Musical Instrument

[MadHatDan]

Hey people,

Do any of you play a musical instrument? Any of you in a band?

[sssshhhh]

I've started to teach myself guitar. Know the basic chords, and working on some scales and stuff. Find it really difficult playing bar chords though as my hands are so little. If anyone has suggestions on how to strengthen my little hands up please shout (appart from the obvious one - practice :-) )

[Uncle Peter]

Keyboards, guitar and bass. Not currently in a band but lend a hand to the odd recording project on a playing and production level.

Originally Posted by sssshhhh

I've started to teach myself guitar. Know the basic chords, and working on some scales and stuff. Find it really difficult playing bar chords though as my hands are so little. If anyone has suggestions on how to strengthen my little hands up please shout (appart from the obvious one - practice :-) )

There are a multitude of articles and guitar forum posts around this subject and even entire books written about it but the really important thing is that you work on all of your fingers, not just the index finger you use to fret the root note - running up and down your scales/modes is a good starting point to develop speed, suppleness and strength in your fingers and if you have a look around ultimate-guitar.com there are a few documented exercises you could try. Don't forget to work on your right hand/picking technique too.

[danielf]

I tried teaching myself to play guitar, but found it just too bloody difficult (and painful), so I gave up

[sssshhhh]

Originally Posted by Uncle Peter

Keyboards, guitar and bass. Not currently in a band but lend a hand to the odd recording project on a playing and production level.



There are a multitude of articles and guitar forum posts around this subject and even entire books written about it but the really important thing is that you work on all of your fingers, not just the index finger you use to fret the root note - running up and down your scales/modes is a good starting point to develop speed, suppleness and strength in your fingers and if you have a look around ultimate-guitar.com there are a few documented exercises you could try. Don't forget to work on your right hand/picking technique too.

Thanks Uncle Peter

[Halcyon]

I try to experiment with a bit of everything with my Keyboard synths, and music production software.

[Mr_love_monkey]

To make use of an old joke - I can play the piano by ear (though my head does start to hurt after a while) - and I can fiddle with my whiskers.

Seriously, been playing the guitar off and on for several years

[Jules]

I use to play the spoons in my misspent youth does that count

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by Jules

I use to play the spoons in my misspent youth does that count

Do you want me to honestly answer that?

[Gareth]

Self-taught guitarist, but I recently started having lessons to unlearn the bad habits I taught myself and to get my head around music theory (which always bored me to tears).

Like Uncle Peter says, working all fingers is important. And spending some time doing warm-up exercises each time you pick up your guitar is important too, rather than just going into playing along to your favourite song.

For anyone else learning, have a look at the site www.justinguitar.com - there's some pretty good videos there

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Gareth

For anyone else learning, have a look at the site www.justinguitar.com - there's some pretty good videos there

Typical. Not a word about left-handers...

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by danielf

Typical. Not a word about left-handers...

Yeah, but who cares about them???

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Mr_love_monkey

Yeah, but who cares about them???

[LSainsbury]

I can play keyboards just about and I also "play" the Theremin.

[christopherw]

Drums!



Woo!





Old joke rehash: bloke walks into a brain shop looking for an upgrade. There's three brains on special offer: an architect's brain for £2,500, a doctor's brain for £4,000, and a drummer's brain for £14,950.

The bloke says to the guy behind the counter, "how come the drummer's brain is so much more expensive than the other two?" to which comes the quick response, 'never been used mate'