The Friendly 12bar Blues Guitar Forum

hi everyone

my names Andy come from Birmingham in the UK been learning the guitar off and on for the past 5 weeks and my friend who plays already suggested i start playing slide as its easier and being a big fan of the blues seems to be the way to go,

anyway my guitar is almost as good as a Fender Telecaster but could never afford a real one so ive settled for something that looks as good and possibly sounds as good.A Vintage reissued V52 telecaster lookalike.

Welcome aboard Andy

Good luck with your playing !! There are others on the site weay more experienced than I to offer advice about slide and where to start with guitar.

Personally I reckon I'd suggest starting with a) Standard Tuning EADGBE, learn some good basic chords , A, C, D, E and the 7th chords for each, get some good strumming patterns under your belt, practise some scales....starting with the Pentatonic Minor in "A" ( 5th Fret,) .... and kinda work up from there. Build up slowly and explore stuff as you go ..but at some stage you have to put in the hard yards and get some basics under the belt ( or perhaps its fingers !! )
Slide is altogether another level I reckon .. and as slide generally involves open tunings and different chord shapes, throw in a slide and getting clean sounds from your guitar is pretty tough ! .... and its a diferent level of learning.!

The book "Blues you can Use" by John Ganapes is a good place to start.

But good luck with whatever you choose , making music that you like is Key, and enjoying yourself

Andy here...

This is the best place to learn more about the blues guitar music.

When you start i think it's more inportend that you learn the blues ladders, then real playing.

aboard Andy, hope you enjoy here.
Pena

to the forum Andy.

Good luck with learning the guitar and the blues.

Difficult to know about the slide aspect. I had several attempts at getting the hang of slide playing. A large part of my lack of success with the earlier attempts was in using cheap badly fitting slides that were the wrong size for my fingers - a made to measure good quality glass slide made a huge difference. But as Strummer says there are also challenges with the need for open tunings etc.

The Vintage brand Tele is a good instrument - very good for it's price. The compensated brass saddles will mean you get the good sound from the brass but without the tuning problems that can come from the old style straight brass bar saddles.

You'll be able to get plenty of help / guidance / encouragement here.

on board!

As already suggested, I'd start with "normal" playing for the first weeks, then try the first slide...

........Andy to this forum.

Pleas don't go for the big things first. Start off youre playing with simpel things and don't go for slide as a first goal. Learn to listen and play from people that know how.
It's inportent to play so you get a fingermemory and hearing that works with playing, and that's hard enough to learn.

First things first as allready folks in this forum pointed out. Remember that you is you and youre friend is youre friend not a newbie on guitar. Let him inspires you but remember that it requiers practis to learn. No one is born with a guitar in his/her hands.

Good luck with youre playing and hope you get inspired to continue lerning from members in this forum.

Cheers
Michael

Hi Andy, big welcome from Spain. Sure you'll find this forum a useful and rewarding resource. Have fun!

thank you all for the replies and welcomes

and yes i am also learning the proper way of playing too .

Hello Andy. I agree with your friend that slide is easier to learn than using your fingers. I've been doing both since the late 60's. If you are stuck on how to proceed with learning slide guitar feel free to pm me and I'll do what I can to help.

Welcome Andy.

A big welcome from Texas!

Howdy from New Mexico.
I don't find slide any easier than regular guitar, perhaps because I learned standard guitar earlier. I have been messing around with slide playing off and on for a few years... with limited success.
Good fortune in your musical journey.

Welcome! What it says on the headstock is not important. The music you make with it is!! Enjoy, learning guitar has been one of the biggest blessings of my life!!

thanks again for the welcomes

ive just managed to pick up a Marshall lead 12 combo practice amp and the guitar sounds so much better through it,rather than the Vox modeling practice amp i have been using

ive also found a great guitar teacher who teaches blues and classic rock so expect a bit of a bluesy sounding mp3 from me shortly once i get a bit better