MC wrote:

Here is a link to a you tube channel that has a number of surf tune lessons
https://www.youtube.com/user/jbruceguitar/videos

Pentatonic scales are major scales that skip the half steps. If you have all the pentatonic patterns down, the major scale patterns live in side the pentatonic patterns and by extention, so do the minor scales as well as modes of scale. Don't try to overthink things.
Sorry about your finger but as was mentioned don't let that stop you.
Well come to SG 101 !!

Thanks for the advice. That helps simplify the idea of the different types of scales for me. Nice!

I’ve gone to Bruce’s YouTube channel and he is awesome. I don’t know which tune to start with though... any suggestions? I have worked on “Penetration” some but even that might be a bit ambitious for me right now. The riffs aren’t necessarily hard but putting them together with the chord transitions and such and doing it all at hyper speed is tough. Would like to know of some easier songs to ramp up with first. Oh yeah, I also worked on “Latinia” off of his channel for a bit. Similar experience.

Thanks again!

Doc_Sportello wrote:

I've been mostly lurking on this site for a while, but this post inspired me to join the conversation. Jason, I was in almost the exact same boat as you about a year and a half ago. I'm an old punk. I play bass in a band. For years, I could play guitar, but I only played chords and really only around the house. After decades of that, I decided I wanted to genuinely learn the instrument. Almost all of the online lessons I found quickly brought me into bluesy classic rock, which I had no interest in playing. Then I found this forum.

I decided to learn how to play surf guitar. One of the first things I did was go to the downloads page here and hunt for the Man or Astroman? tabs. There's a folder in the downloads with dozens of their songs. I started slowly with the easier ones ("Invasion of the Dragonmen," "Taxidermist Surf," and "Clean Up on Aisle 9"). I played them slowly until I could speed up.

I tried Jason Laughlin's course, too. Some things were helpful, but I didn't really want to spend a bunch of time learning songs that I didn't really want to play.

Someone here recommended Bruce Lindquist's page (the one that MC links to above), and that helped a lot. For many of his lessons, he teaches the song slowly, then at regular speed. I learned 15-20 songs from Bruce's site. He also has lessons on tremolo/alternate/speed picking and other techniques of surf guitar.

Also, this guy has a few good surf guitar lessons:
https://www.youtube.com/user/AdrianPWoodward/playlists

Probably the most important thing I did was buy a BeatBuddy. It's so much more fun to play along with than a metronome, and it helps you gradually increase the tempo at which you play songs.

After all of that, I wanted to write my own stuff, so now I'm diving into really learning my scales (I know them on the bottom four strings because of bass; I'm learning the top two strings) and messing around with learning stuff by ear. I think that I would've just gotten frustrated and done something else if I started there. Now that I'm doing it, it's definitely worthwhile.

Hopefully, my experiences will help you decide how to map yours.

Also, since I'm finally doing more than lurking here, I need to say thank you to the members of this forum. You've helped me out quite a bit!

Thanks man! Lots of great advice here! Cool to see another old punk with an appreciation for surf. Thanks again.

SilverFlash wrote:

Hi Viking_Power & Doc_Sportello, Welcome to SG101! I also endorse Bruce Lindquist's videos for learning surf guitar and I also recommend Tom Conlon's YouTube channel as a good source for surf songs with on screen tab. Tom also offers a Surf Guitar Technique E-Book. I purchased it, but I haven't had time to really work through it, yet, so I can't give a review, but my initial impressions are favorable.

Cool. I’ve seen a couple of Tom’s vids but didn’t know he had a books too. I might have to check that out.

NoiseFloor wrote:

Hi Jason,

I didn't start playing any instrument at all until I was 45 (I'm 52 now). I have mainly played bass, but gotten serious about guitar in the last two years.

My advice, in general from my own experience: have realistic expectations. I struggled for a few years because I thought with enough practice I'd be some awesome player. I finally came to the conclusion it would never happen, and I'd have to accept that or give it up. I didn't want to give it up, so just reset my expectations. Made things enjoyable instead of frustrating. That doesn't mean you shouldn't strive to improve. I'm a MUCH better player than I was then.

As for technique, I still can't tremolo pick well at all, but that's the awesome thing about surf: it's melodic. You don't need to play fast at all to create a memorable surf song (Apache, Surfer's Lament).

As for learning songs, start with some easier ones: Surfer's Lament would be an awesome choice. There's a backing track here (I think) and a how-to on youtube. Apache is also a good one, because you get a few short bursts of trem picking to work with, but the song is very easy for the most part.

Learning by ear is still the way to go. It opens up SO many possibilities. A few years ago when I tried to start I thought it would be impossible. I use a digitech jamman to record songs into, and then tap tempo to slow them down. You'll be amazed at how much easier it becomes once you do it for a while. Then you don't need to depend on tabs. I learn most songs now by ear. And don't worry about being 100% accurate, play what sounds best to you. Again, realistic expectations are key. Plus, simplifying or changing little things here and there is a terrific segue into composing. I finally decided to try that this year and it's been a blast.

Best of luck, and the people here are great and always willing to help.

Sweet, another bassist. Haha. Great advice too. Thank you. I have a tendency to want to be amazing at everything I do which can tend to get in the way of just enjoying it. I’ll keep you post in mind as I continue to progress at a snails pace.

Appreciate the songs to learn advice. Apache has always been a fave. I’ll have to take a listen to Surfer’s Lament again. I’m sure I know if but can’t hear it my head just now.

Is it just me or would the multi-quote feature that a lot of forums have been reeeeeeealllllyyy useful for me just now!