Video Question: First Guitar

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Date: April 21st, 2008 | Length: 3.72 | Instructor: Matt Brown

Paigew says, "I'm buying my first electric guitar and I am stuck.I was thinking about getting a fender strat but I do not know if I am starting out to big.Do you think I should go less or stick with the strat?" Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

Other Video Responses:

Strumming with a Flat Pick - September 10th, 2007 (4 minutes, 14 seconds)

JeFrank asks "I'm finding strumming with a flat pick more difficult than meets the eye. I can strum down fine, but I find that when I strum up, I catch the strings in a very jagged way. Any tips about that? Also, how much of the pick should emerge from your fingers? Does your hand angle at all as it goes up and down? Thanks!" View Response

Guitar Hero 3 Help Guitar Playing - March 10th, 2008 (1 minutes, 00 seconds)

Hgnative asks, "hi my question is about the game guitar hero 3 playing this game will it hurt are help in my quest to be a good guitar player thanks." View Response

chords - September 10th, 2007 (3 minutes, 80 seconds)

Kylehumer asks "how do i know whichh notes i can play sound good in lead over any given chords i choose?" View Response

Guitar Action - April 23rd, 2008 (3 minutes, 40 seconds)

Jdemail78 asks, "I hear a lot about guitar action but I'm not really sure what is good or bad. I had purchased an acoustic guitar that I believe had very low action (strings were very close to the neck of the guitar) and it was very easy to play but it ended up having some issues with fret buzz and other ringing sounds that I did not like and could not get corrected at the local guitar shop. I've since replaced it with a little bit better guitar and I no longer have any fret buzz nor do I have any ringing sounds but it seems like the action is higher (strings are much higher off the neck of the guitar) and therefore, for me as a beginner, it is harder to play. My question is when it comes to an experienced guitar player (which I am not...yet...) is it good to have a guitar with higher action or lower action? What would one typically prefer? Do really nice expensive guitars come with very low action making them easy to play but don't have any buzzing issues or is it a case where as you get better, higher action is ok because your better at fretting chords and notes? My curiosity with this comes from a hope that the guitar I have now, with it's strings higher off the fret board, will slowly become easier to play as I get better and I'll become ok with the higher action because it does sound better and cleaner than the one I had with the lower action. Also, please correct me if I have the "high action" "low action" descriptions backwards." View Response

Easy 2 or 3 Chord Songs - February 19th, 2008 (1 minutes, 16 seconds)

Umbertone asked, "Hy guys, First of all, I love this site. I wish I could have had this opportunity 40 years ago. Oh, well!!! Since I'm not in it to become a master guitarist, but to have a bit of fun with my guitar, I'd like to ask you guys if you could prepare some videos about what I think may be easier songs. For examples, I'd like to learn some Beatles songs, or some CCR, or Eagles, or Queen. I would really appreciate the effort. Thank you very much. Keep up the excellent work you're doing. Umberto." View Response