Guitar + GarageBand

In order to save the rest of the world (well, my wife) from the sound of guitar "playing," I checked out some alternatives. Turns out that you can get an adaptor to plug a guitar into a Mac--I'm using the Apogee Jam, and it works with both the iPad/iPhone as well as my MacBook Pro.

Wow! I love my amp, but playing through headphones has to be making the world a better place. Plus there's all kinds of amp sounds and pedals and other neat stuff.

E chord, here I come!

I'm embarrassed to admit it, but this is the first thing I ever learned on guitar (probably before you were born).

I still like the guitar, but my "playing" requires quotes too.

I have a nice little reserved area in the basement of our new house for axe-work, but I'll check out the computer interface your talking about. Marital harmony is good!

David S. Wallens wrote: In order to save the rest of the world (well, my wife) from the sound of guitar "playing," I checked out some alternatives. Turns out that you can get an adaptor to plug a guitar into a Mac--I'm using the Apogee Jam, and it works with both the iPad/iPhone as well as my MacBook Pro. Wow! I love my amp, but playing through headphones has to be making the world a better place. Plus there's all kinds of amp sounds and pedals and other neat stuff. E chord, here I come!

So what'd you get gear-wise? How are the lessons going? Learn all those open chords and palm-muting, and you'll be able to play 90% of ACDC tunes 60% as well as Angus!

Lessons are going okay. I had my fourth one this week. We discussed where chords come from, so it was nice to learn some basic theory even though I admit that 99% of it currently goes over my head. But I'm practicing. Last night I did one of the GarageBand lessons--wound up spending about 90 minutes doing just chords. That was a good exercise, even though it was way past my bedtime.

Guitar is this in the orange: http://www.prsguitars.com/2011_secustom24/

And I bought one of these the other day: http://www.deltalabeffects.com/products/prod-detail.cfm?product=MD1&modid=13

It was $29 at Guitar Center. The unpainted case sold me. Well, that and the price. And the name of the unit.

Ooooh, another PRS owner. I've got one of those (not mine, but mine's the same colour):

I've been keeping an eye out for an amp but I'm beginning to think that something like a Rockman might be kinder on the environment . Guess I should check out the Apogee Jam, given that I have a Mac and Garageband.

I've always wanted to buy the kits to build my own effects, but it seems cheaper just to buy older used stuff.

One thing that helped me learn guitar was to buy the tabulature book of a good guitar based album (for me it was Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are you experienced?; for you it might be an AC/DC or Iron Maiden album) Focus on learning the parts that are highly recognizable to you; the rest of the song will fall into place afterwards. If your guitar teacher is cool with it, ask them to show you how to play a portion of your favorite song from the tab book at the end of your lesson.

The intro to "Wasted Years" is all on one string!

poopshovel wrote: The intro to "Wasted Years" is all on one string!

Hmmmmm. Which one?

The skinny one "High" E. It's a good one to work on your "up/down" speed/accuracy.

GarageBand is a gateway drug. When I discovered it on my work Mac I became instantly hooked with recording and looping capabilities so much, that I went out and got my own Mac and a copy of Logic 10.

I've got 8-tracks of my own stuff down, and have recorded and/or have in the works another 6 with a friend. That's just since New Year's.

petegossett wrote: GarageBand is a gateway drug.

Now you tell me. By the way, I thought that the laptop version sounded better than the iPad version.

I'm purposely staying away from Garage band because I know exactly what's going to happen, and I don't have even close to the amount of time available that I'll want to spend on it.

Zomby woof wrote: I'm purposely staying away from Garage band because I know exactly what's going to happen, and I don't have even close to the amount of time available that I'll want to spend on it.

+1. Lots of desire. Sadly lacking in time.

I have Wasted Years in tab from an old Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine. I'll try to find and scan it for you. The whole song, save the solo, is pretty easy to play. No More Lies is another one that's fairly straight forward. The entire song is basically slight variations of the same chord progression.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Dammit-- it's too bad you're so far away. Guitar was demystified for me ages ago, but I'd love to show you a bunch of tricks.

Be patient. Eventually, the stuff you have to think about will just become instinctive, like speaking. That takes a long time, but it happens.

Also--understand that there will always be someone better than you.

How many guitarists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

1. One to screw it in and 9 to say they could do it better.

I'm self-loathing--guitarists are annoying. lol

gamby wrote: In reply to David S. Wallens: Dammit-- it's too bad you're so far away. Guitar was demystified for me ages ago, but I'd love to show you a bunch of tricks. Be patient. Eventually, the stuff you have to think about will just become instinctive, like speaking. That takes a long time, but it happens. Also--understand that there will always be someone better than you. How many guitarists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? 10. One to screw it in and 9 to say they could do it better. I'm self-loathing--guitarists are annoying. lol

+1. I'm not great. I don't play enough, but I've been playing for a long time. I liken that first year or two to the first year or two of skateboarding (or anything else for that matter,) you learn the most basic of basics, and then the rudimentary stuff (open chords, barre chords, etc,) take a long time to get to where they become second nature. This is really not a lot of fun, but once it becomes second nature, you start being able to play songs fluidly, and it starts to become fun, maybe even to the point where you can sit down with someone else and play. And of course, the more you do it, the more quickly you'll get better. There are some punishing excercises that will really whip your ass into shape. I remember spending afternoons playing major and minor scales, low to high, high to low, then moving up a fret, repeat. Flub a note? Start again. It's not fun, but it's really helpful.

Then you start wanting to learn more advanced stuff, and it gets frustrating in a hurry. Some stuff comes easy (palm-muting, up & down strumming from all those up & down the fretboard scales, pull-offs, were easier for me,) then some stuff seems downright impossible; It took me FOR_EVER to learn how to do pinch-harmonics, and I still struggle with a lot of other stuff. But one day something just "clicks," and it becomes second nature, like FOREVER.

Best of luck man. Play all the time. If you're not watching anything particularly interesting on the tube, try to play along when commercials come on, or at least start hitting notes till you figure out "That's in the key of D Major."

poopshovel wrote: It took me FOR_EVER to learn how to do pinch-harmonics,

Billy Gibbons invented them by accident. He plays with a Peso as a pick and once left too much thumb hanging off if his "pick". Picked note w/ peso, thumb grazed string a nanosecond later, squeal "Lord have mercy, what was that???"

Use a lot of distortion and they just happen--although I can only really get them to squawk on the lower frets.

poopshovel wrote: I remember spending afternoons playing major and minor scales, low to high, high to low, then moving up a fret, repeat. Flub a note? Start again. It's not fun, but it's really helpful.

Yep. It's all muscle memory. Boring, but eventually you program your brain/fingers.

My teacher taught me an exercise that I did ad nauseum at first.

OK--your fingers are 1-index, 2-middle, 3-ring, 4-pinky

Start at F (1st fret, low E) fret and pick 1-3-2-4

Move up to the A string 1-3-2-4

Move up to the D string 1-3-2-4

etc...

Until you get to the high E, then work your way back down to the low E the same way.

Then move up a fret and repeat again. Tedious? Absolutely, but it gets your fingers working independently, helps your picking and strengthens your fingers.

Do it with an unplugged guitar while you're watching TV, since it sounds horrible.

I will add this as well. Few things in the world are more frustrating than trying to play again after a few too many years away. I was never a great player to begin with, but I had a somewhat interesting sound. Now I struggle to play some of the most basic songs from my earlier days. And I wrote the Damn things, so its not like I have anywhere to look for help.

Ian F wrote: I will add this as well. Few things in the world are more frustrating than trying to play again after a few too many years away. I was never a great player to begin with, but I had a somewhat interesting sound. Now I struggle to play some of the most basic songs from my earlier days. And I wrote the Damn things, so its not like I have anywhere to look for help.

I hate to be contrarian, but I was surprised at how fast everything came back to me after taking around 5 years off. I got to within 99% of what I had within a few weeks. I played with a friend who who was starting to drum again (we'd known each other for 11 years and never played together) and when we were done, he said "damn--you've got some chops!" That was pretty awesome.

I think for me, a big part of it is that I have such a better understanding of music in general now than I did when I was younger. I thing I "feel" it more now.

That said--there's no right answer to this stuff. Everyone functions differently.

Also--I still consider myself a fairly average player. Far from being at the level of a pro musician.

Thanks for the advice. I downloaded the second GarageBand lesson last night. Hopefully tonight I'll have a chance to check it out.

gamby wrote: I think for me, a big part of it is that I have such a better understanding of music in general now than I did when I was younger. I thing I "feel" it more now. That said--there's no right answer to this stuff. Everyone functions differently. Also--I still consider myself a fairly average player. Far from being at the level of a pro musician.

In my case guitar was always a struggle. I could get by, but never had the ability of my friends. I could sing pretty well and had a reasonable knack for being able to play rhythm progressions that were counter to what I was singing.

Oh... and I used to annoy my punk friends by playing punk songs with all open chords. Amazing how some of them will end up sounding like fast country songs.

In reply to Ian F:

See--now I have major trouble singing over all but the simplest of rhythms and progressions. It's always been a massive mental block. Oh well...

And yeah--nothing punk about open chords. I got reprimanded about that once a long, long time ago.