Sure. You know the song Night Moves (youtube) ? That signature opening riff is G F C F - the F is a quicker transition chord between the other two, but it is a good, circular riff. And easy to cue up and play along to…
Get a feel for it, and sit in front of a TV and play the hell out of that riff. Focus on the groove FIRST and fingering precision SECOND. To be clear: *play through your mistakes *and stick with the groove. Do it for 15 minutes while watching a sports game or something else kinda mindless. Then 30 minutes or longer if you can. Try to get to a place where you are on auto-pilot with the riff - not all artistic and focused - the opposite; where you can focus on the TV more than the riff you are playing. Go there and be okay with fingering goofs while you are doing it.
When you can get to a point where you can sell the groove of the riff despite your mistakes, then the chords fingerings sorta find themselves. May seem counter-intuitive and takes time, but try it and see
ETA: Oh, and the riff to the song Good Lovin’is C F G F…just sayin’
Good advice guys and thanks. My apologies for not spelling it out - you’re correct in thinking I’m having trouble b and high e. I just can’t seem to get enough pressure on the high e.
I’ll keep plucking away and will have a look at the Am. For whatever reason, the I seem to have the C down pat. The instructional video I’m working from is using C, F and Gm, so those are the ones I was looking at. I’ll try the Am and see how I do.
Don’t know if you’ve actually bought a guitar, but I just got a great deal on a Yamaha FG700S package at Kraft Music. Normally it’s 199.00 just for the guitar, but right now if you order by tomorrow, you can get a package which includes a good hard case, picks, extra strings, a dvd, capo and winder for 220.00. As long as you aren’t in Wisconsin, there’s no sales tax, and shipping will be free if you order right away.
I’ve owned three Yamaha’s in my life, and was always happy with them. Don’t know what possessed me to get rid of them all and stop playing. This model is a solid top and should be a very decent learning instrument. Yamahas ain’t junk. I myself already know how to play, but haven’t in so many years my fingers will feel like I’m starting over. (ouch!) But I’ve recently retired and need to get my old hobby back. I can tell I miss playing because I dream about it sometimes.
Anyhow, hope this is helpful.
So don’t know if you’ll read this, but wanted to share a good deal.
Even I can answer this – none. You could get one of those little plastic things that slip over the tuner if you’re in a hurry for a buck or so, but you just feed the string through the hole near the tuner, and start tightening (not too much, or you’ll break it, and maybe put your eye out).
You really should pick up a cheap little tuner pedal – maybe Danelectro has a little one. Obviously, you can do it by ear, but if you’re playing with people, it’s a major pain to have everyone sitting around waiting for somebody to go through the harmonics or match the pitches. Every good guitar player I’ve personally played with used a tuner – believe me, they could tune it by ear in their sleep – but instead, they take a second, and not only are they playing, but they’re spot-on in tune.
I’d consider a tuner a “tool” for changing strings, but I realize it’s a stretch. Pun intended.
ETA agree in principle about Yamaha not making junk. They make good little mixers for live work, great digital pianos, and top-notch acoustic pianos. Not surprised their guitars are decent. If I were buying an acoustic, I’d get a Yamaha upright over anything else, for the money, and I’m still using my beat-to-shit Yamaha P80. Tone is great, action-sound connection, pretty bad (it’s a bottom line piano), and it’s fine for just needing a piano sound and basic sequencer.
Semi-OT: are Taylor acoustics still pretty much teh rulez as far as high-quality, reasonably-priced acoustics? I’m not in the market for an acoustic – if I were picking something up, and had the scratch, I’d go for a Gibson L1 style or other semi-hollow body and play it through my Peavey Blues Classic 50 (hey it was a gift from a friend, and I use it for Rhodes piano )(live, it’s JBL Eon G1 15" for monitoring) my home studio but it has a great tone, so no snobbery about Fender Twins please ;).
After a number of years, I’m basically starting from scratch, and trying to copy Jimmy Raney, Grant Green, and Wes, so electric is the way to go for me (besides, I’ve had my fill of strumming guitarists for my tastes). I’m still bummed I had to let go my SG Special – the action was so close, but not buzzy, it was about perfect for really trying to slam single-note lines without the benefit of calluses on me fingers. Need a new set of bass pedals for my Hammond-Suzuki, so that comes first, but if somebody in my family dies and gives me some cheddar, a solid jazz guitar and a Fender p-bass would be what it’s at (and probably a more suitable amp for bass, although direct through powered monitor for bass would probably work).
A great way to practice learning a chord is called a “lift off.” You form the chord and press hard (helps develop calluses, too) then lift up, just barely off the strings. Press again, then lift off just a tiny bit more. Keep doing this, adding the same amount of lift, until finally you are completely opening your fingers. It should take a long time to get to that point.
You can do the same when you are learning to go from one chord to another. Form one chord, then start to move to the other chord, but just barely. Form the chord again, move your hand again, but this time move a little bit more. Keep going until you are going from the first chord to the second. You can also practice going the opposite direction; it will help future songs, but maybe not the one you’re on if the chord switch isn’t that direction.
The other thing that will help your chord switches is by developing the big, thick, ugly calluses. The better the calluses, the less pain you’ll have. When I know it’s going to hurt to land on a chord, my reaction time is much slower. When I have monster calluses and can play with no pain, my playing is much crisper and less sloppy.
Another bit of advice is keeping a floppy wrist in your strumming hand. Only hold the pick tight enough to keep it from dropping. Hold the pick so that the least amount of pick is showing. And dangle the pinky, ring, and middle fingers. Don’t play with a stiff fist or you’ll sound terrible.
Grant Green - my favorite jazz guitarist - played a Gibson ES-330 - a fully hollow 335-looking guitar, aka the Gibson version of an Epi Casino. I love his work on the CD Matador.
Taylors are made with very high quality standards, they have done a great job building a line across a variety of price points and have one of the best Artist Endorsement programs in the music business. That being said, I tend to stay away from their guitars because I don’t like the “Taylor tone” - brighter vs. Martin and Gibson. I had a high-end one for a dozen years before I started picking apart my acoustic tastes like I did on the electric side of things.
As for Gibson L-1 - I assume you mean L-7 given your references to jazz guitar. The L-1 is a blues guitar in most of its variations. The ones they built from '29 - '31 are especially sweet given their delicate build…
None, really. A small winding crank is nice. But after you change 'em, you gotta tune 'em, and my Christmas present from last year from SWMBO has just been wonderful for that.
If you’re trying the full barre chord, make sure your thumb is directly opposite your FLAT index finger so that you get “max squeeze” on the neck. My problem when learning them was that I would arch my index finger. A good way to practice the squeeze is simply to press all six strings down between the index finger and thumb and play all six strings open. When you can do that consistently and make all six strings sound and not thump or buzz, you’re ready to start adding fingers into the chord.
I was going to say get an accoustic, unless you want to immediately launch into the wha-wha screams of angst. They have a richer tone. I had to get nylon strings because the other were lacerating my fingertips. After the calluses built up I switched to wire.
I learned to play (well, strum) using—don’t laugh—Roy Clark’s book of blah blah Guitar blah blah Chords. (Yes, of Hee Haw fame.) The actual songs don’t matter. What was good was that the chords were illustrated in big pictures you couldn’t confuse. And IIRC it even included some cheat chords. If you make it to G7 you’ll know what I mean.
If you really get into it and decide to pick (out individual notes,) there’s flat picking and finger picking. Flat picking is done with a guiter pick. Finger picking is done with…I prefer finger picking. More nuance because more control. You can bend the strings, like pelvis-thrusting a pinball machine.
I couldn’t play my way out of a wet paper bag. But I can accompany myself as I attempt to sing, and that’s all I ask.
Good luck! Have fun!
On the tuning peg, don’t wind the string over itself. IOW, don’t thread the end of the string underneath its own windings. You’ll create a lump on the peg that makes it very difficult to tune accurately.
