Learning to play for real resources

nero0410

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Work In Progress
This post will be updated as I find new things for complete beginner to intermediate players

Continued from the Rocksmith thread....

I think it's been a couple of years now I've shied away from Rocksmith, it was great for the very beginning with progress percentages and scores to have a sense of achievement, and the scale dlc that they have not long released should have been part of the main 'game.' It was good to just load up and get straight into playing.. though I never learned how to play a chord with it as I went straight into lead playing.

Spin on 3 years, after spending a year learning chords, barre chords, the notes on the first two strings, etc.. and playing rhythm, and I found that I wasn't learning anything new from it, maybe due to the design of the game or my navigation.. but I did find that there were no strumming patterns or ways of learning rhythm in game, and you can pretty much just whack all the strings and it'll think you played the chord. So the last two years I've sunk into writing songs, playing about with my own rhythms and melodies and just learning songs with printed out chord sheets from ultimate guitar. I even got a highly commended entry certificate in the 'lyrics only' section of the uk songwriting competition, just one point off of a semi-final place.

Live Again - Highly Commended Entry.JPG

I still have no idea how to put music to my own songs, but it's starting to come a bit and I'm learning how to play songs purely from youtube videos and ultimate guitar.. some youtube videos have a link to the chord sheet too.

I'd put together my own little list of sites for learning songs and songwriting from, which I still add to, some chord charts, chords in keys, etc.. and now working toward getting my songs finished, learning how to play and sing at the same time, then I'll be doing covers on YouTube and eventually live streaming on twitch.

I'm currently near Tammy's level from the series on Justin's YouTube, she's picking things up a lot quicker than I am, but that little series... stuff GoT or anything else, I can't wait for the next episode of Tammy's lesson's! I've learned a lot more from that little series than I have from a lot of sources!

Just a man with a dream, but you gotta dream right? :)

Websites

Learning Guitar
Free Online Guitar Lessons | Andy Guitar - Free
Justin Guitar - Free

You can also buy either physical books, ebooks, video course downloads, etc.. from both of these sites or even donate, which is optional, for the free courses they provide from Beginner Upwards.

Learning Songs (view online, or copy/paste/download and print out)
Song Notes! Easy-to-follow guitar lessons, all hand-made by @davidpots - Free
GuitarZero2Hero - FREE Tutorials: Learn How To Play The Guitar - Free/Paid
ULTIMATE GUITAR TABS - 1,100,000 songs catalog with free Chords, Guitar Tabs, Bass Tabs, Ukulele Chords and Guitar Pro Tabs! - Free/Paid

Guitar Tab and Chord Website & Information on Guitar Pro (Current version 7.5)
ULTIMATE GUITAR TABS - 1,100,000 songs catalog with free Chords, Guitar Tabs, Bass Tabs, Ukulele Chords and Guitar Pro Tabs!

Just type the name of the song and choose either chords or tabs.

Guitar Pro
If you buy a piece of software called: Guitar Pro 7, you can choose that option from Ultimate Guitar too and download the song to play along with in the software at any tempo/speed you like. It's also a great tool for composing your own music.

Guitar Pro files also include a backing track/s for each song that allows you to mute the guitar part that you want to play, or solo so you can listen to that part specifically.

You are also able to remove the notation so just the tab remains and print anything you want to to learn from away from the computer.

Guitar Pro - Sheet music editor software for guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and more...

YouTube Channels

Andy's Channel
Guitar courses, tips, tricks and song lessons.

Justin's Channels
Guitar courses, tips, tricks & Theory
Song lessons

Other great YouTube Channels

Guitar Zero2Hero - Dave Tran

Song lessons 1
Song lessons 2

Guitar Goddess
Song Lessons

One Music School (4K)
Song Lessons

Play Song Notes
Song Lessons

Mahalodotcom Created playlists
How to Play Guitar Songs - YouTube
How to Play Guitar Songs 2 - YouTube

Paul Davids
A fun and inspiring guitar channel, dedicated to keep the guitar fresh and alive! Quality guitar playing, beautiful arrangements, comparisons, lists, lessons, and other fun guitar related stuff from guitarist, producer and teacher Paul Davids.
Paul Davids Channel

Mobile Apps

Andy Guitar's App - Free

Android

Andy Guitar - Apps on Google Play

iOS
‎Andy Guitar

Justin Guitar's App - Free/Paid

Android

Justin Guitar Beginner Song Course – Apps on Google Play

iOS
‎Justin Guitar Beginner Course

JustinGuitar Note Trainer - Paid

The Guitar Note Trainer is an app to help you learn the notes on the guitar neck.

Android
JustinGuitar Note Trainer - Apps on Google Play
£1.89

iOS
‎Guitar Note Trainer
£1.99

JustinGuitar - Time Trainer Metronome Paid

Justin's is one of the best metronome apps out there.

Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.justinguitar.app.TimeTrainer&hl=en_GB

iOS
‎Time Trainer Metronome
£1.99

Justin Guitar - One Minute Changes

iOS

‎One Minute Changes

Free

Justin Guitar - Interval Ear Trainer - Paid

iOS

‎Interval Ear Trainer
£1.99

Guitar Tuna - Free/Paid

Android

GuitarTuna - Tuner for Guitar Ukulele Bass & more! – Apps on Google Play

iOS
‎GuitarTuna: Guitar, Bass tuner

This is one app that I would recommend purchasing if you want to expand out of standard tuning or play more than one instrument and wish to do the same.

Songwriting
Positive Songwriting

YouTube Channels


Mobile Apps

Android/iOS

You can use your phones memo/notes for writing lyrics on the go.

Android/iOS
Also, you can use your phones voice memo/recorder to sing or hum lyrics or a melody.

Singing

Websites

Sing2Music

Home - sing2music

Backing Tracks you can buy and use for practice or upload to YouTube.
FAQ - sing2music

YouTube Channels

Sing2Piano

Sing2Piano | Piano Backing Tracks

Sing2Guitar
Sing2Guitar | Acoustic Backing Tracks

Eric Arceneaux - Vocal Coach
Eric Arceneaux's Channel

Ken Tamplin - Vocal Coach
Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy Channel
 
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Good post man and deserves a sticky really or its own thread as it will get lost.

Maybe we should create a new thread for useful stuff like this and keep discussion to a minimum, maybe one post each which we update like gear owned.

...which I've not kept unto date. :facepalm::blush::D
 
Any good guides for learning to sing, would be nice to sing along with guitar (in private!) which I can kind of do but my voice is all over the shop when I lose a point of reference.

Not looking to sing in public but would be useful if people didn't run from the house or want to gouge their ears out when I try :D
 
Haha, thank you :)

I think there's one or two more YouTube channels I use regulary.. can't remember their names though, which I'll add to the list. Looks like the links are broken too.

I've certainly not kept my gear thread up to date.. will have to get on that some time.

There's a couple of youtube channels that are really good for warm ups, breathing, exercises, and how to reach higher with your voice etc.. The ones I use are:

Eric Arceneaux


and

Ken Tamplin
Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy

They both offer courses that are VERY expensive, there are other channels for more though.

It's always a good idea to keep an eye on 'Udemy' too, online courses that are pretty much always on sale from a tenner.. they are £13 each at the moment. I'll have to have a look on there. I know Eric has a course or two on there, but it never drops below £90.
 
As for singing and playing at the same time.. I don't have a clue. Just one of those things that needs to 'click.' Playing needs to be 'automatic' so you can concentrate on the vocal.. with me, I can do the chords and sing fine, but my strumming/rhythm hand go's nuts!

Ain't No Sunshine is a song to practice with, it's easy and you can sing in between the strumming on the verses ;)
 
Posts spilt into a new resources thread and stickied. :)
 
Oh, awesome thank you :)

I'll try and fix the links, or just have channel names, tidy it up and add some more things guitar, songwriting, singing, etc.. related ;)
 
How would I post a YouTube link without the video preview?

Just made a big update and would like to make sure the YouTube channels show up as links rather than boxes :)
 
Good post Tristan, glad to hear you still moving forward.
 
[QUOTE="nero0410,

sorry ..was going to post but mis read yours....cant seem to delete the post like you used to be able to
 
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Useful couple of tools for those that have Macs for downloading Youtube vids and music (ie backing tracks) for use offline. Was looking for something else but came across this article which mentions the parallel Toolbox which I'd never bothered to install

 
There's no substitute for practice. Ideally choose some chord progressions, never mind what tune, with some they are very similar, choose and practice them, until you can play them without having to read them. But play them with a metronome, or that facility on a bit of electronic kit. Not to be able to play in time makes any performance sound average.
Mastering the chords will then free you to sing without thinking about the chords.


My bible for when I used to play guitar was this. It gave you 32 chords, some with a couple of inversions in many chords for every key.

proxy.duckduckgo.com.jpg



Following on to this.

With jazz guitar, the thought is " never play a chord for a whole bar when you can work in two or three." This book taught me.


51yrpZYEBjL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_.jpg


As a keyboard player for decades. The best chord book I find is this.
It gives you 48 chords in every key. Easy enough to transpose these to play on guitar.

Photo-02-05-2018-11-26-44.jpg


Not to be disparaging but playing a lot of contemporary pop music can't be that hard as there's so few chords in much of it.

As an example. Here's a tune I like to play on my Tyros 5 keyboard.

How many chords are in this?






finger.gif







finger.gif








finger.gif





Three!
 
Tristan, if you mainly play acoustic guitar, have you tried Travis picking? Justin touched on it in a recent 'Tammy' lesson. I play quite a bit of acoustic guitar, but have always winged it when it comes to finger picking.
This is a VERY good lesson on Travis picking. Note that there are lots of different variations, often picking two notes at once to start, then on from there. This lesson just uses single picking, but it explains it all very well. It starts easy, and just uses two open chords throughout. See what you think, I found it useful, and quite hard at the same time, especially keeping it smooth through chord changes.

 
Good post Tristan, glad to hear you still moving forward.

Thank you Andrew.. and it seems to be elevating a bit this year, especially on the songwriting front, Lyrics Only again, but two songs this time and BOTH are in the semi finals! I was lost for words! Which doesn't happen often with me..
Faded Away Semi Final - UKSC 2019 Certificate 2.JPG
Until The End - Semi Final - UKSC 2019 Certificate 2.JPG
..and I've been told my certificates will get upgraded if I progress further into the finals and grand finals.

I've written poetry since I was 11, songs for about two and half years; last year (A point off of being in the semi finals) and this year have been the only times I'd entered a competition and I honestly never expected this!
Being a semi-finalist has won me 6 weeks of a professional online songwriting course, and IF, that's a big IF, I go on to winning.. I'll get £1000 and be writing and producing a song with Stuart Epps!

So I was a point off of the semi finals last year, have two songs in the semi finals this year (which still have a chance of the finals this year), if the pattern continues, I might get straight into the finals next year.

"Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream
Drea-ea-ea-ea-eam, dream, dream, dream"

Honestly.. I have no idea what I'd do if I won with my health problems, I don't go out much yet alone travel and deal with lots of people! It scares me to death!

Still.. 40 years old and onward toward the dream!

There's no substitute for practice. Ideally choose some chord progressions, never mind what tune, with some they are very similar, choose and practice them, until you can play them without having to read them. But play them with a metronome, or that facility on a bit of electronic kit. Not to be able to play in time makes any performance sound average.
Mastering the chords will then free you to sing without thinking about the chords.


My bible for when I used to play guitar was this. It gave you 32 chords, some with a couple of inversions in many chords for every key.

View attachment 1203167


Following on to this.

With jazz guitar, the thought is " never play a chord for a whole bar when you can work in two or three." This book taught me.


View attachment 1203168

As a keyboard player for decades. The best chord book I find is this.
It gives you 48 chords in every key. Easy enough to transpose these to play on guitar.

View attachment 1203169

Not to be disparaging but playing a lot of contemporary pop music can't be that hard as there's so few chords in much of it.

As an example. Here's a tune I like to play on my Tyros 5 keyboard.

How many chords are in this?






View attachment 1203171






View attachment 1203171







View attachment 1203171




Three!


I can play a fair few songs now all the way through, but I'm still thinking about the chords as I'm playing, even the one's I throw together myself for my own songs.. as soon as I open my mouth, my fretting hand is still doing the correct thing, but my strumming hand/arm panics and forgets what it's doing!

Song's that are good ones for starting out are simple one's like 'Ain't No Sunshine', just a few chords and you sing between playing them.

Another thing happened the other day.. I was trying to teach my mate how to play 'Shallow' from A Star Is Born, and I just started singing along.. What?! I tried doing it again later on, my strumming arm go's nuts again. I just can't see the logic in it. I'm trying to play and teach at the same time and all of a sudden I was singing all at the same time. Then can't when I was on my own trying later on?!

My brain is nuts..

Tristan, if you mainly play acoustic guitar, have you tried Travis picking? Justin touched on it in a recent 'Tammy' lesson. I play quite a bit of acoustic guitar, but have always winged it when it comes to finger picking.
This is a VERY good lesson on Travis picking. Note that there are lots of different variations, often picking two notes at once to start, then on from there. This lesson just uses single picking, but it explains it all very well. It starts easy, and just uses two open chords throughout. See what you think, I found it useful, and quite hard at the same time, especially keeping it smooth through chord changes.



Ah thank you. Yep, I've had a bit of a go.. the alternating thumb between the 2-3 bass strings is ok to get down, when adding just one of the thin strings is tricky. I'll stick with this though and see how it goes.

I play acoustic practically all the time now, not picked up my electric in quite some time. I just love the sound of it, and playing it in different ways to come up with interesting strumming patterns, styles, and starting to edge into some finger picking. Not quite travis picking, but arpeggiating the chords and figuring out all the 'sus's on different chords that we can do.

I'm really into this song by Xavier Rudd, and trying to learn that.. very slowly, but getting there (Love the guy in the audience that shouts 'Shut Up' to the rest of the audience xD in this video). This song really hits me:


Can almost get a barre chord into a play through, still a bit tricky but I know F and Bm.. and also know how to work out all of the others as I almost know all of the notes on the thickest two strings now :)

I've also learned a fair bit from Andy's video here for some variations, which lead me to look for variations on quite a few other chords:


I've been learning now for just over 5 years.. it's been slow progress, and I've been going in different directions with the guitar playing, from just using it as a form of therapy and expression to wanting to learn all the riffs and rocking everywhere out, to where I am now; writing songs, learning to put music to them and want to start streaming on Twitch.

Looking at it, I think I've only 'really' been learning the past two years that I've been away from Rocksmith. Not just music, but things in life too, this has had such an impact on me I can't even begin to explain, nor know where to start!

I know I'll never have it as a profession or anything, but as long as I inspire people, connect with people and them to each other, let them know they are not alone or even just make them feel something.. That is the definition of 'success' to me <3
(I think I've become a little bit of a hippy person.. with longer hair and matching beard!)

I've met and made so many friends on this 'journey' you lot got me into 5 years ago, and I'll certainly never look back :)
 
Well done Tris, I'm over the moon for ya :clap:
Thank you :)

Another couple I forgot to mention I'm working on with finger picking or different strumming wise are Falling Slowly:


and Shallow:


I'm just loving acoustic music, just so natural and soothing <3
 

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