guitarists?

It's pointless to learn if you don't understand. And it's easier to understand on your own. Once you understand then you should take lessons.

 

here's another tidbit of advice: learn the notes... because they'll make everything come together.

 

Of course there is some conflicting advice here. We can only say what worked for us, but that's not necessarily what will work best for you.

I've been playing for many years and currently play in a local cover band. I have taught myself everything, but this self-taught method works for some peeps but not everyone. It's nice if you know someone who plays to show you some things. That really helps. If not, consider a teacher but I'd probably recommend that you tell them you want to learn chords first. Learning melody is fine and has it's place too but you have to be careful with that. Many teachers will start you off reading music off a sheet (most guitarists do not use sheet music) and you spend most of the time learning "red river valley" and that sort of thing while they basically teach you to read music for weeks/months/years on end. But a couple chords will go a long way particularly if you want to add backing to your poetry. The point being find a teacher who is willing to teach you what you want to learn.

I started out on acoustic, it's still my first and foremost musical passion... only got into electric to play in a band situation really. I'd play all sorts of electric based stuff on acoustic before that. You can do it, don't let anyone tell you ya can't. Builds up finger strength like crazy playing electric style on an acoustic... BUT it is surely no substitute if electric truly is your passion and goal. Pick the one of the two (electric or acoustic) which you really want to strive to play... that will be the one which will inspire you to put the hours in. If you enjoy yourself it shouldn't feel like "practice" to practice... only just the fun and want to play. First and foremost you have to enjoy yourself to learn to play. And once you put some time in then the learning comes quicker and eventually it even becomes pretty easy. Depends what you're after too... like I say a handful of open chords can play a boatload of songs!

If you decide electric, remember to consider the added expense of an amp of some sort. You can get away with a little headphone amp to start even. Also it goes without saying to buy the best quality instrument you can possibly afford. Consider seeking a nice used instrument perhaps. You can find a nice used Strat at a new Squire price if you look around a bit. Have someone who plays help you shop if you go used though. I'd get a cheap amp if I had to before I'd get a cheap guitar. The point being you don't want a cheap instrument to frustrate yourself right off the idea of playing.

The "get the best you can" may seem like pretty "duh" advice... but, you have to keep in mind that a better quality instrument is easier to play in most all cases (particularly with acoustic instruments.) Get your parents to help with the cost... show them your interest, convince them your six string will be your christmas/birthday gifts for the next 3 years if you must. I know many a player has frustrated themself into giving it up, not because they weren't capable but because they bought cheap and it seemed to damned hard (they were fighting the instrument instead of working with the challenge of playing). Do not buy your guitar at WalMart! You can still get someting decent without spending a fortune... just try to avoid the off "no-name" brands.

This is all just general advice. Varuna makes some good points about the particulars. If I were to only stress one thing: enjoying yourself is THE key to success at learning to play. Gotta have it! Rock on... good luck!

~Seven

 

you dont really need a teacher and get a fender they are nice price and awesome

 

Oh... this is all a load of crap.

Learn on your own... just listen to Robert Johnson or Mississippi Fred McDowell... Mississippi John Hurt... they don't need teachers. You have to have it in your heart.

 

A very important thing to remember is to not get discouraged. Depending on your personallity either 1. Guitar will be taking forever to learn and you can't see any progress or 2. You can't believe the progess that you're seeing. Either way you will reun itno situations where you can't play something, or you can't believe that someone could play THAT or play it that FAST.
I would advise getting lessons, doesn't neccesarily have to be from someone classically trained, find someone cool that you like to be around who at least kind of knows what they're doing. Learning from someone you are comfortable with will make things easier. Get some good guitar books, guitar magazines like GuitarPlayer aren't bad, and use the internet.
Learn as many popular, well-known, or songs that you like as you can. (that sentence just looks confusing as hell to me. I think you can figure it out...) Anyways, it makes you feel better about your playing when you recognize what you're playing, and having someone else recognize it helps you out even more. It just makes the work worth it. Don't view practice as practice. Just view it as jamming out. No one ever wants to practice. It's all a mindset. Unless you're into starting your own band, then theory isn't necessary. It does make some things easier, but if you just want to play because it seems fun then make playing the guitar as fun for you as you can. Most of all enjoy what you're doing, and SING WHAT YOU'RE PLAYING. It helps put everything together. Good luck. Hope this helped somewhat, I reiterated mostly what everyone else said. Just adding my space.

 

You really don't need to hire someone to teach you. You just have to be in a state of mind. It really depends on the person.

 

today was my first day of trying to learn guitar...i must of practiced for 4-5 hours...i learned the chords and the begining or adam's song(blink 182)

 

I've been playing guitar for about 3 years...Good luck its an awesome instrument.

 

I'd have nothing to do if I didn't play guitar. I love it sooo much.

 

I agree totally with Guitar_god_! I love playing the guitar.:H I learned it on my own, but now I have a good teacher...

 

-youd probably be better off just buying a good guitar theory book and teaching yourself instead of paying a teacher 15 dollars for half an hour. i taught myself pretty much everything i know, but it really depends on the person. also, the internet is a great place to find info on how to play as well as finding sheet music. try mxtabs.net, its got tons of guitar tabs and it explains in detail how to play.
-a fender squier would probably be your best bet. but id look around in pawn shops and such before shelling out for a brand new guitar, you could probably find a pretty nice one, its just sometimes they like to rip you off, i wouldnt pay more than 400 for a used guitar. just look around a little and compare prices.
-all you need is a guitar tuner, korg makes a good one, im not sure what its called or if it even has a name but theyre silver and it says korg on it. ive had a couple of them (they tend to get lost sometimes) and theyre not really that expensive.
-dont give up! the first few months can be really frustrating. but once you get the hang of it, and you have nice strong hands with well-caloused fingers, your hard work will pay off! its just a matter of being able to hold down the strings (at first anyway)

 

--that was the first song i ever played! actually it was the one that inspired me to learn how to play because it sounded so easy! ( but it was so much harder than i thought back then)

 

Ok i am writing you a guide for guitar covering; theory, exersises, care,tuneing,scales,chords,arppegios, picking, harmonics, and all sorts of lovely sounds that make the guitar such a wonderful instrument i will put it up on my wesite soon and pm you the address if you have any questions in the mean time feels free to email me at

Ganja@hallofmirrorz.com

and alternatively there are many resources out there if you want to learn.

TABS for example although a bit inacurate useful for learning chords,scales and songs

sites =

www.wholenote.com

www.mxtabs.net

www.tabcrawler.com

really run a search for guitar tabs in google and youll find millions of pages learning tabs is ease and most sites will have instruction if you dont allready know it.

Peace love hugs & kisses

ps ill finish the guide soon

Love all Brian

 

My dad taught himself and he is fucking amazing!!!Seriously man he should of made it big.He almost did,back in the 70's his band were always in the "Battle Of The Bands" ,his band even won over an early Van Halen a few times.I don't think they were called Van Halen back then though,and he said they had a different bass player,I think he said he was a blonde guy.But drugs,chicks,party life broke up their band,but they were knocking on that door to fame!

But my dad taught people who made it big,like the bass player for "The Bullet Boys",their an 80's metal/glam band.

And he taught guitar player Brian Jay(J?) from the band "Keel" their another 80's metal band.

 

Okay, as a bit of a preface I will say, this depends on whether or not you want to be a casual chord strummer who writes 3 chord songs to her lyrics, or if you want to actually become a musician. I will give my advice and it will be advice given to someone who wants to be a musician.


1:Yes, you should get a teacher and stay with a teacher for atleast 2 or 3 years. If you want to learn to play guitar, get a teacher for music performance. If you want to learn theory get a teacher for music education. Don't ever get a teacher for both. I learned guitar on my own without learning any bad habits. I also taught myself extensive theory on my own, but this is not my suggestion for you. I was the anomoly. I'm not being cocky, it was just something that I was meant to do . A lot of the people on this board learned on their own, and that's great. You may not be the same, which is why you should follow my aforementioned advice. I will get some argument here from the rest of the people on the board, but my advice is to actually learn theory first. Get a music education teacher, bring in your guitar and get to it. Again, I'm giving advice to someone who wants to be a musician here.


2: I agree with the advice to get an acoustic for financial reasons, but I'd say (if Rock is what you want to play, which it looks like you do)you should change to electric as soon as you can possibly get money. I recommend a Yamaha Pacifica. They're great for the money and you certainly get what you paid for. A small 10-25 watt amp is all you'll need at first, and a practice amp of this sort can be acquired for as little as even $50.00 U.S. .


3:Keeping your guitar in good shape is as easy as keeping it in the case, washing the fretboard and changing your strings every 4 weeks or so. I change them every 2 weeks, but I assume, as you said before, your budget is pretty low. Cleaning your board keeps it from oxidizing. This might seem obvious, but clean your fingers everytime you begin to play, before you even touch the string. Finger filth and accumulated sweat is not good for your guitar. As for keeping it in tune, you really can't do this until you learn the proper technique. You cannot simply put your string in the peg, wrap it once and cut the excess string. You'll be out of tune every 5 minutes or so. This is not an embellishment, literally every 5 minutes if not a shorter period. Your teacher will teach you the "wrap, curl and kink" technique, which will keep you in tune. Also, once you pick a string guage you like, do not switch guages again until you know how to set intonation, as switching guages, without fail, will off-set your guitar's intonation. Have your teacher do the first set-up, if you pick a guage you don't favor and subsequently change the guage.


4:My best general advice is to listen to music that inspires you to play as often as you can. If music is your life, this probably isn't a problem at all. Buy a cheap tuner right off, but when you get the money buy a nice chromatic tuner. You may not want to be tuned to GSus, or an open tuning right now, but that doesn't mean you won't in the future. Also, you say you want to form your own style, if this is true you may want to find your own special tunings that you like, which will also require a chromatic tuner. Buy a metronome right out of the gate and with your teacher learn to count your music in timed beats. This will help you to realize improvements being made in your speed ability, as well as help you attain rhythm. By starting with say, quarter notes at 60 beats per minute and gradually moving to higher tempos and shorter note durations you will surpass your friends who learn their favorite lead lines at concert speed and ultimately end up "faking it instead of making it". By this I mean, most people learn their favorite songs how they hear it on the album at the same speed as the trained musician playing them has done. By doing this they form bad playing habits and end up playing everything in a sloppy manner and completely out of time with the actual song.


A lot of people have said don't force yourself to play, which basically translates to "only play when you want to, without regard to a schedule". That's fine for them, but my advice is different. I'm going to sound like an anal tight-ass here, but I tell my students to practice atleast an hour a night after I give them my suggested work-out routine. My suggestion is always to force yourself even if you're not really up for it at the time. Ofcourse you will fall into a rut from time to time, we all do, but even in this phase of disinterest I suggest maintaining atleast an hour long practice regimen. This all seems montonous and tedious, but you really can have fun while being musically disciplined and trust me, it will make you more happy and your music more appealing and sound, in the long-run.

As for tabs or sheet music, as I said, I'm giving advice to someone who wants to become a musician here, so I suggest learning sheet music. This is not a skill that is advantageous to only the studio musician and the concert musician, but also to anyone who wants to be able to transpose his or her own ideas onto music universally understood by musicians. This is advantageous mainly because with sheet music an artist is able to notate tempo and dynamics. By this I mean, sheet music shows time signatures, beat notation, rests and key signatures. The last mentioned notation is especially advantageous because the artist does not have to search for the key in a song.


I also recommend learning scales first (if your teacher is any kind of teacher he will start you with them). Mainly this is because learning scales is the art of learning all the diatonic notes in western music. After this skill has been mastered constructing any form of chord is as easy as looking at the relative scale and the intervals involved in the construction of that chord.

As for playing with a band being advantageous to the budding musician, I agree with that, but only after fundamental skill has been acquired. Now being with other players, especially those players with incredible prowess is another story. Any musician can gain something from that.


Orsino - In regard to "... I ended up teaching my teacher". Was this a teacher at a store or school, or was this one of your friends? Coming from a music shop teacher, if this was a music store teacher I find that incredibly pathetic and on the verge of lawsuit material. If it was a certified school teacher, that's about the same type of situation. He should be fired.

Anyway, to the original poster, if you want to just jam around and play at a very low level, then disregard all of my aforementioned advice. It's not going to work for you in any sense.


Hopefully I was of some assistance to you, but if not, I tried my best.

P.S. {internet text-form tabs have the same problem as a mentioned when naming the advantages to learning sheet music. They don't have any dynamic notation at all. A good program for tabs is Guitar pro. It's like Power Tab editor but easier to use. It has sheet music under the tab. It also has all the dynamics notation, scale list, chord finder, tempo settings, virtual fingerboard, multi-instrument form, as well as many other nice features, and, ofcourse, it's free. Atleast for the first 30 days. After that they put a pop-up before the initial usage that you can just click away. Although, by this time you'll be ready for power tab editor. Here's a link to the download location if you're interested. Another link will be added below it which is a link to the most extensive library of GP format tabs on the internet. Enjoy!}

www.guitar-pro.com , www.mysongbook.com . Or, if you think you can manage to figure it out ... www.power-tab.net .

Much love,
Jonathan.

 

the best advice i give to my students is that learning to be as good as say hendrix or page or anyone like that is easy and can be done in a couple of years. and once you get to that point you may think "now what?" so before you get there buy G3 live in denver dvd and it'll show you ambition. if you get to their standards i'll be impressed.

also i agree with the yamaha pacifica thing and they have amazing intonation that can't be broken. the input plug is broken very easily if you hit it off things but the intonation always stays in tune so what that means is you can get a chisel and "loosen" up the bridge and you have a floating bridge set up that you can use as a whammy bar that goes up.