Late beginner practice routine

[Willy25]

Hey guys im a late beginner meaning i know all basic chords, the 6 and 5th string notes, the a minor pantanic scale. My question is what can i do to teach my self guitar without a teacher? Because i dont have the cash to pay a teacher, is to expensive. I been looking at some youtube videos but they are not orginazided. I also didnt like jamplay or guitartricks idk why lol

I been thinking about a routine like this and i dont know if it will help me.
Technique skills: alternate picking, strummings , sweeps , palm mutes etc..
Music theory: music notation , intervals , scales and chords and how they are constructed
Ear training: dont know what to study lol
Fretboard: memorize notes, and apply scales and chords knowing its formulas
Repertoire: metal songs, rock . Pop etc...
Improvize over a backing track

What do you guys think? Idk if this will help because i heard some good musicians never had a teacher.
Also what you guys think on learning music notation and theory with piano? Wont that make me a better musician than instead of having muscle memory of a scale on the fretboard and just learn its formula and than apply it to the fretboard? Wont the be easier idk. Let me know your opinions thanks

 

[Blille]

Late beginner practice routine

Hey guys im a late beginner meaning i know all basic chords, the 6 and 5th string notes, the a minor pantanic scale. My question is what can i do to teach my self guitar without a teacher? Because i dont have the cash to pay a teacher, is to expensive. I been looking at some youtube videos but they are not orginazided. I also didnt like jamplay or guitartricks idk why lol

You can, particularly with YouTube having so many great lessons. That said, getting a teacher, even if it's once a month, will be invaluable to correct bad habits, build a curriculum for you and answer the questions you may have.

Yes, many great musicians didn't have formal training but many others were born in families with musicians. Don't stack the odds against you.

Just my 2¢.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

This is fantastic that you're so organized as a intermediate/beginner. Those are all great exercises.

Youtube is great for teaching yourself stuff. Almost every popular song is taught by somebody. Also they seem to be much more accurate than tabs or even books. There are some good teachers for learning theory and improv too. Papa stache and marty are good for blues/rock and steve stine seems pretty good for metal.

Some suggestions for ear training: Try to make up your own simple chord progressions and build from there. They can be all open chords or bar chords but get your ear to be able to hear basic chord movement. Also you can try to get the sound of your simple riffs in your ear and try to improvise melodically. Then you can try to recognize what players are doing in simple songs. Guitar is great because it's always a single hand shape that people play from. You'll get to where you'll know what they're doing just by listening. Piano isn't necessary. It's more important to get command over the guitar.

If you ever do get the cash for lessons you should definitely do it though, even it's only for a few months. Because stuff that would take you months or years to learn, he can tell you immediately. It's also helpful to be able to see how it's supposed to sound right in front of you and have the motivation to practice. But what you're doing is very good. Being able to teach yourself is the most important thing.

1 theory suggestion: You already know the 1st position of the pentatonic scale, learn the other 4. This is the best and most basic way to learn the neck. Wherever you're at on the neck, you'll have a device for playing melodically.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Also, go to the local library and used book store, and get anything and everything guitar and music theory-related. Go see live music all the time. Listen to diverse music. Absorb it all.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Before we go all theory/technique crazy....let's back up a minute;

WHY are you learning to play guitar?
WHAT is your GOAL?

Let's figure that out first.
- Just want to noodle around and make happy noises?
- Want to be able to play some basic blues tunes?
- Want to strum and sing Eagles songs?
- Want to throw down some Neo-classical prog-shred solos, kind of Petrucci/Malmsteen fusion style?



Then, you can learn to play by yourself, by reading a book, asking friends, going to tips-clips room here, watching the right vids, etc...We can then prescribe some very targeted things for maximum impact. You are listing things that are the "classic" music lessons training schtick. That's nice, but it may be far from practical. There are way better ways for adults to learn things without doing the "Music Theory Major" way of it. Unless that is your goal. If you just want to make happy noises on guitar and play Led Zeppelin....way better approaches than learning the cycle of 5ths, and multiple forms of the Hungarian minor scale.

And how FAST do you want to get however good? I'd like to learn Sweep Picking, but I'm ohm if I never do it, or don't in the next 15 years. I do, however, need to learn the guitar solo for Cherry Pie and Metal Health in the next couple of weeks.

Talk to us! You basically asked how to fix an engine and have not told us if it is a truck, a car, a Ferrari, a jet ski, or a lawn mower!!!!!!

*Dr. Aceman, PhD in human learning and skill acquisition.

 

[Willy25]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Thanks for the responses guys. Well i really dont have big goal like win money out music like being a teacher, a season guitarists etc.. because im 26 and working, and thats gonna take a long time.

I started playing guitar not by focusing on those things above, but because i like music , its fun to play, and i wanted to write some music. I like all types of music but most into rock metal and pop. Let say i want to be able to play from the basic stuff to the extreme but not to much into fingerstyle some basic will be fun. A trained ear, have my own music , know how to play any style, be in a cover band , and be able to improvise with a band. Thats the reason i started, its all about the music not be somebody because if i focus on that it will hold me back on just thinking i want to be this. Look at all the greats they started playing because they loved music not thinking about money. I learned that from steve vai lol how about a goal will be to always have fun and learn difficult stuff on the instrument. Idk could that be a goal? Lol

 

[AlexR]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Find the songs you most want to play......but initially you'll have to focus on the more chord based stuff. There is almost always tablature on the net or in books (the latter whilst costing more is almost always more accurate). You will immediately see whether you are close or not close at all with what you have picked.
If you have the chords or some simple lead passages to follow the best option is to play alongside the recording. That will tell you straight away what the area for the most practice is.
Initially its fingering the chords and getting the fingers to the right places.
Then you have to worry about the pressure on each string and getting each string to ring out from the first strum.
Then the speed of change.

I bought the Guitar White Pages book, which has a whole heap of songs from all genres and all eras of rock. From chord based songs to some of the trickiest by the most technical or expressive players in history.

 

[Willy25]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Find the songs you most want to play......but initially you'll have to focus on the more chord based stuff. There is almost always tablature on the net or in books (the latter whilst costing more is almost always more accurate). You will immediately see whether you are close or not close at all with what you have picked.
If you have the chords or some simple lead passages to follow the best option is to play alongside the recording. That will tell you straight away what the area for the most practice is.
Initially its fingering the chords and getting the fingers to the right places.
Then you have to worry about the pressure on each string and getting each string to ring out from the first strum.
Then the speed of change.

I bought the Guitar White Pages book, which has a whole heap of songs from all genres and all eras of rock. From chord based songs to some of the trickiest by the most technical or expressive players in history.

So maybe learning songs will be better? I thinks it sounds more fun than learning method books, no? Or how does this sound without a guitar method book?
1)Warm up
2)Work on a guitar technique. Example: alternate picking
3)Work on ear training
5)Work on music theory with piano
6)Fretboard: memorize notes, chords and work on scales
7)learn a song

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Yes, that's good stuff. That's what you wanna do.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Sounds like you are building a practice regime. That's fine.

I'll say this; If I had my musical life to live over, I'd learn all my open chords and how to strum and sing before anything else. If you know the G, C, D, E, A, and the F and B bar chords....along with maybe Em and Am, you can learn a crap ton of songs. And singing and playing is not only fun for you - but everyone else. Also singing & ear go together.

And learn all 5 pentatonic boxes. If you can do those two things - you'll stay busy a long time. But if you want to write music - chord structure and learning the form of many songs will do an awful lot for you. You have WAY more fun doing that than working through some boring olympic training program.


1)Warm up - BORING and honestly not that necessary unless you are doing a show or a marathon playing session
2)Work on a guitar technique. Example: alternate picking - You'll pick it up by picking. I honestly NEVER studied, but it really was not that hard. Do it all the time now.
3)Work on ear training - THIS is never a bad idea.
5)Work on music theory with piano - BORING and won't make your guitar playing any better. Honestly, can hurt a bit. The keyboard is so straight forward it is almost retarded simple. The way a guitar is arranged is really complicated.
6)Fretboard: memorize notes, chords and work on scales. NEVER a bad thing. But you'll get way more music out of knowing a little bit of theory and about 6 scale forms than memorizing every page of the Guitar Grimiore. And again - not musical and not fun at all.
7)learn a song - THIS. Lot's of this!

I agree that all of that stuff is good stuff. But it is killing all the joy of actually making music. Jimmy Page did not do this. Hendrix did not do this. Steve Vai may have did this. MOST of the great players did not work your practice schedule.

You just seem to be trying to learn everything at once. Slow down - Pick a song, learn the chords. Pick a method book, work through it. when you get done - see where you are.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Ace makes some good points. It is important to not bum yourself out with an olympic training program or try to do everything at once. But it is important to get a base of songs and theory. Learning songs is never bad. It teaches you theory and it gets you to the end goal of making music. For the other things, you don't have to knock yourself out running through them every day but you should cover them. For example if I'm feeling lazy and don't want to be creative or work on learning songs, I'll just practice my modes, or pentatonic modes, or my picking (all up strokes, all down strokes, alternate picking, hybrid picking [a killer], travis picking).

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

The problem with not having a teacher/mentor is you are not the best judge of what you need to work on, how much, and when.

What you might try is film some clips of your playing/practicing and post in Tips and Clips and solicit some input on what you might work on. Since internet is a bit random and you don't know the skills of the posters, look for corroboration from several sources to get a direction.

 

[Willy25]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Sounds like you are building a practice regime. That's fine.

I'll say this; If I had my musical life to live over, I'd learn all my open chords and how to strum and sing before anything else. If you know the G, C, D, E, A, and the F and B bar chords....along with maybe Em and Am, you can learn a crap ton of songs. And singing and playing is not only fun for you - but everyone else. Also singing & ear go together.


And learn all 5 pentatonic boxes. If you can do those two things - you'll stay busy a long time. But if you want to write music - chord structure and learning the form of many songs will do an awful lot for you. You have WAY more fun doing that than working through some boring olympic training program.


1)Warm up - BORING and honestly not that necessary unless you are doing a show or a marathon playing session
2)Work on a guitar technique. Example: alternate picking - You'll pick it up by picking. I honestly NEVER studied, but it really was not that hard. Do it all the time now.
3)Work on ear training - THIS is never a bad idea.
5)Work on music theory with piano - BORING and won't make your guitar playing any better. Honestly, can hurt a bit. The keyboard is so straight forward it is almost retarded simple. The way a guitar is arranged is really complicated.
6)Fretboard: memorize notes, chords and work on scales. NEVER a bad thing. But you'll get way more music out of knowing a little bit of theory and about 6 scale forms than memorizing every page of the Guitar Grimiore. And again - not musical and not fun at all.
7)learn a song - THIS. Lot's of this!

I agree that all of that stuff is good stuff. But it is killing all the joy of actually making music. Jimmy Page did not do this. Hendrix did not do this. Steve Vai may have did this. MOST of the great players did not work your practice schedule.

You just seem to be trying to learn everything at once. Slow down - Pick a song, learn the chords. Pick a method book, work through it. when you get done - see where you are.

Sounds like you are building a practice regime. That's fine.

I'll say this; If I had my musical life to live over, I'd learn all my open chords and how to strum and sing before anything else. If you know the G, C, D, E, A, and the F and B bar chords....along with maybe Em and Am, you can learn a crap ton of songs. And singing and playing is not only fun for you - but everyone else. Also singing & ear go together.

And learn all 5 pentatonic boxes. If you can do those two things - you'll stay busy a long time. But if you want to write music - chord structure and learning the form of many songs will do an awful lot for you. You have WAY more fun doing that than working through some boring olympic training program.


1)Warm up - BORING and honestly not that necessary unless you are doing a show or a marathon playing session
2)Work on a guitar technique. Example: alternate picking - You'll pick it up by picking. I honestly NEVER studied, but it really was not that hard. Do it all the time now.
3)Work on ear training - THIS is never a bad idea.
5)Work on music theory with piano - BORING and won't make your guitar playing any better. Honestly, can hurt a bit. The keyboard is so straight forward it is almost retarded simple. The way a guitar is arranged is really complicated.
6)Fretboard: memorize notes, chords and work on scales. NEVER a bad thing. But you'll get way more music out of knowing a little bit of theory and about 6 scale forms than memorizing every page of the Guitar Grimiore. And again - not musical and not fun at all.
7)learn a song - THIS. Lot's of this!

I agree that all of that stuff is good stuff. But it is killing all the joy of actually making music. Jimmy Page did not do this. Hendrix did not do this. Steve Vai may have did this. MOST of the great players did not work your practice schedule.

You just seem to be trying to learn everything at once. Slow down - Pick a song, learn the chords. Pick a method book, work through it. when you get done - see where you are.

Your totally right and thats to much to learn at once! It doesnt sound like fun.lol ill just work on a method book that will guide me on the basic things i need to learn ( like the troy stetina metal method) . Learn a song and train my ear. Thats it no more thinking on what i need to practice. Little by little sounds better than learning everything at once. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Everything that Ace said is your ticket to eternal oblivion.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

If you can HEAR the harmony, you can play the theory. You might "know" the theory - but not be able to hear or play it.

And remember - I'm not saying DON'T do that. Learn everything you can man!!!! But as a beginner, Let's start with the basics and get some quick wins.

Spend the next three-6 months learning JUST these things:

#1 All the open chords. Learn 1 strum and and sing chord a week.

#2 Learn 1 Pentatonic Blues box a month and jam the crap out of it over a backing track
- No one ever learns all of them. Such a shame. Learn Box 1, then box 5, Learn the upper extension of Box 1, then box 4

#3 Learn some power chord forms and play some songs with those.
- start with the basic two finger versions. the 1-3 finger on the 5th & 7th frets of the 6th/5th strings. (A5), and the same thing on the 5th & 4th strings (D5) and 3th & 3rd strings (G5)
- There are a lot of tunes you can play just by knowing those
- Then learn the full bar versions

#4 Learn the 3 note per string Major scale and play it, learning the notes. Do that for a couple of months. (1st finger on the sixth string root; 6th string A, B, C# etc)
- That is a great form to play in Dorian Mode, as well as Mixolydian for the moment.

#5 Learn the Minor scale form with the root (again, first finger, sixth string root - 6th string, A, B, C etc...)
- By the way - you now know TWO forms of the Major scale
- You also know the root form full major of the Pentatonic Major

Then if you add a LITTLE bit of theory you will know a whole lot. And when you are ready to learn why the Harmonic Minor scale works over the V chord in ii V I substitution in a Jazz blues.....cool. Let's not try to get there this year though.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Everything that Ace said is your ticket to eternal oblivion.

Seriously? Why?

 

[Aceman]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Ear training - how did most people learn this? By first knowing the basic open chords and bar chords, then learning off records.

And - just for fun - I actually learned a lot of theory and how to read music very early, very well, and very quickly; Result - my ears are crap because it was always easier to read the music than listen!

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

My only advice is to either learn to play cleanly, whether that be on an acoustic (which will build finger strength), or with less gain so you can hear the notes. It's a great way to hear your mistakes, and correct them... You really have to take it slow and not worry about running before you can walk, or crawl. You have nothing to prove to anyone but yourself, and you only get out what you put into it.

 

[Willy25]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Thanks for the tips guys! Wow i was about to take a marathon, thanks again!

 

[Aceman]

Re: Late beginner practice routine

Hey man - we get it. Music is awesome. Want to know everything and be able to do it all. Patience grasshopper, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a few steps. Or notes...

Post something up in the Tips & Clips room showing what you know.