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With a little help from my friends...


Weird Uncle Tim

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Hi Guys (and Gals),
Follow me back in time, more than thirty years (ouch). I am just a lad of 19. I have a good singing voice, really good, so good that I focus almost entirely on singing. I got tired of finding piano players to back me up so I pick up the guitar (Piano would have taken more time and patience than I had) I learn to strum open chords in a short three months and I am singing and playing in public (with a good guitarist as a partner).
Fast forward to today. I gig as a solo (off and on) through the years, become a Worship Leader at a fairly large church known for its music, get a

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Thanks for the suggestion. I have watched quite a few of Marty's videos and find them very helpful. I am looking for a more comprehensive approach. Something that would help me with my skill level and not just teach me the notes. Maybe I am missing it though. Did any of you get good at guitar just by playing intros and riff's until your fingers bled?

I'm curious, those of you who consider yoruselves good guitarist in this genre, how did you learn?

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Quote Originally Posted by davebols View Post
How do you get to carnagie hall?
Yeah, but he kind of needs to know what to practice!

As a former music instructor of my wife's used to say "Practice does not make perfect. Perfect Practice makes perfect."

I too am a strummer (and a bit of fingerpicking) and would like to get much better on guitar. I recently started looking into the CAGED system and it opened my eyes to a lot of things. Still, I'd like to have a solid lesson basis rather than random Youtube vids.
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Quote Originally Posted by Howie22 View Post
Yeah, but he kind of needs to know what to practice!

As a former music instructor of my wife's used to say "Practice does not make perfect. Perfect Practice makes perfect."

I too am a strummer (and a bit of fingerpicking) and would like to get much better on guitar. I recently started looking into the CAGED system and it opened my eyes to a lot of things. Still, I'd like to have a solid lesson basis rather than random Youtube vids.
Exactly! I am ready to commit to regular practice (even scales) but I don't wanna waste my time on things I won't use. I don't want to be a "lead" guitarist, just fill in the gaps with some recognizable intro and riffs. I will always be a singer (and entertainer) first.
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There is no one way, and there certainly is no 'easy solution'...but the real trick is to play.
My suggestion:
Pick one song. One song, and play it and sing it until you can do it with your eyes closed. Then move on to the next.
In your spare time, learn about music...harmony, scales, modes, voice leading, chord structure...understanding why things are the way you find them will make it all seem much more logical. You were not born knowing how to read; you went to school and you were taught...same idea, minus Miss Crabtree.
I personally am not a big fan of practicing scales, mainly because actually playing a scale in a song generally doesn't happen...experiment, look up things you want to learn...the advantage you have today compared to when many of us were learning is the internet...everything you need is at your fingertips.

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Pick one song. One song, and play it and sing it until you can do it with your eyes closed. Learn the vocal melody on guitar and get the notes down so you sing it corrrectly. It is easy to sing in key. It is a little harder to get the melody correct.

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Pick a few songs that you like in that genre that utilize "travis picking", basically pattern fingerpicking.

Off the top of my head I would say....The Boxer by S&G, Landslide by Fleetwood Mac, These Days by Jackson Browne. These are simple songs which utilize the same chords you are using now. Once you get comfortable with these patterns you can add walk ups and downs (bass notes leading from one chord to another) and suspensions and 7th's etc to add interest. Once you have several of these types of songs under your belt you will be able to incorporate them into the rest of your repertoire....perhaps fingerpicking the verses and strumming the choruses for example. The more songs you know the more you realize just how similar so many songs are and you begin to build of toolkit of tricks to help you add variety to your sound and also helps immensely in training your ear to recognize what you are hearing when first listening to a song you may wish to learn.

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The songs you mentioned are a bit varied stylistically so you may want to select a "like" group and focus on them.

Amie ----- strong strumming song with of course the fancy picking intro and the middle lead.
Needle In and Damage Done ----I think played by Neil with a pick. Easily fingerpicked. Alternating bass travis picking.
Norwegian Wood---- primarily a strummer with some individually picked figures
Wish You Were Here-- fairly easy strummer ...take 30 minutes and you've got this one down..you know the chords
Here Comes the Sun--- kind of advanced for starting out....always sounds better with two guitars
Fire and Rain---finger picked...haven't played this one for many years. Easy enough if I recall.
Black Bird ---finger picked... a bit more of a classical feel to this one...not terribly difficult but you'll move your left hand a bit on this one.

Good luck. I'm kind of in the same shoes as you. The guitar stuff has always served mostly as something to hang my vocals on. It might be good to set some goals...
For example, I am going to buckle down this weekend. Want to nail down "Little Martha" and "Tears in Heaven". I've noodled around with them for awhile but now it's time to get serious. The timing and style of these ones are out of my normal comfort zone so I've been avoiding them.

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I forgot one thing....youtube

In addition to Marty Schwartz I also like JustinSandercoe, yourguitarsage, kirbyscovers, and deltabluestips.

If your focus is more on style rather than learning particular songs then deltabluestips is the one to look at.

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Nice to see another Tim around here. cool.gif

Some good suggestions by the others. I am guessing that you haven't developed your ear enough to figure out songs just by listening to them. Even so, I often tell students of mine that it's okay to fumble around for chords and especially notes when trying to figure out a song. I learned by listening to songs and just picking open notes on the guitar. Once they matched up with what I heard at the right time, I was able to see patterns and started to be able to predict where those parts belonged and where they were most likely going to go.

You already know chords. If you apply that knowledge and play some single note melodies while playing chords, you will be able to figure out stuff like "Needle and the Damage Done" and "Wish You Were Here." The Beatles songs like "Norwegian Wood" and "Here Comes The Sun," as well as the James Taylor song "Fire And Rain" all require a capo to be played properly.

If this isn't your forte, no sweat. You can search for some tablature online at places like ultimate-guitar.com, but there is no guarantee that what you download will be accurate. Checking out YouTube is sort of like the visual version of tab. Sometimes it's way off, sometimes it's pretty close, rarely is it dead on. I would recommend random YouTube videos as a guide only. Ultimately, using your ears is the best.

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Retiring at 19? Could you rephrase that? Flash forward 30 years, so you're 49 and retiring, but can only strum open chords? Blackbird is the most complicated on your list. Learn that one first, and the others will be easy. Or stick with strumming Amie, probably the easiest on the list. Some of us do pretty good learning by ear, picking up riffs by trial and error. If that doesn't work for you, maybe learning to read music or tablature will be the way to go.

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