[Celerity]

I was born with orthopaedic birth defects. My arms are twisted in such a way that I could not even hold the strings down.

All my friends in highschool played, and I was jealous.

30 years after graduation, 5 years ago I decided to pick up a bass and give it my all. I now play both bass and electric guitar (the body of an acoustic is still to thick for my arms) pretty well. Lots of pain, but it happens.

I couldn’t answer the theory question - but you have my support! Good luck!

[Manic_Episode]

Move your Am pentatonic pattern down 4 frets. You are now in A major pentatonic. Find the root with your ear. You’re welcome.

[1Old Pro]

Like most things, in order to get really good you need two things, God given talent and practice practice practice.

That doesn’t mean you have to be the best, being just good is enjoyable, and sometimes not being that good is fun - as in Golf.

Like Golf and like listening to great musicians there’s an old saying for golf easily translated to music. In Golf when watching a pro it’s often said, they aren’t playing the same game we are.

[libertylover]

People who can play a musical instrument amaze me.

[Skooz]

I am, by all accounts, the world’s worst guitarist.

But, I do play.

[Towed_Jumper]

Sorry Lou, I can’t help you. I have zero musical talent and can’t play the guitar. In fact, I have problems just playing the radio.

[Bobalu]

By a set of strange circumstance I have come into possession of several guitars.

I don't play guitars though.

I do embedded systems work and someone had the idea I might be able to automate guitars in some way.

I have taken one of the guitars, a 4-string, short-scale bass and turned it into an open-g 4-string by simply putting the middle 4 strings from a pak of number 10 strings on it and tuning to GDGB. It sounds pretty great and the narrow nut of 1.4" combined with the wider string spacing of only 4 strings works well for those with both large and small hands... Some call these 4-string open tuned guitars Cigar Box Guitars. They are easy to play... it has a 25.5" scale length, the same as a common telecaster or strat.

I have managed to play some old Stones riffs on it by following Cigar Box Guitar demos on youtube... it's actually pretty easy! I read that Keith Richards of the Stones plays a 5-string open-g guitar with a 25.5" scale length.... pretty much the same but with a 5th string tuned to D. I can't really tell any difference, I tried the 5-strings on one of the guitars I got, it's a Fender Telecaster, it sounds no better than the 4-string to me.

Here is what the modded 4-string looks like. It's a smallish guitar but surprisingly weighs the same as a larger telecaster.

I looked for them on ebay and found them for just 50 dollars but that may have changed since the tariffs. The two I have came from some music shop in Nashville.

It sounds great plugged into the amp that was with the guitars I am attempting to mod. it is a Fender Champion 100 amp and is very loud. The pickups seem adequate but at some point I may mod it and put in a better pickup at the neck position.

[subterfuge]

Have been playing 51 years. Always concentrated on learning songs I liked and could sing, so not much of a soloist. I don’t really think of chords anymore. I just see the patterns and shapes my fingers need to be in to play a given song. IOW, can’t help you. Sorry!

[HonkyTonkMan]

I play parts of songs. Badly. Ditto on Truefire.

[Bullish]

YouTube has thousands of tutorial videos for guitar and bass etc. I use them a lot even as an advanced player. Just about any song I want to learn someone has made a tutorial for and lots and lots of vids covering scales and pentatonics and stuff.

Just search on guitar tutorials you’ll find lots.

[Mama Shawna]

Lot of us here at FR play, 46+ years for me. Here’s me in my office playing Ventura Highway. Yes, I get paid to play. https://youtu.be/_ZsSetYMI5E

[kjam22]

Cage method, boxes, patterns, scales…… play what you hear in your head. Learn to get that to come out of the guitar. For me…. After a gig if I had a good stretch of flowing what I hear in my head through the guitar, then it was successful.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I neglected to mention that not only is the C Sharp versus C natural a source of clash with your key centers, the A major scale will also have a G sharp, versus G natural.