The RPM Challenge - Caffeine Major

Caffeine Major

Monday, 21 April 2008

My fingertips are happily shredded, but I am playing through the pain and am becoming completely obsessed with being competent enough to play on next year's cd. :-)

Sadly, baby Jasmine has all but given up on sleeping EVER, so I'm not even going to attempt recording anything as I can hardly speak for exhaustion (poor me, I know), but I am playing and loving your songs (and my husband thinks I sound "cute" - it must be the wonderful way in which I miss all the really high and low notes and gravel my way through the rest...or, 'crazy pave' my way, that's probably more accurate).

Thanks to everyone for their chords - I'm starting to feel really good about my playing (hence new smug "Oh yeah, I can play guitar" profile pic)! I'm finding C a bit of a bitch though...Who would've thought it? It always seemed like such a happy little chord. Silent Night begins in C...

Slent night...now that would be bliss.

T e s s <----- Is my name Tess? I can't recall...

Comments (21)

1 I understand fully....
Written by IronAngel Forge, on 04-21-2008 03:32
I've plunked around on guitar for over 20 years, still can't hit a proper C about half the time. I cheat and use other shapes than the "normal" C chord most players use. Use what works for you and keep on after it!

One trick is to just sit in front of the TV mindlessly fingering those chords over and over, without actually playing anything. After a short while, the muscles will remember where to go, and you will not have trained yourself to look at the fretboard, which is a major mistake I made so many years ago and still can not seem to correct. Ah, age and wisdom.

And playing guitar may be just the thing to relax the lil one to sleep. If not, it will be a happy memory in 40 years for Jasmine.

To this day, one of my first memories is of my Grandfather sitting on the front lawn playing his acoustic outside the window as I fell asleep back in about 1970, on a warm spring night. My Mother and Grandmother singing along. It's a lot of why I picked the instrument up.

2 I fell asleep back in about 1970
Written by Sister Savage, on 04-21-2008 03:41
Ah, that's really nice. :-)

3 RPM U
Written by Floppy Jalopy, on 04-21-2008 08:51
I have been following this saga, and it makes me smile. You are learning the guitar in the best way. From a supportive network of people , suggesting, encouraging, and offering their tunes as well as advice.

If I could have spoken to all those whose songs I covered while learning, ...plus you will have a killer repertoire when you are done. No Open Mics singing Brown-Eyed Girl for you, no way!

One thing that I used while learning to play, I mocked up the first 5 frets on a note card, that I carried around on my pocket. and pulled it out when I had a spare minute or two, on the bus, in class, etc and practiced the fingerings that way. It's all about teaching your fingers to go where they don't want to.

Good Luck Tess.

4 Excuse the pun!
Written by Sister Savage, on 04-21-2008 09:04
That's really handy advice! Thanks Floppy.

And yes, my songbook is getting very cool! I even thought of just doing 08 covers for next year's cd... Would have to get permission from 10 people though. :-)

Tess

5 guitar theory 101...etc
Written by Zumatar and Galaxy Angel, on 04-21-2008 10:38
OK here's probably more than 2 cents...but you may dig it....don't worry about the traditional method...unless you want to be mel bay...seriously... playing guitar for 15+ years has taught me to express myself how my hands want me to, which I believe gives depth; listen to my first rpm album (made only with a guitar) and then realize I don't even know the 'traditional' chords....if you are having fun and playing with your own rhythm, the music sounds real and not forced....IMO having fun and expressing your self is the key....and maybe really light strings...

6 Written by Gumbo Stu, on 04-21-2008 11:08
Another interesting thing is that you can use a capo to barre off the strings at a certain fret (say fret three) thus 'tuning' the guitar up three steps. Each step is a semitone. So playing an 'A' shape with the third fret barred gives you three steps higher (A>Bb>B>C) woopee! the C chord !! - all the other chord shapes move up as well. so the G becomes Bb, and the D becomes an F.

Wow. Now we're playing in the key of C!!

7 Written by Gumbo Stu, on 04-21-2008 11:12
NO!! WAIT!!

that's the key of F - F & Bb & C

the E shape at the third fret gives you the G chord for the key of C - C, F and G

*blushes*

8 Chords
Written by Joshua Wentz, on 04-21-2008 11:51
I'll admit that I know next to nothing about playing the guitar... and I often see-saw about whether I want to actually "learn" the chords or not. On one hand, having more knowledge of the instrument gives you more options in terms of how to play it... on the other hand... there's something very interesting about picking up an instrument with absolutely no idea what you're doing.

Being a piano player for 25 years... I find it nearly impossible to make my left hand work on the neck of a guitar. That's my main challenge right now.

9 Joshua Wentz
Written by Sister Savage, on 04-21-2008 12:14
Which reminds me, I, for one, want to hear more of your vocals!

10 Gumbo Stu
Written by Sister Savage, on 04-21-2008 12:16
:-D Every time you talk about guitaring, I get scared! Hope you're not too disgusted by my up-and-coming cover of one of your songs...

11 Sore finger fun
Written by Michelangelo, on 04-21-2008 12:32
Try this easy one, Tess.

Am, Dm, Em - in that progression

Easy to learn, easy to move and since you're in a minor key you can pretty much go anywhere to anywhere and not mess the progression up at all.

At some point witch to Emaj for a brighter low and Dmaj after an Em.

Try it. You'll like it.

12 Michelangelo
Written by Sister Savage, on 04-21-2008 12:44
Thanks, Mick! Man, I *love* this community!

13 Hey, nice, Zumatar!
Written by Michelangelo, on 04-21-2008 13:24
Yes, light strings to start with. THat's REALLY good advice for a beginner.

And it will give you a chance to learn to wrap those strings since you won't have your own guitar technician as part of your road show for a few years more.

14 Written by Tangmo, on 04-21-2008 14:16
G Cmaj7 Fmaj7 Dm7 AMaj7 I play that progression every time I pick up a guitar, and it has become how I can quickly check tuning.

Getting a big "big Book' of guitar chords is also helpful, and comforting to know that some 'odd' chords are actually easy to make.

B major is the killer for me...just can't handle that double-bar thing. So I never write a song for guitar that has a B major.

Odd you're having trouble with C. It's probably that your fingertips aren't getting 'vertical' enough on the fretboard. Try keeping your thumb behind the neck and not wrapping it around. If it's a 'stretch' issue, then your fingers may be built for a 3/4 scale guitar.

15 Tangmo
Written by Sister Savage, on 04-21-2008 14:43
It's more of a missing the right fret issue - I have kind of long fingers, which is good, but when I try to find C without looking at the fretboard I miss it wildly. :-/

16 Missing chords
Written by Volksmetall, on 04-21-2008 16:54
I went through the completely missing C thing - my top tip is not to worry. Just make the moves around a sequence of chords and make them fast. The watching where you put your fingers is a passion killer - I learnt to just to try and place my fingers atright away everytime - OK I got it wrong 99.9% of the time, then 99.8% etc but the important thing was to not spend time trying to place the fingers - just try again.

I'm now on about 68.4%

17 Gitahzzzz...I luhv gitahzzzz
Written by Gary Fox, on 04-22-2008 16:53
I started at age 17. I bought a book of songs by the Who with simple chord voicings (complete) with their shapes above the words. I spent the whole summer of '87 strumming along (very slowly) to those words. I also started on electric (with no amp, I had no money), not acoustic, which was easier to start with. That helped to learn the basic shapes.

Recently I bought a book of 1 bazillion guitar chords. I sit with it every so often and goof around on a shape or two, just to see what they sound like. It's fun, and gives me new perspective on this most expressive instrument.

Have fun Tess, typically you will have long periods of what seems like no progression, then all of a sudden you will have breakthroughs. In reality you are improving every time you pick up the instrument.

Cheers,

Gary

18 I almost forgot...
Written by IronAngel Forge, on 04-23-2008 05:33
DON'T PLAY GUITAR HERO!

This is the fastest way to UNLEARN how to play guitar I have ever seen. Really! I went from pretty awful, to sucktastic after just a few minutes of guitar hero.

19 BEWARE BIG CHORD BOOKS!
Written by Colin Garvey, on 04-23-2008 21:07
Yes, they can be a great way to learn (I still use them sometimes after 20 years of playing) but they are often WRONG. Really, stupidly, incomprehensibly wrong. Also, they sometimes put stuff in the wrong key, or they give you a really daft complicated way of playing things; or they put songs in there that are phenomenally hard. I'm not saying don't use them, but just be a little careful.

Gumbo Stu's right about getting a capo, by the way. They're great little things. I use mine all the time.

20 LOL
Written by Gary Fox, on 04-24-2008 13:31
I can't read music very well, so everything I do is wrong Colin! Besides, isn't the best music usually the result of a mistake while trying to play it 'proper'?

LOL

21 Written by Sister Savage, on 04-24-2008 14:58
:-) Something tells me I should start a 'Learning to play the guitar' thread on the discussion board!

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