Diy teach yourself to play guitar/harmonica

[Exile]

Any tips? Sites, books, and/or suggestions.

 

[eliothenson]

harmonicalessons.com

Also, it's pretty easy to steal a how-to book. The harmonica books tend to be pretty light, and you don't need to be tied to the internet. That's the route I'd go.

 

[MeatyMax]

Youtube has some decent videos of people teaching songs(as far as guitar).........google "guitar tabs"..........other then that learn some basic chords and power chords and just play the guitar as your paying attention to something else. That way you get the muscle memory and all that jazz without even paying atention to it. one thing that help me was once i was comfortable with my fret hand i would focus on the strumming hand to get comfortable with it! All this is in no particular but the things that help me.

 

[Exile]

Thx for the suggestions.

 

[macks]

carry your harmonica everywhere and when you've got a spare moment waiting just sit down and play. i learned when i was bumming around portland for a week or so and I just sat down and played harmonica during my abundant downtime. your friends will get annoyed though, it's pretty painful to listen to someone learn how to play harmonica for an hour.

get one of those harmonica holders (i suppose you could make one) of course for playing with guitar and after that it's just like learning how to sing and play, practice and patience. but it's way fun when you start to get it down, guitar/harmonica is such a classic combo. to get used to playing harmonica with something else going you might just play harmonica along with someone playing guitar, get used to what notes work where and all that.

as far as guitar.. get a buddy to teach you some simple songs with basic chords (bob dylan, grateful dead, etc..) and practice switching your chords around during songs. once you get your chords solid and you can switch em quick enough you can play tons and tons of songs. but guitar is hard to learn, if you get frustrated just don't break the thing.

oh one last thing, with harmonica learn how to breathe through your nose while you're playing, it totally eliminates running out of breath in the middle of a song thing.

good luck!

 

[Exile]

Thx mack right now im not bad with the harmonica......guitar is a bit slower to pick up but in due time.

 

[Dillinger]

Elliott Smith's 2:45 am is a good song on guitar to get you going.

 

[Exile]

Elliott Smith's 2:45 am is a good song on guitar to get you going.

Sounds great and yeah it is pretty simple thx.

 

[ogre]

for harmonica its hard to find anything online thats free just songs like popeye do what i do and just improvise and youtube the word harmonica and see what you can find whos down for a diy instrument guide i could write some basic guitar tabs and post em then someone else could write some harmonica shit then some one could write some accordion shit etc etc then we could all learn every instrument we can get our hands on

 

[macks]

i taught myself harmonica and kind of made up this system for writing out simple little tunes. i think it's pretty easy to understand to where people that know nothing about music/how to play harmonica could spend a half hour and memorize what to do to play the song.. i'd be up for putting some stuff together

 

[brooksisdead]

sit down and play with conviction.
your only going to learn to play if you really want to learn how to play.
(make sense?)

i dunno,fuck a book or a lesson.
i mean, this topic says DIY, right?

 

[username77]

guitar grimoire has a good series for guitar, and theory in general. i would suggest the progressions and improvisations, chord encyclopedia, and the scales and modes books. just learn the key signatures, circle of fifths, major and minor, progression patterns, and keep strumming around.

 

[bikegeek666]

get one of those harmonica holders (i suppose you could make one)

i tried once with coat hangers. didn't work as well as i'd hoped. i need to try again, though.

as for switching chords on guitar, it's totally fine to play all the strings open between chords, but just for a beat. it's not very noticeable and keeps the rhythm going. if you do it right.

 

[Dmac]

there is a book "country and blues hormonica for the musically hopeless" it comes with a horn.er hormonica and a cd. for less than 20 bucks, most music stores, some big department stores carry it. i got mine from the backwoods shop, a camping and climbing supply store. the book is a handy size for backpacks

 

[Chris_Hiv]

EADGBE EADGBE EADGBE
x32010 320002 xx0232

C G D

If that makes any sense to you, learn to play em in different progressions and you know how to play about half of all rock n roll songs on guitar.

 

[Dmac]

really?

 

[Chris_Hiv]

Just about, probably should throw A minor in there as well.

EADGBE
x02210

Am


Take a look at some tablature of any popular rock songs you know, most of them will be made up almost entirely of these 4 chords.

 

[Dmac]

the book comes with a "c" hormonica, and i got an "A". also have a blue danube i think it covers a few, it is a big sucker. just getting started, not good at reading music yet.

 

[bikegeek666]

in "g", those three chords will work for you. the Am would be cool, but you'll want an E minor to make the minor sixth. most rock songs, folk songs, a huge percentage of most music, is based on what's called a I/IV/V chord progression. the first chord is G, so you make a G scale and base chords off of the fourth and fifth notes, and a minor one off the sixth. so in G, you have G, C, D, Em. it's just the order, how you long you play them, and what the melody is.

oh, and: Em

EADGBE
022000

 

[Uncle Stinky]

the book comes with a "c" hormonica, and i got an "A". also have a blue danube i think it covers a few, it is a big sucker. just getting started, not good at reading music yet.

in "g", those three chords will work for you. the Am would be cool, but you'll want an E minor to make the minor sixth. most rock songs, folk songs, a huge percentage of most music, is based on what's called a I/IV/V chord progression. the first chord is G, so you make a G scale and base chords off of the fourth and fifth notes, and a minor one off the sixth. so in G, you have G, C, D, Em. it's just the order, how you long you play them, and what the melody is.

oh, and: Em

EADGBE
022000

Hi everybody. The key of G (G, C & D (& Em )) covers ALOT of traditional music-- Irish, old Country, Blues, R&R-- good jams to be had there!

A harmonica in the key of C actually plays Blues in the key of G-- it's called Second Position.

A simpler tuning to learn for guitar is Open G.
This is an offshoot of Banjo tuning.
DGDGBD

This gives you the G chord in all open strings.

DGDGBD
000000

The C chord is at the 5th fret

DGDGBD
555555

The D chord is at the 7th fret

DGDGBD
777777

There are other ways to make these chords but this would get you started.

This also enables playing with a slide, especially if you have a guitar with playability issues (high action, twisted neck, etc.).

This adapts well to a busted string, too.

Before you ask, Em is:

DGDGBD
222002

or

DGDGBD
xx2002

A harp in C and a guitar are a simple way to get a jam in G to happen.