Part five: Going acoustic (briefly)

A month has now gone on my guitar journey and I feel it’s time to take stock of where I am. I now know and can play 6 major chords, 2 minor chords, 5 seventh chords, 2-note and 3-note power chords, barre chords, and notes on the first three frets of all strings. As I have only properly (every day) being playing the guitar for 4 weeks, I am quite pleased with this. If you’re learning the guitar then I recommend reminding yourself of your progress like this, as learning the guitar, for me and millions like me who are not naturally gifted musicians, is a very slow and frustrating process.

I read that there are 3 million guitarists in the UK. The UK has a population of about 60 million, so that means that one in 20 people in the UK play the guitar. You’ve still got a better chance of being a professional guitarist than a professional footballer, but it will still be very hard and involve an incredible amount of practise.

Much of that week’s lesson was looking at why I was struggling with Smells Like Teen Spirit. It was mainly the timing that was the problem – I found the semi-quaver count hard. Max simplified it by telling me to count one-e-and-a, two-e-and-a, three-e-and-a, four-e-and-a. I still found it hard so he told me to not worry about it too much and just concentrate on the tune.

The rest of the lesson was an introduction to alternate picking, quavers and rests and a study in syncopation. If you are learning to play the guitar then you will soon hear about alternate picking. At first I thought that this meant that every note is picked alternatively – up and down, but it’s easier and makes more sense than that. Alternate picking is the same as alternate strumming – basically you play down on a count and you play up on an and. So one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and would be played down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. Once I started playing this way I noticed I instantly had better timing and rhythm. Syncopation is commonly used in all types of music and basically means missing a beat or note where you would expect to hear one. I found some of these easy but other parts very hard.

Other than that I continued to practise You Really Got Me and Smells Like Teen Spirit. I watched video lessons for them both on You Tube and that definitely helped.  The problem I was having with You Really Got Me was keeping my 3-note power chord shape together when sliding between frets. I saw that this was because I was keeping the pressure on when I was sliding and needed to take the pressure off before sliding between the frets and then put it down again when I’ve reached the next fret. I played You Really Got Me better than before, and even managed to play a better (but still poor version) of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

As I have said, learning the guitar is hard, takes a long time and is frustrating. That’s why power chords are great as they are fairly simple to play and enable you to quickly learn popular songs. I learnt the main riffs to Song 2 by Blur and Punk by Gorillaz in about 5 minutes. (By learnt I mean remembered what the chords are and can play them OK.  I definitely need to practise both a lot more). The weather that weekend was good and I spent a few moments that Sunday trying to play my repertoire of You Really Got Me, Teen Spirit, Punk, and Song 2. I looked forward to a sunny summer of sitting outside and playing an acoustic guitar.

That Friday I had had enough of waiting and ordered an acoustic guitar. I bought a Vintage V-30 in beautiful sunburst. I read that this had been rated the best acoustic guitar under £1000, so that was a good sign. I wanted something that would play a clean and bright sound, and was easy to play, and all reviews had indicated that this certainly was.

                                                                               
                                                IMAGE: Vintage V30 folk guitar

The guitar arrived and it looked beautiful. I picked it up and then realised something – never buy a guitar without trying it out first.  It looked and sounded beautiful but I found it harder to play than my electric. The body of an acoustic obviously sticks out more than an electric; as a result I found it harder to see the frets. The strings were also a lot thicker and the action (space between the strings and the fret board) was noticeably higher than on my electric. This means you have to put more pressure down on the strings. This hurts and means that it is harder to play. For the chords/ tunes where I can’t get my fingers as close to the end of the fret as possible I noticed that the notes were sounding muted. This was because I wasn’t putting enough pressure down.

Playing an acoustic guitar will make you a better guitarist in the long-term, but if like me you want to learn as quickly as possible, then an electric is better.

Lessons learnt: Alternate picking, don’t buy a guitar without trying it out first.