Two things I learned today

[villisca]

Hey Guys
I have been taking the free guitar lessons (and im thrilled with them) but while I was doing the fret drill I accidently hit the string below the one i was practicing and it made a hollow yucky sound. I realized I was muting the string below on every note. (bad finger position I guess ). So I changed the drill so that when I put my finger on the first fret of the second string I played that string then played the one below it and did that like four times on each fret. Im hoping that doing it that way will help my finger position but I wanted to run it by people who have been playing awhile.
Second I was practicing the seperate notes like Neil said in the lesson and I got bored really quick. So I grabbed a piano music sheet and started trying to play the melody on the guitar. I have to seach for the notes and end up doing the drill to find them lol but I feel like im playing music so that seems to help.
So I just wanted to run these two ideas by you guys and see what yall thought.

[willem]

Its really good to find all the notes on the fretboard and know there names or play scales,,the first one I learned was the Cmajor scale,,all the white keys on the piano!!

What you really learned today I could not understood but others will I guess..

Willem


Maybe this is a great tool for futher but go through Neils lesson on theory and such..

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/

[daryl]

Learning to play the guitar should never be boring. I think it was a great idea to grab some sheet music to learn your notes, just make sure you grab something "simple" and not something like "the flight of the bumble bee"!



You can work on that one next week!

[villisca]

Wow that flight of the bubble bee is amazing. Ill get started on it right away :unsure:
but seriously i picked the rainbow connection. It has a really easy melody to follow and I think im doing okay. I still have to stop and go threw the whole thing every now and then to find the right note. but on the good side im also learning some of the sharps/flats and its helping me read the piano music sheet too. And to keep me from just learning certain notes I also have Ghost Riders in the Sky. :woohoo:
and im still doing all the drills that ive got to on the lessons but i want to be sure i have them down before i skip ahead to much.

[tovo]

They say you learn something every day. If you can learn two things that's a real bonus!

I have to agree with what Daryl said, learning guitar should never be boring. There is a certain amount of repetition required and that can get..well....repetitive I guess! I think the trick is to focus on (gradually) increasing speed.

For example, one drill I always got a lot from is something I call 'one minute changes'. Simply pick two chords and strum each once while switching back and forth between them. As you practice count how many clean changes you can get in a minute (remember if it's not clean it's not good). You will find that with practice the number of changes you can make in a minute will really increase. This is a simple drill with the potential to be boring, but by challenging yourself you can make it more interesting.

Good luck!

[michelew]

Villisca (What would you like us to call you?),

Trying to play the melody lines to things you know is a GREAT idea. The sooner you can start playing bits of songs (melodies like you're already doing and chords) the more fun you'll have. Once you know how to make the first series of chords that Neil teaches, you can switch between a couple of chords slooooooooooowly and you know how to strum simply, you'll REALLY feel like you're starting to play; then you'll be able to start looking at some of the level 1 songs (like Lucky Man or Brown Eyed Girl) that Neil teaches.

When you know how to make the chords G, C, D and Em there are literally millions of songs you could learn to play (slooooooowly).

So keep working on the blueprint, have a look at the level 1 (and 2) songs in the library, and think about whether you know any 3 or 4 chord songs that include the chords you've learned that you want to play. You've got a fun journey ahead of you.

enjoy!

Michele

[takhak]

And don't rule out Flight of The Bumblebee entirely, just start slow and use a metronome.

[tombo1230]

Villisca, the free beginners blueprint has a lesson on left hand technique if you are having any issues with accidental muting of strings.
This is a very common problem, learning good habits at the beginning will really help you play well and cleanly.

Good luck!


Tom N.