I just bought my first guitar today and I'm totally lost!!! I really need help learning. I'm having the hardest time placing my fingers on the chords. My hands are quite small and my left isn't as limber as my right. Any advice??? How can I learn to read tabs??? They are confusing me....lol. By the way, if anyone has some useful advice or would like to help me learn please email me. THANKS!!!!
2007-05-09 17:17:26 · 6 answers · asked by preppy624 3 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Performing Arts
Dear Prep,
Hey, glad to hear you're getting into guitar!!
Look, when you first get home with it, you have these expectations that you're going to rock out, and then when you find out that your fingers are kind of stiff, you have no callouses on the tips of your fingers and they're painful, the tendency is to get discouraged. Don't. We ALL experience this, and it does get easier.
You can limber up your fingers a little bit by doing some stretching exercises. It takes some time, but they will loosen up a bit. Right now, you're excited, and all tensed up. Relax, it will come to you!
I think before you learn to read tabs, you should try to learn your chords. There are many sites on the internet which can help you. Type on the search engine, "Easy guitar chords", and that will take you to many sites which can get you started. You need to know the basic chords first, and then as you get those down pat, you can move on to others.
Learn those basic guitar chords, and strum patterns. And then you have to do the dreaded "P" word......PRACTICE!
A good site for you to try is "Guitarvision". It has an animated guitar and it shows finger placement on the fretboard, as well as strum ( picking ) patterns. They have many songs from different genres of music. And the animated guitar download is free.
Don't get discouraged or give up. It takes time, and practice. I've been at it for about 7-8 months now, and you finally pick up a little, and it's not nearly as hard as it used to be.
2007-05-09 18:24:04 · answer #1 · answered by C J 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I've been teaching a sixteen year old for about two years now and she said the same thing, in the beginning I taught her the C cord the D cord the Aminor the E and Eminor and the D cord, the first week she say I'll never be able to do this, but after two weeks of going over and over it changing cords slowly but precisely it became easier and easier, after a while you get callous and your fingers become use to the strings and after two weeks she couldn't believe she was playing songs using those few cords. Do this for about twenty minutes a day and you'll be surprised at how easy it becomes with practice. Small hands don't mean a thing, her hands are small also, and now she's fingering the Beatles "Yesterday," and she's also working on Pachelbel's Canon, it will take a little time nothing comes without work. You didn't say if you were a boy or a girl? As for tabs, I'm teaching her to read music I'm not crazy over tabs. But if you have to know, the lines on the page are the strings 1st 2nd and so on up to six, if a one is on the first string it means that you put your finger on the first fret the first string. If there's a five on the third string it means your finger is on the third string in the fifth fret. (#1 string is the high note on the bottom of your guitar holding it and looking down) Hope this helps a little. You can ask me a few things if you want at: guitarlady1016@comcast.net P.S. Use the name strings so that I'll know it's you.
2007-05-11 23:00:47 · answer #2 · answered by chessmaster1018 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What kind of guitar and how much did you pay? What kind of strings? Sometimes it's worth spending a little extra for a quality instrument, or work with what you have until you find out if you are picking things up.
Start off learning chords. A-G and start playing along to songs you like. Just remember it's only 12 notes. Christmas songs are a great way to start learning, or an old song like "Twist and Shout" (which means you'll also get "La Bamba"). You'll also realize that if you're watching the guitarist play they may wind up using a capo and different tuning, but if you can get the basic chords, you'll figure out how to get it to the next level later. It doesn't matter if you get it or not, close enough is good for now. You also have to build calluses, and not every guitarist has long fingers. Tabs are good if you have learned the basics. Getting limber will happen later too.
2007-05-10 01:11:06 · answer #3 · answered by nightdogg 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The preceding comments have good advice. Stretch your fingers before beginning each session of practice. Buy a beginner's chord book that has basic music theory.
The best option is to take one-on-one instruction for a while so that you will learn the good habits of forming chords. Shun the use of tablature and capos until you've learned the basic chords. Capos are all right when needing to play a song in a difficult key, but they hinder progress and knowledge of the fretboard. I do not use them.
You will accomplish much if you can take a couple of months of guitar instruction and learn to play notation while forming your chords. Getting those calluses are the toughest to do, but you must persevere. The F chord awaits!
2007-05-10 08:54:36 · answer #4 · answered by Guitarpicker 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hey, congratulations on the guitar. i got my first one at 13, brought it home, tried it once and thought - this is impossible. BUT never fear. it is possible. it takes repition to get your fingers to cooperate and it hurts like heck when you press on the string hard enough to actually make it sound like a note. that's ok. i promise you're fingers will tuffen up with a little callus and you'll be fine - playing notes you didn't know existed.
Also, be willing to cut your nails short, at least at first and if you strum with your thumb instead of a pic in the beginning, it sounds a lot better. Don't give up. If you have a book, go through it slowly. Learn D C G E and F (that's the hardest) and you can play just about any song you can think of. Good luck, from an old hippy guitar player from 1968 most of all have fun
2007-05-10 01:02:00 · answer #5 · answered by katy_bug56 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do what I did, pick one song and do it over and over until you get it. Trust me, your fingers will catch on. Try this:
G-Em-C-D7
That's "Heart and Soul". Get someone to play it on piano with you. The beauty of this song is that there is always one finger that stays put when changing chords.
2007-05-10 01:40:39 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋