62 year old trying to teach myself Guitar (Page 1 of 2)

Hi Tony,

Welcome to the great Chordie community!!!!

We were all in your shoes when we started. How do I get this "thing" called a guitar to make pretty sounds?
It sounds like your looking in all the right places, but you won't find anything to advance your playing except for PRACTICE. If your having trouble with chord changes then that is what you need to focus on right now. Pick 2 chords like the ones from the songs you were trying out. Start slow and keep repeating the change until it rings true. Then speed up a little at a time. It doesn't come overnight, but the more time you put in, the faster you should advance.

As far as strings, steel strings are harder to learn on, but will toughen up your fingers quicker. Try changing to light or xtra light strings, these will be easier to fret as you don't have to push down as hard. I don't have any experience with nylon strings.

Remember PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

Keep Rockin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you fret a note, make sure to press down just behind the fret. Not in the middle of the frets or closer to the tuning pegs. Get right behind the fret. thats the sweet spot. Another thing you can do to ease your pain on the finger tips is to tune your guitar down a half step. That way there is less string tension. As the callouses form on your fingers start to bring it back up to pitch. Its hard at first but keep switching between your two chords, the more you switch the stronger your fingers will get, the harder your callouses will become, and your muscles will start to remember where the notes of the chords are. Hold the guitar neck with your thumb centered on the back of the neck. That way your fingers will curl around and come straight down onto the fretboard. If you are holding the neck like a baseball bat, with your thumb resting on top your fingers will come across the neck and mute strings that you want to ring out.  Good luck, don't give up! It is very hard but it is very rewarding. Welcome to Chordie, let us know how you progress.

Welcome to Chordie Tony!

  Hang in there, stick with it and you will get a lot of enjoyment out of the journey.
This is a good bunch of folks to get to know with valuable advise and encouragement to share.  Don't be a stranger!

  There is a good collection of members right around the corner from you there in NC that I'm sure you'll get acquainted with shortly.

Take Care;
Doug

Heya Tony and Welcome,

Your never too old to take on a great relaxing, stress relieving hobby like guitar. Once you get your chord changes down you can start making music and enjoying yourself.
Most folks start with 3 chord songs so first thing you need to work on is chord progressions. Practice your G C D chords and you will have to be able to go from G to C  and G to D    D to C and  C to D   when you can make these chord changes move on to another key.

Key of     G    Chords G C D        relative minor chord  Em
Key of     D    Chords D  A G        relative minor chord  Bm
Key of     A     Chords  A D E        relative minor chord  F#m
Key of     C     Chords  C F  G       relative minor chord  Am

A lot of songs have a minor chord added and the relative minor of the major chord is most likely where they will show up in a song.

A 72 year old lady contacted me recently and had some questions and let me know she had just taken on guitar and she is doing very well after a couple months

Hey Tonyespo!  I was pretty much in the same place as you.  I retired and decided it was something I always wanted to accomplish, so I picked up my 30 year old Fender accoustic and started learning chords.  Doning internet searches brought me here where I found the music.  Got the fingers toughened up, moved to lighter guage strings and spend some time each and every day with the guitar.  I just recently ordered myself a brand new guitar and can say I am having FUN with my music, (or at least my version of it)  Good Luck, stay with it!  Once I realized it was for MY enjoyment and quit worrying about what others thought I have progressed.  I still am thinking about taking some lessons to learn a couple of things I struggle with, but this site provides alot of info and some pretty supportive people.  I don't post much, but I sure like to read the posts of others as reinforcement.  Wish you well!

Hey Tony.  Welcome bud.  You're never too old.  I am almost your age but started much earlier.  As everyone says, practice, practice.  In the beginning it is two things:  hand and finger strength is what holds the strings down hard enough so the strings don't sound dead or vibrate, and finger memory is what you get with time that allows your fingers to automatically hold down the right strings in the right frets to form a chord.  Both of these things will get better in time.  Start with your two chords and practice moving between them and when that gets easier, add other chords.  Lots of practice.  Good luck and let us know as you go.  We'll be rooting for you.

Hey Tony.

Good for you to start a very fun (and it has to be for fun) activity. We all went through the dead sounding chords the sore fingers and the streched out muscles. The only way to get good at the axe play is to Practice practice practice. I have been playing in bands and in church for 30 years and I still have to practice everyday.

The responses you  have received are all dead on. You can't give up. When you do find the right position and the right feel the rest will take care of itself.

After thirty years I still use my first guitard (hand me down) to practice with. after that I when I use a good guitar it seems easy.  (seems Easy) it never gets easy. butit's always fun.

Rock and/or Roll.  :Cool:

Hiya Tony

Lots of good advice above and I'd add my little bit to this - it might help

The first thing I've found it really helpful is finding other people to play/sing with. Lots of help and mutual support and much more fun than hours of practice alone. If you don’t like to sing, find someone who likes to sing but can’t play anything.

Secondly, try using other tunings. I know that sounds scary because nearly all the books and instruction DVD’s play in a standard tuning. A good one to start with is a “Drop D† tuning. You lower the bass E string down to D. You can then try playing any three chord song using

D - the standard chord shape and you get a great sounding bass note  0 0 0 2 3 2
A – play an A7 instead    X 0 2 0 2 0   The X means don’t play the D bass string
G – use just two fingers at the 5th fret    5 5 0 0 0 0

You can also use a capo to change the key. Lots of folk songs use these chords or how about Eddie Cochrane’s - Summertime Blues. There are thousands of songs based on three chords.

My thoughts are that I want to use the guitar as a backing for playing songs and to do that, I don’t need or want to be a great guitarist, After all, Chordie is full of songs not guitar pieces.

If you want a bit of support, feel free to email me via the website
Good luck and keep at it. It does get easier.
Cheers
Howard

That is another important aspect of learning you mentioned there, Tony.  Do set a few goals once in awhile.  If you notice, we all tell a story a little differently, some you may comprehend, some you may not so well.  That is the beauty of Chordie, listen to everyone and use what advice suits you.  You will learn and you will be playing Silent Night before next Christmas, if you don't get tired of it before then.  When I try to learn a new song, I usually do get tired of it by the time I have it down, but just take a break for a few weeks and it will come back naturally when you are ready.

Welcome to Chordie, Tony - you've found a good place!
My only tip to add, is that if you don't already have an electronic tuner, then get one asap! Use it every time you practise - your guitar will sound so much better, & you will find that you can play along with music on CD's/radio.
Best of luck - the more you practise, the luckier you will get!

Hi Tony.  Post 21  Lovemymartins advice is spot on.  The action on some of the cheaper guitars is set up terrible.  The strings are too high above the fret board, which causes the muting of other strings when forming chords. Once set up properly you will learn a great deal quicker guaranteed (no more muting).
i have adjusted the action on two friends £80 guitars recently and they now play sweet.  it is something you can do yourself, the info is on the WWW and its really simple.  Or a visit to your local shop and they should sort the problem out for under £30.

As to the other advice, practice practice practice, totally correct. I am a newbie myself and totally enjoying the experience. would like to stay in touch and swap experiences if you are interested and any other newbies who are reading this.

My biggest problem to date is the strumming.  I am left handed but my wife purchased a right hand guitar so i stuck with it.  the only reason being if I go to a party and there is a guitar there, the chances are its a right handed guitar.  it feels totally alien but im sticking with it.  first song House of the rising sun.

Good luck and hope to hear from you.

How great is this forum???  I posted my info about learning to play and teaching myself.  I have received so many great replies and emails.  PIX has sent me many emails to help me set up my guitar so I can learn without getting so depressed.  I sent an email to Mekidsmom asking her for the names of a couple of songs that she found easy to learn in the beginning.  I was not prepared for the reply MEK sent me.  I got a well written, detailed, email with song names, the reason they were chosen, links to them, and more.  I know it has taken PIX a long time to just email me all the help he has given me.  ( and we aren't finished yet ).  I know it took MEK a long time to compose her thoughtful, detailed, email.

I belong to a few other forums, but NONE of them is of the quality that I have found at Chordie.  The members here are the best and I am honored to be a member of this forum.  I also pledge that when I learn and have something of use that I can share with a new member that I will return the favors that have been given to me.

Thank you everyone for all you do.
Tony