Im a begginner and i need help

warehouse923 · Post by **warehouse923** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:15 pm

Hey, the only song i can play is proudest monkey, and i really want to learn more songs. What are some other songs that a beginner should try to learn. This is my first time playing any instruement and im not doin so good with the guitar. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

warehouse923 · Post by **warehouse923** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:19 pm

Forgot to add this, could someone please explain to me how to mute strings?

smedley · Post by **smedley** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:30 pm

muting strings is easy, there are two different ways you can do it

palm muting- palm muting is just resting the bottom of your strumming hand on the strings. palm muting is usually used a lot on electric guitar, but you can do it acoustic.

reagular muting (i don't know the technical term)- that's just raising your fretting hand a little bit off the strings so that it produces a "thunk" sound.

if you need more help, just ask

as for dave songs, try satellite, crash into me, christmas song, or ants marching

xan. · Post by **xan.** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:36 pm

the first dave song i learned was crash into me. i personally think that is the easiest song if you can handle stretching your hand for a long time. if you have small hands that arent strong that might be a hard one for you. another good first song is grey street because the chords are easy and you kind of learn to mute and play common dave style chords such as 7xx7xx. i mean it all depends what song is your favorite. when i first started to play dave my favorite song was So Much To Say. that is a difficult song for only your 3rd dave song but i loved the song so much i practiced it to death. so just learn whatever drives you the most. about the muting be more specific, there are a lot of ways to mute. give me an example of when you dont know how to mute. good luck, hope i helped.

warehouse923 · Post by **warehouse923** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:36 pm

Hey thanks for the help on muting, ithink i can do that now, i have been trying to learn crash for the past 2 days and im having some trouble, any advise on how to play crash?

smedley · Post by **smedley** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:40 pm

play along with the cd, after a while you'll start getting a feel of what he's playing. i'm not sure if i can give any better advice,

warehouse923 · Post by **warehouse923** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:42 pm

ok thank you very much

warehouse923 · Post by **warehouse923** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 10:42 pm

ok thank you very much

nate · Post by **nate** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 11:22 pm

another piece of advice is to watch the videos on the site as well as others from the boards here. I remember when I was first learning dave songs and how helpful the vids were. I would download them and them watch them in a program like POWERDVD where you could adjust the speed to make it slower. And like everyone else here has said just practice practice practice. Once you get dave's style down and his "dave chords" you'll be amazed how fast you'll be able to learn new songs. best of luck.

andreasolsson · Post by **andreasolsson** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:26 am

how about big eyed fish? I think that is pretty easy song to start with. am I right?

ballmeblazer · Post by **ballmeblazer** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 7:58 am

andreasolsson wrote:how about big eyed fish? I think that is pretty easy song to start with. am I right?

every song has different levels of easiness for people. some songs you might find tough are easy, and vice versa. but from a strictly music sense, looking at the tabs, no, it does not seem to hard(for some reason i've never tried to play it).

as for crash, the way i learned it which helped me was to first just play the verse without the bass notes. then to add in the bass notes, but hit them all at the same interval. once i could do that i would slowly play the song along with dave, and found that within twelve hours of making a conscious effort to get the correct strumming i had it as perfect as you can get a dave matthews cover. but just work hard on it and play it slow- you'll be fine.

charliemike · Post by **charliemike** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 11:03 am

Actually, I'd learn So Damn Lucky ...

Here's why:

* In order for the verse to sound right you have to keep your strumming even and constant throughout the entire verse while changing cords and hammering-on the strings ... This will be very helpful in the future with DMB songs ...
* The chorus uses some of the familiar Dave Matthews finger positioning especially in the "Oh my god, wait and see ..." parts
* It's a good song to learn because it's fairly simple ... The chorus is full of chords Dave uses in Tripping Billies, Granny, Grey Street, etc" and two of the other three chords comprise of a regular C and the same positioning on the 3rd fret instead of the first ...

Hope that isn't confusing as shit and actually helps

Also, I cannot stress enough that even if you think your voice sucks, you absolutely should sing when you play. Even if you never attempt to sing in front of people, it will be invaluable in terms of getting tempo and rhythm down.

Good luck!

taylorguy15 · Post by **taylorguy15** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 1:07 pm

American Baby (the verse/chorus) is very easy for beginners.

I learned Typical Situation and the main riff to Tripping Billies first.

So i would suggest to start with those 3.

xan. · Post by **xan.** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:01 pm

Everyone is right about songs having different levels of difficulty but everyone is different. Some people learn some songs faster than others. I would just go for songs you really want to learn regardless of difficulty. Even if people say it is hard, if you have the determination to learn it becuase you love the song then you can. Plus i feel if you learn a hard song first the easy ones come to you even easier. Just watch videos go get Pat's, Gianni's, and Kanter's videos. They are extremely helpful.

mgobux1084 · Post by **mgobux1084** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:11 am

The first few songs I leraned were Dancing Nancies, Two Step, Grey Street, Typical Situation, Fool to Think, Watchtower, and Crash Into Me to name a few. I think they are some of the easiest Dave songs to play.