Keep the learn guitar questions coming! I liked this one:
Question: I’ve been playing a little under a year and I have a quite small list of songs that I know how to actually play. Such as, Drive by Incubus, Closing Time by Semisonic, Wonderwall by Oasis, and Couple songs by 3 Doors Down & City and Colour. and I feel a bit behind compared to my friends.
I’ve recently gotten a acoustic so I’m kind of limited to some songs that I would like to play, and I would like to learn more songs.
Any help out there? Also any sites that I could also check out that informs about Scales, Ect.?
(Places that you’ve actually been to, not just google’ing and then posting it saying it seems legit) I know alot of people do that on this site.
Answer: I definately recomend learning stuff from Mason Williams. He wrote Classical Gas, and its an amazing fingerpicking song. Its a good song to practice your fingerpicking not to mention, its a very beautiful song. Um, if you really really absolutely want to amaze crowds and just to be different in your style, I recomend learning ‘Slap Acoustic Guitar’. There are all sorts of amazing guitarists that have this style of guitar, I always get the ‘jaw drop’ effect whenever I play music like that. You should look up ‘Candy Rat Records’ They have amazing artists with beautiful music. Excellent Choice on the acoustic 
,
Look up Andy Mckee,
Acoustic stuff by Zakk Wylde is good aswell,
I dont know, Add me
acoustic_36@hotmail.com
and ill give you more recomendations if you like.
This week’s question is a good one. Let’s have a look:
Question: I’ve played for 2 1/2 years now, and lately I feel like I’m not getting as far as I want to at all. I really considered taking lessons, but I kind of fear that the tutor will drown me with super-easy things or just doesn’t understand my style (lots of acoustic-lovers up here). Some stats,
-I don’t know music theory, but I’m taking it my junior year
-I don’t know many scales (I know, I fail right? I just don’t know which I’m playing)
-I barely know chords
-Don’t know how to sweep, I suck at tapping
-In short, my preferred style is like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2SucmKpcl4&feature=related
-For my band, I’m lead guitarist so I guess melodic things help more
Kind of a minor thing but I wanted to learn that above video and play it before I graduate high school ;( My main issue for that is sweeping though.
Oh, in short I just wanted to ask how effective lessons are..
Answer: i was in a position similar to yours, except maybe a little further along (i knew all the basic chords and barre chords, and like 3 jazz chords). i started taking lessons a few months ago, and i’m already MUCH better. i actually stopped weekly lessons, because i figured out what i need to practice and wanted time in between lessons. no matter what style you want to play, lessons will almost always help (unless you find out you actually know more than your teacher…that happened to me when i got a sub 
)
so yeah. go take lessons.
This week’s question is a good one. Let’s have a look:
Question: Playing lead and rhythm? being part of a commercial band? knowing all the scales? being able to show off to an audience? being able to replicate any song on demand? Having a different colour guitar? Playing left-handed? playing a variety of styles? having an extensive fan-base? Being able to play any song by ear? Making your own solo on the spot? etc.
Answer: Most people have not answered the question. The practice practice and more practice is what it takes to become a good guitarist, but great guitarist ? I have known many guitarists and after the initial learning process, most simply accept their position in the order of things and do not get better or worse….25 years later they are still playing the same riffs. This leads me to believe that providing you have the basics and can play, being great is very much in the lap of the gods…..you either are or you aren’t !
A tough guitar players question this week. Let’s dive straight in
Question: Hi, am learning bass and would like to know the notes I can use in each scale eg…C which notes would fit when making a bass line and sound ok?? any ideas where I can get this info from please?? thanks in advance peeps!
Answer: Okay, it depends entirely on what key the rest of the band is playing in and whether it’s a major or minor key. It also depends if you’re playing bluesy stuff, straight rock, heavy rock or whatever.
The basic rule is, stick with the root note of the chord so if your guitarist or keyboard player is playing an E chord play an E and so on. If you want to get more adventurous, use the octave of the note you’re playing and the 5th as a fill in – for example if the chord is G, and assuming it’s a four string bass, put your first finger on the bottom E at the third fret, then move your ring finger or little finger to the 5th fret on the A and D strings. Pluck or pick the bottom string followed by the D string, then down to the A and back to the bottom string. You can move this shape all over the fret board and get some great results.
Best thing you can do is learn to know what chord your guitarist/ keyboard player is playing and work from there. You can sometimes play either the third or fifth note in the chord instead of the root note as that adds colour, but don’t go mad to start with. The main thing with all bass playing is tight, precise rhythm and for that I use Jim Dunlop Delrin 2mm picks, same as Flea!
