Entertainment & Arts

Homemade Musician Vol.1

Have you always wanted to play some instrument but you are too busy or the course is expensive?

Don't be afraid, you can do it on your own.

You can keep wondering what if, or you can start right away, I hope these guidelines would help you out.

Qualifications:

- I have been playing guitar for almost 10 years. I picked up a Keyboard and I find it easy to play, bass and drums are quite easy for me too.

- I learned most of it by myself, and developed my skills on my own.

- Improvising is my best quality. I have a natural talent to improvise solos and arpeggios while playing.

- Music theory. I did take a YouTube Course and that is it.

Here is my channel ,you can check out how I improvise (Most of my videos are improvised playing):

https://www.youtube.com/user/AbdullahAlKilani

Time for business:

- choose and instrument

Homemade Musician Vol.1

See what instrument you like the most (mostly it comes to what kind of music you prefer) and make up your mind. Now I recommend to start with one of these:

- Classic/Acoustic guitar

- Ukulele

- Harmonica

- Keyboard organ

- Small Drums set

These are the best start ups. If you wanted something that is complicated like violin or harp, I recommend that you start with one of the easy instruments above and later you can change it.

- Normal or Lefty

Homemade Musician Vol.1

This is an important deal many ignore but you gotta know that it is important when it comes to some instruments like guitar. I am lefty but I started playing regular guitar and I know I am good but my right hand is not up to the speed of my left, it is not a big of a deal. I am pretty good but I think if I would have started with a lefty guitar I would have gotten to a more level of precision, so you got to choose what feels more natural to you and try to use a lefty instrument if you are a lefty for a while.

Terms:

There are some terms that you need to know. I might not mention here, if you need any help I am here.

Fret- On instruments such as guitars, each fret represents one semitone in the standard western system.

Fret Board- Is where you press your fingers to make a different tone .

Homemade Musician Vol.1

Pick- is the shaped plastic that you stroke the strings with (you can start with it our without is) it is mostly used for electric guitar and acoustic.

Homemade Musician Vol.1

Neck: The neck has all the fret on with the string.

Homemade Musician Vol.1

You are ready now

Now you are set to start. You are too excited I hope, you will spend hours and hours a day learning.

To start first you need to know that we have 7 letters in, each letter is a full sounding note they start from A and finish with G. Now these are like a map. I won't go into much details but it has a long theory of how they are made like this. But for now I will give you the full scale of music notes:

A/A#/B/C/C#/D/D#/E/F/F#/G/G#

Now we have something that is # which we call a sharp. These represent the black key in piano. It is a note between letters that comes in this order, as you see we have 12 musical notes here, which is in general for most instruments. Now to connect this to your instrument I will explain the standard tune so you can go through those letters one by one to understand what I mean.

*Tuning:

Most instruments needs tuning. Now we have a standard tuning which is used for many songs. It is based on theory that we have many different tuning but we shall go with standard. Let's say you have a string instrument like guitar. Each string is different by thickness and material as you notice and by the sound it makes. I assume that you have set up instruments with strings in the right order and installed properly. If you don't have that then you can see on YouTube how they are installed or ask me for help.

Grab your guitar. The first string from above which is the thickest, this is called E string. It should have a certain sound. I will give you a link of each that you can use for tuning you need to turn the nobs at the top of the guitar neck, tight or loose depending on the sound. You should try to match the sound, or you can use many of the apps on your mobile that are easy to handle, here is the link:

https://www.fender.com/online-guitar-tuner/acoustic-guitar-tuning/

Now your guitar strings can be tuned the old fashion way, which is first you need to tune the E at least to do it. If you can memories the sound of it it would help, now on each string the next one should sound like the one before if you press on the fifth fret on the one above it. You can do this for all strings expect for the fourth one which you should press on the fourth fret.

Now this is a standard tuning:

Homemade Musician Vol.1

Reading notes tool:

-There are two ways of reading the song, Tab (Tablature) sheet (which we will use) and Note sheet (Which is advanced).

"Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the lute, vihuela, or guitar, as well as many free reed aerophones such as the harmonica."

Wikipedia

How it works:

It is really simple, it will give you a number which you need to press (lets say on a guitar) and the string you need to press your finger on, it will come in lines, as in order to guitar. For piano or keyboard organ you can just look at the shape and start from the letter.

Homemade Musician Vol.1

Guitar Pro:

This is one of the best applications out there. You have unlimited resources of instruments over this app. you have unlimited bank of songs you can learn, now i have the old version "5" if you like i could share it with you or you can find a way to download it. You can download the songs from this website or even learn it there:

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

Start learning songs,

And forget about skills for now, you started from zero it is no time to try to perfect advanced skills,or advanced songs.

Learn what you love. It is important for you to enjoy the songs you are learning it will make it easier to learn since you are familiar with these songs.

Homemade Musician Vol.1

This phase would take you 2-6 months. You have to keep learning and keep your passion alive, and mostly enjoy your time.

Now my advice is not to go looking to an easy way. There is no such a thing, even if you have talent you don't need distractions, so start learning .

At first your forearms and finger tips might hurt lol

As for Drums, it is way different from others but much simpler to start. You need to set up your drum set, and start learning songs and coordination of your hands and legs. I am sorry that I don't have much knowledge in the drums but it won't take long to get there.

Homemade Musician Vol.1
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