Dont Stink at Guitar!

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Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon. Turn it up enough and you could even get some metal sound out of it. I specifically recommend the Boss RC There's lots of blues lessons online, but the one i always recommend first is justinguitar. Honestly, just watching these videos and practicing what he says and does helped take my blues playing to another level. He's great at giving small tips that fine-tune your playing.

Lessons are the biggest help. I tried learning on my own and while I kind of got it, having a teacher helped me make much faster progress. They also will help you with things that you won't be able to pick up on by yourself or even with something like Rocksmith. I don't know how many times I learned a song on my own and went to my teacher and he said, "that's good, but why not move your pinky there and do blah blah blah instead of moving your whole hand" and I ended up playing the song much better.

A good portion of the theory and scales I know I learned from YouTube videos. I'd be lost without martyzsongs. The dude will teach you some fundamentals! Pick up Rocksmith It should really spark your interest in the instrument and get you playing again - music theory and all that can come later. Check this video to get an impression.

And how you can improve...

Before i only really saw guitar as a tool or medium to create music. But now that i got a new one, i already can tell im approaching it much differently. Now i want to play the guitar, not just play music. I replaced it with a PRS that I just didn't have the same connection with. It had a few quirks I didn't like floating bridge, inconveniently placed volume knob, headstock shape made pegwinder unusable.

It wasn't a bad guitar at all, in fact it was pretty good, but I just didn't feel about it like I loved my Indie. It's more like my Indie was in terms of weight and shape, but a completely different beast based on sound and the likes. I'm playing at least an hour a day again, where as with the PRS that was an hour per week. I honestly think you should have the opposite outlook. Too many guitarists get caught up in just learning cover of songs and how to do power chords, and never learn anything about music theory. You can play guitar really well and still suck at music. I've seen guys who can cover really complicated songs very well but have no idea how to actually put something together that sounds good, and to me, that's a thousand times more important.

I'd rather be a musician than a jukebox. I just know with this new guitar im really motivated to tweak and develope my skill with the instrument: I'm really considering buying this now. I'm in the same boat as OP, I've been "playing" for a little bit and can memorize songs and play decent but I want to improve a lot. In your honest opinion, is Rocksmith worth the money? The computer version is way superior. You can also download custom songs for free - not legal though. There aren't any legal issues with downloading custom songs for rocksmith as long as the songs aren't available as purchasable dlc for the game.

How do you think I completed my Metallica dlc for the game? I've got an older version. Should I buy the newer one? Is there an upgrade or am I out the money I spent on the older?

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All included songs have been updated with new techniques like the new display of slides and bends and some have slightly other changes as well. I'm a broke college student and was hoping I wouldn't miss much by getting the older one. The old one is not bad, but is so much better. More responsive, better lessons and minigames, and the biggest factor for me the session mode. Session mode your set up a back up band that will play along based on how you play. The second motivated me a lot more to start regularly playing than the first one did.

You can also get it used for around the same price on ebay. I would say if you wanna try it out, just pirate it, buy the cable either way, in case you want to buy rocksmith , or to connect the guitar straight to your pc. The original has some pretty fun songs to play as well. Can't even be compared. The interface of the first game is lackluster and annoying. The problem with buying on steam is that you need [to get] the cable separately which can be a hassle depending on your location. The game has been going on and off sale A LOT recently so just keep your eyes open and make sure the copy you buy has the cable included.

I'm in Kansas so I don't think getting the cable would much of an issue. What sites has it been going on sale on the most? In fact, PC is the recommended platform because there is a big range of songs made by the community to download and add to the game. I totally agree with this. I play a lot of games and rocksmith has been the most fun I've had in a long time.

I've noticed quite a difference in my playing since picking it up I consider myself a beginner. I'm now able to actually play through a couple of the songs mostly by memory without even having the game on. The only downside is that I didn't care for a lot of the games on disc so I've spent a bunch of money on dlc. This is easy to justify for me though because I'm actually learning and having a great time. I wanted to like it.

I have both editions and it is the most annoying game ever. I have good intonation, but it misses maybe one out of 10 of the notes I play. It's bad for learning songs, too. You'll be playing something new, and it will be miles of power chords interspersed with 20 seconds of interesting material, which blows by so fast you don't have time to read it, much less play it on the beat. You can use the repeat mode, but it's fidgety and doesn't remember where you left off for next time. Only useful part for me is the jam practice, and that's pretty worthless too as it doesn't tell you what chords it is playing, and the chords switch randomly.

How are you supposed to improvise well if you don't know the targets for the chord?? Not a good way to learn songs. Improv minigame is ok, but broken. If anything, I find the detection to be somewhat lenient. Accidentally muting a string in a chord or fretting one note badly often still has you pass them. The songs also tend to have a lot more "interesting material" then you make it appear, too - a handful of the easiest songs include a lot of powerchords, but the vast majority has mostly interesting riffs and guitarwork.

I do admit that it takes some time getting used to the interface, but once you've played for a while it becomes easy to sightread dense passages. I also don't understand your criticism on the riff repeater: The repeater is there to focus on a particular section you're having trouble with - not to repeat every section one by one until you can play it, and only playing the song afterwards.

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With how I described it play song, repeat tough parts there's no need to remember what you were repeating last time. Session mode also does show which chords it plays some notes are filled in, these are used for the chords, whereas the other scale notes are only outlined. It also does show changes because the note in the new chord fill from left to right, and you can choose how often they change in your band settings. Pick 12 bar and notice how structured the changes are. It's unfortunate you were disappointed by Rocksmith.

I've been teaching myself to play with a combination of Rocksmith and JustinGuitar, and my guitar-playing friends who learned to play via traditional methods are all amazed at how fast I've been improving. I found Rocksmith disappointing. If the game missing notes is part of the reason you don't like it though, just keep a real tuner nearby and use it periodically. You'll be surprised by how off your strings can get while still being OK'd by the RS built-in tuner. I'm not worried about it. The guitar world does suffer from a lot of conservatism, and Rocksmith throws all that "we knew" about learning guitar into the wind.

I was in a similar spot as you back when I was about years old or so and I'm about 10 years older than you today. I had been a much more active guitar player from age 18, when I picked it up, to about age 21, when a relative passed away and I lost some interest in playing. I played at least an hour a day, every day, and was actually up on stage playing and singing in front of a band less than six months after picking it up for the first time. Was I any good? It doesn't matter, because at 22 I found myself trapped in a dead-end with my playing. I am a self-taught guitar player. Like you, my chord knowledge was fairly sparse and my music theory wasn't great, I was most interested in heavier music but did not own an amp, and I was considering taking lessons.

What I did instead was I bought an acoustic guitar and started playing on that. Instead of tuning it to E standard, or drop Q flat, I had it set up for E flat with a dropped C on the 6th string. Now I was able to play the deeper, bass-heavy, chords of some heavier music that I enjoyed, but I was also forced to "clean up" my picking a little bit. The strings on acoustics are generally heavier than those on an electric, and without the bells and whistles of an amplifier and other effects there was less for my playing to hide behind. Even though I was more interested in heavier music, the acoustic guitar is what enabled me to both fix the holes in my picking style and to break out of the rut in which I was stuck.

A huge part of why that happened is the portability of an acoustic guitar; I found myself able to go almost literally anywhere and play it. With my electric guitars, effect boxes, and even if I had owned a proper amplifier: Another thing that helped me advance my playing was deciding when not to play. Rather than trying to join a band and play guitar primarily, and forcing the creative process to happen along the way, I joined a group and focused instead on my singing even though I personally believed my ability on guitar to be greater than the two other guitarists in the group.

I would be listening to riffs during practice and then hear the guitar parts that were not there being played. I would go home and try and figure them out after practice and, eventually, was able to piece together the songs that became our first EP. Think of it this way: You do it for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and it is what it is.

You don't really think about what you're doing, you just do it. Now, a friend stops by work one day and asks if he can try to swing the hammer. You're bored with it, so you show him how to swing without hurting himself and then step back to watch. His swing is awkward, it's nowhere near as efficient as yours, but your friend is enjoying himself immensely. Even though he tires out quickly, he's flushed with excitement and now thinks your job is kind of awesome. The next thing you know, your friend is smashing rocks at almost the same skill level as you, only it took you years for your skill to plateau while it only took him months to reach your ability.

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The point is that, to you, your guitar has become just a damned hammer, a blunt instrument that no longer inspires you the way that it once did. I said that I switched to singing full time, but maybe you don't sing? On a guitar, you focus on chords, but you want to learn Metal riffs? That's fine, pick up a four-stringed bass and play along to an earlier Rage Against The Machine record. Break out of the box you find yourself in. If you don't have access to a bass, then find an artist or song in a genre that you generally don't ever listen to.

For me, it was "The Claw" by Jerry Reed. A friend of mine copied a tabbed out version of the sheet music so that I could listen and play along to it. Even though I played in a heavier band, by learning how to do some relatively easy finger picking it completely and totally changed the way I play the instrument of guitar.

After some initial frustration, the techniques began to feel intuitive rather than alien. It didn't take long for me to realize that learning this kind of picking style was going to be a huge difference maker for me, and it was. I began challenging myself to learn more complicated or tricky versions of songs that I could play with just the one guitar. Today, when I pick up an electric guitar, the instrument I now play least often, it's almost like I 'go up a level' or two every time from not playing it. I hope some of this makes sense, I wrote it kind of quickly and I really should have left the house 20 minutes ago, hahaha Try a completely new genre and it's force you to learn new techniques and styles of playing, and improve the ones you already have.

I was a folk chords strummer for like 6 years and barely improved until a friend got me into blues. That opened up pentatonics and improvisation and soloing.

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Trying to fight my way into jazz guitar now and over the course of a couple of months my library of chords and voicings as well as my soloing outside of basic pentatonic stuff using arpeggios and other scales has expanded a huge amount. Now, I'm not saying go out on the street corner tomorrow and start busking although, if you know some tunes, that would work too Start learning some new songs right now.

Songs you really wish you could play. If you can't nail all the parts then those problems will point out which technical areas you need to improve. Move on to another song and keep going. Come back to the songs you could finish as your technique improves. Start going to live shows. Whatever kind of small time gigs you enjoy, and be social. Sit in on a blues jam. If you can perform two or 3 blues song all the way through, somebody will let you get up. Honestly, I pick a song, I learn it. I don't stop practicing it until I can play it.

With learning that one song, it opens doors to other simple songs, or even gives you ideas of your own to improvise with. I started out on an electric, messed with it on and off for a few years, never really saw a whole lot of improvement. Just recently bought a mid level acoustic, and now I actually want to learn songs, I want my fingers to hurt, and I want challenge in learning music. Maybe it was just all the necessary equipment with electric just to make it sound good, but acoustic is a great stepping stone from my personal experience.

I have always said this when i realize i am not very good at something. It is worth the enjoyment alone". I still suck at guitar, but i still fiddle around with it. Im not very good at video games, but i am much fun to be in a lobby with. I am a really good driver race track, car and bike but i am not a very good mechanic. Heh, I can play my guitar but can't change strings to save my life, I'm great at video games but struggle to put a pc together so I know what you mean!

I do enjoy playing when I am at it and love that feeling of nailing a riff I never thought I could learn! Learn Metallica songs, it's like an intro to metal. They are easy to learn and it sounds good to hear yourself play something that sounds cool. I'd been playing for 4 years before I started taking lessons. I only took them for 6 months, but I can honestly say my skills improved twice as much in that 6 month period as compared to 4 years of no direction.

"Playing" for years, still crap! : Guitar

The lone "playing" you describe is a cul de sac every musician will end up in until they swing out and engage with other musicians. There is a universe of actual musicianship waiting for you. The primary one is time commitment. You gotta play often and a lot. Time alone ins't enough. Hours of stupid practice won't benefit you as much as 15 minutes of smart practice after a point. Playing at all will develop your manual dexterity and strength, but if you are not mentally engaged in it you won't get any benefit in your understanding of the instrument.

Get a book or find an app or just google a wealth of chords and scales. Drill them with as many different fingerings as possible and attempt variations of them. Developing your ear can help a lot. Eventually you will be able to play along to almost any song while listening to it for the first time. That's the hard part. Having the will and interest. Its hard to stay on the train. The motivation and doing has to come from within.

You have to want to get better and commit yourself to playing even when the desire is less than pressing. I definitely have been in your shoes at your age, hitting 31 this year and no longer feel that progression has stopped, instead the learning can be overwhelming and i have to take mini breaks to avoid mental exhaust memorizing too much at once. Tons of great advice here, but none of it is what did it for me.

I feel you're in the exact same boat. Growing up my parents hated that I played guitar?? So I was never allowed to have an amp until I moved out. I also had an XT, then the x3 live, which id use headphones or plug it into my stereo. Took me years to be able to afford one after moving out, and then the tone wasnt what I wanted. So here's my suggestion.