Question:
I've been playing for about a year and a half and I'm fed up with my inability. I tried to jam with a friend's band, and I end up playing uninspired rhythm because I can't figure out how to solo. What rhythm guitar techniques are there to learn (stuff like arpeggios, flatpicking) and what songs are good to learn different techniques with? Does anybody have a recommended lesson plan for guitar in general(such as learn to strum, learn bends, pitch harmonics blah blah)? I'm just sort of stuck in a place where i don't know what to learn and lessons are way to expensive.
Answer:
You may want to look at Mick Goodrick's book, The Advancing Guitarist. It may not help you to jam with your friends, but it will put learning the guitar in perspective. Patience, with yourself, is one of the most important virtues of the serious guitarist. However, if your goal is to get the attention opposite sex, learn a bunch a songs from tab and impress them with your sensitive re-production of your favourite artist. Like you, I've been playing for about a year and a half. In that time I've talked to a number of guitarists both professional blues and amateur rock. Most guitarists do not know how to communicate what they know because they haven't taken the time to learn their instrument; the culture of music they we're borne into; nor music theory. The guitar is a complex instrument specifically; music is generally. I've taken lessons; found them expensive, and have pursued learning through on-line resources, multi-media computer based training,, books, and associating with guitarsts. Mick's book, Oliver Gannon's, Master Jazz Class and Band In A Box CDs and Adam Kadom's, The Guitar Book are of inestimable value and should be a part of every guitarists resource collection.
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