Where did you get the idea that I can't play barres with my thumb? The fact is I'm equally good at both, which is why I see no limitation nor advantage in either (with regard to transitions from rhythm to lead).

There are alot of free tuning apps you can get on your phone.

Ears are best though

Are there many people who can just tune a guitar without a reference note at all? I always thought I was terrible but then realized that tuning forks existed for a reason.

I ordered the first book from Amazon. After I get through it I'll buy myself a nice axe. Leaning toward the Billy Corgan strat because I like the strat ergonomics but prefer humbuckers. I think the hardtail will be good for me too since I like playing around with different tunings.

We began selling these awhile back and I highly recommend the Snark clip on. It's very inexpensive, you can just keep it on your headstock, don't have to plug it in or set it up in front of your sound hole or speaker, and you don't even have to be in a quiet room to get tuned up accurately because it senses the vibrations through the headstock. I really really like it.

The only downside I've experienced was with the black version, I dropped it once and it didn't always want to work properly after that. Our distributor said they had a lot of problems with the black version but none with the blue version. I've had no problems with my blue one and neither have my coworkers. The numerous reviews on Amazon are good too.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...CJSNYZXRDXZWS5

Learning to tune by ear is a great skill to have but the human ear can only hear pitch differences of about 5 cents. Almost all tuners are much more accurate than that.

Well you can tune it relative to itself just fine with your ears with a bit of practice, so that's ok. But if you want to play along to someone/something else you can use them/that as a reference point.

I would always use a tuner if I was restringing it though.

I can, sort of. I have "almost" perfect pitch in that I can pick up a guitar and tune the strings to pitch without reference. When I check it against a tuner though it can be a small bit off, slightly flat if anything. It's handy for restringing guitars and jamming but I still use a tuner to do it right. I definitely wouldn't try to adjust intonation or anything by ear alone.

I don't know anybody with perfect pitch to the point where they can tune up perfectly out of the blue. And not that you'd want to, people in the audience don't want to listen to you tune your guitar anyway.

Some recordings are a little off pitch-wise and I just tune to the album when playing alone. Also back in the day some cassette players were slightly too slow or fast and you'd have to adjust accordingly.

Regarding the whole thumb/E-string bit, IMO:

I find it can be inconsistent because guitars have different sized neck profiles. A thin Fender C neck is one thing but larger sizes or acoustics might present a problem for people without large hands. The movement itself is very inefficient and also puts more emphasis on one's wrist than fingers (which can cause all kind of problems). On top of that you're essentially doing with two digits what you had been doing with one, and limiting the range of your other four fingers.

I don't think it's that big a deal and lots of people do it, but there are legitimate reasons why it's considered bad form. Some say it's easier to play barre chords standing up that way but ime that's just as likely to mean they're slinging their guitar a little lower than they should.

Hi,

I wanted to ask about some things I find challenging about electric guitar.

I feel it's very uncomfortable to do chords on frets 1-4 and especially say downward slides or fast changes from higher frets. When I say chords I mean more than 2 strings as I play those with index and pinky on those frets (ie Master of Puppets or Tornado of Souls main riffs I play with fingers 1 and 4 there)..it's hard to bar lots of strings with pinky, and ring nearly hurts. I was wondering if it's better to put my guitar in an upwards angle.

I play sitting down always with my guitar in 0 degrees. It seems this gets easier if I tilt the guitar...play more standing up?


And a side question
How would you play this type of pattern? It is from Muse - Knights of Cydonia and goes about 140bpm. I can play the whole song well, even the fast altpicking, except this
----------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------|
--9--------9--------9--------9M---------|
-----9--------9--------9--------9M------|
--------10-------10-------10-------10M--|
----------------------------------------|
Down, up, up? All upstrokes? I find this one sooo hard and remaining patterns are untappable imo!
Cheers

can you link song and tell me when that part comes up?

"140 bpm" doesn't mean anything really with tabs.

I didn't realize that
It's from here http://youtu.be/Q3Yc3HhSl1Q?t=3m45s

To fanapathy:

Definitely play with guitar neck slightly higher. It makes playing way easier, also make sure your guitar rests in that position without ur hand holding on to it.
I mean you must not hold the guitar neck up with ur hand as ur playing.

That tab you posted, you play down, up up.

I dont quite understand what you mean with your first question. Maybe you could post a tab or something as example.

Thanks. I will try that. Played some with strap standing up today, it was really different!

What I mean is that this happens, I made a short gif to try to show it. Watch the index finger while going down..it keeps getting worse
Ideally, I would have something like the position of the last snapshot, but it's not effective. Practice finger strength more?



I'm gonna end up with a permanently crooked finger

You might want to try a more classical position if you practice sitting down frequently.



This will prevent a lot of fatigue and may give your body the transition it needs to work the strength and flexibility to play the chords in more awkward positions.

Yea playing standing up with strap is way different and probably a lot harder at first.

If you really need to barre all those strings then yes, just train finger strength since there is really no other way to barre E and B strings except for your pinky.

However it is definitely not widely used.

You might already know this, but this .gif you posted immediately made me think about this - when you play power chords or any barre chords, make sure you only barre index finger. All the other fingers must be placed independently on strings, using finger tips.

It might feel a lot harder at first, but what it allows you to do, is move around the guitar neck much more efficiently and you can add notes to you chords by just moving one finger.

Will try this, thanks

Do you mean if say we play a 3 note power chord (ie 5-7-7) to use 3 fingers? I've been barring with the ring finger or pinky on these only using 2
Reason if playing something like this;

5--5--5--5--5--5--5--5
7--7--7--7--7--7--7--7
7--7--7--9--9--9--7--7

It's nice to have a finger available rather than "slide" pinky

And I hear some people, when playing for example an open A
x
0
2
2
2
0

They bar that all with ring finger, I can't seem to do it well but it's could be useful when switching between open and barre chords..

If playing power chords always use more than 2 fingers.

I'm lazy and I play A like x0222x because getting 3 fingers on one fret is uncomfortable.

Your tablature is upside down. The lower strings should be lower.

x
x
x
7
7
5

This would be an A.

I prefer either upstrokes there or up, up down (as in down on the A string) but whatever works best. Just mute it a little and pick a little harder/mute a little less as you go.

Actually listening to the entire section I'd might also tuck my pick and fingerpick that part out with my thumb and two fingers. You get just enough time to get your pick back and do the money riff.

Timing is very important but given the guitar sound you can be a little sloppy and get away with it. It's a pretty dirty and forgiving sound. The last couple of bars you can play them as chords too, whatever.

I disagree, it's very handy to be able to do both and (with a little practice) the A major position barre chord is easy with just the 3rd finger. You're invariably going to run into some barre chords that require it especially if you go beyond the basic major/minor chords and start adding 6ths or 9th up high.

Also not just with chords - playing some of those SRV type pentatonic scale double stops with your 3rd finger would be a mess with all of those fingers jammed up in the same spot where the frets are narrower, and that's before you start bending them and doing the vibrato and all of that. As far as power chords with just your index and 3rd finger, you can do those in your sleep in no time.

Yes, true. Of course there are situations where you can barre with the whole finger. However as beginner I would say it is way more important to get the power chords right first, then move to regular barre chords. When you can play those, then it should be no problem to barre strings with one finger anyway.


I started out using only 2 fingers to play power chords too, but my guitar teacher quickly made me change that and believe me, it makes a huge difference.

You can still jam and play with 2 fingers but slowly try practicing the right fingering and eventually you will find it very easy to do.

don't play power chords with 2 fingers. especially when first learning. it is a bad habit that will make life a lot harder later.

Practice makes permanent not perfect

EDIT: I still suffer from not forming the open A barre chord properly (barring with my ring finger) and this is 10 years on

there is nothing wrong with playing power chords with 2 fingers

go for it.

also be able to play them in other ways.

fanapathy,

The problem in the gif you posted is not your first finger; it is your ring finger. When barring an A form barre chord (x1333x), the ring finger should stay parallel with the fret (all positions). If your 3rd finger stays parallel (and right next to the fret), your index finger will be angled less (but there should still be an angle - just not as much as in your gif).

I'm not sure what the debate is about fingering power chords as 134 or 133. Is that what you guys are arguing when you say "power chord with 2 fingers"? A root 5 minor barre chord (form A minor) is going to require you to finger x13421 (those are fingers, not frets), and a root 5 major is going to be x1333x, so if you learn your root 5 barre chords, you'll already be forming power chords in both ways.

As Gonso said (Le Gonso...?), playing a root 5 major 6th chord is going to require you to barre x13333 and a dom9 is going to be x21333, so you better just get used to barring your 3rd finger.

As with everything on the guitar, don't be a puss.

I disagree for someone learning power chords. Especially if you haven't learnt barre chords yet. Will make it a lot easier down the line if you can become comfortable putting them on the neck with pointer, ring and pinky. Will make progression easier and quicker imo.

you NEED to be able to do both. it's really that simple.