Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blunder1983]

Hey guys,

My "learning korean" regime is falling apart quite rapidly so I'm looking to learn other stuff in my free time.

I can sing pretty well and would like to back it up with a instrument. Where can I buy a cheap ass guitar and a good beginners book? I can see a load on What the Book but whats hot and whats not??

A book on learning french would rock too

Chris

[uberscheisse]

ass guitars i don't know... but guitars, the main place to go is nagwon music arcade at jongno-3-ga station, right in downtown seoul.

i find that a lot of the korean-made acoustics are not only cheap but not that bad as far as quality/sound. i've seen some for around 100-200,000.

also - some american manufacturers get their steez done in korea so i've played some alvarez/yairi, epiphone and others that are almost as good as their american-made counterparts. the alvarez-yairi was a steal at about 300,000, in my opinion.

as far as beginners books, i don't know if you'd be able to find one in english. buy a chord book on amazon.com or something and find a teacher. there's tons of players on this board, i'm sure someone would step up.

i'd teach you but i don't have the patience and you'd be wasting your money.

[fusionbarnone]

If you want to play, it's obviously (from your post) to accompany your playing. I think that's the best reason to learn and get the most enjoyment as well(also, your friends will thinks so too).

You can buy a book if you prefer, you can also save time (and money) with the internet.

Most songs are three to four songs to be sure many famous musicions songwriters wrote tunes with three chords. Thus, A B C D E F G are you major chords, most rock songs are A D E, country tunes G C D/ C F G.

Minor chords E D A are the most popular. So, collectively a total of ten chords will set you up just fine. F G being somewhat difficult in the beginning as they require a finger stretch.

As far as keys and if you sing low you will need to lower(raise if higher) the key to suit your voice at a comfortable level. Search online for this. It's not difficult. It's call transposing.

One famous Broadway songwrite wrote exclusively in the key of F. So, no need to feel limited if you choose one key only.

Here's some basic theory.
Major chord(maj) Minor chord(min)

Keys of A, B, C, D, E, F, G,

A maj, B min, C# min, D maj, E maj, F# min, G# maj, A maj - from A to A is an octave so A to G is one to seven;

B C# D# E F G A# B - I= major chord, 2 = minor, 3=minor, 4=major, 5=major, 6=minor, 7=major

C D E F G A B C has no flats or sharps- C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor, B major, C major(octave)

D E F# G A B C# D

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

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

G A B C D E F# G

1 4 5 progressions are used a lot in rock and blues= first chord on the scale, fourth and the fifth.

You can find progressions for jazz, pop etc., online. Also look at cycle of fourths and cycle of fifths.

The internet is an amazing resource as you can bookmark/copy selected pages to microsoft office deleting the ads, resizing the tablature, reducing the music down to as few pages as possible, and other cool things.

There are a lot of free tablature sites supported by dedicated tablaters keen to offer you the fruits of their labor. This is good news as gleaning a workable version of a tune, memorizing bars, learning the solo by ear, is guaranteed to be time-consuming. These sites save you this hassel.

Lyrics for songs in entirety can be found by googling a few words from the song.

Even tuning your guitar can be found online or just simply buy a pitch pipe or electronic tuner if you get really serious.

Tab sites may have multiple postings of the same song in various interpretations. If you want only the chords, you will find these easily enough. Remember musicians from other styles cover songs from other genres quite often.

If you have time to learn complicated guitar solos than praise the tab people again. All you need to do this is the desire to play like your hero. Being a killer guitarist is really about repeating the stuff on the page until you have "muscle memory" . Finger strength and fluidity will come with repitition and it really is amazing to find after a month, you have not only mastered difficult runs/licks/two-handed hammer-ons, tapping, etc., you've also committed the solo to memory.

You don't need twenty years to play like a pro in the information age.

Not all interpretations are accurate (I'm a perfectionist and prefer getting as close to the original rendition as possible) but if you search long enough you may find one. For example, "Come on let the good times roll" was an Earl King's tune played note for note by Jimi Hendrix. None of the tabs were complete but since I had lots of free time, I decided to ear play the tune myself where the chords I did get from the tab sites helped me to visualize better(new ideas and possibilities) and later provide a more accurate rendition with improvisational possibilites to add to a growing resource of killer/signature licks.

Just because a musician may have been famous doesn't mean your interpretive contributions will be less. Creativity and inspiration with appropriate practice is the ultimate personal sculptor. Producing something that is all you is what all serious musicians strive for. Hendrix was once quoted as saying; "when you copy someone else, your mind begins to wonder". Say's it all I think.

Being creative and thinking simplicity is the key to enjoying and understanding music at your own level and on your own terms. Lack of skill is easily solved and shouldn't hold you back as that state is temporarily technical.

Concerning guitars, Fender is made under licence in Korea so I bought an acoustic guitar for 150,000 with excellent intonation. I also purchased a Stein Berger electric for 150,000. I deliberately kept things cheap as i own a lot of guitars back home and that being behind my decision to set the buying parameters. I think I got good value for my money.

As for effects, a Zoom pedal preset multi-effects sound processor(programmeable) with almost every trademark effects combo in rock/pop history. 150,000 won.

If you decide to go electric, you need buy an adaptor plug(2,000 won) for your computers speakers or and your guitar jack. Sound system aux plugs are usually standard jack size so you can also play through you system speakers. If you don't mind carting stuff home or, finding someone to buy it from you, score an amp.

You have a range of acoustic styles to accompany your voice if you later decide; claw hammer ragtime, blue grass cross picking, flamingo right hand techniques, bottle neck slide, folk style arppeggio patterns(finger picking with a near set pattern) as well as a broad range of strumming styles(choose a pattern that suits the tune). You will find web sites with downloadable tablature in both standard notation(written music) and tablature.

Books that contain all of this info(lyrics, chords, strumming, finger picking patterns) are called fake books and are used by street performers/musicians to quickly learn new "numbers".

Contrary to what most people will think, Buskers can make really good money. A friend of mine loves country songs thus it's not unusual for him to make a few hundred in a couple of hours, or enough in a short time to pay for lunch for two.

You will probably find your ability improving quite rapidly much faster than leaning hangul. Good luck have fun.

BTW; girls love a guitar playin' man.

[ulsanchris]

that's a lot of info. I hope you didn't intimadate the guy.

[joe_doufu]

Are you going to be at the book swap sunday, chris? I'm also interested in learning guitar, maybe we could form some kind of a practice group.

[uberscheisse]

here's another guitar related question -

to find what the market's saying about computer gear i go to the korean site enuri.com to check prices, and then i go to yongsan when i have an idea of what i should be spending.

is there a similar online shopping site for musical gear? i want to buy a line6 pod next paycheck so i can record demos on my computer.

[fruitcake]

I've been playing guitar 15 years or so and play with a few bands in town. Could offer lessons for those interested from beginning to intermediate, technique / theory / ideas for practice. Send me a PM if interested.

Cheers

[blunder1983]

Well I'm keen and it doesnt sound TOO bad, I can hear "keys" of music quite well, and I've also been trained on piano and clarinet so I'm not totally thrown by the whole musical scales etc.

Looks like I'm gonna have to save a bit before I start tho, I'm rather impoverished (holidays are expensive!) So I'll leave for a month or so.

Thanks for ur responses, I'll pm a few people nearer the time!

Chris

[fruitcake]

[ulsanchris]

what book swap?

[keithinkorea]

Perhaps when the weather gets nice we should all head out somehwere with our axes and have a jam. I'm a pretty OK guitar player and I'd be glad to help out others of a lower level, if they want to buy me a beer a I wont be offeded!

After quite a few years of only playing acoustics, I'm getting back into the electric. And my Korean acoustic (cheapo piece of crap) died on me.

I've started to reallise that there are a lot of musicians on this board. We should get together and have some jamming experiences.

I suggest the Han river park near Hapjeong, weather permitting.

It would be great to get a little guitar collective together. I learned more through teaching others to play guitar than any teacher taught me.

Share the love of guitar. If you're interested then pm.

[joe_doufu]

[skookum]

[Qinella]

[funplanet]

and if you wanna play like Keith Richards, you'll need to drop the E string (the top one) and tune (open G) G D G B D awesome sound!

wanna play grunge! D A D G B E called drop d tuning

D A D G A D Jimmy Page and others use this a lot.. goood for that celtic sound, or soulfoul moaning...

D A D F# A D is good for slide playing

and a dozens more...