• From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Topic: FOLLOWING LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR GUITAR SKILLS

This a question I wanted to ask so many times.
- First I wanted to say, my skills to play guitar are better since I met that lovely girl named CHORDIE.
- I also learned a few licks and riffs by watching some YOUTUBE clips.
HERE IT COMES: all these improvements are very close to the way I approach my guitar, more strumming, quick change chords, a few licks (maybe mini solos 10 seconds) and riffs.
THE SITUATION = I play guitar since 1973 (very little), but in fact, I started to play more since 1978. I improved  playing guitar very slow and not at all every day.
Since 20 years, I started to play everyday sometimes 10 minutes, other days 2 hours. RESULT: I have an own style, probably like most of us.
If I should decide to follow lessons, would this be useful or not? Reason as told, you have or you play since years "a kind of personal style" and thanks to friends, and a Korg Pandora, having a rhythm section, I play better and better, but in fact ONLY the style I use to play since years. I'm 52 years YOUNG, have time, and I'm definitely not a pro. Maybe a good amateur. Has someone experience with this: playing and improving your skills, knowing a lot of chords and having a personal style? I really love to learn the "fingerpicking" style, and with all the on line lessons, or private lessons is it possible to change your style by following lessons?
Thanks

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website

  • From: Grimsby, UK
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 604

Re: FOLLOWING LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR GUITAR SKILLS

Lieven, personally speaking I started trying to play songs that I like to listen to.  Then, when writing my own material I have a base to work from.  If I like a chord progression for instance Dm, F, Bb, A, when I write something I may just rearrange those chords to form a different sequence, or maybe just alter the rhythm or picking pattern.

I don't know whether this counts as style though!  I'm quite willing to learn from lessons but like everything else in this crazy guitar playing world, you take what you want and leave the rest!

cool

I'm the son of rage and love
  • From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Re: FOLLOWING LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR GUITAR SKILLS

Daddy, as usual, I wanted to write 10 different things on the same time.
- This is written more like it should be.
- When I started, the first song I could play was THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN.
second song: BLOWIN' IN THE WIND. I was already dreaming of "stardom." I was maybe close to it, because I worked as a Doc, on one of the biggest festival in Europe, 75.000 people, and 2 or 3 bands asked me to join them as a kind of personal Doc. (one of them was Metallica, another was David Grohl.) I can not see the future, and even getting a real lot of money, my place was here in Belgium.
- Forget about that. I stopped playing for a while, and started again, having an acoustic YAMAHA FG 300 my knowledge about chords improved, and I could play E  A  C  D  G (F and B, where very difficult back then) also Em  Am  and E7  G7  D7  A7= 11 chords, and you could do a lot using these chords. Period 1978 - 1988, and learning extra chords now = 21 (like D Dm D7 also the other chords =====> 1994.
- Next step: buying songbooks, pre-computer time, and trying to all the songs I knew.
- Style: strumming, strumming and strumming, but not rhythmic. I started to play better and better from the moment I could play rhythmic (jam, metronome)
- After my crash in 2000, I improved a lot, by learning a lot of other chords and my books.
- Finally: I started to play some licks and riff's, STILL STRUMMING, and using this strumming in combination with licks & riffs, I developed an own style.
- Before chordie: I played pretty good, and since chordie, I improved 100% thanks to all of you giving tips and tricks. I tried to play without plectrum=some fingerpicking, studied scales and my best friend (also drummer) learned me to play as I always wanted to play. The chord knowledge: from 21 up to 50, playing-along with CD's, and I can say now that I am not a bad player and that I should be glad. (A Canadian friend has a studio in MISSISAUGA is a genious, STUDIO, BACHELOR in MUSIC, PIANO, ARRANGEMENTS, PRODUCER, and he told me that I played quit good, even burned a CD). That event and comment helped me A LOT.
- Having "MY STYLE" since long, would it help if I took guitar lessons? I am afraid that whatever he shows, I would'nt follow his advice.
- IS IT STILL USEFUL TO TAKE LESSONS? ALSO KNOWING THAT I LEARN MORE THAN ENOUGH ON CHORDIE CLOSE TO MY STYLE?

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website

  • From: Grimsby, UK
  • Registered: 2006-03-04
  • Posts: 604

Re: FOLLOWING LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR GUITAR SKILLS

Any day you fail to learn something is a day wasted Lieven!  If you took lessons and the only thing you  learned from that is that you don't need lessons then it wasn't wasted!

If your teacher taught you 10 things in your lesson but if you learned only one thing that helped you play better then it wasn't wasted. 

You take what you need and leave the rest behind!

Take care of that finger!

cool

I'm the son of rage and love

5 Reply by mixter102 (edited by mixter102 2008-01-19 05:14:15)

  • From: Stockton Ca
  • Registered: 2007-10-19
  • Posts: 192

Re: FOLLOWING LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR GUITAR SKILLS

Doc try taking lessons in a style you don't normally play in,  I was a simple 3 chord strummer for years,  I took a classical guitar class in college and got much better with theory, and finger picking.

  • From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Re: FOLLOWING LESSONS TO IMPROVE YOUR GUITAR SKILLS

Thanks again Bone and Mixter102
This a  loud and clear answer. There is one problem, he has to come to my place.
Since I play almost every week with one of my best friends, he learned me a lot. He's a drummer, studio work  and played in 2 bands as drummer, and is also a real good guitar player. He learned me a lot, like playing with your right hand in a relax way, I blocked my wrist and so it came from my right arm. Rhythm has been always a problem. So this friend, a KORG PANDORA PX 4D for electric guitar, did great jobs. This results in the fact that I play a lot better, my knowledge of chords is real good and switching chords = very fast. The KORG has a lot on board, also a rhythm section and improved my guitar playing skills in 1 year with 100%.
Chordie became a huge resource of VERY USEFUL information: topics/answers. Playing along with a CD, it is a challenge, and now it takes me 20 seconds to play a-long.
I've been, unfortunately, a kind of LAZY (except for my former occupation), and I've learned so much at the university, later from my patients (A DIFFICULT POINT, BECAUSE ONLY 10% of the MD) by listening  and learning. I will probably see what the internet offers. This reaction is really caused by my problem.

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
[color=blue]Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.[/color]

gitaardocphil's Website