• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Guitar players thread.

DrJohnGalt

Banned
I used to play quite a bit. Started in middle school, did the garage band/house party thing in high school, then kinda put it on the backburner when I started DJing. Every few years I get nostalgic and start hitting the frets for a few months but just can't stick with it. I was never really any good at leads or solos (I could improvise ok but never remember enough play the same thing twice). But I could play fast and write catchy riffs and was able to bullshit my way by enough people to have fun. The only playing I do now is maybe a few hours on Rocksmith every few months. Seems all my free time goes into video games now.

106002520_2702746736712900_5704878880778746553_n.jpg
106016162_2702746790046228_8493068516299181139_n.jpg
 
Last edited:

Fret Runner

Member
Last time posting this tune since I don't wanna get annoying with posting the same song an piss everyone off lol
Fuck ups towards the end made me rage quit trying to get a perfect recording. :messenger_pouting:

and-now-for-something-completely-different-gif-11.gif

 
I wanted to learn when I was a kid, but finding a left handed guitar in a rundown primary school in the early 80s wasn't happening.
Then about 10-12 years ago I was given a cheap strat clone but didn't really have the time to practice so just put it to one side, last year I picked up an acoustic bit didn't like the size of the neck, so this year I got myself a Vintage V100 Les Paul clone and finally got to doing some decent learning. It was going pretty well, I could notice the improvements in my playing over the weeks, and then the lockdown happened.
I was sure that with so much free time I would be fairly proficient at the beginner level, but after a week or so everything became boring and felt like a chore, I stopped playing my guitar, stopped reading, even stopped playing vidya. I'm hoping the urge to play comes back now I've started back at work.

For reference, I have the cherry sunburst version of the non Gibson shown here:
 

kingbean

Member
I wrote a lead part. I never thought I'd be able to do that. I know it's not great but I worked my ass off and have practiced nearly everyday for 2 months to get at this level.



I almost cried playing it back for the first time after it was all recorded.
 

Kev Kev

Member
any good techniques/video on finger picking for a ukelele?

ive been having fun doing wes montgomery style, which is just using the thumb doing basically alternate picking. its crazy how well that works. but it seems limiting at the same time

recommendations? should i just stick with the thumb, or use more fingers like i would guitar?

i would love to be able to improvise a little on this thing for the students (theyre mostly kids), i think theyd be really impressed and inspired if i could do it well. and maybe even do some improvising over their playing so they can start to get a feel for playing with other people.

i guess it doesnt have to just be for uke, could be for regular guitar to, but i didnt know if their was any preferred method for more advanced ukelele players
 

Fret Runner

Member
Was jamming along with some Pink Floyd today and got bored so figured I'd put some pressure on myself an record something.
Kinda weird but the thought of sharing stuff here helps keep me focused on practicing. So expect more random crap from me lol
 

kingbean

Member
any good techniques/video on finger picking for a ukelele?

ive been having fun doing wes montgomery style, which is just using the thumb doing basically alternate picking. its crazy how well that works. but it seems limiting at the same time

recommendations? should i just stick with the thumb, or use more fingers like i would guitar?

i would love to be able to improvise a little on this thing for the students (theyre mostly kids), i think theyd be really impressed and inspired if i could do it well. and maybe even do some improvising over their playing so they can start to get a feel for playing with other people.

i guess it doesnt have to just be for uke, could be for regular guitar to, but i didnt know if their was any preferred method for more advanced ukelele players



This fella uses more than his thumb. He seems to be quite good.
 

Fret Runner

Member
Been looking in to jumping in to the world of 8 strings and have been eye-balling a few cheap ones i've found.

Which should I go for, Guitar-GAF.
Ibanez RG8 vs Jackson dinky 8q vs B.C Rich Outlaw.

Leaning towards the Ibanez since that seems to have the most positive comments about it.
Any metalheads wanna help this bedroom jammer make the right choice in jumping back into the world of chugga chugga? lol
 

Fret Runner

Member
Went for the Ibanez.
After the evening of jamming about on it and my brain trying to combat muscle memory.

Me: No, Brain, there are two extra strings lower than the E now.

My brain:
iu


The journey begins. :messenger_horns::messenger_beaming:
 

Ceallach

Smells like fresh rosebuds
Went for the Ibanez.
After the evening of jamming about on it and my brain trying to combat muscle memory.

Me: No, Brain, there are two extra strings lower than the E now.

My brain:
iu


The journey begins. :messenger_horns::messenger_beaming:
Are you adjusting well? I've never been able to wrap my head around 7 and 8 strings well. But I have small hands which doesn't help. It's one of the reasons why I love short scales.
 

Fret Runner

Member
Are you adjusting well? I've never been able to wrap my head around 7 and 8 strings well. But I have small hands which doesn't help. It's one of the reasons why I love short scales.
Only had half a day with it so far, but my brain is slowly coming round to the idea of adjusting, maybe lol.
There are times my brain just completely crashes and freezes like "Dude, that string is not suppose to be here, wtf is going on?!"
Then I spend a few moments picking what my muscle memory is telling me should be the normal A string but my fret hand is spazzing out not being able to sync to my pick hand (if this makes sense lol)

When I first saw and held it, it felt like I was holding a fucking driveway in my hand and this popped in my head.
iu

So far though my fret hand seems ok with it all, I have long lanky fingers so that helps. Should have probably got a 7-string but I saw it and being the "dive in the deep end" type person I thought why the fuck not, let's get crazy.

Trying to force some new muscle memory is seeming to be my biggest hurdle at the moment
The most hilarious thing is going back to a normal neck, even after only a few hours of playing, it feels like I'm holding a tooth pick now it's bizarre. To quote Men in Black, I feel like I'm gonna break this damn thing lol
 
M

Macapala

Unconfirmed Member
If you guys ever need some motivation to practice just watch this awesome video. It's shredtastic.

 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
I've been thinking we need a musicians community in the communities section. I might draft that for later this week or next. I'm the meantime, I found some pictures of myself from years past with either my Martin D-35 or my PRS Custom 24.

first pic I was 15 and that was my go-to Les Paul gold too
second pic is with my oldest guitar (76' Martin D-35) and referred to as my Cobain picture
third was after buying my PRS Custom for myself Christmas 2013
The last picture was when I was 11 and got my first electric guitar (it was a Teisco/Kingston Swinga)
H1YFGs8.jpg


il5UsAL.jpg


XCOFRpJ.jpg


yQEQ9kK.jpg
 
I think is time to go back to practice. The thing is, my mind still remembers a lot but my hands don't. My last video was from 2014:



But in E tuning. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (debut song/album | 1969-1970) has a amazing solo on pentatonics. I will start there.
 

LarknThe4th

Member
I mostly play classical guitar, but I don’t own a guitar at the moment as I have been travelling for a few years and just relying kn whatever the hostel has.

I was listening to a recording of a song I am working on today, and the little pauses while I think of what is coming next pain me greatly.
Nothing more satisfying than working on a piece and you find the last little bit to push it over the edge

I fucking love making music!
 

Kazza

Member
I've pretty much finished the Hal Leonard Classical Guitar Method book (just need to keep practising the songs to get better now), and I found that I enjoyed the Spanish/flamenco ones the most. Maybe it's because it's the summer, and the energy and passion of the songs just match the heat. I especially liked learning Malaguena (although the version I learned was obviously much simpler):



Can anyone recommend me any other beginner-friendly flamenco style songs?
 

Kev Kev

Member
guess whos gettin some new gear :messenger_sunglasses: the college called and said they needed a guitar player for combo and guitar ensemble and offered to pay for everything so i said uuhhhhh fuck yea! got some guitar lessns out of it too.anyway, i needed something more suited for jazz, so a buddy of mine who works at a music store gave me some options and heres what i came up with...



and this amp


also having him throw in some flat wound 11s, bunch of picks, and im also buying a nice mono bag for semi hollows:
M80-VHB-BLK_1520412280744.jpg


fucking stoked! not sure what class is going to be like with covid, but im ready to get sheddin on this new axe
 
Last edited:

Kev Kev

Member

dude you have great timing here. i listened to one of the other songs on your soundcloud where you said your timing was off, but i thought that soiunded great too! if i had to be nit picky, i would say that if you laid back just a hair, youd be perfectly in the pocket. you play really on top of the beat, which is great for metal because it helps drive the energy forward, but i feel itd groove more if you just laid back a hair. and get more into that groove with your movement!

when my guitar teacher taught me bass he said you cant play bass, or at least you can be a great bass player, unless you move with it, because being in that pocket is so important for any rhythm section instrument. so you might see a lot of players (especially rhythm section like guitar, bass an drums) making all kinds of ridiculous movements, and a lot of them are just for show, but one of the reasons musicians do that is because it helps with timing and landing right into that pocket. try really getting into it and finding that perfect groove in the pocket. the audience can really feel that groove and itll come off as sounding 10x better, even if you miss a note or whatever. and itll hit harder and have more energy, perfect for metal.

not trying to critique you i just thought you were being really hard on yourself with saying you were off. i been doin music a long time and you sounded very on point to me brother :messenger_horns:
 

kingbean

Member
Kev Kev Kev Kev Hey man I appreciate that a lot. Rhythm and timing is something that I still kinda struggle with, like i"m trying to learn some basic lead parts and I'm having a hard time counting anything that's not in 4/4. I'm trying and learning, but it's a process.
 

highrider

Banned
I’m no guitarist but I do often custom paint them. Holla should you require the services. I specialize in taking something fairly mediocre and making it look like a dope instrument.

 

Fret Runner

Member
this is awesome! if you could re-record that to a click track i would totally put some midi drums over it (did you use a click?). sounds like the intro to a cool anime or action show. diggn it :messenger_fistbump:
When it comes to recording I'm a complete and utter noob and don't really have a clue of what I'm doing. I just press record on a tapedeck in Guitar Rig, which sucks cause it auto-dims the sound when ever overdubbing. Just started using Cakewalk last night to hopefully use something a bit better than Guitar Rig for recording but can't seem to get sound, it picks up the sound from the guitar but doesn't send it to my Speakers/headphones. Digressed, My bad.

Clicks would be a sane thing for me to use but for some reason I always end up just playing along to a tune an then recording.
Would love to be able to understand making drum beats but I'm still new to all these programs.

I was planning to re-record that one and the Stand Proudu one cause the Guitar Rig Dimming was annoying. I'll be sure to add a click when I do.

A cool anime intro it is indeed :messenger_grinning:
 
Last edited:

Kev Kev

Member
When it comes to recording I'm a complete and utter noob and don't really have a clue of what I'm doing. I just press record on a tapedeck in Guitar Rig, which sucks cause it auto-dims the sound when ever overdubbing. Just started using Cakewalk last night to hopefully use something a bit better than Guitar Rig for recording but can't seem to get sound, it picks up the sound from the guitar but doesn't send it to my Speakers/headphones. Digressed, My bad.

Clicks would be a sane thing for me to use but for some reason I always end up just playing along to a tune an then recording.
Would love to be able to understand making drum beats but I'm still new to all these programs.

I was planning to re-record that one and the Stand Proudu one cause the Guitar Rig Dimming was annoying. I'll be sure to add a click when I do.

A cool anime intro it is indeed :messenger_grinning:

oh bc it IS an anime intro lol gotcha. and if youre playing along with the track, thats basically as good as playing with click. way easier to play along to since you have a groove to get into. with a click you have to crete the groove and it make it way more difficult.

sounds like you are on the right track for recording yourself. as far as auto dimming when overdubbing, arte you using headphones? because there shuold be no reason for it to auto dim other tracks when you are layering like that. seems really dumb and imagine there is a prefernece to switch it off somewhere in that porgram. did you look up tutorial videos?

i only used it once, but the software Audacity is upposed to be free and really easy to use. you can program tempo changes, should easily be able to layer tracks, supposed to be pretty use friendly. at any rate i know its a popular choice so there may be more tutorial videos out there to help use it. and if youre willing to drop some coin, more advanced program,s like logic pro X, give you midi and patches to use, so you can add drums or whatever else you want. it gives you the ability to quantize to the tempo, so your midi tracks can be perfectly on point. and there is no auto dim or whatever, so thats cool

anyway, you sound great bud, keep it goin!
 

Fret Runner

Member
Finally sorted cakewalk out to get the sound of my guitar coming through.
So thought I'd give Stand Proud a little Revisit an actually have tracks for each part with out any annoying dimming
Still sloppy at certain parts and a derp moment here an there but Sounds better than my last attempt, I think.

First time actually using a proper program to record. I'm admittidly a Boomer when it comes to this side of things :messenger_grinning_sweat:


Sorry if it's too loud. I always forget that there's no volume control on the soundcloud box. lol
 

Fret Runner

Member
Thought I'd try something from one of my favourite bands.
Was dicking about with midi's for the first time, so it should be a bit more plesant than just guitar.
 
Last edited:

Shelbutt

Member
I have a guitar but haven't really had the time to dedicate learning it :(
I have rocksmith and tried that out when i first got it but it just confused me even more. Would love to start learning tho
 
Last edited:

Flintty

Member
I have this beauty but I won’t pretend I can play it very well. I’ve got a few chords nailed down but my technique is shite, I feel like I’ll never conquer the bastard.


Ovoa8a8.jpg
 
Top Bottom