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Learning to play Guitar and how to breathe right

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hey has anyone got any info or tips and advice on learning how to play guitar? I am thinking of learning soon, my friend advised me to go electric and that once you get the hang of it its easy to learn. Is it easy to learn?

Also does anyone know anything about that special way singers breathe when they sing? I'm thinking of maybe doing some rock style singing but I have asthma so th eling notes I get a bit short of breath so I was wondering if the special breathing techniques might help.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    practice often, you will get a good feel for it.

    i taught myself bass, www.musicianforums.com helped quite a bit.

    You could get a teacher but tbh u can learn just as fast on ure own and its cheaper. Also u ll develop ure own style which is comfortable instead of playing the way the teacher tells you to.

    also try and learn some scales it will make composing stuff easier when you get to that.

    www.mxtabs.net for tabs ! learning covers of other ppls stuff also helps a lot!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Well learning the guitar aint that hard to do by yourself, it might seem hard at first but you eventually get a feel for it and it's quite easy. Just look up the net for chords or scales and learn that way. And there's countless sites that give tabs for other songs.

    As for the breathing, not sure I sound dreadful at signing.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's easier and better to learn to play on an acoustic guitar and then move on to electric.. plus acoustic guitars are cheaper.. you can get and decent one from £25 upwards depending on size but with electric guitars a decent one can cost you a bomb .. you have to pay for quality and the better the quality the better it is to play.. So i suggest you get a decent accoustic guitar which wont cost you too much and see how you get on with that... You wont have wasted alot of money if you don't follow it through.

    As you teaching yourself there are tons of books with play along tapes and simple instructions which you can buy from music shops or even places like WH Smiths and resources online (both of these will also be alot harder if you cannnot read music from a stave...) but its much better to learn from another person. Things seem so much clearer when you have someone to show you rather than words and pictures on a page. You could be playing something which completly the wrong technique and you'd never know.. so if you can ask a friend to teach you to play at least the basics it'd be better.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    muse- wrote:
    www.mxtabs.net for tabs ! learning covers of other ppls stuff also helps a lot!

    Or www.powertabs.net if you get the powertab editor (which is free). You can get tabbed out songs that can be played using midi in the program and you see which note is being hit.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Personally I find using electric guitars hard and they always leave me with really painful fingers - however, I'm used to playing an accoustic which uses nylon strings.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Rich-E wrote:
    Or www.powertabs.net if you get the powertab editor (which is free). You can get tabbed out songs that can be played using midi in the program and you see which note is being hit.


    Oh really?? was using guitar pro but the lisence expired..will have to try that one.

    As for starting guitar tabs i dunno ...maybe some greenday or something? :o

    i dont play 1.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    muse- wrote:
    You could get a teacher but tbh u can learn just as fast on ure own and its cheaper. Also u ll develop ure own style which is comfortable instead of playing the way the teacher tells you to.

    I've got to disagree man. A good teacher will help you learn a lot better/faster. They'll also stop you developing bad habits, which can be an absolute bitch to unlearn.

    As much as tab can help you learn songs, I'd recommend trying to work them out yourself from records. There's a real problem now with guitarists raised on tab not developing a musical ear. Speaking from experience here.

    The guitar is pretty easy to learn. It really depends how far you want to take it.

    I'd recommend Guthrie Govan's Creative Guitar 1 & 2 for anyone trying to play lead guitar.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yes there are certain was of singers breathing and techniques. I am still trying to sort some of it out myself.

    A lot of it has to do with the way you stand or sit as well because you use your lungs and body like a vaccum. You do not suck in the air, you let your stomach and such inflate and therefore pull in the air by itself.

    Keep your spine straight so that the air and voice has a straight channel in which to travel. If you are bent, it obviously restrains your voice and you lose power and strength.

    One way I have been told to practice this is to sit in a very straight backed chair and breathe in making your back move out against the chair. Its complicated to explain but in breathing you have to expand your ribcage out, push your diaphram down which helps create more room to support the voice and create more space for the lungs to inflate.

    Try singing a scale but splitting each note up so that you are forced to take quick breaths inbetween. It shows that if you try to force yourself to suck in air it wont work in time and you will go out of beat but if you let your stomach and middle part of the body do the work it is a lot more efficient and sounds less like a hissing balloon too :p .
    The main thing to remember for any singer though is not to close your throat down. One really good way to open your throat is that feeling you get when you are about to yawn or sneeze (yawn works better for me) Like your ears might pop or something. You will be able to feel your soft pallete in your mouth moving up at that point, therefore expanding the space in your mouth too. Also one last point, keep your tongune kind of hooked behind your bottom teeth so that it doesn't block your passage through the wind pipe.

    Try looking up how your voice works too, I found it helps to know about your instrument and how it works.

    Lol I know this might be hard to understand as I ramble but if I think of anything I have left out, which I probably have, I will let you know and as for guitar...well someone else will have to help you with that. I have long forgotten how to play it :lol:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Cazzoo wrote:
    acoustic guitars are cheaper.. you can get and decent one from £25 upwards depending on size but with electric guitars a decent one can cost you a bomb.


    Wow £25 for a decent acoustic is ambitious. You really do get what you pay for. Start on an acoustic, they're much better for learning how to play initially.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Wow £25 for a decent acoustic is ambitious. You really do get what you pay for. Start on an acoustic, they're much better for learning how to play initially.

    Thats what i got my first guitar for (half size).. had a great sound.. played the hell out of it and never broke a string. My current guitar (my 4th) cost a bit more though, £60, wouldn't even really say it was better quality but i needed a bigger size..
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Are we talking £60 for a new, full size folk/dreadnought guitar with steel strings? Or an Argos classical style with nylon strings? My acoustic was reduced from £140 to £100 and it really is only good for firewood but hey, it got me into the guitar.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Are we talking £60 for a new, full size folk/dreadnought guitar with steel strings? Or an Argos classical style with nylon strings? My acoustic was reduced from £140 to £100 and it really is only good for firewood but hey, it got me into the guitar.

    To be honest .. i have no idea. :p It's a full size guitar with steel strings bought from some music shop round here, dont know what type really. No paticular make.

    It looks like this ..

    DG-5.jpg
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    wow, thanks guys. Lots to take in. I guess it doesn't help I havent learnt any music since school and I was never really great at it, though the teachers all gave me good marks.

    you really think starting out on acoustic is easier and better?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Walkindude wrote:
    wow, thanks guys. Lots to take in. I guess it doesn't help I havent learnt any music since school and I was never really great at it, though the teachers all gave me good marks.

    you really think starting out on acoustic is easier and better?

    Simply? Yes.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    hmmmm

    strange, mya mate that plays in a band recommend electric. Its so confusing!!!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    About the breathing while singing thing - try not think about it. i know it sounds strange but it works (for me anyway) if i concentrate on when im taking a breath i tend to mess up and become off que but when i just concentrate on singing and enjoy it i have no problems, as i say - works for me, who knows might for you as well :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Walkindude wrote:
    hmmmm

    strange, mya mate that plays in a band recommend electric. Its so confusing!!!

    Starting with acoustic gives you a chance to actually learn how to listen to what you're playing. Electric guitars are physically easier to play but the technique can be different. Slapping a load of overdrive on the amp will not encourage you to listen out for your mistakes. If you go straight into electric then you'll get stuck into using power chords (no major or minor just root, octave and fith notes in a chord) all very well on a distorted electric but sound painfully hollow on an acoustic.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ahh!! Now see I thought electric would be easier because the are automatically in tune. I think you rright though, acoustic would be better to hone the skils on and develip coz you can hear when you make mistakes more.

    I wennt into a gutair/music hsop today and the acoutsic are not really cheaper then the electrics you know.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Walkindude wrote:
    ahh!! Now see I thought electric would be easier because the are automatically in tune. I think you rright though, acoustic would be better to hone the skils on and develip coz you can hear when you make mistakes more.

    I wennt into a gutair/music hsop today and the acoutsic are not really cheaper then the electrics you know.

    So are acoustics when you buy them and electrics can go out of tune aswell.

    Plus there are guitar tuners you can buy so it doesn't matter.

    Generally acoustics are cheaper, but I'll admit, at the bottom of the range guitars they both start out at the same price. However as you go up you'll find electric guitars worth over £2000

    Start off with the acoustic, it's handier, you'll learn songs, chords and sounds easier. Once you get the jist of it then get an electric where you can try and learn some of the mad solos you hear people doing. It's a gradual process, enjoy :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks!!!!

    It seems quite daunting but I'd love to do it. Do you need good co-ordination to play guitar? I just wonder coz mine is a bit off in some thing so.

    What comes first with song writers and musicans, the lyrics or the tune?? I write poetry and they seem to have song qualities to them and could be adapted to make a song. Recently I had a chorus in my head that I have written down, though havn't developed any verses yet. I did have a tune with it in my head but it has then hard to put the wrods to any other tune.

    I just wonder how the process works for people.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    1) Of course playing any instrument requires co-ordination. Naturally you'll be a bit of a spaz at first but once you get a feel for it you'll be fine. However, if you are just a complete malco, there's only so far you can go.

    It will seem daunting but if you really want to learn then you'll stick with it.

    2) Personally I can't write lyrics for shit which is surprising seeing as how articulate I am :D . Thus I write the music and my mate Jon writes the lyrics and sometimes helps with the music. I think being a bass player opens up a new avenue of song-writing perspective because obviously you're looking at it as a bass player and not a guitarist.

    There are two schools of thought when it comes to lyrics/music. One is that the music should take preference and thus you have an awesome tune with lyrics playing second fiddle. The other way around is harder because it's easier to write good music than it is to write good lyrics. Thus your lyrcis have to be spot on. This is normally the case in acoustic songs. Sometimes it works as in Bob Dylan, Neil Young etc. However, it can also go completely tits up as in that twat James Blunt and all those other whiney dickheads who can't write lyrics for shit.

    Personally I'd go for music over lyrics. At the end of the day, it's the music industry not the poety-accompanied-by-some-smelly-berk-who-knows-four-chords industry.

    Out of interest what gear do you have?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    uhhh not alot lol. I haven't even gotten the guitar yet lol. Hence why I am getting all this advice. I know music is a personal thing and I guess the best learn as they go doing things their own way but I am willing to get advice and tips an dlearn from people who have gone before me so I can be better at what I do.

    I guess it is the music that counts, though I havent had much music experience since school other then listening to it. Its just a draw you know? something I want to do and try and see what happens.

    I knew co-ordination would be key to it, thing is it is debatable if I have this thing called dyspraxia that efects my co-ordination. Tests are inconclusive on me os I may have the will but not the abilkity to play.

    I'd just wanna do my own thing, whatever felt right. I mean I was centring towards rock but not the skater punk style rock, more classic rock, not flamboyant glam rock but with mixes of country and soul in there. Basically whavere felt fright I'd play.

    Seems it is a massive undertaking though, more then anyone would think. I'd still wanna do it though.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    When i got a guitar at the age of about 6/7 i hadn't thought about anything other than i wanted to play the guitar.. My parents bought me a cheapo one, booked me some lessons and off i went!

    You're overthinking it.. just give it a go!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    lol!!! I do that alot actually, over think things.

    I will, just gotta get the guitar and all that first!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I prefer using an acoustic guitar. It is cool to hear and simple, plus very affordable.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I prefer using an acoustic guitar. It is cool to hear and simple, plus very affordable.

    Hey mandzguitar :wave:

    It's always worth looking at the date on posts, this one is really old so I'm going to close it now.

    Happy posting :)
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