Guitarists Please Read...

[ShadowSky]

Im new here at this forum, and i have been listening to Opeth for quite some time. I have been playing the guitar for about a year and a half now, and notice Opeth isn't particullalry easy to play on the guitar. I've only been able to master The Drapery Falls as of now, and have been working on Demon of the Fall.

To be honest at a year and a half, i've really just learned to read tabs and practice. Not knowing chords and etc. I see most guitarists fingerpicking with 4 of there 5 fingeres, while i just use my thumb(talking mainly about acoustic parts like Benighted and etc.). I was wondering if anyone had some sites that would teach me the chords, notes and etc. Also if anyone had a link to a song that would help me practice on my fingerpicking...

Sorry if i sound like a newbie asking here, but I figured there would be some talented guitarists here, seeing how Opeth is a great band.

Thanks.

 

[esjade]

A couple of good sites for guitar lessons are cyberfret.com and wholenote.com. There are heaps, some with videos to help you, do a search on yahoo.

You will find the benighted tab at metaltabs.com. Awesome song to play. In general, thumb plays the bass note. Index finger, middle finger, and ring fingers play g, b, and e strings respectively.

 

[ShadowSky]

Are there any programs out there i can buy as well maybe?

 

[phon1c]

get a teacher.

 

[Starscream]

tabcrawler used to be good.

gut guitar pro or something.

the best way is just practice.

learn the PIMA finger picking if you want to play opeth.

a good player should use all 5 of his/her fingers when finger picking.

as for chords, learn basic chord theory (how they're formed n stuff) and make your own.

eg. if you know how a seventh is made then you can work it out for any note, same with iverts, sus's......

 

[Stormwatch]

Fuck all that shit.
Go buy yourself 8 beers, stick on AC/DC's "If You Want Blood" and bash away - as long as you can play the powerchords for A,C and D you'll have a great time!!
Believe me, it's great fun!!

 

[chaveta]

there used to be a site with really good fingerpicking videos and stuff, but the guy started charging...

basically, do this:

always play the high 'e' sring with your ring finger
the B with your middle
the G with your index
strings D, A, and E should be played with the thumb.

when you want to do some fast picking, its good to use the index and middle as if they were a pick and pick the notes that way.

um, get a chord book, seriously.

 

[Id]

I also agree that you should get lessons, it's the best way to learn the basics.

 

[Lethe78]

Fuck all that shit.
Go buy yourself 8 beers, stick on AC/DC's "If You Want Blood" and bash away - as long as you can play the powerchords for A,C and D you'll have a great time!!
Believe me, it's great fun!!

Lol, if you can play one ac/dc tune, you can play them all.....

 

[nevershine]

I say this to all who've just started...
...Play Metallica! The basics are there. Many people who've started with Metallica has a very solid rhythm touch. It is very important. Don't learn Opeth first. I know you'd like to but... Take heed from these words and you'll thank me later.

 

[illbeleavinnow]

OK this isn't metal, this is folk, but it will help you learn to pick with more than just your thumb.

Learn Travis picking. It's not that complicated, and i fyou learn it you can make some pretty cool melodies, and trust me, when you Travis pick minor chords they sound awesome. I wrote a whole song based around it. Of course it's called Dying in the Wind. I'm sure all you Bob Dylan fans will realize teh tribute. :-D

Anyways here's a site for Travis picking: http://www.guitarland.com/Travis.html

Have fun, it's cool to learn.

Peace,
Dan.

 

[Svart Djup]

check out cyberfret.com

and also ultimate-guitar.com there are some guys that are teachers that type up lessons and just post them

also, check out powertab editor, it won't teach you to fingerpick, but there are quite a few opeth powertabs www.power-tab.net

 

[Katatonic]

tabcrawler used to be good.

gut guitar pro or something.

the best way is just practice.

learn the PIMA finger picking if you want to play opeth.

a good player should use all 5 of his/her fingers when finger picking.

as for chords, learn basic chord theory (how they're formed n stuff) and make your own.

eg. if you know how a seventh is made then you can work it out for any note, same with iverts, sus's......

dude... i think the PIMA method of picking doesnt use the little finger. i am yet to see a player who does...

 

[chaveta]

it doesn't

PIMA stands for the fingers in spanish..

P for pulgar = thumb

I for indice = index

M for mediano = middle

A for anular = ring

 

[fadingessence]

wholenote has some great lessons on fingerpicking, look on the basics page. Every guitarist that isn't taking lesssons should seriously do lessons off that site as much as they can...I can't believe how much I was neglecting things that I should know already like chord/scale relations ect. Tabs are great but they tend to get me stuck in one place and if all you do is tabs you miss things like basic chord shapes, scales and proper technique. Given the large number of acoustic chords opeth uses all the time it is useful stuff to know.

And while your at it listen to the guy that said learn metallica, there isn't any better band to learn metal on. Start with Seek and Destroy and work your way through their albums learning a song or two off each and you will come a long way. Pretty impressive that you can play drapery falls already, but I'd imagine you spent an awful lot of time on it to learn the song after only a year and a half.

 

[thebigfish]

you shouldn't need lessons. i never took lessons, the only thing i got was a book from my father that held some basic chords. that's all. just start with simple material (so certainly NOT opeth!). i started with offspring and nirvana, going through radiohead and tool, and right now i'm teaching myself all the acoustic opeth material, which kicks ass. if you're really seriously in need of a teacher of some kind, well, i'm sorry to say, you lack some talent. i mean, the only thing he can give you is songs to play - like you can't find them yourself. far from it. the internet is a huge database, almost every song can be found. also a big tip: start to play on a very, very bad guitar, the cheapest one you can find. if you can play on that thing - once you advance to a decent guitar, you'll play like god. also: start off slow. i tend to play new tunes as fast as i can which results in a somewhat sloppy sound, you miss some notes every now and then in your quest for speed. ok. that's it. keep practicing.

 

[illbeleavinnow]

you shouldn't need lessons. i never took lessons, the only thing i got was a book from my father that held some basic chords. that's all. just start with simple material (so certainly NOT opeth!). i started with offspring and nirvana, going through radiohead and tool, and right now i'm teaching myself all the acoustic opeth material, which kicks ass. if you're really seriously in need of a teacher of some kind, well, i'm sorry to say, you lack some talent. i mean, the only thing he can give you is songs to play - like you can't find them yourself. far from it. the internet is a huge database, almost every song can be found. also a big tip: start to play on a very, very bad guitar, the cheapest one you can find. if you can play on that thing - once you advance to a decent guitar, you'll play like god. also: start off slow. i tend to play new tunes as fast as i can which results in a somewhat sloppy sound, you miss some notes every now and then in your quest for speed. ok. that's it. keep practicing.

Yeah.... I completely disagree with you. Listen, you don't need a teacher because you can teach yourself but a.) a teacher can help you out if you get stuck on a song or on a particular passage, b.) a teacher can teach you better methods of playing, picking, strumming, etc and c.) a teacher can guide you so you don't stick to the same stuff for too long, or advance too fast or too slowly, and give you what you need to know in the best order possible.

And it's incredibly helpful to get help with lessons (at least from online) because, basically, it's the same thing as a teacher except less interactive and it doesn't cost ya. =P

OK so in short I think it's stupid to learn on your own unless it's a matter of pride.

 

[Mammoth]

Ok I am kind of a new guitarist but picking with your thumb??? WTH? What do you pick... Your nose?

 

[Id]

You don't need a teacher to learn, but with one you'll get better faster, as they can show you the correct technique which you don't always have when you learn by yourself.

 

[Mammoth]

You don't need a teacher to learn, but with one you'll get better faster, as they can show you the correct technique which you don't always have when you learn by yourself.

AMEN!!!

Anyone scrared of getting teacher will, eventually, unless extremely talanted, corner themselves. Thought from what I've read the guitarist/song writer in Opeth never took a lesson... Kind of punctures my point yet still, I am getting my first teacher after this summer (figured why waste money learning A scales up and down when you can read that from a book). Plus a teacher usually will know the goodies, fast cheats and how to make you gain speed, crispiness and avaid the pitfalls. So there...