Hello All, Trying to find my way!

I'm a recent learner and have been on the guitar for about a year now. Never been in a band or really played with anyone. I was an old chord banger and knew a few hacked rock songs. Bought this little Yamaha JR-1 in a street market in Tijuana and went home and looked online, How to play guitar! Well here I am!
I've got the major and minor and minor and major pentatonic scales and up to some arppaggios and I'm looking for something more than just playing scales, In fact, I'm sick of them! but I play them every day, it's all I have to do that and drink and puff a little, I play along with the music I listen to. I can find the key but can't really discover chords in songs, could use some help here. So I've found you and your tools, I need to learn how to use them so I can contribute. I'm sending a little money to Bernie Sanders, so I can add some for you guys, just help me learn to use your system....Thanks, I'm an old guy, I like Bobby Caldwell's music as well as Boz Scaggs and a whole slew of Latin performers Enrique, Romeo Santos, love Bachata! Julio, especially Ricardo Montanire! Looking forward to interacting with you! Gary

Hello Gary, nice to have you with us. Welcome onboard and have a lot of fun :)

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Hi Gary and welcome to the loops no pressures here just play and enjoy

Here is one tip for you. Instead of practicing scales with little musical content(or even worse, technical exercises with no musical content at all like the infamous spider), try to make execises that are based on music you like or want to learn. Any song can be turned into a challenging exercise, and most songs have passages that can be used as technical development.

Here are some steps for you to begin with:
1) Download the trial version of [url=http://www.guitar-pro.com/en/index.php?pg=download] Guitar pro[/url]
. It's free and you do not need the full version in the beginning.


2)Here is the way to use it: Open any song you want to learn. Enable the metronome and
have it on all the time. Listen to the song as its whole a number of times with eyes closed and focusing on both the song AND tapping your foot in sync with the metronome.

3)Just like when eating an elephant, take small bites.. IN Gp you can select any number of notes or measures (bars) and loop them over and over again. And here is the really good part. GP has a function called a "speed trainer (F9)" which loops the selection with an increasing tempo. You can set the start tempo, the final tempo and the amount of increase. One thing that is very important is to start really slow (and i mean ridiculously slow and even slower than that). AND to tap your foot in sync with the metronome. That way you practice both your timing (which is one of the most important and most overlooked aspects of musicianship) And equally important, you avoid learning your own mistakes and repeating them over and over.

4)Once you have learned a song you can start practicing different aspects of it. prctice with your eyes closed and try to make mental renderings of the following aspects

a) The tonal aspects, try to hear the melody and/or the chords in your head while (or even slightly ahead) you are playing

b) The temporal aspects, have your foot tapping in sync with the metronome and first try to feel the strong and weak beats, all while plying of course. Then try to render how the notes are positioned relative to the beats. How does the impression of the piece change when you hold the notes longer or shorter than intended. How much can you shift a note in time without it sounding awkward?

c) The motoric aspects, Try to imagine your fingers move and fret and hit the strings with your eyes closed. This is especially useful when speeding up things.

d) If you are interested in theory you can imagine the functions and relations of the notes and chord while playing.

I hope this helps, if you want more specific help pm me

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Edited by nilton on September 16 2015 18:36

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Welcome to wikiloops! Have fun!

Hi Gary and a welcome to the loops from me too :)

Welcome!!!

Welcome to the loops, Gary!
I hope you'll find your ways about wikiloops - once you have some idea what is out there on wikiloops, and what suits you best or inspires you the most, and finally how to find that easily on the loops, you made it :)
There is a lot of quite enjoyable footage on how to browse the loops in the help section, too, I believe that will make dipping in easy for you.
Go for the fun, the feel-good-factor and the groove here, that's the best cure against too much dry practise IMO.