Electric Guitar Tutor Book.

[Semiquaver]

I need a little help.

Today I am off to Denmark Street to buy my 14 year old boy an electric guitar and amp and other gubbins.

The plan is to teach him, and learn with him, from a tutor book. But which one should I get. My thoughts are that I can teach him and help him teach himself up to a basic standard. After that if he gets the bug he can take lessons or swap his school drumming lessons for guitar next term.

I have played a bit. I tried classical years ago an have done a bit of strumming on an acoustic. I still have my old tune a day book which will help with string names etc etc.

But I want to keep his interest going and he will quickly get bored playing 'home on the range'.

So, what should I get?

 

[Linky Lee]

how much of a musical ear does he have?

Most of what I learnt on guitar was from working out the guitar parts to my favorite tracks, with the aid (or disadvantage in most cases) of guitar tabs.

This meant I was learning things that interested me and I was becoming adept at playing with other musicians as I was playing along to the track.

I'd advise getting a pocket chord book. They come in handy quite often. I have one which is organised by chord relationships which really helps if you can't work out that next chord but know roughly what's going on.

 

[Bobby G]

You can get an electric guitar starter pack, with everything thrown in. Apart from, obviously, the guitar the pack includes a small amplifier, lead, strap, pick and an instruction DVD. Also, it won't break the bank and even the cheapest Strat copy these days can be a very playable guitar.

Unless you specifically want to go to Denmark Street, these starter packs are probably available at most music shops, even dear old Argos do one I think!

Good luck! If I wasn't working today I'd come and have a green-eyed browse with you.

 

[Semiquaver]

Thanks Bob,

Thats exactly what I am buying. All for ?129 reduced from ?169. The shop is called Rhodes Music, at least I think it is I went in so many yesterday I forgotten where i went.

Anyway I have the spondoolies in my back pocket and I am off very soon.

Linky, his ear is developing. Thats why I am risking the money to get him on his way. If he gives it up i will grab it and go back to my childhood of trying to play Led Zep, Bad Company and 12 bar blues ala Status Quo.

 

[Bobby G]

Last time I went in Rhodes it was a big shiny shop (unlike some of the others down there) that sold me a Martin acoustic, but that's going back a bit.

 

[Linky Lee]

make sure you haggle on denmark street. They have so much competition they'll lower their prices quite a lot to get your service, and chuck in loads of freebies.

I bought my electric there 4 or 5 years ago. got a free gig case, 4 sets of strings, a capo, as many pics as I could carry and a jack cable chucked in! And it was a pretty good price back then. ?350 for a Fender Mexican Telecaster.

 

[Semiquaver]

The staff must know about guitars.

They were all dressed in black t-shrts had long greasy hair and wore wooly hats indoors. There was also plenty of iron and steel around the facial regions.

 

[Bobby G]

No change there then. Has the sign threatening death or excommunication for anyone who dares to play 'Smoke on the Water' or 'Hairway to Steven' been removed yet?

 

[Semiquaver]

Well I am now ?129 lighter.

What do I do now?

Which end do I blow?

I hope black and white is cool

I seem to remember some danish bloke on the TV years ago teaching something about P, IMA.

If only I did not have bananas for fingers I could play it.

 

[Bobby G]

P I M A is yer fingers, but I can't remember what it stands for (although it ain't Pinky, Index, Middle and Another-one), or whether it relates to the fretting hand or the plucking hand...

Anyway, if you have a 14-year-old drumming son, isn't he going to be more interested in R O C K ?

 

[Linky Lee]

it's for the finger-picking picking style. It's useful to be able to do and will help for some of those great blues licks and slide guitar playing too.

After a few years of playing this R O C K Bobby speaks off I got into playing without a pic and moved onto different genres as the tone is better and the music more inspiring to me.

 

[Semiquaver]

Another question this time about reading guitar music.

Do we learn notes on stave or tablature or both?

My instinct tells me notes on stave as I hope he takes music as a GCSE option and it will help. But will most music we buy from shops be in tablature form?

 

[Linky Lee]

from the stave is infinitely better than from tablature.

Music you buy from a shop will probably cover both formats. Everything I have does.
The down side of tablature is it's lack of clear rhythm but it's upside is that it's easy to read and has a wider available selection over the net.

Stave notation is very accurate in all respects and is beneficial for theory, and other similar musical skills like keyboard skills (Music GCSE). Also if playing in a big band or something similar the guitar music is normally chord symbols and notation and lots of guitarists fall down at this point.

Notation all the way.

 

[Semiquaver]

Lee, Bob,

Thanks very much. Your help and humour made this a good day for me.

I am obliged!

 

[Bobby G]

You are very welcom Semiquaver!

My way into guitar-playing, acoustic that is, was to learn some chords from a book (this was 1970) then start working out songs by ear or by playing with other people. Later I developed my finger-picking style by imitating what I heard so I don't know if I'm doing it right but it works for me. I also use a lot of alternative tunings.

Notation, pah! It's the folk tradition for me 😉