Playing / Learning Guitar

[vagabanjo]

Lovely guitars Kuro & Al, have you ever jammed with a banjo player? I play guitar and 5 string banjo, Oldtime/Claw hammer/Frailing style, I have great jam sessions with friend especially in the summer, out in th back garden, some homebrew on the table, jamming in the sun, looking for ward to having the Argento to complete the package. Me and my mates were impressed with the sound of banjo's and guitars together. We mainly play, blues, country, or Irish jigs, or anything we get the notes for. Blues is good after a few too many pints of homebrew scrumpy

[kurotoshiro]

No, I've never jammed with a banjo player. I bet that would be fun. Sadly, these days, I don't live close to anyone I know who plays any kind of instrument, so I haven't jammed with anyone in quite a while. (Even with the band I'm in, we all live too far away from each other to meet up - so we record parts separately and send them to our mate who does the mixing!)

[Al]

I have a friend who plays the banjo, although I have never jammed with him. I have a few friends that play quite a few weird stringed instruments, including a bouzouki LOL

I wish you were close to me Kuro, I could do with a jam buddy as well. Been looking for one for a while now with no success and I really don't want to join a band. My gigging days are over

Played through the riff that you put up last night and I really like it. I played it a semitone down though, as I'm currently learning some GnR I'm also learning Whitesnake's Still of the night.

Irish music and rock guitar go great together Vagabanjo !

[kurotoshiro]

What GnR song(s) are you learning? (I've got the Appetite for Destruction tab book, but I can't say I've put much effort into learning any of the songs in full. Just a few riffs here and there.

[Al]

I've just about finished Sweet child o mine, although the two runs need a little work still

I'm practising slide on Rocket queen, but it's pretty tricky I'll get there eventually

[kurotoshiro]

Yeah, GnR songs are usually tricky - always lots of little fiddly twiddly bits to remember!

I used to try playing with a slide, but never got the hang of it (especially damping the strings you don't want to ring out).

I just listened to Still of the Night. Long time since I heard it. That is a hell of a riff! I might have a go if I can find some reliable tab online.

[Al]

This is a fun song and the opening riff although played on bass, is great fun to do on the guitar and it sounds ace

Lesson link.....www.justinguitar.com/en/ST-326-Hysteria.php

Tab.......tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/m/muse/hysteria_ver3_tab.htm

Beginners should take it slowly at first and gradually build up the speed.

[kurotoshiro]

Rifftastic!

Another Muse riff that's great fun to play is from New Born. The riff that kicks in at 1:25 here:



It's possibly a bit easier than Hysteria for a beginner to have a go at (although it does involve re-tuning to drop-D). The tab here seems pretty accurate at first glance:

tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/m/muse/new_born_tab.htm

Also quite a nice little Muse riff to have a go at is the intro to Plug in Baby:

tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/m/muse/plug_in_baby_tab.htm

[kurotoshiro]

Important information for beginners: if you own a guitar but don't yet know how to play the following, you're breaking the law. Probably.

E|-----------5--7--------7--8--------8--2--------2---0------------------
B|--------5--------5-----------5-----------3--------------1-----1---------
G|-----5--------------5-----------5-----------2--------------2------------
D|--7-----------6-----------5-----------4------------3------------------
A|---------------------------------------------------------------------
E|---------------------------------------------------------------------



E|--0-----------------
B|-----1-----0--1--1--
G|--------2--0--2--2--
D|--------------------
A|-----------2--0--0--
E|--------------------

[leftfield]

More people who play guitar I've been playing for maybe 7 or 8 years now on and off. You really wouldn't know because I can't "Play" anything. By that I mean, I didn't bother to learn any songs becuase I got really bored of playing along to the same 4 - 8 chords every song. I just play what sounds alright to me.

I really like to play rythem, sometimes some bluesy stuff with picking but never any lead. I guess what I do is close to folk music but not especially. I'm self taught and know absolutely nothing about theory. I can name most of the chords I use but that is about all I know. I guess if I went for a lesson the teacher would be mad that I'm playing in a weird way or something because I just do what's comfy or sounds good without following any sort of rule.

I really love to just jam on my electo accoustic. I do own an electric with a bunch of pedals but I don't like the sound of chords compared to using the accoustic.

Seems to me that almost every guitar player plays mostly lead and riff stuff and every time I saw someone play that way in person I said, I want to be able to do that. Then they ask why, and I play chord rythem and say, it's boring and repetitive and they go wow I wish I could play chords like that. haha well maybe it's just the people I know who can play and other guitarists can do both or prefer rythem,

[vagabanjo]

I always found when I play rythmn on guitar it got a bit boring, unless jamming or banging in some hammer ons or pull off's etc. With the 5 string banjo playing frailing style I find it far easier to do the rythm and lead at the same time (sort of), basically putting in hammer on's and pull off's etc. I must do a vid an post it, so you can hear what I mean, by the way, srd tuning on the 5 string banjo is an open G, G,D,G,B,D (God Damn Good But Daft).

[kurotoshiro]

vaga: yes, please, post us a vid - would leave to hear you playing some banjo! Do you have any recordings of you jamming with your guitar-playing mate?

leftfield: I don't know much about music theory either. I've either learnt stuff by working out songs by ear, or learning them from guitar tab. I can improvise guitar solos, but the majority of what I'm doing when I play a solo is joining together loads of little licks and runs I've learnt over the years from playing other guitarists' stuff. A little 5-note lick that Joe Satriani uses here, a Kirk Hammett style run up a scale there, and so on. It's just a case of trying to blend them into each other in an original way or modify them slightly and see what fits. And of course, the golden rule of soloing: when you hit the inevitable bum note, quickly slide or bend it to another note and hope it sounds like you meant it to go that way!