Self absorbed musings on learning to play and perform with a guitar

[Geezee]

Put a capo on the first fret and try to play the same shape for F moved up appropriately. If you don't have the same difficulty, then the problem is the nut on your guitar, which can be recut so that it is adjusted appropriately. Is this an acoustic guitar or electric?

It's acoustic. Thanks for your tips. I'm going to try and nail it over the weekend. Too many songs with B in them that I love to keep skipping over.
I did my first proper show last night, not just an open mic. Great turnout and supportive crowd. It was great to see so many other relative beginners and amateurs just rocking out. Im starting songwriting classes next month.
This whole learning to play an instrument shit is quite a trip!

I'd recommend giving it a go, it's quite a fun habit to get into - or at least it's how I learnt how to play guitar, for every new chord I learnt, I would write a new song.

[Mike Boom]

I have a hard time pulling it off and when I started out I was using all four fingers

oooo errrrr

[sloopjohnc]

I prefer Bm.

Ditto.

[Zeke]

Learning barre chords is huge but it's also a pain in the ass, particularly on an acoustic. The action (distance between the strings and the fret board) tends to be higher on acoustics than electrics and requires more pressure to hold down the barred strings.

Sadly, the only way you're going to build up the hand/finger strength is by practice. That, and it builds up the calluses on your index finger which will also help you hold the chord down and not mute strings.

Once you've got barre chords down it makes everything so much easier...just slide down the fretboard with your fingers in the same shape and, hey, you're playing just about any chord you can think of.

[quix]

If you have the F down, you're going to need B flat eventually, which is the same as B one fret down. B flat shows up a lot in stuff in keys other than F so it's a good one to have. And once you get it, you can use it anywhere on the neck.

Well, my F is the cheat F where I hold down the bottom two strings. It's supposed to be a one finger over two strings job but I just can't do that. So I have four fingers on each of the strings at completely improbable angles because that's the only way I can manage it.

I always found that way of playing F harder!

I haven't played for ages... my fingers are all soft and sensitive. I played for about 3 minutes just now and it's agony all over again!

super well done on your open mic. that's amazing.

[frimley_greener]

I have just purchased a bass to learn on(I know,just one up from a drummer)...I f I thought playing an acoustic "upside down" was a challenge... this four stringed thingy is a new kettle of fish:)

[Minnie the Minx]

Sorry, I didn't see half of these!
I've just written my first song. I had a total mental block when I tried to write it yesterday, and was really disappointed that I couldn't write some great lyrics. I thought, fucking hell, I've got a pretty good imagination and here I am sucking the end of a pencil and trying to make stuff rhyme. Trying to get stuff to rhyme was the death knell to creativity. That and being too literal, and trying to write songs about something that wasn't personal enough.
I picked up a copy of James Herriot's Yorkshire this evening and just read the place names listed at the back and I was off. My chorus is very poignant though my verses need work. What a fucking bridge though.

[Hugh]

What a fucking bridge though.

Hebden?

[Minnie the Minx]

What a fucking bridge though.

Hebden?

[Six String]

You go girl.Lennon used a circus poster.

[Minnie the Minx]

You go girl.Lennon used a circus poster.

I played my song for the first time tonight and when I looked up two women in the group were crying. Well that fuckings set me off. My guitar tutor said it reminded her of Harry Nilsson. I'll dine out on that for the next forty years.
I played it to the husband as well and he got all sniffly. So there you go... 'I write the songs that make the Texans cry'

[Six String]

You go girl.Lennon used a circus poster.

I played my song for the first time tonight and when I looked up two women in the group were crying. Well that fuckings set me off. My guitar tutor said it reminded her of Harry Nilsson. I'll dine out on that for the next forty years.
I played it to the husband as well and he got all sniffly. So there you go... 'I write the songs that make the Texans cry'

Most excellent.

[Phil T]

Try 'No More Heroes' by the Stranglers, it's just Am, D, G, C in various combinations.

[Minnie the Minx]

Try 'No More Heroes' by the Stranglers, it's just Am, D, G, C in various combinations.

Yeah! You can't read go wrong with Am, D G and C..

[sloopjohnc]

You go girl.Lennon used a circus poster.

I played my song for the first time tonight and when I looked up two women in the group were crying. Well that fuckings set me off. My guitar tutor said it reminded her of Harry Nilsson. I'll dine out on that for the next forty years.
I played it to the husband as well and he got all sniffly. So there you go... 'I write the songs that make the Texans cry'

Your next song title should be "We just ran out of Lone Star."

You'll need to hand out buckets at your next show.

[Charlie O.]

I'm really impressed, Anna. I've been trying to write songs most of my life, and the music has always come super-easy for me, but lyrics never ever have.

[Minnie the Minx]

I'm really impressed, Anna. I've been trying to write songs most of my life, and the music has always come super-easy for me, but lyrics never ever have.

Thanks Charlie. For my first song, I am truly, truly happy.

[Minnie the Minx]

I took my guitar to get set up today and was going to get a pick up installed. The very nice woman doing it gave me a talk for about twenty minutes in great detail about how the cost of what needed doing plus a pick up was going to be three times what we paid for the guitar. She didn't say the guitar was a 'piece of shit,' but that notion hung in the air like a fart. She did a little autopsy on it, prising it open here and there, pushing sharp tools into bits of it and then looking dismayed at what she found. 'I'll set it up and sort the buzzing' she said, 'but I wouldn't put any more money into it.'
I was glad she was very honest.
She mentioned she had been in Manchester a couple of years ago, I thought I heard her say to see The Monkees. I googled her on the way home and she was touring with them - and has also toured/played with the Eagles and a whole raft of people who my husband knew were famous ( I had never heard of half of them.) I hope she didn't look at my guitar with too much disdain.

[Quaco]

There're a bunch of pickups you can buy for acoustics. You just stick them in the hole and they work fine. You didn't mention that option, so I thought I would bring it up just in case.

[TG]

You just stick them in the hole and they work fine.

Someone had to do it.