When I was 13 my old man handed me an old beginner’s guide to folk guitar. It had this weird almost-tablature that I never really got the hang of. The indexes in the back, though, were all chord formations. I probably spent hours every night just trying to form those chords. I found while tinkering with them that I was discovering pieces of songs that I liked. Then I put things together and really just puttered around with it for years and years. I recommend getting a chord chart book. Skip the poster, it’s just tacky.
The next step is finding guys to join you for drinkin’ and pickin’ on the proverbial back porch.
As for your method of rewarding yourself with songs you enjoy for practicing specific chords - if that’s what works, then bully on. It’s okay to change that if you feel it’s not as effective (or fun…remember to have FUN!).
Oh, almost forgot: here’s a book of chords. It will probably have some good tips on finger placement and posture. I’ve never used that particular one, so I can’t totally vouch for it.
Also, don’t neglect learning scales later on. If you want to diddle some lead at any time, scales are your best friend.
I have just started getting serious about learning to play. I am having lessons from a friend who is a truly wonderful player and as it turns out a great teacher. After a few lessons he has me convinced I will get there. The main things he pointed out:
Don’t worry about my left hand, my fingers will learn the chords soon enough and the essence of good playing is strong right hand time keeping.
At the top level guitar playing is very difficult but at the level I aspire to it is pretty simple.
Practice 10 miniutes a day (even if its 5 lots of 2 minutes) EVERY day, then 11 minutes, then 12 minutes etc. No excuses.
Apart from the rhythm stuff each lesson he teaches me a bit more lead work(all blues in E and A so far) and I get to play lead with one of the best guitarists around playing rhythm for me. He makes it sound good by cheating on the changes when I stuff up and fitting in with what I am doing. It is a hoot.
He too insists - if I am going to play the thing play it LOUD.
Don’t pause the strumming between chord switches. It will sound like shit 'cause the chord switches will be slow. But don’t pause, no matter what.
Practice SLOWLY. Speed comes naturally.
Go ahead and look. Eventually, you won’t have to look at either hand. It’s hard to go back and forth looking…but do it. You need to make sure you’re doing it right.
Strumming hand? LOOSE. Nice, loose wrist. NO death grips on the pick. I’m too lazy to look up how to hold a pick, but google it. And dangle your remaining fingers. Don’t play with a fist.
Hit all the strings in the chord. This is especially true for six-string chords like open G. And also really true for four string chords like open D…hitting the extra two sounds awful.
Practice an hour a day. Two if you can. Three is even better
The callouses will come…and go. Some days even I can barely play 'cause of the pain.
Play with others who are better than you. As often as you can.
Take lessons.
The internet has a ridiculous amount of guitar lessons with videos. It’s AWESOME!
I learned to play with this book:
The Beatles Complete Chord Songbook
ISBN-10: 0634022296
ISBN-13: 978-0634022296
DO NOT GIVE UP. It might be three months before you can string together three chords to sound like a song. It might be six months before you sound halfway decent. It will take years and years and years to get really good. But don’t let that discourage you. I started once…and quit after two months because I thought I was totally inept. No one told me how long it takes. I didn’t try again for two years…oh, how I wish I had those two years to do over again.
I’ve never played guitar before…but I’ve wanted to! Luckily, when I flew home this weekend, I bought a brand new electric guitar from my sister’s boyfriend who was selling it a mere week after purchase (long story!). This was on a complete whim; but I figured if I’m gonna throw down a few hundred on an instrument, that’s damn good motivation to stick with it (like going to the gym
So anyway, I also am very appreciate of all the posts here. I can’t wait to make use of them!
But I was also wondering – would it be worth my while to take professional guitar lessons? If so, how much might I be looking at? Thanks!
It’s been said already but it’s worth repeating. Do a little every day, ten or fifteen minutes a day is much better than three hour marathons at weekends.
Red Barchetta Lessons are a very good idea when you’re just starting because you’ll see the correct way to do stuff before you pick up bad habits/techniques.
Gotta ask, LightWithoutHeattttttttttttttt please say your nom-de-plume is a Steve Vai reference?
Lessons are great if the instructor is good (obviously) and if you get along with him/her. You should be like buddies. That way when, after 4 or 5 weeks, you’re sick of chords and scales and posture you can look at your teacher and say, “Dude, when do I get to learn a song?”
And your teacher will say, “God, I thought you’d never ask.”
Yes, the teacher makes all the difference. I only took lessons for the first six months or so I played the guitar. Before my first lesson, my teacher had me make him a tape of songs I wanted to learn, and we transcribed and learned them one by one over the next few lessons. Only later did I realize how cool this was of him, and how lucky I was.
Dudley, what kind of music do you want to play? If there’s the slightest possibility you might want to play classical guitar, learn to read standard notation. It’ll well repay the effort, which is not as great as you might think. Those who extol the virtues of tab say it tells you exactly what fret and string to play–this is true. But guitar music in standard notation usually does the same when called for, and when you get to the point of knowing the notes on the fretboard pretty well, you don’t need to be told that A above Middle C is on the third string at the second fret. On the other hand, if the composer or editor intends you to play that A in a different spot, like fourth string seventh fret, you do need to know that, and guitar music in standard notation usually does tell you that. The one exception to this that I’ve noticed is in free sheet music from the internet. Fingerings and performance notes are usually copyrighted, so they can’t be included in free material.
Some kinds of music are usually presented both ways; with standard notation on one line and parallel tablature below it, but I’ve found that hard to use.
Thanks. If I wasn’t so tone deaf, I’d agree with you.
I think it’s pretty nice. I was looking around in Guitar Center and it jumped right out at me. The SO said when she saw my face, “That’s the one, huh?”
More votes for “Yes, your fingers are supposed to hurt.” and “Try to play every day even if it is only for 15 minutes.”
This is indeed a fine approach. I found that a fun way to learn and increase finger strength was to do something like:[ul][li]run through a short warm-up (a couple scales, a chord exercise or two)[]practice nuts and bolts type stuff like chords and reading standard notation for a set period of time (say, 20 minutes)[]switch over to a “rocking out” setup and play whatever you want until you don’t feel like playing any more[/ul]Mind you, that isn’t what you must do every time you pick up the guitar, but it is imho, a good habit to get into. Some days you might want to bang on the academic stuff more, some days you might skip straight to upsetting the neighbors. The key is to be disciplined just enough to grow as a player while still having fun. Well, assuming that’s what you want anyway.[/li]
Also, try to not learn bad habits. Pick a particular way of sitting/standing, holding the pick, picking, and strumming and try to stick with it. There are several “valid” approaches to these things and each, in turn, has advantages and disadvantages where a particular musical style is concerned. And get a metronome.
Also, also, if you want desire to be a “technical” player, this book is rather remarkable. Unfortunately, it is also pretty intimidating and requires at least a vague understanding basic music theory-- the author isn’t really teaching you the why so much as the how and you may find yourself wondering why Al Di Meola hates you so much.
Most importantly, any time anybody’s advice decreases your enjoyment of the instrument, feel free to ignore them. All the advice in the world isn’t worth much if you don’t enjoy playing the thing.
Also, start jamming with other people if it’s at all convenient and conceivable. Even if you don’t have any ambitions to start a band or play gigs, it’ll keep things exciting and keep you working at it. If you know that Saturday mornings are when Bob and Jeff come over to jam, you’ll be more inclined to spend Thursday evening making sure you have “Hotel California” and “Dust in the Wind” down pat rather than spending it watching TV. And you’ll get better faster by playing with others, whether they’re better than you or not. A lot of my early development as a player was achieved by watching better players wail while I played the chords, then trying out new things myself while they did the same for me.
Trying to become a better musician by woodshedding is like trying to become a better lover by jacking off.
I’ve taken some music classes in college and can read and understand notation, although I am not very good at it (slow). Like last night, I was looking at the tabs and could understand what the tab was telling me, notation-wise. For example, I could see the correlation between the tab form and when played on the piano and how it looks in musical notation. I felt a little dirty by looking at a tab, to be honest.
I’m certainly still a n00b. Maybe as time goes on, I’ll find my enjoyment playing classical guitar.
Learn every chord in open-position, and be able to switch to/from each one.
Practice finger exercises: every string, open, 1, 2, 3, 4 (ex: E, F, Fsharp, G, Gsharp), 4,3,2,1
Then 1,3,2,4 (4,2,3,1) then 1,4,2,3 then 2,4,1,3, etc make sure you keep an even rhythm and pick up/down/up/down. When you learn more complex scales and fingering and more complex chords with melodies, you will alrady have the skills to move your fingers and pick.
Don’t try to do anything fast until you can do it slow. Consider a beat machine or metranone to keep tempo.
