Hey i really wanna learn how to play romantic songs!

[MateoFalcone]

hey guys my hands are getting good and i wanna continue learning but im only interested in uplifting love songs, i hate picks and depressing tunes..I dont like sad classical songs or anything sad.


My fav songs i wish  i can play is Vicente Fernandez- para siempre and isley brothers- for the love of you..
I don't like music theory's and don't want to study music right now. I just wanna play some tunes to woman (lol) .


I have a steel guitar (fender) and i dont like the sound it makes, So i was wondering if i should get  manuel rodriquez , jose ramirez,cordoba ? I want to spend under 1,500.


Im also wondering if anybody has any videos that i can watch or buy that is teaching fingerstyle spanish type songs without the crazy music theories?
thanx guys! and what sites should i check out!!!!!!!!!!!


THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sal Bonavita]

Hi MateoFalcone,

It sounds to me ljke you know what you want.
You are also frighteningly clear about what you don't want.

Would it freak you out too much if I told you that it wouldn't do you any harm to take some classical guitar lessons to get your playing technique under control. This will help in playing any style of finger picking on a nylon string guitar. I am assuming you want to play on a nylon string guitar with the fingers.

I play all sorts of music on my nylon string classical instruments. I did learn classical technique from good teachers and --- yes --- I did learn to read standard notation and --- yes --- I do know some music theory.  Both of these things, technique lessons and learning music theory have played a major part in the skills I currently own and use with great pleasure. So would it surprise you too much if I recommend you learn these things. Please don't hit me. Not yet.

It sounds to me like your guitar journey will be limited by what you have decided to "hate" from the beginning. That's a shame because you will inevitable come across "sad" things in all styles of guitar music, not just classical.

I like happy things too. I too love the light and romantic Mariachi style music such as "Para siempre".

 

Here's a question.
How much time are you prepared to spend on learning to play guitar?
One hour a night? Maybe two? How you would spend this time? You obviously have a passionate desire to be able to play the songs that appeal to you. My hand is going up. Me too. Don't we all.

Would you spend the whole time working through the tabs of a piece you want to play. That's good. What if you find a passage you have difficulty with or a barre chord you can't get to sound right or a chord stretch you find hard or legatos that doesn't sound right. Would you keep working at it at full speed with the hope you will get it someday if you keep practicing? I would recommend spending half the practice time working on a piece of music and the other half on careful technical practice to refine your picado (rest strokes), arpeggios, legatos, rasgueados and things like that. Nothing happens by magic. The boring stuff is absolutely essential if you want to play better than the average self taught amateur.

Please don't hit me or walk away but I would recommend going to a teacher and say to them:
"Listen, I'm willing to pay for lessons if you walk me through the technical challenges  in "Para siempre". (or whatever). "I don't want any music theory. Just teach me the technical skills to play this piece properly. Nothing else."

How does that sound?

What guitar should you buy?
I have always said that you don't need to buy anything fancy or expensive. An entry level Yamaha classical guitar is fine to get you through the early years of your guitar journey.


Enough talk.
So how do you learn to play this stuff that YOU want to play
Let's forget about music theory. I am assuming you have no interest in learning to read standard music notation so lets not mention that again.

Can you recommend sites that teach guitar.
Search the Internet and do some exploring.
Use search terms like
"free finger picking lessons"
"how to play Mariachi style guitar"
Classical guitar technique"
(stuff like that)

YouTube is a good place to start for many guitar teaching videos. Many of these are simply advertisements for guitar courses. Check them all out. Buy some of them. Use them. Get out and about and mix with other guitarists. Find out how they learned.

You will notice I am being deliberately vague about all this so you might still want to hit me and walk away. That's fine.

A major part of the guitar journey is exploration. By all means ask around like you are doing here. Discover for yourself the many and varied attitudes about how to learn the guitar. Believe me, there are many. There are also many ways to do the same thing, like hold the guitar or how to pick with the fingers, or hold the left hand. Find out where you fit in to the big picture. Look for home made videos posted by ordinary people who play the things you like and contact them. Ask them how they learned and if they have any recommendations.

All these people have a voice. Take the time to listen to what they have to say. My guess is they will probably say the things you want to hear better than I have in this reply.

Sal

[MateoFalcone]

lol thanx for the advice sal!

yes ur right i should go to a good teacher, but right after i save up money

[MateoFalcone]

sal what wood do u think is the best for romantic songs?


i heard spruce?

[konrad]

Hey Don Mateo! .. I strongly recommend you carefully read what Sal wrote
and if your passion is hot enough, which could well be the case, you'll get there!
After a sleep of 30 years, a month ago I pulled out my no name classical/flamenco
from of the closet, tuned it swore at it, endured the pain of growing callouses back
... but hey, I'm playing tangos and getting the arthritis out of my joints,
and yes .. my hands are remembering soleas and farrucas .. got forbid
even compas! .... keep at it man, push hard but don't kill yourself .. the line is fine!
As your technique improves (even slightly) you will be able to create a sweet romantic sound
on ANY  guitar .. because the sound will come from you .. not the guitar !
ALL THE BEST !

[Sal Bonavita]

Hi MateoFalcone,

I agree with Konrad.

When I was learning classical. I could only afford a cheap second hand "shitbox" guitar. Rather than worry about this I treated it as a challenge. I figured if I developed playing skills on an cheap and nasty instrument I would be maximizing my practice time by having to work harder to get a good sound. I also made things a bit harder for myself by deliberately raising the action so I would have to put more effort into playing legatos and barre chords. Why would I do these things. Because I was serious about becoming the best guitar player I can be. I did not want to mess around. My passion was as strong as yours and I was willing to work hard and do whatever it takes to develop the necessary skills.

Some of the other students who were going to the same guitar school had very expensive guitars bought for them by their rich mummies and daddies. Did it help them become a better player? I don't think so.

A good guitar certainly helps, but the reality is that it is the guitar player's skills and moods that produce the romantic sounds, not the guitar.

Expecting a "better" instrument to make better music without refining the skills first is a very subjective way to appreciate music and how music is projected to a listeners ears and emotions. Music is made by people not pieces of wood. Whatever the sound coming from a guitar, this is filtered by your mood at the time and your perceptions about your own music. If you are in the right mood and are open minded enough you can make some pretty nice music on a cheap guitar. At the same time if you are having a bad day when nothing sounds seems to sound good and your hands feel like lumps of cement, even the best guitar in the world will sound terrible.

My motto is that "if you can make a shitbox play beautiful music, you can make any guitar make beautiful music". The price, make or type of wood used has nothing to do with a casual listeners perceptions and moods.

Just my two cents worth.
Sal

[MateoFalcone]

interesting i never thought about that. i guess ill continue practicing , only problem is i get a headache from the bad sound lol!!!!, eh what the hell ill continue practicing hard..

im  working from 4:30 am to 7 pm so its hard for me to practice . but ill continue !