Does anyone else play guitar?

Pressure

Pressure

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I've been shredding it up for a few years now, and have gotten much better since the last time I posted. I like to give everything I play a little bit of that "metal" edge, if you know what I mean. If you don't believe me, just give this a listen.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/166167533bd57ac9/

Now that song is "metal".

Anyway, this thread is about guitarists out there in HL2.net land! Let's share ideas and each other's works. I think it'll be a good exercise in creativity. We can give pointers, tips, share exercises, and give criticisms to better each other's playing!
 
Yes, I do play guitar, and its passion along with music in general xD
 
Urm, well if this topic is still alive come end of this month, Ill send a link to my bands new demo ;)
 
Well this isn't just for posting pics and sound clips; this is for all things guitar! Post exercises and tips too! We can learn from each other!
 
I play or have played: Guitar, Piano, Clarinet, Trombone, Trumpet annnd Bass Guitar. I tried Violin, Drums, and Flute but couldn't really do them very well. And I sing pretty badly too!

My gear is currently a full-size korg electronic piano, a 1970 fender telecaster, an ibanez acoustic, a 1956 trombone (forget the company) and some kind of selmer clarinet. I ended up selling my bass (which was also an ibanez) a few years ago because I didn't play it all that much. Really wish I hadn't.

I don't have any recordings at the moment, but I should do some.
 
YEAH EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEME!

playing for little over a year now and just successfully upgraded the pickups on my ibanez 7 string guitar and it's EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEME!!
 
Guitar and bass, but no recordings so far. I only just started up with a band.
 
I have a real cheap shitty guitar and a real cheap shitty amp and I want to teach myself how to play it. How do ye guitar gods recommend I go about doing that? (eg what should I focus on, etc)
 
Depends, are you just going to learn to play, or do you want to learn the theory (notes, scales, etc).

If it's the first thing, I'd just say learn tabs, play songs and start playing gradually harder songs.

If it's the second thing, I'd say do that for a while (tabs), then after you've got a bit of skill (and calluses), go here and learn the basics.

First memorize the chromatic scale:

C - C#/Db - D - D#/Eb - E - F - F#/G - G#/Ab - A - A#/Bb - B - repeat.

Notice there are no sharps or flats in between B and C, E and F. So if you have say E#, it's another name for F. likewise for Fb being another name for E.

Use this to memorize all the notes on the fretboard first, then it'll make theory alot easier. (So the smallest string is high E, pick it open it'd be E, first fret would be F, second fret would be F#, etc)
 
The easiest thing you can do is to get guitar lessons, thats how got to grips with the basics.
 
To Ennui First, learn all of the Basic chords first, don't start with tabs. Why do I say that? Because chords teach you the correct fingering positions on the first three or four frets of your guitar, and when you actually start playing simple tabbed songs, you get the gist on which finger to press that note. Fingering is extremely important as far as I see it. I'd recommend you learning the basic scales as well and which finger to use when pressing them. Once you learn basic chords, you can move on to plucking. From there, you can move on to playing barred chords. And from there, other stuff like double plucking, power chords, playing solo's etc.

Here is a good site to note the fingering on chords: http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com/basic-guitar-chords/basic-guitar-chords.html


Since we are on this topic here, I have a question:

Is it possible in anyway, to plug my Amp through some cable or another directly into the line-in of my sound-card, and actually record my guitar playing onto my computer? Is there a wire that actually allows you to do that?
 
soulslicer said:
To Ennui First, learn all of the Basic chords first, don't start with tabs. Why do I say that? Because chords teach you the correct fingering positions on the first three or four frets of your guitar, and when you actually start playing simple tabbed songs, you get the gist on which finger to press that note. Fingering is extremely important as far as I see it. I'd recommend you learning the basic scales as well and which finger to use when pressing them. Once you learn basic chords, you can move on to plucking. From there, you can move on to playing barred chords. And from there, other stuff like double plucking, power chords, playing solo's etc.

Here is a good site to note the fingering on chords: http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com/basic-guitar-chords/basic-guitar-chords.html


Since we are on this topic here, I have a question:

Is it possible in anyway, to plug my Amp through some cable or another directly into the line-in of my sound-card, and actually record my guitar playing onto my computer? Is there a wire that actually allows you to do that?
Click to expand...
Agreed! I never really progressed when I started out until I played chords. They just help with doing everything.
 
some multi-effects pedals (like my digitech rp250) lets you plug into your computer and record directly
 
I'm a fellow player too. I've just been learning playing techniques and working on my speed for the last year and a half, and now that I'm getting quite good at the fingerwork, I've started getting really myself really deep in the theory. It's been fun learning how to easily improvise solos with scales and such, and every player should have good knowledge of musical theory sooner or later; you can't live without it.
 
Slime said:
I'm a fellow player too. I've just been learning playing techniques and working on my speed for the last year and a half, and now that I'm getting quite good at the fingerwork, I've started getting really myself really deep in the theory. It's been fun learning how to easily improvise solos with scales and such, and every player should have good knowledge of musical theory sooner or later; you can't live without it.
Click to expand...

You can be an exceptional player of the guitar without knowing much theory.
 
soulslicer said:
So is anyone going to answer my question?

Please do
Click to expand...
Depends if your amp has a phone/line input or not. If so, just get yourself a standard line-in/out cable and attach a 1/4" jack adapter onto the end(http://www.welovemacs.com/jamplug.html for an example), hook it into your amp and then run the lead into your PC's soundcard. It's a set-up that I use and is fairly decent for basic recording, although you may have to tweak your soundcard and recording software preferences to get the levels right and to reduce clipping.
 
Shift said:
You can be an exceptional player of the guitar without knowing much theory.
Click to expand...

And it can be the other way around. I've been playing the guitar for about two years. I also play the flute, piano, clarinet to grade seven level and dabble in the drums. I know shit loads of theory, but I find the guitar the most difficult one to play.

I find it so hard to read tabs after reading actual sheet music. Maybe I'm just not cut out to play a cool instrument.
 
Blinxx said:
And it can be the other way around. I've been playing the guitar for about two years. I also play the flute, piano, clarinet to grade seven level and dabble in the drums. I know shit loads of theory, but I find the guitar the most difficult one to play.

I find it so hard to read tabs after reading actual sheet music. Maybe I'm just not cut out to play a cool instrument.
Click to expand...

And the piano isnt cool? My bands singer/guitarist is also classically trained with the piano and its one of the most powerful instruments at our disposal. But, you just gotta stick at it, keep working your ass off day by day to get good with the guitar, I had a bit of a boost because I had guitar lessons for many years, over that time I was perfecting my fingering and technique, so when I really started to get into it, my ability to stampeded over the course of a few months. Still got a lot to learn though.
 
Shift said:
And the piano isnt cool? My bands singer/guitarist is also classically trained with the piano and its one of the most powerful instruments at our disposal. But, you just gotta stick at it, keep working your ass off day by day to get good with the guitar, I had a bit of a boost because I had guitar lessons for many years, over that time I was perfecting my fingering and technique, so when I really started to get into it, my ability to stampeded over the course of a few months. Still got a lot to learn though.
Click to expand...

Ah, the piano is sort of cool and definitely cooler than the flute or the clarinet, you'd look weird rocking out with one of those! I've played the piano a few times for my brother's band if they want to do Muse covers etc. The lack of practicing with my guitar is my problem I think. I practiced so much with it to begin with, however, I just didn't seem to be getting anywhere. I go back to it now and again, but I just haven't been able to pick it up. I'm too impatient with it, if I play pants then I play pants and throw it to one side. I might buy myself an acoustic, see if I get along any better with it as I currently have one mean Jackson. I've always preferred the sound of acoustics to electrics.

I might also go for lessons, they might help. I desperately want to play well! I self-taught myself the piano and ended up picking up a lot of bad habits which I had to correct when I went for lessons. Perhaps self-teaching myself the guitar isn't the way to go.

Do you have anything recorded that you've played? I'd love to have a listen if you have.
 
Blinxx said:
Ah, the piano is sort of cool and definitely cooler than the flute or the clarinet, you'd look weird rocking out with one of those! I've played the piano a few times for my brother's band if they want to do Muse covers etc. The lack of practicing with my guitar is my problem I think. I practiced so much with it to begin with, however, I just didn't seem to be getting anywhere. I go back to it now and again, but I just haven't been able to pick it up. I'm too impatient with it, if I play pants then I play pants and throw it to one side. I might buy myself an acoustic, see if I get along any better with it as I currently have one mean Jackson. I've always preferred the sound of acoustics to electrics.

I might also go for lessons, they might help. I desperately want to play well! I self-taught myself the piano and ended up picking up a lot of bad habits which I had to correct when I went for lessons. Perhaps self-teaching myself the guitar isn't the way to go.

Do you have anything recorded that you've played? I'd love to have a listen if you have.
Click to expand...

Well as I said earlier, not releasing any of my work until my bands next demo is finished, hopefully by end this month xD

And yes, I love the electric but the acoustic is an exceptionally, beautiful instrument too, since all my electrics are stacked up at my practice place all I played is the acoustic at home, develop most of my ideas of it. And if Im honest, lack of patience with the guitar will be your downfall, you have to really want to play, for hours a day, constantly practising things that you find hard, if you want any chance of getting good. It helps to try and learn songs that you love.
 
I'd call piano much cooler than guitar, tbh

Still would rather play guitar though
 
Musically, piano is superior to all other instruments. But bass and guitar are cooler, only because I play both.
 
Piano is definately cooler then the guitar, because of how it extends into the world of synthesizers and you can just get that much more sounds out of it once you go into the world of synthesizers.
 
Hazar said:
some multi-effects pedals (like my digitech rp250) lets you plug into your computer and record directly
Click to expand...

OH YOU SON OF A BITCH!

I was going out to buy a multi-effects pedal and was looking for that exact one, I only found a RP200a, it doesn't connect to the PC. I HATE YOU!
 
lawl, you should have read the specs more closely then :p

with the rp250 it connects via usb and you can modify and tweak all the effects (and download ones other people have made) much more than you can without the computer.
 
You don't need USB to 'connect to a pc' for recording. Damn audio nubs. Use the line in port on your sound card.

The stuff Hazar mentioned about editing controls via the PC is different though of course.
 
you'd have to have the right cable to go directly from a guitar to the soundcard line in port
 
Huh? I thought we were talking about guitar effect units. They almost always have line outs. (Perhaps labeled as a headphone jack)
 
But that's probably easier and less expensive than looking for a pedal with a USB line out :p

[edit] Line outs on pedals and such are usually the 1/4" audio jacks, no?
 
I'm confused at who you are talking to and what 'that' is referring to. And what "USB line out" means.
 
Hazar said:
lawl, you should have read the specs more closely then :p

with the rp250 it connects via usb and you can modify and tweak all the effects (and download ones other people have made) much more than you can without the computer.
Click to expand...

I knew the 200 didn't connect to the PC and the 250 did, but they didn't have 250's, only 1 used 200 (still in box new, but I got it for cheaper used)..

It's just the fact that I was looking at 250's and thought 'that'd be perfect for me', and then I find out you have one, it makes me hate you.
 
HOLD ON.

There is a standard headphone jack which I use often for headphones in my multi-effect pedal right now. I also have a 2 sided headphone jack cord.

Are you telling me I could: Guitar->Pedal->PC->RECORD

If I can indeed do that, I'm gonna be pissed I couldn't do that sooner.


EDIT: **** double post my bad.
 
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