Guitar playing

[ZeUs!!]

I'm at the stage where I've got the chords nailed, the bar chords are as good as, now I need to take the next steps towards improvisation. Any tips?

[Material Girl]

For improv, know your scale and know how all the other scales relate to it.

[geekbot]

For improv, know your scale and know how all the other scales relate to it.

Agreed. Are we still talking about bass guitar? For solo guitar some of it is kind of the same but I really know nothing about that.

Part 2/2 of everything I know about bass guitar:

Bass guitar is pretty boring. Your main job is to add a steady rhythm and the "bass" note, the lowest note of the chord progression.

If a song uses G-C-D-C, the straightforward way would be to play the bass note, once per measure (4 beats). That would look like this:

| G - - - | C - - - | D - - - | C - - - | G - - - |

To make it more interesting you can double notes:

| G - - G | C - - C | D - - D | C - - - | G - - - |

This adds a "pickup" note. The 4th beat leads into the 1st beat. It gives it a little "movement" going from 4 to 1.

Another thing I do is running up/down scales. This is why I learn scales and keep my hand in position to play scales. That looks like this:

| G G A B | C - - - | D - - - | C - B A | G - - - |

Similar idea to doubling- the run down to G leads the song back to G. A listener/singer knows the G is coming and the run down to it reinforces that idea. You especially use this at the end of a phrase or end of a verse because you're reinforcing that idea of the end of a segment but it can be used anywhere.

Besides running up and down, you can add other 4th beat pickup notes. You can think in terms of scales/chords or just use your ear:

| G - G D | C - C B | D - D B | C C B A | G - - - |

In general, you want to emphasize the 1st beat most. Emphasize the 3rd beat next most. (BTW, if you clap along to a song that's on 2-4).

A lot of times the chords will repeat for the entire verse or chorus. You can come up with something like this that sounds good and repeat it the entire time "riffing". Or repeat most of it and throw in a run up/run down, etc. at certain points of the song (where the singing stops, where the song builds, where the verse ends).

These 2 posts are pretty much everything I know and it can get me through playing along to any song we sing on Sunday. Christian praise songs are generally simpler songs so that they are easy for anyone to learn and sing. Rock/pop songs generally have the same characteristics but of course there's plenty of more difficult stuff out there.

To learn more- listen to songs with cool bass lines to get ideas. Google for bass tabs of cool songs too.

[Reaver]

I've been playing for almost a year and a half now. Im self taught, you can teach yourself, it helps if you are currently attending college or have completed college. If your currently in college take a general intro to music course that teaches you how to read music, and a little music theory. If you've completed college it helps because you should know how to go about teaching yourself something new. I would recommend the website www.ultimate-guitar.com for lessons and tablature, aside from that get yourself guitarpro5 and then just search tab for guitar pro 5 tabs. If you can't read tablature or music I can help you read tablature its very easy or if you have any questions about techniques like hammer-on's, pull-off's, pinch harmonics, regular harmonics, slides, bar (or is it barre) chords, regular chords, vibrato, etc etc just ask me in game. As far as guitars go I highly suggest getting either a regular acoustic or an electric/acoustic first. No amp is required and it builds good finger strength. I bought myself a Jasmine Takamine electric acoustic about a year ago (I went with electric first because that's what was available) and I think its relatively good soundquality for the price. Buy yourself an extra set of strings while you get the guitar and also atleast 1 of each types of picks (thin, regular, thick) to figure out which is comfortable for you.

[Missa]

i've played guitar for about 5 or 6 years, bass for 4 or 5.. since this is your first.. you should start kind of cheap instrument wise..

i'd link you to some stuff but my internet is screwing up so.. look around at http://www.musiciansfriend.com/

they have stuff like this
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...Amp?sku=519634

some people hate squier, but i think it's good for learning on. you don't want to buy something fancy and expensive and decide you hate it or want to quit, that would suck. start small and learn about stuff out there. go to music stores and play with all the stuff they have.. yeah it's fun.

there are all kinds of books you can get to learn if you want to do it that way.. they teach you scales and how to read music and such.. some come with dvds or cds. i played for about a year then tried taking lessons.. it didn't work for me. i wasted a lot of money on it, ew but yeah. k good luck have fun!

[Reaver]

i've played guitar for about 5 or 6 years, bass for 4 or 5.. since this is your first.. you should start kind of cheap instrument wise..

i'd link you to some stuff but my internet is screwing up so.. look around at http://www.musiciansfriend.com/

they have stuff like this
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/produ...Amp?sku=519634

some people hate squier, but i think it's good for learning on. you don't want to buy something fancy and expensive and decide you hate it or want to quit, that would suck. start small and learn about stuff out there. go to music stores and play with all the stuff they have.. yeah it's fun.

there are all kinds of books you can get to learn if you want to do it that way.. they teach you scales and how to read music and such.. some come with dvds or cds. i played for about a year then tried taking lessons.. it didn't work for me. i wasted a lot of money on it, ew but yeah. k good luck have fun!

Squire's electric guitars are actually really good sound quality for the price, in my opinion. In fact the only thing I believe alot of the Squire models actually lack is durability. As for the books, yeah there are many books and video's out there that will help you in learning how to play the guitar but if you're truly devoted to learning there are enough free sources, even youtube has video's of free lessons. Check out a website called www.vguitarlessons.com or something close to that. It's a site that charges money per song they teach you how to learn but they offer 12 free beginner lesson video's all you have to do is register and Im sure based on those 12 video's it's enough to get you started. From there use youtube and ultimate-guitar.com's lessons, there isnt any need to go out and get lessons to start with, in my opinion. You'll save more money in the long run so long as you teach yourself as much as you can and then when you cant learn anymore on your own get an instructor for the more advanced techniques.

[Mr. Peanuts]

Yeah Squiers are good, owned by Fender so as far as I know is that the only difference between the two is the materials they use and the durability issue with bolt on parts and stuff.

I'd go for a Squier for a beginners guitar, I know of advanced guitarists who still love their Squiers.