impressive. However, to someone like myself (beginners) this is impressive and it makes you wonder how to get there… Perhaps one day I can post a video like this.
