Learning guitar

Hey guys. Well basically, the situation is that I've just finished school and have about 2-3 months of doing three fifths of fuck all. It's always been a life-long want of mine to play the guitar, so I've decided I'm finally gonna buy myself a guitar for Christmas to occupy a bit of my time. The thing is, I want to be self-taught, so I can learn on my own merit and not have to pay some dickhead to come teach me. I've never played an instrument before and don't really have a lot of knowledge in terms of music composure, but my sister has played the piano for about 9 years and said she'll help me out where she can.

I pretty much just posted this thread to ask for a few tips on how I should approach teaching myself the guitar, and if there are any resources I should be looking for to help my venture. Any insight is appreciated.

 

Tabs are your best bet. Easy as hell to read, and learn all your favourite songs without too much hassle. If you really want to have skill, you'll want to look up some scales, ie. pentatonic and other scales, practice those to increase your dexterity and speed, and to build fatigue resistance (big killer, especially when you're playing a lot of thrash metal or faster stuff). Another big thing is growing calluses on your fingers, which comes through playing a lot (you'll find the strings really cut into your fingers after long periods of playing). Good luck man, it's worth the slow start in the end and it becomes a hell of a lot of fun

 

First learn all the basic chords: E, Em, A, Am, D, G, F, and all of those - then start playing around with tabs. If you are playing anything that is Blues based you for sure need to get your pentatonic down; which will be just about any metal/rock. You will probably start very slow since you have had no music experience before. I personally have been raised around music all of my life and my dad is an amazing guitar player. I just started playing seriously a couple months ago and I am just learning to sing and play now. Just don't give up, follow what spray said and have fun.

It would be beneficial to get a teacher though, because your learning will be accelerated because they can offer you personal training.

 

Self teaching yourself the guitar is actually not as hard as you would think

First off, in this day and age there are so many people who want to use the internet as a way to help other people... either by uploading their own tutorials, building entire websites that are devoted to helping newbies learn how to play, or by spending hours of their own time transcribing songs and tabbing them to post on the internet for another guitar player to enjoy.

I started taking guitar lessons way back in middle school, and the first thing I learned as basic chord shapes, both major and minor. There are also lots of songs that you can learn to fully play just by strumming the chords, and so I was given a few of those to practice once I had memorised the chords. Putting them into action with a song will help you actually learn how to switch between one chord to another, without missing a beat.

Once you have got that down, I would move on to trying to learn some of the basic scales that you will use in guitar playing, such as the Major scale, Minor scale, Major/Minor Penatonic scales, and the Blues scale. Learning to play these forwards, backwards, and with different variations of picking (double picking, triple picking etc.) can be kind of boring sometimes, but a great way to learn is to try and encorporate something boring such as scale practice into another one of your daily activities. For example, when you are watching your favourite show from 4-5PM, sit and watch with your guitar while you quietly play the scales forwards, backwards, different speeds etc. and when a commercial comes on, practice really hard for a few minutes. I used to do that for hours and it doesn't take long before the patterns are engraved in your mind.

Lastly, I would try and make a list of songs that you like and want to learn, or songs that you have heard are reccomended for beginners because they are easy to play. Find a good guitar tab site and print out the tabs for those songs, OR hit up your local music store and try to buy the tabs in a beginners music book if they have one (guaranteed that they do). Start practicing these songs, learning the tabs, and then playing along to the real song either on your computer or on a stereo that you can easily stop/start. This will help you actually take the notes that you read on the tab, and transcribe them into the musical patterns you hear and the strumming patterns and melodies you are seeking to play.

I can't think of any other good advice for now, but hopefully this is a good start for you. I will try to rack my brain or dig up some of my old tabs for good beginner songs that I would reccomend you to learn. Your taste of music may greatly vary from mine though, or the next person, and so its up to YOU to find what you like to play, and strive to learn those songs.

Just remember - The more time you spend practicing, noodling around, and actually PLAYING the guitar, the faster you will progress and become better. Try to play whenever you get a free moment, whenever you watch TV or movies, find a buddy to jam with after school so that you are even more motivated to play/learn songs. Try to listen to music differently from now on too, pay more attention to the guitar parts on the songs and pick out songs that may be something you could learn/would want to learn in the near future. Just have fun with it man! Guitar is great fun I really need to get back into playing, just talking about it makes me miss it like crazy.

 

Eww a lot of people on here recommend tabs which is a terrible way to learn... I suggest you listen to music and find out what chords they are playing and what key they are in so you are basically learning by ear.Also when you learn by ear you get the strumming pattern down and it will help a lot in the future.

What kind of music do you listen to? post bands and songs so I can look them up on youtube.

 

I just bought Rocksmith, and I think it's excellent if you want to practice good rhythm and just have a better overall feel for the guitar. It's not for learning how to read music, but it does teach fret placement, scale patterns, tremolo technique, and mini-games for helping the player improve their skill. The game gets harder as the player becomes more proficient in playing. I like it a lot because it allows me to jump straight into playing, without having to quickly read music sheets in order for the song I'm playing to sound good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocksmith

http://www.amazon.com/Rocksmith-Playstation-3/dp/B004S5TDL0/ref=sr_1_2?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1322280476&sr=1-2

 

How are you supposed to just listen to music and magically know what chords they are playing, and how to play those chords?

If you are going to self-teach yourself how to play, like John is planning to, tabs are actually quite helpful. Even if you were listening to a song and you said, "Oh! That sounds like a D, followed by an Am, and then an Em!", or something along those lines, how are you even going to know how to actually make the shape of one of those chords on the fretboard? Well, looking at a tab would be a good start (derrrrp).

Like I suggested in my post, once you get the basics down, its a great idea to actually play along to the songs you are trying to learn so that you can get the melody and strumming pattern down. Otherwise, reading a tab is just a bunch of random notes. Playing along with the music will help you figure out how to take those tabbed notes and play them so that they sound the way the song was meant to sound. You can always add your own variations in of course, or play it however you want to. That is part of the fun of music

 

Try YouTube mate

I learnt a slight bit of guitar from watching guides on YouTube, I gave up eventually though, as guitar isn't my style.

 

Tabs are good, I recommend the electric guitar <3, a good website I know for teaching yourself:

http://www.songsterr.com/

Has most songs and is easy and simple to use

Hope this helps and goodluck!

 

I started guitar at the start of this year and I'd recommend learning basic chords as Nero said and then play around with tabs. You might feel like giving up at some points, if that ever happens then just give a day or two and try again, it's happened to me plenty of times and I'm sure it'll happen some more times as well.Also, Songsterr is a good website and so is http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/. ultimate guitar also have some articles for beginners and articles about how to improve your playing etc.

I recommend:
Learn the basic chords(saves you time in the future and in the long run.)
Learn to read tabs(that is, if you can't already)
Get down how strum, how to hold a pick and different picking techniques(This depends on what style music your playing, I'm yet to see sweep picking in anything but metal).
Learn to listen to the song and get the rhythm of it.

That's all I can think of now, as its midnight and I'm barely awake. I suggest that you look into the program "Guitar Pro". Heres a video of how guitar pro works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSSAK43S5bw&feature=related

Thats all I can think of now atm so yea, I found that guitar is fairly simple and very fun once you get the basics down, then you'll be rocking out in no time. If you've wanted to play guitar you'll whole life then I'm sure you'll be doing great in no time. Good luck!

 

I'm glad you didn't choose to pay for lessons as I paid for lessons for 2 years and was taught to play 2 different songs, hahaha. (ikr ridiculous).

However I'd highly suggest using www.google.com and simply Googling any answers you seek (this includes and music scripts, etc. Smoke on the water is a great beginners one).

 

The one advice I would say for any instrument is practice, but most of all patience.

People expect to be like Santana after like 2 weeks. Set realistic goals.

 

I'll teach you some basics over TC if you'd like ;]

 

I learned on my own by finding a simple song that I liked, looking at the chord diagram, and pushing my self 'till I was able to play it. And I kept building for there. If you would like to talk on MSN, feel free to give me a shout.

 

Also, learn your basic chords:

First: C, G, Am, Em
Second: D, A (three fingers, not barre).
Thirdly: F (not full barre).

If you can get the F down, your're really good to go but it is the toughest. (Even D can be tricky for a beginner). MANY songs operate on a C-G-Am-F pattern, Including all of these! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I) With just those chords and a strumming patter, you would be surprised on how many songs you can play. It also lays a good foundation.

Also, play the F as:
e-1
B-1
G-2
D-3
A-X
E-X

Yo have to barre both small strings with your one finger. Don't try a full barre-- you won't be able to do it.

 

First things first, learn what's what on the guitar.

Here are your strings.
(Top to bottom)

E (very)
A (cid)
D (ealer)
G (ets)
B (usted)
E (ventually)

Then there are your frets. First fret starts at the bottom of the headstock, then continues to the second, third, etc. The frets are marked by the fret wires (the lines going vertical across the guitar neck).

Here is what everything is called:




Once you know the basic whereabouts of your guitar, learn some chords.
(7 = dominant chord)
(m = minor chord)

C
C7
D
Dm
D7
E
Em
E7
F

etc etc etc... You can look up how to play them.

Lastly learn how to read tabs. Once you know all that, you should be able to start playing some simple songs, and get the hang of it from there. Just remember not to think it will be super easy. It will take time and lots of practice, but eventually you will find your inner Slash

Goodluck mate.

 

mm it should be easy
im stupid and i know how to play guitar
and i learned myself
just hmu if you need help
just start from chords then move on to tabs

 

I still remember how difficult it was to fully barre a chord when I was first learning guitar. Your fingers just most likely won't have the strength. I remember extending my index finger and laying it flat against the fretboard while trying to hold a chord shape with my other fingers was nearly impossible, but I just had to keep practicing and practicing the shape and eventually my hand just did it naturally. Yours will too