Guitar Noob Help?

[3---Hit---U]

Hey, I recently bought a Schecter Sunset Deluxe with FR and it's amazing.

Except for one thing. The FREAKING FLOYD ROSE!

So, I've seen ways of fixing it (wood blocks, brass tool, and tremol-no), but they all require some modification, so I was thinking about getting a new guitar. Except I'm poor.

ANYWAY.

My brother is on better terms with my parents, and if he wants a guitar, and I help pay for it, we (I) can get a new guitar.

Now the problem.

My brother cannot play guitar.

For F****** Sh*t.

So, what are some really REALLY REALLY (did I say really enough?) basic songs (preferably hard rock/light metal) that nearly anyone can play. and my brother really sucks, like he cant even play the bass intro to Crazy Train (I know really sad)

And I'm probably just going to end up buying a new guitar when I get a summer job, so I WILL get mah new tremolo-less guitar sometime.

Oh, check me out on youtube by the way: http://www.youtube.com/user/09TheBigProjekt09



EDIT: My brother actually does want a guitar, but he doesn't want to buy one if he can't play it.

[DreXxiN]

Smoke on the water.

Start with some Skillet / Three Days Grace songs. (Probably will need to drop the low E string to D tuning)

Play songs you like, or simple chord progression songs that play on the radio such as Second Chance by shinedown or that new one by Apocolyptica... (Can't remember the name for some reason.)

Also try playing cowboys from hell really slow and work your ways up. This helps with really beginner scaling sections.

[Nitro Vordex]

AC/DC is a great place to start with rhythm and solos. No downtuning, often the same scales and no nonsense.

[Lance813]

Why don't you just tighten down your FR, and unscrew the bar? I mean, that should solve your problem, unless you really want a solid bridge.

Beginner songs, lets see. Well this is how I started up.

Fresh off of the block I started learning some old Green Day songs to get rhythm down, such as Basket Case and Brain Stew. After you learn how to keep rhythm you can move on to simple scales within song such as Iron Man, and War Pigs by Sabbath. After playing those slow for a while you can start to increase your speed. After that, you can move up to some Zeppelin songs like Black Dog. The first few months of you playing will be increasing finger strength and speed.

When you can play all of those song fairly well you can move up to bands such as Coheed and Cambria, Rush, and Iron Maiden. You will be playing songs of this difficulty for a bit until you get your hands stronger and not as 'stupid'.

From there you can work on picking technique, such as alternate picking and sweeping. Bands like Trivium and Protest the Hero will help you on those. After that you can decide for yourself what to play.

If you need help with any kind of technique, youtube is your friend. Don't be afraid to use it.

[Blue-Hawk]

Stairway to Heaven. If you can't play that you REALLY don't belong even touching a guitar, much less looking at one.

[hyperacute]

You can easily hardtail a Floyd with a block of wood in the trem cavity. Still have to mess about with allen keys to restring it but it saves it detuning itself. Makes for better sustain too.

As for easy beginner songs, the riffs from Smoke on the Water, Sunshine of your Love and Louie Louie were the classic ones in my day. Most punk songs ( for example Pistols, Kennedys, The Clash) are basic chord work and easy to pick up. Should give a decent basic chord repetoire to get hands used to the positions and make learning other songs easier.

Drop the E string down to D and all of a sudden, you can play powerchords with one finger. Probably a hell of a lot of metal riffs you can play this way. Rammstein spring to mind for some reason XD

For something more melodic, picking up the blues scales around the 12th fret lets you noodle around and improvise a bit. Throw in a few string bends and a little vibrato for (almost) instant BB King goodness.

Throw a little distortion (all right, a lot!) on when practising and almost anything sounds better! I also used to find it easier learning the individual riffs from songs rather than trying to get the entire song note perfect in one sitting. You can string them all together once you're comfortable with them.

Fairly simple stuff really but it familiarises your hands with the instrument which in the early days is all you're really trying to do.

[3---Hit---U]

Thanks for all the tips!

I found my one friend knows how to block a Floyd, so he offered to do it for me sometime =D

Thanks anyways :P

[Syl]

Ew Floyd Rose. IMO to me it's never been worth it, so I stick to Tonepros bridges (especially through-body ones <3). Sure it's nice that my guitar can stay tuned, but it's always been awkward for palmmutes and I switch up my tunings ALL the time so in my case it isn't worth it at all >_>

Uh as far as easy bands... Green Day, Metallica, AC/DC, The Ramones, and Nirvana all come to mind. Easy power riffs and chord progressions, nothing that will make your hands explode or fall off

Stairway to Heaven. If you can't play that you REALLY don't belong even touching a guitar, much less looking at one.

Unless I dunno... the song is boring as hell? I don't really care for that song, even though I know I can play it. Every guitar noob at one point will learn it though, so that kind of goes without saying.

[Nitro Vordex]

I never learned Stairway to Heaven.

[DreXxiN]

When you can play all of those song fairly well you can move up to bands such as Coheed and Cambria, Rush, and Iron Maiden

Woah, isn't that a pretty hefty jump there? :P. I mean, especially maiden...well ok, I learned the trooper and Hallowed be Thy Name early on guitar..but I wouldn't really expect him to be able to do the triplets/gallop picking really well in the early stages nor the sick trillwork of Dave's solo's XD.