The 6 Strings

[sidneycrosby Senior Member Member of the Month Oct 2016 Find all posts View Profile Close sidneycrosby]

So my new plan is to continue teaching myself guitar now that I have time again. Or.. Am going to make time for it while I also make time to hang weights from my cock! Anybody here play? I'm a newb. Know some rifts, a few chords, 1 scale, haven't ever played a song yet because my fingies don't move fast enough to get from a C to D within a note! What's some things to practice to take it to the next level? Some fun things to improve skills? Tips on habits to form? Songs you like and recommend for what skill level players?

[Toadstool Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toadstool]

I used to play, but when I had to put it down to various reasons. I used to be pretty good. It takes practice practice practice, like anything else in life.
I've been wanting to pick it up again, but I'm sort of filling my time up with other thing atm. Loved holding that guitar. I miss it.

I liked playing Danzig's How the Gods Kill. I liked playing Metallica. Rammstein has some good metal riffs, like in their song Du Riescht so Gut.

[resistor Member Find all posts View Profile Close resistor]

Guitar Pro is an interesting teaching tool. It allows you to see what the tab sounds like as you're reading it and you can find pretty much any song for it. Expensive enough though. And if you have any consoles or a decent pc Rocksmith is a great teaching tool, letting you learn little by little, but the number of songs is restricted. If there's one thing I recommend you do it would be to build strength equally across all four fingers of your left hand.

I play on and off, I can get pretty good when I have the inclination, but that's not that often, real life always finds a way to get in the way. I even built my own guitar from a kit recently, but I learned during the process I couldn't wire for shit. So saving enough money to get someone to do it for me.

[CaveDweller Member Find all posts View Profile Close CaveDweller]

I have been playing guitar since I was 13 and for me two things worked best.
First learn stuff at Justin Guitar | Free Guitar Lessons as its a free site with sooooo many videos on guitar and it offers a very good content for any player regardless of their skills.

Second thing I loved is just F'ing around with the things you learn. I never felt constrictive to only play what I they said and messing around with the content really helped me learn (or master) things faster.

I say its a thing that gives you roughly what you put into it. Good luck and have fun!

[sidneycrosby Senior Member Member of the Month Oct 2016 Find all posts View Profile Close sidneycrosby]

Thanks for the replies all.
Great link Cave, I'll be sure to check it out.

[TheGreatDivider Senior Member Member of the Month Dec 2015 Find all posts View Profile Close TheGreatDivider]

I've been playing since I got my first guitar for Christmas at 13. I have a pitch perfect ear and can tune my guitar by sound, transcribe music I hear into tabs, and play by ear.... most of the time. I only play melodic or speed metal and have a taste for good metal and hard rock. I'm not ashamed to admit I'm a guitar geek.

Enough about me, you want tips and I've got em. So here's what I can tell you right off the bat.


- Wash your hands before you play, and then oil and wipe down your strings when you're done to prevent rust. Rusty strings cut fingers.

- Callouses take time to develop and after a few months the nerves in your finger tips will be numb to playing. Give it time and don't try to rush this process.

- Keep practice sessions under 45 minutes to an hour in length at a time. The reason for this is you that brute force practice never works to improve skill.

- Strengthen your fingers! Finger strength and endurance are what get your moving fast and playing clear notes in musical time.

- Learn the basic chords first, then the major and minor scale, and then only the chords and scales you need for the music you like. There's no use in learning 7 different voicings and 50 different abstract scales if all you want to do is play your favorite songs.

-You will need to learn basic music theory, but don't get bogged down too much by this. If you can count to 8 you can get musical theory and the concept of notes, scales, chords, roots, voicings, octaves, and tunings.

-When you practice only use enough finger pressure to get the note and no more. Keep the rest of your hand loose and relaxed or else you will cramp up an d have to stop playing.


From this point the only other advice I have you is beyond your skill level at this point. Stuff like string gauges and tricks, which might go more into rock than the genre of music you prefer. There's a lot I'm leaving off of here on purpose just to keep things nice and simple.

[Sequoia Tree Senior Member Member of the Month July 2016 Find all posts View Profile Close Sequoia Tree]

Songs you like and recommend for what skill level players?

Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers is a really good song for beginners.

If you can't play something at full speed, slow it down, and build up to full speed over time.

It's hard to suggest what you should try to learn next without me knowing what you know. There's so much information out there. Just try to take it in a little bit at a time, and keep the music that inspires you to play in the foreground so you don't get discouraged.

[TheShyGuy Member Find all posts View Profile Close TheShyGuy]

I played Clapton...lots of Clapton. Iron maiden, inflames acoustic medley was a fun one. I played non stop until I got married. Wiped my guitar down after every session, and really like the elixir strings. I played a good 8 hours or more. I started off playing Metallica riffs on a classical guitar...not easy when you have no dexterity or callous build up, but sure made the guitar I ended up buying a lot easier to play

[akaTrex Senior Member Member of the Month Jan 2016 Find all posts View Profile Close akaTrex]

I play a Damm good air guitar.

An acquaintance of mine is a famous guitarist. I attended a clinic he performed at as he is sponcered by a guitar company. It was a guitarist geek event. I learned a lot and learned that he plays 14 gauge strings, what ever that means.

One of my favorite guitarist was Gary Moore. Got to know his music after he passed away. Way too young!

[TheGreatDivider Senior Member Member of the Month Dec 2015 Find all posts View Profile Close TheGreatDivider]

he plays 14 gauge strings, what ever that means.

"14 gauge" describes the size of the thinnest string of 0.014 inches, which would be the highest tuned string in a set of guitar strings commonly called the "e" string for it's standard tuning (EADGBe). In a six strings sets, gages range from 8 or 9 (0.08"-0.09"), which would have poor tones and briefly hold notes, up to 13 or 14 gage for players who prefer a deeper sound and longer notes.

Most guitar players use a 10 gage or higher depending on the sound they prefer, but strength and ability also determine which gage they can use because thicker strings are harder to bend and play with. Also, it is very common for rock and metal bands to use thicker gages for drop tuning, one full note or below, because thicker strings require more tension and do not go out of tune at lower tunings.