New member looking for advice

[DENIS H]

I just joined with the hopes to just become better at playing my guitar. I am interested in improving all aspects of my playing but focused on moving from just strumming with only a bass note to spice it up to more musical renditions of the songs I play. My question is how to best use this site to do that. Thanks for any help and direction.
Denis

[Marty V]

What kind of music do you play? What songs? Acoustic or electric? Are you a premium member?

Active Melody is very much geared toward the blues (although that covers a very wide range of styles), with a big emphasis on developing leads/solos. So if you’re unfamiliar with the concept of scale patterns, you should start out by going through the Blues course (if you’re a premium member).

You might want to check out the guitar lessons that combine rhythm and lead playing — there are a lot of those and I’ve found them really helpful in breaking out of the just strumming trap.

[Martyn in France]

Hi Denis and welcome to Active Melody. You’ll find this site not only very friendly and supportive but also Brian is an amazing teacher. There is something here for everyone. And everyone who treats it seriously makes progress.
That’s good advice from Marty .. he’s right, if you want to get the most out of Active Melody then you need to be a Premium Member .. maybe you are.
Like you, I’d been a strummer for most of my guitar playing life, accompanying singing mostly. And then I joined AM and I get a great deal of pleasure from playing some lead now, something I thought was too hard for me.
If you give us some more detail of where you want to go and what you like, what level are you, stuff like that, then there will be plenty of advice forthcoming.
Martyn

[DENIS H]

I am a premium member. I am familiar with playing scales. At least 4 or 5 that I can truly play.

I would like to play songs that sound full and rich. That include strumming and picking. I like both the blues and country that has a blues feel to it. ie C Stapleton. I think I am probably an advanced beginner or an intermediate. I play mostly an acoustic on songs and some electric on others.I can read music but to slowly to read and play well. I know lots of chords and can adapt to playing new ones once I am shown and practice. I can alternate a bass note. I don’t what else to share that will help clarify what I am looking for. In any case, I appreciate anything you can do to direct me. I will check out the Blues course and try to find the lessons that combine rhythm and lead playing.

[Marty V]

I think you’ll do fine just diving in and working on the lessons that interest you. One thing I like about Brian’s approach is that his lessons are centered around teaching the building blocks of playing so that we can (eventually) begin to figure things out on our own.

Since I hate to study (I already done my time!), I take the approach of just letting this all come naturally — slowly but surely, the pieces are falling in place (I’ve only been an AM member since June), and I’m starting to be able “see” where my fingers need to go.

If you’re the more studious type, you’ll probably get there faster.

These days, I find myself working on the new lessons as they come up. But when I’m not interested in a particular week’s lesson, I’ll dive into the archive to work on one of the older lessons.

[David B]

Hi Denis.

I could suggest you to join the monthly challenge, I’ve started like you and this motivate me a lot to practice. Also this forced me to try some lessons that probably I would not choose by myself, but finally was interesting too (like delta blues as example).

rgds.
David B.

[Mark O]

Hi Denis,

Kudos to you for reaching out. When I first started playing for mass at my church when I was a teen, I strummed everything always. One of the other gents that played guitar was definitely more country influenced and did the alternating bass note thing. I had the opportunity to watch a few of the masses when they were replayed on local TV and it struck me that both my and the other guys playing had no variety to it. It lead me to learn finger style, with the understanding that it isn’t an all or nothing technique. What I mean by that is it helped me to understand that certain songs call for certain styles of playing. Sounds like a “no kidding?” moment but again, when all one does is strum out chords, this was quite the epiphany.

Another technique that I had a feeble grasp of before Active Melody was the idea of playing fill licks between chords. Of course I had no idea what I was playing, only that they “worked” and I could only do it on certain chords. Now I know why they work and can do this on just about any chord.

Lastly, identifying alternate chord voicing further up the fretboard will open up a lot of potential to spice up your playing. Hope this helps!

Mark

[Author]

Posts