Some days ago a guitar lying around in a corner of my GFs room awoke my attention and I decided to play it. Well, after like 2 minutes her dog (he obviously hates me) started to bark and my GF told me she is going to commit suicide if I would not stop that bullshit. It must have been really awful ... >.<
The kind guy that I am I decided to take the guitar with me and learn to play whenever she is not around. She had no use for it anyway so why not just try it, right?
Geesh, I am so freaking bad! I can't believe it. If you have a little brothter or sister in the age of 3 or something chances are high that he / she is WAAAAY better than me. I mean ... I'm just terrible.
Now the problem is that I enjoy it :/
Imagine you are 62 years old, you have no idea what a mobile phone is and you have never seen a computer before but suddenly you realise that Starcraft is so much fun that it might be worth to spend some time on it. That's how I feel right now.
Now what I'm looking for is a way to improve. I need some sort of guide that tells me (the utmost newbie you've ever seen) how to play a guitar. It has to be for free because I'm not going to invest money in something that might not last that long.
So if you have any expirience, advices or if you know a really good website that guides me trough my first steps I would really appreciate it! It'd be great if it was in a video format!
TL Manpower has no "Guitar" category and using google is such a pain in the ass because all you get are links to expensive DVDs or some advanced lessons to play a specific song. I don't even know how to hold this freaking instrument!
I'm not a very experience guitar player but if you're starting 100% from scratch I'd say get a teacher, learn the basics. Then you can work from there, decide what to focus on etc.
I used this site when I first started to learn guitar 7 or 8 years ago. Shit load of resources. I would even go as far as to say it's the teamliquid of guitars.
Go on youtube and type in something like "beginners guitar tutorial". Then start playing like 30 minutes a day. You'll improve rapidly at first but then it'll start to slow down. Your fingers will hurt, you'll think that "there's no way that I'm ever gonna be able to do that" but with practice all of that will go away...unless you're an amputee or something.
Although you don't really need a teacher, having one can speed up the learning process. By how much, I have no idea.
There are huge amounts of resources on the internet. I think there's a bunch of educational videos on YouTube you could try taking a lot at. I used to be pretty interested in learning to play the guitar a while ago, and just by using the internet as my only resource I quickly learned the basics. Now, I wish I knew exactly what sites I used and all that, but I don't remember D:. But like I said, try YouTube to start out, perhaps you'll find some sites through these videos as well.
Acoustic and Classical both look more wooden and electric is what you see played by metal/rock bands.
The difference between acoustic and classical are both the sizes of the fret board (where you press on the guitar to change the note of each string) and the types of strings. On a classical guitar, you'll have nylon strings, and on an acoustic you'll usually have steel.
Either way, you can learn how to read music tabs (much easier than the actual sheet music for beginners).
that site can teach you how to read the music tabs.
Then you can google a song you want, for instance if you want to learn the song 'MoonLight Sonata by Beethoven' then search "moonlight sonata tabs" and search. and start to play it.
A very good guitarist friend of mine always recommends starting with finger excercises across basic scales just to get the memory muscle down if you can stomach it. Other than that just playplayplayplayplayplayplay :D
On September 14 2010 01:31 Motiva wrote: A very good guitarist friend of mine always recommends starting with finger excercises across basic scales just to get the memory muscle down if you can stomach it. Other than that just playplayplayplayplayplayplay :D
when i first started, i would do 10-hammer ons per note (E to A, A to B, B to C) etc.. all the way up the guitar only shifting your hand twice, so you build strength in all of your fingers. My hands were killing me towards the end. my pinky has never been so sore lol
I used JustinGuitar to learn to play and it´s really good imo. Lots of different excercises to do and there is alot of information about most stuff. Site is easy to browse too and everything is free!
On September 14 2010 01:22 CaucasianAsian wrote: what type of guitar is it?
Acoustic? Electric or Classical?
Acoustic and Classical both look more wooden and electric is what you see played by metal/rock bands.
The difference between acoustic and classical are both the sizes of the fret board (where you press on the guitar to change the note of each string) and the types of strings. On a classical guitar, you'll have nylon strings, and on an acoustic you'll usually have steel.
Either way, you can learn how to read music tabs (much easier than the actual sheet music for beginners).
that site can teach you how to read the music tabs.
Then you can google a song you want, for instance if you want to learn the song 'MoonLight Sonata by Beethoven' then search "moonlight sonata tabs" and search. and start to play it.
It will take a ton of practice, but you can get there! Good luck!
Oh yeah. Forgot to mention, must be an acoustic guitar (wooden and steel strings). I tuned it by using an "automatic" tuner. All strings sound similar to the one you provided. Gonna check out all the links now
On September 14 2010 01:22 CaucasianAsian wrote: what type of guitar is it?
Acoustic? Electric or Classical?
Acoustic and Classical both look more wooden and electric is what you see played by metal/rock bands.
The difference between acoustic and classical are both the sizes of the fret board (where you press on the guitar to change the note of each string) and the types of strings. On a classical guitar, you'll have nylon strings, and on an acoustic you'll usually have steel.
Either way, you can learn how to read music tabs (much easier than the actual sheet music for beginners).
that site can teach you how to read the music tabs.
Then you can google a song you want, for instance if you want to learn the song 'MoonLight Sonata by Beethoven' then search "moonlight sonata tabs" and search. and start to play it.
It will take a ton of practice, but you can get there! Good luck!
Oh yeah. Forgot to mention, must be an acoustic guitar (wooden and steel strings). I tuned it by using an "automatic" tuner. All strings sound similar to the one you provided. Gonna check out all the links now
God, my fingers are hurting. Do i need a pick?
It depends on your personal preference. Classical guitarists usually play with a finger style However, that style can be applied to every other type of guitar and style of music. Some people don't even use picks, look at andy in the proguitarshop demos on youtube. I would recommend learning how to play with a pick as well as learning finger style as they both have their own uses.
Just make sure you read up on proper technique.. I taught myself (im pretty good now) and i have a shitload of bad habits to shed because of it. Once you get pretty good its the best thing ever though!
guitarists usually end up mingling and meeting a lot of other guitar players. make friends and there is a guarantee some of them will know proper technique. u can also learn proper technique with free videos.
paying lessons, especially beginner lessons, are a thing of the past, at least in my wallet's opinion.
i kind of feel the same way about basketball, cz i learned myself, and had a nack, but i never did formal training to learn proper techniques. so i wouldn't be completely against paying for guitar lessons, but do note that u can get a lot of the same resources with internet resources.
There are intricacies to using picks or fingers (or finger picks!). I recommend using a pick at first (until you have the scales down, see below) because it's easier to get a crisp sound.
Basically, start off doing scales for about 20 minutes a day. Just scales. Up and down. E standard, first position, until you can do it fluidly. Then repeat for second position, and all the way up to 5th. Then do all of them fluidly. IE:
Once you have those down, you can learn the Blues Scales really quickly, as well as other scales (like G major, which is just E standard but 2 frets lower).
Pick up a pick & practice a lot. Start out with some simple tunes like Beatles-Daybreaker or Nirvana- Come as you are and practice some other easy songs where you will just strum chords.
Some of you guys are expecting way too much prerequisite info >_<.
Oh he's supposed to practice scales?
How do the fingers go on the left hand? How does he hold the guitar? How hard must he push? Where should he place his left hand? Does he look at the guitar? Same questions for the right hand plus others.
He should practice chord changes? Which ones are most important? Is there a good way to learn changes? He's having trouble getting the chords on time, what should he do? Some notes arent ringing out , etc etc.
This guy like JUST STARTED.It's kind of like that Carl Sagan thing "To bake an apple pie, you must first invent the universe"
EPT
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