Fellow Beginners, Show youselves!

[Lee]

If you're a beginner like me (I've been playing a few months) post here how you've been getting on, what you've been learning to play, where you are having difficulties etc.

I started a few months ago and have just learnt from using the internet really, I was following some written lessons on the internet which taught me the basic chords and then told me to try and play some songs, I got a bit bored with this because they didn't say how to play the songs, usually just gave you the chords which isn't really enough for a total beginner.

I'm currently forcing myself to practice barre chords because I really need to get used to them, they can be very frustrating when just one string will not ring properly.

The first song I learnt was a basic version of Knocking on Heaven's door but since I found these fantastic videos on YouTube I have been learning some music I really enjoy listening to myself. I have learnt Good Riddance by Green Day now which I'm very happy with.

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[subcaptain]

Keep practicing those barre chords, it'll come, don't worry. If you do have a persistant problem with a buzzing string (I have thin fingers and had the same problem) try turning your wrist a little towards your index finger, so you get some of the edge of your index finger barring to, for some barre chords you can also use your second finger to barre to, like a root 6 minor.

Marty

3

[CaptainCrunchy]

Beginner.......yep thats me. I first picked up a guitar this year in music class and ever since then i have been more and more interested in guitar. I learned all basic riffs and chord construction during my music class but then when i wanted more i looked towards the internet to find tabs of all my favourite songs there. Using a nearly prehistoric classical acoustic guitar that i found in the attic i learnt alot of basic methods of playing. Now that i have an electric now (Ashton= Cheap fender copy) i've learnt alot of songs mainly ranging in rock like Wolfmother, Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins etc: Currently learning the song "Quiet" by Smashing Pumpkins. Well anywayz...later for now!

[Paranoid]

I'm also a beginner, I've been playing since last August. I mostly do a lot of exercises I get of the computer and I read guitar books. I've also just started getting lessons every Saturday which helps more. I've also been practicing barre chords and I'm getting better.

[Steve K]

LOL you beginners sound like pros to me with your barre chords and all, I've been playing for 3 weeks but like Lee I can now play Greendays Good Riddance (kinda), not sure what I'm gonna tackle next but I've just bought a months subscription so I think I will follow the plan and do what Dave tells me I can do! :D

I am currently not using a pick when I play because when I do it sounds so loud and terrible. Playing using my thumb is probably a very bad habit to get into so any tips would be appreciated.
Is there any way to keep the noise down a little or should I go practice in the middle of a field? :(

[Steve K]

aha lesson 21 in the beginner section looks promising for my strum technique, will give it a try at a more suitable hour (or the missus will slap me) :D

[Lee]

Steve it's strange that you've started off playing with your hand instead of a pick, I started off with a pick and now have just started trying to use my hand/fingers a bit more.
Anyone who wants to get some practise at the barre chords, check out David's video lesson on Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson. I'm trying to learn that now to force myself into practising these barres.

[Whiskey]

I understand exactly where you're coming from Steve. I played without a pick for nearly 10 years (i've been married 10 years...lol) simply because I was timid of making any noise. Didn't want my 'music' being critiqued while I learned. If you practice on an electric you will be quieter, but honestly, learning with a pick now will make it easier later. Its just a question of confidence. You ever heard a trumpet player practice quietly? We all make a racket when we start! :) Once you get a bit better, those around you will enjoy your practice sessions.

[Lee]

Yeh let everyone hear your noise Steve! The old lady who lives below me heard my noise and came up to complain "La musica a las dos de la madrugada, NO!"
Ok so maybe I shouldn't have been playing it at 2am, woops!

[NapoLoso]

Yeh let everyone hear your noise Steve! The old lady who lives below me heard my noise and came up to complain "La musica a las dos de la madrugada, NO!"
Ok so maybe I shouldn't have been playing it at 2am, woops!

Hahaha.. funny lady,
that reminds me, when a group of friends and I went to
a concert in Las Vegas, two of my friends brought their
guitars, and i brought my amp, after the concert at past
2am we went back to the hotel room and started playing
as loud at my 15watt amp could go, untill security came
to kill all the fun..luckily he only complained about the
loud music and not about 6 people being in a 2 person
room haha.

[Icey Cookie]

This is me all over!

I have been playing a few months i have learnt somethings like sweet home alabama, smoke on water, blister in the sun and so on...

I am really trying to chord changes now...

Cyas round :)

[Steve K]

Thanks for the advice guys, I'm gonna bring out the noise!:cool:

[Miika]

I'm a beginner too. Started playing only a month ago.
Right now I'm trying to learn many different chords and chord changes so that I could play many songs almost immediately. It would be quite embarrassing if in the middle of a song I'd have to stop and think: "what's that Fmaj7 chord?" :confused:

[Paul]

Another beginner here. Actually started about 9 months ago. Paid my $20 for a 30 minute lesson each week so I could learn to pick Mary Had a Little Lamb. I decided I was to darn old to learn to read music and started to teach myself. All I wanted to do was JAM !! After 9 months of sometimes brutal practice, I finally have a good feel of it. Heck, I am even teaching a couple of friends already.

For those trying to learn barre chords, KEEP TRYING,It will come to you !!!!!
It also opens an entire new 'world' to your playing.

Whoever stated that they were just starting to learn the major chords and practice switching between them..... before learning anything else.....that is how I learned and it worked pretty good. After a couple months of learning the major chords, I found a TON of songs to play right away. Then, the next step is the strumming.

As Dave puts it in his video's...YOU CAN DO IT !!

IMO, this web site is the best way to learn.


Looking forward to learning more here !!

Paul

[ledzepcoda7]

I am so very new to all of this...... I am having trouble with barre chords, chord changes, and strumming,which is just about everything. Dave makes it look so simple, and i am so excited to make it happen. Like he says i can do it.

[Blewbyou]

led,
Stick with it man all of us together can make it happen" WE can do it" together

[bl3u]

Beginner here too!

I'm a programmer and a casual computer gamer, so I needed something to take my mind off of computers after a long day of coding. My girlfriend's Dad has been playing guitar since he was 10 or something, so he's giving me "lessons" (I'm quickly finding that his lessons consist of showing me some new songs he's found and then trying to teach me some things that are WAY too advanced for me).

I stumbled upon this site on YouTube and just loved the videos. Tim and David won me over with their positive attitude and clear concise instructions. I'm not quite ready to plop down money for tutorials, but when I do, you can bet it will be at this site!

I've been "playing" for about a month now. One thing that I've been struggling with is what to do during my practice sessions. I practice for about 20m a day doing major chords and strumming techniques and scales, but I feel as if I'm spinning my wheels and not getting any better. I don't know what I should be practicing as a beginner or how long I should expect to be bad before I can switch between chords. After a month, I can only reliably play G-major and C-major, but I have to pause to get my fingers in the right spot.

I haven't poked around the new site a whole lot yet so maybe this is a stupid question, but is there like... a lesson plan or something I could follow? Sometime tells me just warming up with some scales and then alternating between CM and GM isn't going to get me anywhere =/

Great site! You guys rock!

[Whiskey]

Don't get discouraged! When you first are starting out there is a lot of ground to cover! Notes to memorize, fingers to strengthen, callouses to develop ... you muscles need a bit of time to develop their memory for the chords, but once things start to move along you'll be flying!
When you learn a few more chords you'll find your fingers will be able to fall back to the G and C chords you've already learned without even thinking about it.

To those about to rock - we salute you!

[rock4eva]

I've been playing since August. I picked up an acoustic a few years back and played with it a bit, but it never really stuck and I took G,C,A, and D chords away from it and that's about it. Decided to give it another try with an electric and it's been going well.

I bought enough toys to fiddle with and keep me entertained so i wouldn't burn out on chords and scales, so when I'm sick of those I plug into some pedals.

I just invested in some lessons in the last couple weeks and it is doing a good job of keeping me going and helping me with theory.

Everything goes slowly and I'm still not really comfortable playing many songs, but I know my way around the guitar enough to make pleasant noise when i practice, even if it isn't at a blistering pace.

I'm waiting to shell out on the membership here. I certainly see the value in the content, but I'm waiting to see how often things get uploaded and how much more comprehensive the site gets. There's a lot of free information on the internet and I'd like to get a new amp. I kind of feel like I'm over the hump. It'd be hard to just put the guitar down now, so I know that every day forward I'll be a little better than the day before and each day brings me closer to a stage in front of 100,000 screaming fans....well maybe a living room with 5:)

[NapoLoso]

I'd just like to add that for those are just beginning,
i'd like to say not to give up, with the help of NLG
we all can do it. When I first started, i toought I'd
never learn barre chords, or the pentatonic scale at least
but after practicing i got to memorize some barres, and
other basic stuff, i'm still a beginner so i know how you feel.
I know that with NLG we can do it and thats why im here :)

[Ali]

I am also a begginer, but...this site is really cool and it gives me a new interests..and I try to go on and learn many more than few songs...and excuse my english I am from Slovakia-Bratislava and I am only a student:o

[Matthew]

I think I'd call myself an advanced beginner at the moment.

When I first started out I basically just learnt simple chords. That kinda bored me so I just left my guitar (electric) on its stand for months. Then I went back to it last summer, and can see I'm progressing much more now. Just that damn Fm and B barre chords :mad:

[PhilC]

I guess I'd call myself an advanced beginner too. I took lessons for a few months several years ago with my daughter. Learned to pick a few simple 1 note tunes and open chords. Got bored with it and tired of spending the money with nothing to show for it. Picked the guitar up again about a year ago trying to learn some worship songs with a friend. That too, didn't last long... life keeps getting in the way. So now, at 47, I'm trying again. This site is IT! I've learned more in 1 day than 6 months of lessons! I happily signed up for the year! Now maybe I'll get my moneys worth out of my gear. I have a American Fender Deluxe Strat collecting dust, an Epiphone Les Paul, 2 Fender tube amps, Toneworks AX1500 modeling processor, an Alverz accoustic and an old classical guitar... All great gear and no one to play it, until NOW. :D

[StealBird]

been playing like 4 weeks,learnt some metalica enter sandman acdc highway to hell and now learning vampires by godsmack :)

[darylb]

I have been trying to learn for about a year now. I would certainly still consider myself a beginner but I am not sure what the official cut off is.

I can tell you that I have learned more in the last month watching Dave's videos than I did the entire year put together. I think you guys just starting out are fortunate to have found this place. I think I would have progressed much faster if it were around a year ago. Well, at least after I had some of the basic stuff figured out. Plus I think there is a madatory period of hurting fingers and horrible sounding chords.

I am getting to a point now where I can play the songs in the lessons within a half hour or so and I am also able to pick up other songs, at least the chords. I am pretty confident that if I continue to put the time in, I will continue to get better and my song list will grow.

The thing I am not good at is improvising. I would love to be able to sit and just noodle (improvise) some juicy blues over a rhythm track. I cant seem to take the little bit of scales I know and apply them musically yet. I am hoping to get the time to join the site and work on those specific areas soon though.

Thanks to Dave and Tim for the site and to the rest of you guys for participating in this community part.

[ToolFan]

Hello another beginner here. I had a guitar abck when I was 15 but never learned anything on it except 2 power chords and how to flip around my neck! I was teenager in the 80's if you couldn't guess ;) But I picked up another guitar about 6 or 7 months ago and its been going pretty well I think.

Mostly I picked up what tabs I could find and learned some older stuff. Like some Dokken Scorpions and whitesnake. I am huge Tool fan...hence the name and I found the tooltabs.net site. These tabs are 100% correct and I have learned several tool songs almost all the way through! :p

But when a friend showed me Dave on youtube I feel like I am actually learning how to really "play" the guitar. I ahve been working on all the major chords, and I can play every rose has its thorn, summer of 69, and the beginning of nutshell all thanks to Dave :D

So please keep the lessons coming and I am going to join the site for the premium content

ROCK ON GOOD PEOPLE ;)

[Bigsnake]

Beginner here too. I started fooling around with guitar this last Thanksgiving when I decided to take my Dad's old guitar. No clue what it was and when I got back home to my condo a friend came to put new strings on it and told me it was a Classical guitar (75' Alvarez) and I had purchased the wrong strings.

I fooled with it a few weeks and then went and got a normal acoustic. Been messing around with it every since. Learned about 8 open chords from a friend and have been working with videos I've found online, etc. I think the first songs I learned to strum were Good Riddance and Let Her Cry. I know a few more now and some simple riffs. I'm starting to try to get the 12-bar blues down.

For the classical I got some spanish songs I've been fooling with. Fingerpicking is fun!

Plan on getting an electric in a few months. From listening to Mayer, Frusciante, and Clapton, I'm probably going with the Strat for the first electric.

[ace_mon]

Beginner here also been playing for about 4 months now.. Came across Next Level Guitar on http://www.youtube.com and been hooked since day one.. I was waiting for the day for the launch of the site.. And now I am here with all you "good people".. I would like to say Hello to all the guitar players here.. HI.. I play electric guitar.. working on Barre Chords at the moment.. Thanks for putting this site together.. :D

[jeromekayla]

im a beginner too and i have the same problem with bar chords

[robdrums]

Hey there,

I'm a drummer that's been playing drums for 25 years but just started playing guitar a little more serious. Thought you might like to see where I'm at ..hehehe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQHcoq3Rz9o

Enjoy,

Rob
p.s. Being a drummer helps with the rhythm's that's for sure.. eheheh

[slash-is-great]

Well I've been playing since January, and I am currently working on my bar chords too. I just can't get a clean sound on my B string. As for what I can do, I play chords fairly well, and have started learning some pretty vague chords. Amazing by Aerosmith has some weird chords in it, and its one of my favourite songs, so I have been playing that to learn the chords. Now I can play it fairly competently.

I can also play some solos, mainly any nirvana solo, knockin on heavens door Guns version (well, most of the solo anyway) highway to hell and Love gun. I am currently working on my solos.

[Tapper5]

I'm also trying to play bar chords with varied success. I'm currently learning "Hurt" by J.Cash and "Tunnel" by Third Day.

[kobes]

gday everybody
Just new to the forum, looks really good and very helpful.
Ive been playin 4 round 6 months and hav a crappy acoustic and just a squier strat. Im still a begginner and hav just been teachin myself, with a few tips and tricks from Dave. Most people seem to be having trouble with bar chords, they are tricky at the start but u will get them. At the moment i am trying to build up my speed in lead playing, im trying to learn Voodoo Chile by the great Jimi Hendrix but i dont have a wah pedal,m so im just gettin the playin down. :)

[Beyond]

I'm a beginner too, I've been playing for about half a year. My biggest struggle is chord changes, but it's getting better with practice. Now I want to improve my palm muting, barre chords and I try to play without looking at my hands.
oh, and I'm taking a beginner guitar class at my college, final is next week and I'm gonna play a song in front of the whole class! I'm excited:D

[Gonzalo]

Hi, I'm Gonzalo from Argentina and found some lessons on you tube that made me curious about the site. I find it very interesting and I feel very enthusiastic in keep on learning. So I bought a Yamaha Pacifica and a nice amp to ROCK ON!

[justzipit]

Hey everyone,

Back when I was 19 I got a bass and amp, but only played for about a year, and then I moved ,got married, and next came the kids, and one day (now Im 29) I was searching for a song on youtube and David pops up and I was inspired to play the guitar again I took all my old bass stuff to music go round and traded it for a GAX 70 and crate GT65 amp. It's now been about a month and a half of playing every night in the garage after the kids are in bed don't worry my wife is with them. Thanks to Dave and Tim for this website I would not be playing if it was not for them. I'm going to learn as much as I can on my own and then sign up for the pre account. I'm having soo much fun progressing it seems like every night I'm getting a little smoother and faster.

Thanks

[Ovidiu]

I've been playing since january and i'm working on my barchords just like Slash is great
Don't worry buddy will get through this too

I've learnt lots of easy chods songs and a lot of metallica
Solos i've leart some blues solos,licks ... i've learnt quite a few of them but only on acoustic since a don't have an electric... Yet

And yep I agree Slash is the greatest rock guitarist ever

Take care everyone

[weasel473]

you asked for a beginner, so you got one. I'm Michael from TN. I have an old Westone from the 80s and a little Johnson amp. I've been playing for almost a year now. I can start to play Eruption from Van Halen, but only a bit.

[jcboomer]

I'm an advanced beginner(I'm 13). I have been taking lessons for little under a year for $7 for half and hour. I know songs like good riddance, every rose has its thorn, sweet home Alabama, walk the line, highway to hell, long way to the top, and get back. I learning how to solo right now. I came to this sight to learn songs and converse with other musicians. You can only learn so much in a half an hour lesson, my teacher thinks its awesome what I'm learning on this site, my teacher is awesome he's not one of those teacher who teaches lame songs like mary had a little lamb he teaches songs that you want to learn and mixes scales and needed skills like that in.

The gear I have is a samick acoustic, a Ibanez rg2ex1, a piece of crap squier standard strat, and a line6 spiderIII 15watt modeling amp.

[Bleedingtips]

Yup im new aswell! i've been playing 1 week and am currently trying to work on my chord changes, can't play anything yet but i'll get there :p

[Banim 10]

Been playing just over a year and definatly still call myself a beginner i learnt most chords within six months but still can't properly play bar chords but i don't get bogged down with that as there are plenty of good songs out there that don't involve them. The one thing that was really letting me down before i visited this site was my strum but a couple of video instructions and i'm flying now loving the guitar more than ever just wish i'd found the site sooner!! The only advice i can give anybody starting out is stick at it there is light and the end of the tunnel and you will get better!

[rne1223]

Hahaha.. funny lady,
that reminds me, when a group of friends and I went to
a concert in Las Vegas, two of my friends brought their
guitars, and i brought my amp, after the concert at past
2am we went back to the hotel room and started playing
as loud at my 15watt amp could go, untill security came
to kill all the fun..luckily he only complained about the
loud music and not about 6 people being in a 2 person
room haha.


hahahah...awsome stuff

[the real prozac]

I'm a beginner. I've been playing for about 3 months. I went to an old friend's house last night. He is in a local band here, and was impressed with how much I've learned from here in such a short time. I learned a few things from him last night, i.e. how to tune using natural harmonics. Play with friends who are very experienced, you'll pick up stuff without even realizing it.