Your standard guitar has six strings, I've never heard of the number of strings differing really, except in twelve-strings, but those aren't really used for metal, and not many bands use them now. |
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I am changing schools here in a couple of days from my regular shitty 7-8 hour a day public school to a 4 hour self-paced charter highschool. Since it's only four hours and because all my friends will still be at the other school, I'm going to have A LOT more time on my hands. |
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Surrender your flesh. We demand it.
Your standard guitar has six strings, I've never heard of the number of strings differing really, except in twelve-strings, but those aren't really used for metal, and not many bands use them now. |
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I recommend getting a teacher. It's perfectly feasible to teach yourself how to play from books, videos, etc, but there's no sense in self-handicapping. I taught myself from books and the internet and such, but in retrospect it's clear to me that if I had just gotten a teacher I would have progressed a lot quicker, not to mention I wouldn't have had to undo all the bad technique habits I taught myself. |
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Thanks, both of you. That really helps me out. Hopefully, if playing electric guitar is anything like the keyboarding class I was forced to take, all it's going to take is hours and hours of tedious practice to get it down. Only this time, I'm willing and I'm actually going to have something cool to show for it. |
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Surrender your flesh. We demand it.
A teacher would be the best way to learn. It's possible to teach yourself (I did) but a teacher would be much faster |
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Not really, no. Strings do differ in quality but they don't really have that profound of an effect on the tone, especially if you're using distortion. Unless you're talking about two strings that are of a different type, such as flatwounds (don't worry about that yet, though). The freshness of the strings is a bigger factor. As for the tuning, it's not so much about the tone as it is the different things you can do with different tunings, although lowered tunings will have a heavier sound as they are bassier. You will probably be doing most of your stuff in standard tuning and "Drop D" tuning. |
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Alrighty then. I think I've got enough information to start out. I guess I'll get my equipment, start playing, and pick things up down the line. Man, I gotta make some guitarist friends who haven't quit since they started playing in Middle school XD |
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Surrender your flesh. We demand it.
http://www.americanmusical.com/Produ...rge/p46770.jpg |
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First thing you should do it learn exactly where all of the strings and frets are. You should be able to pluck an individual string without looking at it. Then work the frets so that you know where they are. |
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The pack that Bayside posted looks like a good deal. I also used to own an ELP Special II and agree that for the price tag they are great. |
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Lucky for you.... The only place around here that gives lessons is a MusicStop, there's a few people who privately run lessons upstairs for 90 bucks an hour.... |
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I'm most likely going to learn from both a teacher and the internet. Due to the nature of this new school I'm attending, I may be able to learn guitar at one of the ACC campuses (I live in Austin TX) for free. Until then, I'm going with self-teaching. |
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Surrender your flesh. We demand it.
I started playing about two years ago I think it was. I would've been about 15 at the time I think. |
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It's funny... how many people here actually started on an electric guitar? |
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Starry starry night, paint your pallet blue and gray,
Look out on a summers day,
with eyes that know the darkness of my soul.
Yeah Bayside, I totally get where you're coming from. At my new school I'm going to have SO much more free time. Since I've got nothing else to do in that time, why not practice? |
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Surrender your flesh. We demand it.
Yeah, acoustics are definitely great to have. I still play my acoustic all the time, it's not that great of a guitar, but the tones good enough, and it's easy to just pick up and strum out a tune. Easier than learning a full out picking song anyway, because a lot of acoustic songs just go through the same chord progressions over and over again. Plus, there's a certain beauty to an acoustic thats not quite there with electric, if you know what I mean. On the other hand though, it's easier to play electric because you can use distortion and whatnot, and hammer-ons and pull-offs are much easier pronounced, so you can do stuff like tapping a lot easier.... They both have their advantages and disadvantages, but electric is definitely more fun, for me anyway. So yeah, if you can get an electric and an acoustic, that'd be pretty cool too. |
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for a really really cheap starter electric, id suggest starcaster. its a rip from strats, basically a cheap beginner version, but it gets the job done |
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Well I finally got my electric today. Traded in the piano for 300 dollars which just happened to be the exact price of the guitar I bought. I got a pack, so everything came with it including an automatic tuner. And now I start my long, long journey. I toyed with it a bit today, but I'm going to start some actual practice on Monday when I'm free from my mother's ears. |
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Surrender your flesh. We demand it.
i would advise you to learn the fret board, get a feel for the instrument, learn a few chords, maybe a scale. the penatonic is a nice and easy scale to learn and can be used tastefully in almost any situation. (almost is the key word there.) |
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e-x--p---a----n-----d------> yourself.
all QFT, read and reread that |
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Wow, Phobia, that guitarbacktrack website is so golden. I know how to solo but now I can practice my scales so much more efficiently! |
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Starry starry night, paint your pallet blue and gray,
Look out on a summers day,
with eyes that know the darkness of my soul.
Another good site for learning the guitar is threechordguitar.com. I think. It's something like that, it shows you simple songs. I'm pretty sure that he does both electric and acoustic, but it doesn't matter. The chords are the same one both. |
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'nother couple of good sites for guitar: |
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