u/Classic_Grass924

This wasn’t a performance per se. My friend hosted a party and she told me to play some popular songs that everyone can sing to, and I played some common hits on my acoustic.

But eventually I was being asked for some songs I don’t know and I just played some random combination of the standard I V IV vi chords in different keys and everyone was telling me how I’m so good at the guitar.

Was pretty interesting. I messed up so many times and nobody noticed at all, in fact they thought I was cooking. Crazy

I am relatively new, but my goal is to create my own music, and also gig now and then when I get to a level of skill and confidence playing some songs.

I guess the question is, is there any major difference in the sounds that an amp picks up (eg. with an electric guitar, all the times you mistakenly touch a string you shouldn't, the amp picks it up). Will there be a major difference in how I sound, and also in how I would play to sound better?

tldr: is it something one has to get used to? Or is it something I could just do for the first time at a rehearsal and be fine?

Also, any budget friendly recommendations?

I’m quite new, like only about 2yrs self taught and a little above the “cowboy chord” guitarist level. I recently was trying to learn a song with really quick C -> G transitions and my hands didn’t go fast enough for that with the “normal” fingering of G chords. (330003 with ring finger on e strings)

I saw the alternate fingering with the pinky on the e string, but I said to myself, “my pinky is useless, no chance that works”, and I spent about an hour working on that transition but couldn’t find the speed.

Then I spent like 15min just working on playing the G chord with the alternate fingering and it was already starting to feel comfy, and within like 30min I could make the transition at the speed I needed so easily…

Idk about y’all but I feel like I spend a lot more time thinking about how long it will take to learn some techniques than I actually spend trying to learn those techniques lol

Basically I’ll just shuffle all my music, and then I’ll pick up my guitar and try to figure out the chords by ear. As we all know basically every modern song is a mix of I V IV and vi. I do this for maybe 20-30min.

So usually I figure out a note -> chord for that phrase -> chord progression from there. The purpose of this, however, is to work on ear training and also my intervals. Because I know off the top of my head what I V IV and vi chords are in C, D, A and G, and then in other keys it takes some thinking so I spend more time figuring that out.

I do end up (at least as of now) getting most songs after about 1-2min of trial and error and then try to play the rest of the song through. But since my barre chord switching is weak I’m also trying to practice that through this (although this makes it *much* harder and take a lot longer because I don’t have the fretboard fully memorised yet).

I haven’t graduated to more complex chord progressions yet, but I wonder if this is actually useful? Do you have any more interesting ear training exercises? Or exercises to practice my intervals with other keys? (I know C,D A & G because I can easily play the 4 chords in those progressions, but if you threw like a F key at me, I’d have to actually count what IV V and vi chords are)

I’ve been trying to write a lot of acoustic guitar music, and mainly sad folk. Hugely inspired by Noah Kahan, but also Mumford and Sons, Caamp, etc.

I recently wrote a song about how I think I am being perceived by my friends and other people. I feel like I’ve just stolen that idea from Noah Kahan’s New Perspective and Dashboard.

But also that song has a melody that ended up being quite similar to See The World by Caamp (and I hadn’t heard that song until AFTER I wrote mine)

But it feels like I’m just copying a bunch of artists and throwing something together. And it always comes out kinda cringe. Maybe because I’m new to it. Is it just me? Do yall feel this way?

I am relatively beginner. I can play open and barre chords comfortably, but transitions with barre chords need some work. Anyway I’m trying to do 3 things at the moment, kinda simultaneously:

1. Improve chord transitions while keeping time during strumming (using a metronome)
2. Learning fingerstyle (it’s been ~1 months since I started this)
3. Learning to play with a pick (been ~2 weeks, and I wanna be able to strum and also pick notes for example in solos)

The concern is, I’ll find myself spending maybe 2-3 days focused on playing with a pick, and then I feel like I’ve gone backwards with fingerstyle, or I focus more on my timing and strumming techniques and speed and then I feel I’ve gone backwards with the pick. It feels like I can’t do all 3 things together effectively.

Should I temporarily stop working on one of these things and focus on fewer things simultaneously?

CONTEXT ABOUT MY PRACTICE HABITS
I play about 30min a day on average (and I wanna spend some time playing songs I know because I find that more fun than drills),

and if it’s relevant, I know my music theory. That’s not a concern for me, I played the keyboard for 10 years and learned most important theory-related things through that.

How do you guys feel about learning / teaching online? I used to have a teacher for the keyboard and he was a really great teacher. He also taught my sister the guitar and she loves him too, great guy. But this was all in-person.

Now, I’m about 2yrs into self learning the guitar, basically cowboy chord guitarist right now. I’m trying to go to the next level (maybe finger picking / some riffs licks and solos / etc.). I’m thinking of contacting the same teacher again, but since I live in a different country now it’d have to be online.

Have you had good experiences learning online through zoom or such? You think the teacher will be able to pick up on the subtleties and small mistakes I may make?

I’m trying to write some music and I always end up defaulting to some combination of (I IV V vi and iii)

But I want to expand to more interested progressions. I have noticed that there are songs that don’t necessarily use chords that fully belong to a scale (eg. using A major in a G major scale song).

The question is - how do I know when I can stray away from the chords that belong to (for example) a major scale (so chords that are not I ii iii IV V vi vii*)?

Just to clarify - im not really asking about “garnishing” my music with maj7s and 7s and sus chords etc. etc. Because I do have an understanding of where and how to use those, but this is more about if there is any rule / framework that says, “D major sounds good in a C major scale but F# minor wouldn’t”

Example - I’ve seen GAGC be used as a chord progression but then can I just play GBGC? How do I know if I can or can’t?

Edit: realized GFGC is all in C major scale lmao so changed to GBGC in the end

I’m a beginner, been playing less than 2yrs. My first acoustic guitar sucked. The action was insanely high and holding any barre chord other than an E-shape was impossible. My new guitar has been setup well, which means I can play all types of barre chords effortlessly now, and it’s been an absolute revelation in someways.

BUT… because I’m so used to pushing down on strings super hard with my old high-action guitar, I’m doing the same here and there’s a lot of unnecessary twanging and my hammer-ons have a clear “knock” sound to them when I hit the string and fret. I’m also not particularly good at playing notes / riffs / solos right now, I’m very much at “campfire guitarist” level, and trying to expand my skills.

Any recommendations for practicing to play the strings lightly and generally making my grip lighter on the guitar? Because I usually start that and then I realise like 5min in that oh shit I’ve been holding too tightly