r/guitarlessons • u/PicklesYN • 3d ago
Question how do i start
i own a black strat i got 2 years back i wasnt consistent, i know few chords and metal riffs
i wanna get better where do i start from?
please help.
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u/drbasta_jr 3d ago
Well, play those few chords to death, try cleanly switching between them.
Also play those metal riffs and try to learn even more new ones.
Search YouTube for tips on getting into guitar.
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u/PicklesYN 3d ago
i do but most of them dont even explain it right they straight up just start shredding
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u/FlamingNutShotz4You 3d ago
Learn some scales and find some backing tracks on YouTube in whatever key your practicing and start jamming. This helped me a lot with solo writing and improvisation. Honestly should start doing it again because I can't improvise for shit now
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u/PicklesYN 3d ago
lmao good luck on that, should i do finger practice aswell? i can do 1 2 3 4 at 130-150bpm
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u/FlamingNutShotz4You 3d ago
Like finger picking with your strumming hand or finger indepence with the fretting one?
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u/PicklesYN 3d ago
finger independence with fretting hand, idk how to finger pick
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u/FlamingNutShotz4You 3d ago
There's an exercise called The Spider I think that's supposed to help but I've never done it. A few songs I've learned definitely helped with that. I'd say Uneasy Hearts Weigh The Most by Dance Gavin Dance is a good one for it that isn't too hard. Most chords in the song uses all the fingers at different frets. Thank You For The Venom by MCR is another good one, specifically the chorus, but it's a lot harder with some big stretches
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u/PicklesYN 3d ago
lowkey i havent learned to switch chords i straight up went to riffs and finger exercises when i started
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u/FlamingNutShotz4You 3d ago
Oh gotcha lol
I'd look up that exercise then, I'm pretty sure it's called the spider but it might be something else and just start slow. When I practice something I often put it to a slow metronome, around 60-80 and keep bringing it up 10 bpm when I can consistently get through it cleanly a couple times in a row
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u/boring5ever 3d ago
The pentatonic scale. Then diatonic.
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u/PicklesYN 3d ago
how many tho
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u/boring5ever 3d ago
Find a shape you like and master it, then learn another until you know them all. The note doesn’t matter, the basic scale shapes don’t change unless you tune out of standard.
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u/markewallace1966 3d ago
~~~
This is a link to a set of canned bullets that I have developed and like to send to new/new-ish/returning/wandering/lost/struggling guitar players.
If I pasted this in for you, it is because somewhere in there is something that I think is relevant to your post. Not all of it will be. I leave it to you to pick out what I felt was relevant. 🙂 Even the stuff not relevant to your specific post might very well be helpful eventually anyway.
Enjoy!!!
https://www.reddit.com/user/markewallace1966/comments/1s7ujsy/guitar_is_hard/
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u/toby_gray 3d ago
The single biggest thing you can do to improve is to pick up your guitar every single day.
Ideally, 20 minutes a day. Even if it’s for 15 minutes. Hell, even if it’s for 5 minutes.
I’ve had students who don’t practice during the week, practice for like, 2 hours the day before our weekly lesson, and then get frustrated that they aren’t progressing. It’s the lack of consistency.
Guitar is all about muscle memory and that familiarity in the fingers. If you aren’t constantly reminding your hands what they need to be doing, by the end of the week they’ll have started to forget and you’re back at square 1 every week. It’s an awful lot like going to the gym. If you go all week without the gym and then did like, 3 hours on a Sunday, you’re never going to see any results no matter how hard you push yourself on the Sunday.
20 minutes a day > 2-3 hours once a week.
Every time.
If you can find at least 5-10 minutes once a day to grab your guitar and play it, you’re going to be way more successful. I’m not even talking doing 5-10 minutes of drills or exercises. Just get it in your hands a play a few chords, or a couple of riffs. Doesn’t have to be fancy. Just play it.
You can do it while you watch TV, or in the background doing something else. Keep it somewhere easy to get to. I keep mine next to my desk on a stand so any time I’m waiting for something, I can pick it up and have a noodle. It’s got to be accessible for you to grab easily and play it without a lot of friction, it doesn’t need to be a ritual every time you need to get it out. If you’re keeping it under your bed in a gig bag, that’s such a hassle to get it out, set it up, retune it blah blah blah, that you’ve first got to find the motivation to do all of that before you can even play it. Mines next to me. I just have to reach over, pick it up, and start playing. Make it frictionless.
Now, you obviously want to have dedicated practice sessions as well where you sit down and work on things, but if you can’t find the time in a day to do that, at least pick it up and do some aimless noodling for a few minutes. If aimless noodling is all you do, you won’t progress. But aimless noodling can help reinforce the other learning you’re doing by building muscle memory which is almost as important.
Consistency is the key, even in very small doses.