The guitar, do i persevere or call it a day ?
 

Ive become really lazy with my guitar, i started off well as i was as keen as mustard in the early stages. I`m not sure at what point i lost interest, i think it may have been when i was struggling with a couple of chords, a couple of the chords have tricky finger placements like the A chord where you have to fit 3 fingers into one fret, i have quite large fingers and it became frustrating.

I still really like listening to guitar riffs and covers on youtube, i`m a fan of U2 and The Edge, i like a bit of rock and punk as well and enjoy watching the skills of guitar players on youtube.

I guess i`m looking for motivation, i wouldn`t say i`m the most motivated person in the world, i never need motivation when i`m in the mood for something but its the other part where i know i should be picking up the guitar when i can`t be bothered so to speak lol ....

Is this a normal thought process of beginners where they expect to pick it up without too much effort ?

I'm the same and definitely think it's got something to do with wanting to be better quicker!!!

When I can't master a chord straight away I lose the will...lol!!
I'm the opposite I have small hands and can't reach some chords!

Keep it going!! I've promised myself to get mine out more often this year as I bought a fab Fender Acoustic last year and have hardly played it!!!

Good luck :thumb:

Thats exactly it mate, lots of people give up because they expect to play well quickly and get disheartened when they don't. My advice is stick at it, go over and over the basics till you've got them nailed and can chord change without thinking, it will take a while but you will get there:thumb: Don't try to skip anything you find difficult, keep at it.
If you ever get totally stuck it's always worth getting a tutor or a mate who plays to check how you're doing and give any advice.
I've been playing the guitar since I was 12 (now 36). I recently took up 5 string bluegrass banjo and I'm about the same stage as you, struggling with the basics, when I get frustrated with it I just leave it for a while and try again later, this seems to help me.

Give it up, before you get hurt. I shared a house with a bloke last year that upon first meeting seemed like a great Guitar player, I was most impressed, what a treat I thought. However, a month in and I realised that he only knew a few chords and practiced them constantly, day, night, on the bog, whilst I'm on the phone, movie playing, you name it he'd be practising those cords. Closest I ever came to killing someone.

Perservere. As regards the A chord just use your index finger over the 4 strings on the 2nd fret without sounding the high E first string. It gets easier all the time.:thumb: Steve.

Is this the same guitar that you had all the hoo-ha with about the tiny little blemishes? :)

Anyroad, it's rare I play the 'A' chord with that fingering on electric guitar, for the reason you mention. You're far better off fretting all three with one finger, then just playing that and the open A root note and leaving the E1st string out. Or play an E-shape barre chord at the 5th fret.
As far as motivation goes, we all end up with peaks and troughs of interest. Stick with it; get some tuition, get a mate to play along with, or play along to the THOUSANDS of tuition vids on youtube, just do something to get your interest back. As mslorach says, a mate who plays can be invaluable - they'll give you all sorts of hints and tips like the "A" chord one that I've just given you. :)

The open high E string is part of the chord, in the long run it's better to learn the basic chords properly.
If you try and play the chord with one finger you will often play the E string too which will sound terrible.

I agree with you up to a point, but most rock styles on electric benefit from being played that way. I play the A chord the proper way on a classical guitar where there is space for your fingers. Although I tend to use fingers 2, 3 and 4 in order to leave the index finger free for barring. :)

They wern`t tiny blemishes, i found more imperfections the more i looked. I bought it from ebay which is always a bit chancey, it was advertsised as a brand new Epiphone Les Paul, the seller not long after was banned from ebay which i guess was due to numerous similar complaints.

I got a paypal refund and returned it to the seller minus the £24 which it cost to ship it back to him.

Anyway after that i rang a guitar tutor not far from where i live to enquire about lessons, after chatting with him for a bit on the phone he said he would come to a guitar shop with me and help me to choose a guitar, a pair of expert ears is always a great plus to have.

I bought a Fender Stratocaster standard, apparently they are a very good guitar for the style of music i like which is U2 The Edge, a bit of light rock and some punk riffs like the pistols. He played it in the shop, he played With Or Without You through an amp, it sounded great.

Mines a non USA Strat as those ones cost an arm and a leg and as a beginner it would be overkill to spend that much, he played on a USA strat that the shop had in and to be honest i couldn`t tell the difference.

The Fender Strat standard`s are still expensive, think mine was £430 as its an uplift model but they are nothing compared to the ones made in the USA.

Persevere, but don't get hung up on particular chord fingerings, find what works for you and sounds good in the context of the song.

I play mostly rock stuff and rarely finger the A chord as you say - I either barre at the second fret and don't strum the high E or play it as a barre chord or power chord at the fifth fret. Similarly with the B chord. I find it almost impossible to play the standard fingering so I normally don't bother strumming the high E string. This is no big deal because I still get the fifth (an F#) from the D-string.

Persevere indeed. A friend of mine was a professional session guitarist (you can see him playing with Shania Twain and others on YouTube etc) and his guitar was his life for twenty years. It came before everything.

As most people were saying to persevere with it i decided to take my guitar out, here is a little riff i just put together, its only 35 seconds long but it will give you an idea where i`m at and how i`m struggling to grasp the basics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xOK07Wlgk4

:notworthy:notworthy

LMAO I think you are doing just fine with those basic guitar skills!

If your heart is in it then you will carry on with the guitar.

You will go through periods where you feel you learn very little and sometimes feel you are almost regressing. Then you will go through a great positive learning period where you will have loads of 'eureka' moments.

IMHO if you have to question if you should carry on playing the guitar then you clearly never got the 'bug' and should probably just bin it as perhaps you were learning it for all the wrong reasons

I bought a 4 string electric bass a while ago having never played a guitar before, but having played in bands since I was 16 always found myself listening to the bass line. Best bit of advice I was given was to buy a stand for it, and leave it sitting out, as well as buy an instrument that I liked the look of. The reasons being that a combination of these two factors would encourage me to want to pick it up and play it. It does seem to work.