My Two Yamaha Guitars

Here are my two Yamaha guitars.
The acoustic electric at the back is AC1 model and the electric at the front is the Pacifica VMX.

My New Yamaha Pacifica VMX Electric Guitar

I just couldn't help myself. I went and bought myself a new Yamaha Pacifica VMX electric guitar. I'm running it through my Stagg 10 watt amp that I got for my acoustic electric. I went to the Yamaha website and  I showed my wife the range of Pacifica guitars. She picked the clear guitar. Probably because it looks like a piece of furniture from Ikea and not something that looks like it belongs in a bachelor's pad.
Playing the damn thing is a different story but I like it.

Smashed My Guitar - Got A New One

My bad. It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, so here is an update on what’s been happening over the last couple of months.

The fist main event was my Finlayson D1-G guitar getting SMASHED. No I didn’t do it out of frustration or anything, it wasn’t me at all. It was purely an accident. I put it down for a few seconds to review a YouTube lesson, one of my kids passed by, gave the strings a strum which knocked the guitar off balance and it fell off the chair I had sat it on onto our wooden floor, neck first, which shattered. The guitar died that day, but not my child. I wasn’t at all angry, just a bit sad, but my little girl was very upset. I reassured her everything was OK. I felt really sorry for her, the poor wee soul.

This was the main reason I’ve not wrote anything for a while. I didn’t have a guitar.
But the good news is, I have a new one (and a proper stand to put it on now, lol). I bought a really nice Yamaha AC1-R. It is an electric acoustic with cutaway style body. The action is great – something I struggled with, with the Finlayson, the quality is superb and more importantly I find it more comfortable than the Finlayson I had. Overall it’s a far superior guitar.

So all this happened over a month ago. Since then, I’ve even had a shot of my friends Ibanez G10 electric guitar, amp and effects pedals, and learnt some power chords. I had it for a week and it was a lot of fun and a great experience.

I’ve also been learning my scales, some licks and walk-ups and walk-downs, but still I have not been practicing enough over the last month or so. I have discovered a few nice blues slids, the E7 A7 and B7 chords. My friend, Tim, has been putting a lot of time and effort into his playing and he is coming on really great. I think so anyway. I’m impressed with his skill but I’m badly falling behind. I need to have the guitar in my hands more and practice my chord changes as I’m still too slow, which is evident and jamming sessions when trying to play along with the actual song. I can’t keep up.

My tasks are to practice my chord changes, be less afraid to practice in a group, nail the chords first time and learn to feel the rhythm to strum to.

Much to learn young padawan. Much to learn…

Earl Scruggs and friends - Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Brilliant, Fun and Upbeat

I have to share with you another fantastic video. It features the late Earl Scruggs and (famous) friends playing Foggy Mountain Breakdown.

My God, it's so fun to watch, and look at all the different instruments!

Man of Constant Sorrow [Live] - I'm In Bluegrass Heaven!

Found this fantastic video and want to share it.

Watch it with plenty of volume and a good set of speakers or earphones.

Weeks 6 & 7 - They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar

With DIY projects getting in the way, it's really been a quiet couple of weeks, grabbing a few minutes when I can, but at the end of week 7 I managed to have most of Saturday and a good part of Sunday just chilling, getting piece and time to myself and my guitar, not forgetting my laptop loaded with downloaded YT video lessons.

I managed to get a bit further with Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, solo section. I'm still naff at some of the slides, especially the bottom 2 strings, B and E, from the 3rd fret, to the 5th fret, then the next two slides after that with the G and B strings on the 2nd and 3rd fret to the 4th and 5th fret. I've worked out a cheat to get around my naffness so I can progress and learn more of the solo.

I also and time to give Wonderwall some more practise as well as learning a bit of Sweet Home Alabama, just for fun.

Week 7 also saw me getting some quality time with my friend, Tim. It wasn't a lot but it was better than nothing. He does say it's better to learn the guitar with someone else. That is probably true, but I felt under pressure to do well, which made my playing go to pot!

I also - now don't laugh - bought a harmonica - OK, 2 actually. One in the key of C and the other A. I've taken a liking to the blues, just wished I could get my fingers to like playing them too. Now I'm hoping to get my mouth to like playing the blues.

I'm on a mission now to learn the guitar when I can, and the harmonica too.

Week 5 - They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar

Welcome to week 5 of me attempting to learn guitar.

When I could grab the time I would try to get some practise in. I was determend to learn a little more of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here.

Yesterday I got the chance to watch more of the Marty Schwartz YouTube videos so I could nail more of the intro part - which I'm chuffed to bits to say I did. I'm happy to be playing something that sounds really nice. I also attempted more of the solo. If you watch the video you will see it's in parts. The slides in the second part are stumping me.

Oh, well. I'll just have to keep on keeping on!

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - David Gilmour

There is one music video I've been playing over and over as it's absolutely fantastic. It's David Gilmore from Pink Floyd, live, playing the solo of Wish You Were Here.

Without further ado, because it so good, here it is:

Fortunately if this is something you would like to learn to play here are a couple of videos from Marty Schwartz - the guy I always go to for YouTube lessons.

This video is the beginning part of Wish You Were Here - the bit that is played with a 12 string guitar.

http://youtu.be/jt4veKC2I10 - unfortunately the video won't embed in blogger for some reason so you will have to click on the link.

Now for the solo section played by David Gilmour -

http://youtu.be/n67FLy3TLS0 - again, Blogger for some reason will not or can't find the video so I added the link for you to click on.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. By the way, I'm no where near actually playing the whole song - I'm definatly not that good - yet :-)

Getting back to basics - switching chords and strumming

Over the last couple of weeks, I've had little time to do much of anything with my guitar so I thought it was about time to get back to basics - and to be honest I'm still very much as the basic stages of learning.

Yes, I've memorised some chrods and have attempted to play a very small part of a few songs I like or that have been recommended, but the fact is - I still very much need to pracice switching chords and to strum in time. Perhaps it's just me but doing a simple down, down, up, down, up down strum and switching chords does not come naturally, but it feels that it should.

To help I've been watching a few videos. Here is one that is helping me just now - I hope it helps you too...

Week 4 - They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar

Over the last week I have been practising power chords, but it's been painful due to issues with the old fracture on my left wrist. I hope the trouble I'm having with my wrist will ease off - I can go for a very long time without even thinking of it, then for many months it can bother me more than usual, and this is such a time.

I lowered the bridge of my guitar by sanding it down. It turns out that it is a fairly cheap plastic bridge and replacements can easily be bought from Amazon. After I sanded down the bridge I found it easier to play, but I felt the sound had changed slightly for the worse and wondered if I had taken a bit too much off. I ordered a better quality bridge. When it arrived I noticed in the instructions that came with the bridge that it suggested it be sanded down to the right height so the low E was about 3mm from the 12 fret and the high E 2mm from the fret. I gave it a sand down then tried to fit it. It turned out to be too tight a fit. I had to grab it with pliers to get it back out. Looking at the fitting instructions on the packaging again, it also suggested that it be sanded to the correct thickness too! 

The new bridge is in now but I still think I haven't taken enough off  the height yet. I will have another go, and perhaps buying some cheaper bridges so I can mess about with the height of them to find a height and sound that I'm happy with. I can just imagine all you great guitar players out there shaking your heads in disbelief at me butchering my guitar.

I've not had a great deal of time on my guitar this week due to the weather getting nicer and working in my garden - got a lot of digging to do - so I've still not really improved any since last week. I have, however been challenged to learn a bit from Dueling Banjos which is an instrumental featured in the film Deliverance. I'm working on that now, just for a bit of fun.

Week 3 - They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar

What a busy week I've had. There's been too many thing happening, not all good, that's been keeping me from playing as much as I would have liked.

At the beginning of the week I a practise session with my friend and he showed me a few more things such as a part of Otis Reading's Dock of the bay, using a power cord, which starts off with my index finger on the 6 string of the 3rd fret, my 3rd finger on the 5th sting of the 5th fret and my 4th finger (pinkie) on the 4th sting of the 5th fret - then slide that whole shape up to the 7th fret and so on. It's difficult but I love practising it.

I was shown a couple of other song beginnings but to be honest it was too much to take in at the time as my kids were running around distracting me.

During all this time I've had with my guitar I often wondered if the action was too high. The action is the distance the strings are from the frets, which is typically measured at the 12th fret. Anyhow, I wanted to know how to lower the action so once again I headed off to YouTube and watched a couple of videos.



Against the advice of my friend, I loosened all the strings and lifted out the bridge, took about a 1.5 - 2 millimetres off the bottom and put it all back together again. Please note, if this is something you are thinking of doing, get the job done by a professional. I could have easily taken too much off making the bridge too small, and ruined my guitar. I probably was lucky - I fancied my chances of not making a mistake. It could have gone wrong. Don't do it.

Thankfully the guitar still plays fine after butchering the bridge and I can notice that the stings are closer to the frets. It has made a bit of a difference but not much. That will come with practice and perhaps some more practice after that.

One of the other setbacks this week involved me jarring an old fracture injury in my left wrist which makes my practising painful and some of the chords that I could almost hit become that bit more difficult.

They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar - 2 Weeks

It's actually been 2 and a half weeks since I bought my acoustic guitar and I've kept the fingernails of my left as short as possible, trimming them about twice a week. The hard skin is starting to develop and I'm getting use to them being so short.

Over the last week I was shown some great playing tips and chords, including what my friends call the Green Day G, which is the G Chord but with the ring finger on the B string and the pinkie on the high E sting of the 3rd fret. I don't know if this variation on the G chord has a name but it sounds great. It also helps when you're learning to play Green Day's (Good Riddance) Time of Your Life, because when you move from the G chord to Cadd9, then to the D chord, your ring finger doesn't need to move from the B string on the 3rd fret. Another variation on the Cadd9 chord is to keep your pinkie on the High E string which makes this song really easy.

The lesson for this these chords and Green Day's Good Riddance - Time Of Your Life song can be found on this Marty Schwartz YouTube video:

This week also so me being introduced to some really nice Blues music played on the acoustic guitar in the chord of E - otherwise known as 'Blues in E'

Another great video by Marty on learning some blues stuff on the acoustic can be found below, but what my friend, Tim showed me this week is barring the E minor chord with your index finger and hammering on and pulling off the top E string on the 3rd fret with the middle finger as the top 3 stings only are being played. Sounds really cool.

Without further ado, some Blues lessons:

Finger Exercises - Learning To Play Guitar

The great thing about taking up a new hobby is there are lots of people willing to offer advice. Part of that advice was to do exercises with my left hand to strengthen it. Those exercises included squeezing something like a squishy ball that I can get from a sports shop and to do exercises with my fingers going up and down the fret board.
I’ve found this great video on YouTube that covers doing exercises with my fingers on the fret board. Just thought I would share it with you as I will be trying this out. J

My First Week With The Finlayson D1-G Acoustic Guitar

Following advice, I've done my best to keep the fingernails of my left hand as short as possible to help with pressing the stings on the fretboard. I've also been practicing as much as possible, usually until my fingers get too sore. My fingertips are going through the process of developing calluses, which is a good thing as it makes playing much less painful. Having my fingernails this short and subjecting the fingertips to the pain of pressing thin steel wire onto frets causes a weard tingly feeling which last for ages, but I am assured it will go away after a few weeks. I'm only managing to get in about half an hour playing a day.

While the fingers of my left hand are becoming 'seasoned' I've been looking at videos on YouTube to give me ideas on what to do with my right hand, other than just strum.

The pain and tingling feeling in my left hand doesn't bother me, in fact I welcome it as I know it will pass and I will be able to play for longer. Finding video to show me a few trick to do with my right hand makes learning to play more fun and adds another layer of interest.

For most of this first week of learning I was kind of wondering if I made a mstake with the guitar choice as holding it felt a bit uncomfortable, but I think it was just a case of getting comfortable with it.

Overall it's been a fairly good week, I've not pushed myself too much as I didn't want to damage my fingers, also I've managed to learn a couple of chords and a couple of variations, such as E major and minor, A major and minor and A7.

Over the coming weeks my aim is to learn a couple more easy beginner chords and then practice switching from one chord to the next quickly and smoothly.

So that's been my first week learning to play guitar, something they say anyone can play.

I'll leave you with this video of Tommy Emmanuel playing Classical Gas, and as an absolute beginner I watched this video and was totally gobsmacked and amazed at his playing abilities. Watching his left hand throw some seemingly impossible looking shapes and fly up and down that fretboard makes me think I'll never be able to play like that, but that's OK, I'll settle for 1/10 of his abilities right now.

Arrgh, My Fingers Hurt Like Hell - Learning To Playing Guitar

Today, I stuck on a YouTube video or two to learn how to play a few notes of a song I like. I was really keen to learn a bit of House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals. I also wanted to watch a some videos to help me learn some chords.

I'm getting the hang of E major, E minor, A major and A minor. I also played about with D and C chords. The trouble I'm having is mostly is with my 3rd or Ring finger. For example, If I want to play an E and my ring finger is on the 4th string I can't seem to get the pad of it away from the 3rd string which ends up muted, spoiling the sound.

Anyway, by the time I had rememberd a couple of chords and knew where to put my fingers, by the time I wanted to have a go at playing a bit of the song, my fingers were that sore, which I was warned about, I had to give up for the day.

Ouch my fingers hurt. - Click on the image to got to a artice about sore guitar fingers.

Finlayson D-1G - My Brand New Guitar

Armed with plectrums in our pockets my friend and I went shopping today - I got my first guitar! It's a standard dreadnought style acoustic guitar, but I spent a bit more and got a better quality construction, with better materials and the result is a great sounding instrument. Instead of a laminated spruce front, the Finlayson D-1G has a solid spruce front. It also comes supplied with a hard case.

I went to a shop called Guitar Guitar which has a branch near where I live. I spent a bit more than I planned due to the available stock in the shop. I was looking to spend about £50 less but they either had a cheapish one which you could see was not constructed as well as the one I bought, or the next cheapest one was at the maximum of what I was willing to spend. In fact there was another guitar that we looked at that was a cut-away electric-acoustic, but to be honest it didn't sound a good and I feel I did not need this style of guitar - not for now anyway.

I sneaked this short video on my mobile of my friend playing about with the Finlayson D-1G guitar so I could put it here for you to see.

When the shop assistant came back through with with my new guitar from the stock room, he came through carrying this huge black guitar case. Personally I think it's ugly and would feel happier if came with a better looking soft case, but I suppose that having the hard case will protect it better and I should be happy about that.



Courtesy of GuitarGuitar this the image of my Finlayson D-1G Dreadnought shaped acoustic guitar.



Heading home I was invited back to my friends house for a cup of tea and to show off my new guitar. I got my cup of tea and let Tim tune it in. Once it was was tuned in it still took about 40 minutes before I could get my hands on it. I think he like it.

I was then given a few finger exercises to do and reminded that learning to play the guitar is a painful thing to do and it certainly is. The thing I know I'm defiantly going to struggle with is getting my left hand and fingers to do what look like impossible contortions. Some chords seem easy and some look like there's no way in hell am I going get my hand in that shape to play it. Even with the easiest of chords my fingers keep touching strings they are not suppose to.

My mission now is to learn two or three easy beginner chords. It seem simple enough but its going to hurt like hell and I need to keep my finger nails really.

What Made Me Decide To Learn To Play The Guitar

There were several persuading factors that, eventually made me decide to get a guitar. First I think was the fact that over the years whenever I’ve been invited to someones house and it turns out that thy have a guitar I’ve always been surprised and impressed. I suppose that’s another way of me saying I thought it was cool they played the guitar.

More recently, with my friend Tim playing for the last couple of year he has been planting that seed that I should get one too (OK, Tim, it looks like you’ve won. I’m going to get one), but the biggest persuading factor was my kids. My daughter ‘harped’ on at me about getting her a violin, so I gave in and ordered her one online. At the same time I thought it would be cool if I got my 5 year old son a kids sized guitar. I didn't want him to feel left out either. I was taken by surprise (again) that I enjoyed playing about with it too.

My son’s guitar is too small for me so I need to get my own one. Also, and I didn’t even think about this at the time but my son is left handed and whenever he picks up the guitar he holds it upside down. I will need to get his re-strung for him, and by doing that, I won’t be able to mess about with it, and that’s another reason for me to get my own guitar.


My son, Scott, thinks his guitar is cool but he’s more use to playing rough and has hands like a No10 Shovel, so it will take some patience to get him to strum anything let alone play a chord! Let’s hope that when I get my new guitar he will want to learn with me. I’ll just have to do my best to help him along.

Welcome to They Say Anyone Can Play Guitar

Hello and welcome to my brand new blog which is about me learning to play the guitar.
My name is William, and I'm an absolute beginner - so much so that I don't even own a guitar yet! No doubt the first few posts in this blog will be about me doing some research and eventually buying my first guitar.

I am aiming to buy a 6 string acoustic guitar, and with a little guidance from my friend, Tim, who started playing 2 years ago, I hope to get a half decent starter one. I was looking at a guitar shop's website yesterday and was talking to Tim about what I found there. You can pick up a great guitar with a lot of 'bells and whistles' for not much more than your standard 6 string acoustic guitar suitable for a beginner like me, but I will not be spending too much on a guitar as it more important for me just now as an absolute beginner to get to grips with the basics.

I've been warned - learning to play the guitar can be painful on the hand and fingers.

A steel stringed acoustic guitar - instrument of torture for a beginner like me!

God knows how I'm going to manage to get my fingers to do what they need to do to play the chords, it looks impossible and sore, but they say anyone can play guitar - so I'm giving it a try.