Self Taught
 

So i've been teaching myself guitar for awhile now but havn't had real time to commit...until now. Im looking for guys to learn that aren't too difficult. I bought a Paul Simon book but my piano teacher said their would be alot of subtelties that I would miss, so I picked up Tom Petty, and its alright, but its not that fun.

Questions:

1. Who's someone that isn't very difficult (im looking at chords only right now)

2. Are there websites for this stuff?

I learnt to play guitar using Beatles tab and simple blues...worked for me :)

I'm not getting lessons and I've only been playing for like a year...

I learned from....


Mxtabs.net
Ultimate-Guitar.com
and playing with my friends 24/7

just random songs I like.



I'm getting much better and I'm starting lessons soon.

Check out those sites.

hmmm....

http://www.historylink.org/db_images/kc1.jpg

Who else would be a better choice?

Yeah thats how i did it too.

Just practise with freinds and see a riff... learn it! :)

Fair enough, and just to be safe, if I had asked this question in 1985, what would some responces have been.

I don't dislike Kurt, I dig that acoustic CD (I only have a functional acoustic guitar) but I don't wanna know just nirvana songs.

Well of course not...

http://www.bobgruen.com/files/johnle...LENNON-MSG.jpg
http://www.bobgruen.com/files/bobdyl...ORT'65.gif

Both amazing songwriters, but ridiculously simple guitarists...stuff like punk rock is a good start for beginers...i would also recomend the work of Link Wray, Bo Diddley, Dave Davies, Lou Reed, Malcolm Young, Marc Bolan, Peter Buck and Johnny Ramone...all great but simple guitarists...Pete Townshend and Kieth Richards are also known for their simple but brillant rhythm work.

i taught myself by messing around on my dads acoustic which I restrung for a left hander (im a southpaw) i had to cut a bigger notch in the (formerly) high e string notch to fit in the low e string and it sounds really bad.

i just played blues for ages because it was simple easy and fun and then i got a chord book and started to experiment with other chords.

because i jsut messed around on it, i learned badly and I rarely use my little finger which I regret

Well I know enough to use proper form, only because my piano teacher has drilled it into my skull. I just can't afford two sets of lessons when one is 68 a month.

Mmm me too. I'm familiar with that whole scenario.

So insted you just want to teach yourself while listening to certain guitarists?, if so then please try my recomendations. :)

Well i most certainly would like to learn tom waits, but im unaware of his overall difficulty

A lot of his music is hard to learn on the guitar because its transposed from piano, and can be quite complicate on a six string. I learned a bunch load of his stuff and I will honestly say that his guitar tunes are much easier than his guitar tunes. Invitation to the Blues - which is one of my favorite tunes to play, took a very long time to learn, but it was quite rewarding when I did.

I assume you meant guitar tunes and much easier than his piano tunes. He always seemed like a better pianist than guitarist, but then again, he did most of his Jazz on piano.

And yes Invitation is a killer track from a CD that doens't have too many (imo), and the only competition on that as I can recall is The one that got away.

I am trying to learn "Chocolate Jesus" right now, that seems simple enough...no?

interesting typo. =)

Always a critic

:yikes: You scare me sometimes.

Ha, why's that? Small change isn't a favorite of mine, thats all.

Im not critisizing, i make typo's all the time, my grammar is nothing great...But some typos just end up being funny, i remember one kid mispelling Marty Friedman and typed "mary friedman"...classic. :)

If you acknowledge the greatness of Waltzing Matilda and The Piano Has Been Drinking I just may get over it.

The Piano has been drinking is amazing, Waltzing Matilda is good but since he didn't write the refrain im skeptical to say "this is great song on the CD" becuase its not entirely his, where as the other three are.

I also forgot to include Panties and a G String. Im partial to that song because its just drums and his wahcked out vocals doing beat poetry, the way it was meant to be done, honest and what every other guy in the room is thinking.

Small Change is great, i agree Big3, The Piano Has Been Drinking is an amazing song - probably my favourite Tom Waits song

i also love Blue Valentine and that has a lot of strings playing long chords in it so that might be easier to transpose.

the song on Blue Valentine about the guy in prison whos name i forget is great as well

I think you mean Chirstmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis. In which case, its a shes thats in prison, and that might be one of the finer depressive songs ever written. I do think BV is one of his top three albums. That song cobined with Whistlin past the graveyard, Pretty blue gun and Romeo is Bleeding (plus the title track) are killers that other artists just don't come up with.

So roughly how easy is "It's alright ma (im only bleeding)" from Dylan? I'd love to play that song.

not by me


It's Alright Ma,[I'm Only Bleeding]
Bringing It All Back Home[1965]
Bob Dylan
________________________________________

Darkness at the break of noon
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Shadows even the silver spoon
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The hand made blade, the child's balloon
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Eclipses both the sun and moon
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To understand you know too soon
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There is no sense in trying
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This is played after each verse,but I think Bob just kind of improvises with it.
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__________________________________________________ __
Pointed threats they bluff with scorn,
suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece, the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
that he not busy being born
is busy dying

Temptation's page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you just be one more
person crying.

D A D G/B
So don't fear, if you hear, a foreign sound to your ear

D G/B D A D
It's all right ma, I'm only sighing

As some warn victory, some downfall,
private reasons great or small
Can be seen in the eys of those that call
To make all that should be killed to crawl
While others say don't hate nothing at all
except hatred

Disillusioned words like bullets bark
as human gods aim for their mark
Make everything from toy guns that spark
To flesh colored Christs that glow in the dark
It's easy to see without looking too far
that not much is really sacred

While preachers preach of evil fates,
teachers teach that knowledge waits
Can lead to hundred dollar plates,
goodness hides behind its gates
But even the president of the United States
sometimes must have to stand naked

And though the rules of the road have been lodged
It's only people's games that you've got to dodge
And it's allright ma, I can make it

Advertising signs that con you
into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done,
that can win what's never been won
Meantime life outside goes on
all around you

You lose yourself, you reappear
you suddenly find you've got nothing to fear
Alone you stand with nobody near
when a trembling distant voice unclear
Startles your sleeping ears to hear
that somebody thinks they really found you

A question in your nerves is lit
yet you know there is no answer fit
To satisfy, ensure you not to quit
to keep it in your mind and not forget
That it is not he or she or them or it
that you beling to

Although the masters make the rules
for the wise men and the fools
I've got nothing ma, to live up to

For them that must obey authority
that they do not respect in any degree
Who despise their jobs, their destinies
Speak jealously of them that are free
Cultivate their flowers to be
nothing more than something they invest in

While unprinciples baptize
too strict party platform ties
Social clubs in drag disguise,
outsiders they can freely criticize
Tell nothing except who to idolize
and say 'God bless him'

While one who sings with his tongue on fire
gargles in the rat race choir
Bent out of shape from society's pliers,
cares not to come up any higher
But rather get you down in the hole
that he's in

But I mean no harm nor put fault
on anyone that lives in a vault
But it's allright ma, if I can't please him

Old lady judges watch people in pairs,
limited in sex they dare
To push fake morals, insultant stares
while money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares,
propaganda all is phony

While them that defend what they cannot see
with a killer's pride, security
It blows the mind most bitterly
for them that think death's honesty
Won't fall upon them naturally
life sometimes must get lonely

My eyes collide head on with stuffed
graveyards, false goals, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough,
walk upside down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off,
say OK I've had enough
What else can you show me

And if my thought dreams could be seen
They'd probably put my head in a guillotine
But it's allright ma, it's life and life only

Doesn't look too hard, just chords

Ok right but thats just tab, and I don't play guitar, so when i ask if its hard I mean, should a novice be attempting that song?

It's done fast and sounds really amazing, but I've seen some other dylan songs, finger pickin destroys me.

So again I'll ask...

I haven't heard the song but it doesn't seem hard. Oh, and I don't think that there is finger picking in this one. I played through it and I just used a pick.

wholenote.com is a good site