Guitar - the beginners edition

[FETCHER.]

Hey everyone!

I started learning to play guitar in the last 2/3 weeks and I thought this place would be great for beginners to share tips, ask questions, to get advice on your playing journey and most importantly just talk about it!! Not many people irl care 😅😂

I had never picked up any instrument until 3 weeks ago so I'm probably learning some pretty basic stuff.

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The first and probably the most important thing I have picked up:

I love my acoustic guitar but wish I had bought an electric because I learned on my first lesson that electrics are much quieter when they aren't plugged in... this would help me practice much more often.

It would have saved me some money had I known as I'm now going to buy an electric on my next payday 😅

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Please share yours no matter how big or small! They will help me and hopefully others out massively 😌

Hopefully we have some experienced players willing to pitch in and help us out here 👀😂

[Guybrush]

Grats on your start as a burgeoning guitar player 😊

I was never very focused with my guitar learning (never had a teacher) and it wasn't until I was about 20 that I leaned into it more as I was more focused on drums up until then.. but I have dabbled since childhood so have absorbed a bit of guitar know-how still.

I'll share and perhaps show some things that I found useful a little later on 🙂

Also, I prefer to have acoustics around because they're so easy to just pick up and play! Getting into electrics, you also have to think about guitar amps and perhaps effects.. although you can of course practice just playing it unplugged.

[Guybrush]

This might be a miss 😄 not quite sure about your level just yet BUT I did catch your trouble with the F as its a barred chord and - I assume - similar troubles with other barred chords.

You have to know them, but sometimes you can get around them and with better sounding or more interesting results, so just made a short vid about that 😊

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MGcPAqeQM0vIevMvUqLVk4_mgQjZl68B/view?usp=drivesdk

In essence, you can sometimes just play the open chord shapes you're used to further up the neck. On certain bars you will get dissonance, but elsewhere it might sound better or more interesting than the straight barred version.

I'll admit the F is something I do play barred unless I can get away with dropping the F down to an open E on the top (brightest) E string and play an Fmaj7 chord instead.



For my hands, that's a very comfortable chord to play and it's easy to move up the neck, so might be good to learn 🙂

It can become yet another way to play various chords without barring them with your index finger. Like say you play this starting from the fifth bar, you practically have an A chord. From third you have a G, etc.

[FETCHER.]

I'll try this version of the F chord out next time I practice. Thank you!

I don't play it fully barred yet. I have tried it but it's crazy difficult just now 😩 my instructor got me to try the below

High E string muted
B string 1st fret
G string 2nd fret
D string 3rd fret

I'm mostly struggling with pressing down on the strings effectively on this chord and not having my fingers piggy backing on other strings accidentally 😩.

On another note 😏 when I was practicing today I noticed a slight buzzing sound from my guitar when I was playing out certain chords, is this normal? I tuned it up and it still done it after tuning. It might be because I'm strumming and going between chords so slowly but I'm not sure.

[Guybrush]

I'll try this version of the F chord out next time I practice. Thank you!

I don't play it fully barred yet. I have tried it but it's crazy difficult just now 😩 my instructor got me to try the below

High E string muted
B string 1st fret
G string 2nd fret
D string 3rd fret

I'm mostly struggling with pressing down on the strings effectively on this chord and not having my fingers piggy backing on other strings accidentally 😩.

On another note 😏 when I was practicing today I noticed a slight buzzing sound from my guitar when I was playing out certain chords, is this normal? I tuned it up and it still done it after tuning. It might be because I'm strumming and going between chords so slowly but I'm not sure.

The cheat F he's trying to teach you is almost the Fmaj7 🙂 To complete/advance it, you can do this:

High E string open
B string 1st fret
G string 2nd fret
D string 3rd fret
A string 3rd fret
E string 1st fret

You can ditch the lower E string if you don't get your thumb to it comfortably. Then you can mute the top E like your instructor suggested to turn it into a cheat F 🙂 and if you nail the whole thing, you can move this whole chord up the neck and play it elsewhere, so a versatile shape to know.

About the string buzz, maybe you can do this simple analysis:

Does it go away if you only press the strings hard enough? Then it's probably technique.

Does it go away if you press the body of the guitar against your body? Then the buzz might come from the guitar body, like a back brace coming unglued.

Is the only way to get rid of it to play further up the neck? Your guitar might need a truss rod adjustment. In the guitar neck, there's a steel rod that you can bend with a hex key. If it's not set up right, it might cause your guitar's neck to curve, causing the strings to come too close to the frets.

Last, it could be a saddle thing causing too low string height (low action), but I think you wrote you bought a new guitar, so the saddle should be alright.

Last after last, it could be a belt buckle or a piece of jewelry or something touching the guitar bod as you play 🙂

[FETCHER.]

Lots to think about here, thank you!

I'm done practicing for the evening, my fingers are killing me 😆 but I will try all of these tomorrow night. There is every chance it is technique because my fingers are hurting 5/10mins in. I'm trying to practice little and often to hopefully overcome it asap

[FETCHER.]

From practicing I think the buzz is most definitely my technique.

I've not practiced much recently but when I have I've been practicing the Simpsons theme song which is great fun 😂.

I've found a few "easy" songs to play about with. One has a brilliant easy riff at the start that I've almost mastered.

I've fell out with F chord and B minor at the moment so needed some new songs. Those chords aren't fun 😊.