Topic: Getting started with Guitar

[T.A.P.O.R.]

Tab makes you lazy.
Learn to read music! Statment is poking fun[B/B]

Ahh the "tab makes you lazy" fallacy!

(click to show/hide)

Tab gets you started much quicker, providing a well of confidence one can draw from. Reading is one of those far down the road skills that takes a long time to perfect, but once perfected will provide that high hanging fruit that people who only read tab can't reach.
Do both! Tab will help you immensely in the beginning, but reading will help you even more down the road.

Sure it does.
Every last kid I know that learned via tab, has no idea what chords are.
Only string and fret number.

Tab is a last resort, when I can't figure out something with my ears.

Well shit MissB, I've played for 22yrs and still can't get past Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge but I know I can shred a diminished arpeggio with any old augmented 6th any day. And I started out reading Metallica tabs when I was a "kid"!
Point being, reading isn't necessary to learn how to play a guitar and make music with it, but it sure can help if you want to make a career out of it (teaching lessons.. lmao!)! Gee, maybe if I had learned how to read I wouldn't be posting a self-affirming reply to your post right now and instead be on tour across some foreign country having all sorts of nefarious relations with the local ... fans... lol ... just sayin'

I'm happy that you've achieved success with your band. That's ace. I wish more success to you. Seriously I'm not being a prick.
My real beef with tab is that I can't "jam" with my friends who are actually REALLY REALLY good guitar and bass without having to show them on the neck where they're supposed to be playing.
I can't just write down the root note for them to refer to for changes. This is really helful with power chords even. I love power chords!
Knowing the names of the notes and how they correspond to their place on the neck is invaluable for quickly getting an idea across.

Learning music encourages a certain way of thinking, that helps form cohesion between a musical unit.

I've also seen the opposite, where the player knows too much theory, the music gets stale and dull.
Like they're bound by the rules a little too much.

Shredding is great, but for folk with physical impairment (like myself), it's just off the cards.

(click to show/hide)

I'm not disabled, but I've got these weird growths on my tendons (which reduce movement over the knuckle) and I had an accident about 15 years ago which I never properly recovered from and have never been able to shred again

[Choyles]

I'm happy that you've achieved success with your band. That's ace. I wish more success to you. Seriously I'm not being a prick.
My real beef with tab is that I can't "jam" with my friends who are actually REALLY REALLY good guitar and bass without having to show them on the neck where they're supposed to be playing.
I can't just write down the root note for them to refer to for changes. This is really helful with power chords even. I love power chords!
Knowing the names of the notes and how they correspond to their place on the neck is invaluable for quickly getting an idea across.

Learning music encourages a certain way of thinking, that helps form cohesion between a musical unit.

I've also seen the opposite, where the player knows too much theory, the music gets stale and dull.
Like they're bound by the rules a little too much.

Shredding is great, but for folk with physical impairment (like myself), it's just off the cards.

(click to show/hide)

I'm not disabled, but I've got these weird growths on my tendons (which reduce movement over the knuckle) and I had an accident about 15 years ago which I never properly recovered from and have never been able to shred again

I didn't think you were being a prick, just a little hardlined.  I read your blog, you say some good stuff. RockM could benefit from reading it. And yes I certainly agree that it can be frustrating jamming with people when there is a blockage in the communication of musical expression. I hear ya, and do agree that reading is beneficial. Perhaps you could help your friends train their ears as well, as so many teachers do by playing a note and getting your friends to find it on the neck without looking at yours. Also just knowing the basic musical alphabet can help immensely (ABCDEFG.. pretty easy). And RockM, if your still following, this can be good advice for you as well. Ear training, reading notation, jamming with friends, reading tabs, playing along with your favorite tunes, are all tools which you can use to better yourself as a guitar player and a musician. However, ultimately, I have to concede that reading musical notation is the most superior of all (except maybe jamming with others on a frequent basis, that's great for training the ear).

That sucks you have tendon growths inhibiting your ability MissB. I would probably have a complete breakdown if I couldn't play the way I know I can because of physical impairment. And I'm not in a band    I run a repair shop and fix the broken ones!

[superdave]

building on the tabs Vs sheet music..
Honestly, learning basic sheet music reading is easy.  It should take a week tops to get it down.   You don't need to be "fluent" just get the gist of it.

Aslo, absolutely everyone playing guitar should at bare minimum memorize the notes of each string, and the note at the 5th fret

[T.A.P.O.R.]

I'm happy that you've achieved success with your band. That's ace. I wish more success to you. Seriously I'm not being a prick.
My real beef with tab is that I can't "jam" with my friends who are actually REALLY REALLY good guitar and bass without having to show them on the neck where they're supposed to be playing.
I can't just write down the root note for them to refer to for changes. This is really helful with power chords even. I love power chords!
Knowing the names of the notes and how they correspond to their place on the neck is invaluable for quickly getting an idea across.

Learning music encourages a certain way of thinking, that helps form cohesion between a musical unit.

I've also seen the opposite, where the player knows too much theory, the music gets stale and dull.
Like they're bound by the rules a little too much.

Shredding is great, but for folk with physical impairment (like myself), it's just off the cards.

(click to show/hide)

I'm not disabled, but I've got these weird growths on my tendons (which reduce movement over the knuckle) and I had an accident about 15 years ago which I never properly recovered from and have never been able to shred again

I didn't think you were being a prick, just a little hardlined.  I read your blog, you say some good stuff. RockM could benefit from reading it. And yes I certainly agree that it can be frustrating jamming with people when there is a blockage in the communication of musical expression. I hear ya, and do agree that reading is beneficial. Perhaps you could help your friends train their ears as well, as so many teachers do by playing a note and getting your friends to find it on the neck without looking at yours. Also just knowing the basic musical alphabet can help immensely (ABCDEFG.. pretty easy). And RockM, if your still following, this can be good advice for you as well. Ear training, reading notation, jamming with friends, reading tabs, playing along with your favorite tunes, are all tools which you can use to better yourself as a guitar player and a musician. However, ultimately, I have to concede that reading musical notation is the most superior of all (except maybe jamming with others on a frequent basis, that's great for training the ear).

That sucks you have tendon growths inhibiting your ability MissB. I would probably have a complete breakdown if I couldn't play the way I know I can because of physical impairment. And I'm not in a band    I run a repair shop and fix the broken ones!

It's all ok, I can still do the music that I like the most (country and surf).
My best friend is the worst example I've ever come across.
The man is crazy fast all over the bass, but try as I might, he's not one for remembering stuff (drugs are badd m'kay).

In all truthiness, I never was much good at sight reading.
I got the basics, so that I can play (not very well, mind) other instruments.

Jamming is the most fun way to get good quick

[seamas]

While I don't think using tab is totally bad, I do think learning to read music is much more beneficial in the long run.
Especially if you are arranging a piece written for another instrument.


Ear training is also an important skill and should be worked on as often as possible.

Learning even rudimentary theory is huge as well. Having a good knowledge about chord construction, keys and scales will make jam sessions go much more smoothly.

[T.A.P.O.R.]

Learning the banjo this time around is much easier as I understand chord structures better than I did 6 years ago when I gave up.
It kind of helped that I tuned all of my guitars differently the last few months. Teaching myself piano seems to have helped too, but it's an alien world compared to strings.

[seamas]

Aslo, absolutely everyone playing guitar should at bare minimum memorize the notes of each string, and the note at the 5th fret

Why not learn the fretboard?.

--and learning about keys  and when to call something a D# or Eb is pretty big too..

[superdave]

of course more learning is better.

Btw, my roomate bought the game rocksmith for xbox.  it seems pretty cool as a training device but nothing beats plain old lessons

[Rocket Man]

So I think I should probably provide an update, so here ya go.

Since I got everything I needed a lot of nothing has actually happened. I unbelievable overestimated the amount of time I would have to practice and learn. Along with this I didn't fully collect the materials that I would need. Such as basic information that I could learn from and build on. Another factor that disrupted my plans was a sudden interest in photography which I have done a TON of research into and learned a lot about exposure theory and compositional ideas but that's another thing entirely. So basically I acomplished absolutely nothing pertaining to guitar. However since the holiday I have taken steps to gather all the information I didn't have before and am now able to practice about 1-2 hours a day. I may currentlh only know 6 notes but I can see myself progressing slowly which is all I really want.

I will also be learning how to read music 

[T.A.P.O.R.]

So I think I should probably provide an update, so here ya go.

Since I got everything I needed a lot of nothing has actually happened. I unbelievable overestimated the amount of time I would have to practice and learn. Along with this I didn't fully collect the materials that I would need. Such as basic information that I could learn from and build on. Another factor that disrupted my plans was a sudden interest in photography which I have done a TON of research into and learned a lot about exposure theory and compositional ideas but that's another thing entirely. So basically I acomplished absolutely nothing pertaining to guitar. However since the holiday I have taken steps to gather all the information I didn't have before and am now able to practice about 1-2 hours a day. I may currentlh only know 6 notes but I can see myself progressing slowly which is all I really want.

I will also be learning how to read music 

Don't feel bad about not getting it right away, I'm still struggling with learning piano...

[Rocket Man]

So I think I should probably provide an update, so here ya go.

Since I got everything I needed a lot of nothing has actually happened. I unbelievable overestimated the amount of time I would have to practice and learn. Along with this I didn't fully collect the materials that I would need. Such as basic information that I could learn from and build on. Another factor that disrupted my plans was a sudden interest in photography which I have done a TON of research into and learned a lot about exposure theory and compositional ideas but that's another thing entirely. So basically I acomplished absolutely nothing pertaining to guitar. However since the holiday I have taken steps to gather all the information I didn't have before and am now able to practice about 1-2 hours a day. I may currentlh only know 6 notes but I can see myself progressing slowly which is all I really want.

I will also be learning how to read music 

Don't feel bad about not getting it right away, I'm still struggling with learning piano...

It's pretty fun and I am progressing. I hope your piano learning goes well!