Does Anyone Play The Guitar?

yeah but if the only way I can play something is by “not playing it” then how I can practice it and learn to play fast?

I play the guitar, i thought myself.

I’m saving up for an electric, but I do have two acoustics right now.

Actually I just got home from leading worship on the guitar at youth group:)

I like Lynyrd Skynyrd, i’m in the process of learning FREE BIRD, but it doesn’t sound near as good as it should on an acoustic.

Oh yeah and I have been playing for about 7 months…

Actually, if I’m correct, then that is exactly what practice should do. By practicing what you want to play, your finger muscles “memorize” where they are supposed to go. I’m sure you know that things don’t seem so hard once you’ve learned them, well you’re probably getting pretty familiar with whatever you were playing. You were probably relaxed so your brain could freely exercise what you taught it.

It’s actually a lot like lucid dreaming :content:

yeah… i guess somehow i’ll be able to do it more often…

it was that way when I was playing nothing else matters (great song! all people should learn it, not too hard, impresses the ladies [or it should])

i was like “i can’t do this, i do great then i start thinking and i screw up” and my crazy woman-friend … don’t think i’ve talked about her on here, she’s the “Megan” in my dream entries she was like “i have no idea what you’re talking about… I play better when I think”

i don’t see how anyone could play better when they think, unless they’re singing the parts in their head which I sometimes need to do to keep from being sloppy.

but when you’re not thinking at all, that’s when you kick the most ass, for me anyway.

oh and I think I might get an electric-acoustic soon.

I kinda play it out in my head before I play or like as I go. lol I can’t really explain it. but there are days where i cant get anything to sound good so i just have to put the guitar down.

oh yeah and also i play the mandolin.

Its super cool, tuned like a violin, but looks like a small guitar.

Hey i been playing guitar for about 2 years now its a great instruent, I ave proformed infont of 1000 people +.

I play mostly metallica and heavey metal Things,

With Barre chords it depends on the size of neck of your guitar, i have a medium sized hand and a gibson les paul custom so it depends on that

I’ve been playing for a bit over a year now, self taught. It’s dissapointing at first that it really isn’t as easy as it looks but then it’s great fun when you can start doing what you want with it. I really enjoy making up my own songs, very rewarding

I’m in a progressive rock band :happy: I play solos mostly and I also sing.

We’ve merely started, but maybe some day we’ll be famous :wink:

I listen to Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Jethro, Blind Guardian.

I play electric guitar 6 months, and i LOVE this instrument! It gives much fun, i love to play riffs from my favorite songs :smile:
My dad showed me few basics (how to play Smoke on the Water and Money…), then i started to download tabs to my favorite songs, and thats how my learning goes :smile: Some things (like palm muting) i learned from the net. I play mostly heavy metal riffs, and still looking for a band…

Guitarist’s unite!

The fastest way I’ve found to increase ability is to just always always be playing your guitar, whenever you’re doing something that isn’t vital to living play guitar even surfing these forums, play guitar when you’re not typing anything.

I play the guitar, and I am a member of both the guitartricks.com and cyberfret.com guitar forums, although I haven’t posted on them in forever :tongue:
I’ve been playing about 6 years now, I’d say I’m okay for how long I’ve been playing.
A few things I can tell any beginners out there;

  1. Invest in a reasonably priced…but good (as in not a peice of crap) guitar. Epiphone makes some good ones, you could check them out.
  2. If you’re going to take lessons, learn to read music. It is such an invaluable skill, which sadly most ‘musicians’ can’t even do…if you can read music you will always have an edge over other players.
  3. Watch out for tabs on the net…most of them are wrong…which brings me to #4
  4. Listen close and develope a good ear. Good ears + reading music = one heck of a guitar player.

Lastly, be patient and don’t get discouraged :smile:

I play the guitar I have been playing for about one year.

I’ve been playing for five or six years, but my dad is a professional musician, so I’ve always just had one around.

Yeah i absolutely love my guitar. I play around on it for at least about an hour a day sometimes more. I’ve been playing about 3 years now, im into metal, progressive, rock and shred and im currently training to do my 4th grade exam in rock guitar.

A real key to playing well is having a good influence. I listen to john petrucci (Dream theater if anyone’s heard of them) and the things he does really influence me and improve my style.

By the way who’s everone’s favourite guitarist?

Favorite guitarist? …gotta be Steve Vai :cool:

Alexi Laiho (children of bodom) i’m also a fan of dream theatre, good band.

Angus Young -acdc

And off course his brother malcolm :grin:

I guess no one saw that one coming :content:

I have not been playing too much ecently , my amp is a bit broken and I often o like , "ouhh , I have managed to broke that one ! , typical me , better not think more of it " and go to ld4all intead :wink:

Not George Harrison, actually. Two people hold that spot absolutelly tied in my mind. Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. George is second.

/me loves his guitar(s).

I’ve been at it for about six years now, and doubt I’ll ever be able to stop. I’m in three bands (only guitarist in all of them) as well as the school Jazz Band, and practice daily. I’ve got loads o’ tips for anyone just starting out; here’re a few:

How you approach the guitar, what you practice, etc., all depends on what sort of music you want to play. If all you want to do is cover songs of your favorite classic rock musicians, then it’s a great idea to learn to read tab, brush up on basic barre chords (minor, major, 7th, etc.), and learn your basic scales (again, minor, major, possibly the modes, etc.). If you want to play metal (especially if you want to write your own stuff and have it sound great, or play very fast/technical/advanced songs), you have to get a lot more technical, especially in terms of lead playing; learn approximately the same amount of chords (you can always look up more advanced ones you come across, and there won’t be that many; unless, that is, you plan on using a lot of arpeggios, in which case you should learn all the chords you possibly can), but practice switching quickly from chord to chord and playing them in all possible different places on the fretboard, and go nuts on your lead playing; practice your minor, major, modal, harmonic minor, melodic minor, etc., scales as often as possible, in all possible positions on the fretboard. Also, doing guitar exercises to improve your speed (there are some good ones at www.guitarists.net) daily will work wonders. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to rip it with the best of them. If you want to get really far out there, learn more obscure/advanced playing techniques like tapping or sweep picking, which will allow you to play faster and get more unique sounds out of your guitar. Learning music theory, especially that relating to rhythm (many metal songs utilize obscure time signatures and odd bar divisions), will help a good deal too. If you’re looking to play jazz, you have to get in even deeper; learn chord theory and program it into your fingers to the point where you can figure out on the spot how to play an Ab5#11+7, and cover every section of music theory from harmony to modality until you’re well-versed in all of them. Then, learn to sightread sheet music and be able to analyze which chords are behind each part of the piece you’re playing, so you can successfully improvise over it. At this point, your chops will probably already be brilliant, so you’re free to go and join an ensemble.

If you don’t want to take lessons to learn these things, you may have a bit of a harder time getting the ropes at first; but if you look around on the internet and swing by a music store or two, you can probably find enough websites, books, and videos to get by quite well with. Also, feel free to PM me if you have any questions.

Being a skilled guitarist takes a lot of work and commitment, no matter what you plan on doing with your skills–but it’s also intensely rewarding. The guitar is one of the best creative outlets I’ve found for myself, and the thrill one gets from crafting a really wicked song or playing a shimmering solo is almost unmatched by anything else I’ve found in the world.

Good luck, and may your interest in musicianship never wane! :content: