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So after years of wanting to learn to play, I finally went out and purchased my first one. It isn't a very good one, but I knew what I was getting into when I bought it. It is just a cheapo Squier Affinity that came with a small practice amp and an instructional DVD. I figured it wasn't worth putting real money into it until I knew it was something I wanted to pursue.
I gotta say, I was super excited like a child on christmas morning unpacking the thing. Not sure why, but I was unusually stoked about it. As expected I am absolutely horrible right now, but everyone has to start somewhere lol. I'm struggling to do basic things like play chords consistently. I do things like not press down hard enough at the fret or my tendency to hit the first string of a chord MUCH harder than the rest. Oh well lots of things to learn and iron out. Although I spent most of my time yesterday screwing around and just trying to make a cool sounding series of notes.
Long road ahead of me, but I'm excited to get started at a hobby that doesn't involve playing video games or staring at pictures of cats on the internet.
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that's great man! keep up the good work. when i started i would get frustrated at constantly having to pause and resituate my fingers... but now the muscle memory is locked into my brain.
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If you're any good at mathematics I can help teach you. Just saying.
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Keep at it, build up those calluses! You'll be wooing the ladies in no time.
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By the way, anyone have any suggestions for straps? The strap that came with the guitar is pretty low quality. After about 5 minutes of playing yesterday, the strap just popped off and my guitar went crashing to the ground. Standing felt more comfortable than sitting, but I'd rather not risk that happening again.
On April 22 2011 03:51 rkffhk wrote:
If you're any good at mathematics I can help teach you. Just saying.
I'm decent enough, but certainly no math whiz, and I could certainly use all the help I could get.
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On April 22 2011 04:22 rkffhk wrote:
PM Sent
Thank you very much my good sir.
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Best of luck! I've been thinking of learning guitar properly for a while (I play bass so I have a slight head start) and may start this weekend.
My word of advice: keep at it no matter how frustrating it seems. When I was 15 Bass seemed f***ing impossible, but I kept with it and now I'm in a serious band. Playing guitar is a very useful talent toi have.
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This brings back good memories 
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I remember playing the 4 chords my dad taught me for hours (I think it was just G, C, D, and Em) and I actually had a ton of fun. Was a steel sting acoustic so it hurt like a bitch but was still cool for me. And when you get to the point that you can play pretty much whatever you want to, its like the sickest feeling in the world.
So just keep at it. :D
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On April 22 2011 04:03 FireBearHero wrote:By the way, anyone have any suggestions for straps? The strap that came with the guitar is pretty low quality. After about 5 minutes of playing yesterday, the strap just popped off and my guitar went crashing to the ground. Standing felt more comfortable than sitting, but I'd rather not risk that happening again. Show nested quote +On April 22 2011 03:51 rkffhk wrote:
If you're any good at mathematics I can help teach you. Just saying. I'm decent enough, but certainly no math whiz, and I could certainly use all the help I could get.
Levy's Leathers are the best straps ever. Pricy, but they lasted me so far 5 years (including gigging) and are as good as new.
Go for the ones around $50. Im currently looking at the snakeskin ones in the $125 range =] just look so sexy.
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I just started too !! (Well a couple of months ago but haven't made much progres... :p)
GL HF !!
What are you going to start with?
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Levy's Leathers = Quality. Also, they recently started producing these originally German stretchy straps, i.e., No. 1 Stretch Guitar Straps, which I find to be extremely comfortable...especially for taking some strain off of the back. Might want to check those out. Plus it's fun to mess around with.
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@Skyze and 13th Marine
Thanks for the tips guys. I'll definitely look into Levy Leathers.
@DwmC_Foefen
Do you mean guitar wise? It is just a lowly Squier Affinity. The quality certainly isn't the greatest, but it was cheap and is durable (or at least I gather from reading reviews of it). Considering it has already been dropped once durability would be a good thing lol. Good luck with your quest.
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PROPS FOR STARTING WITH SQUIRE i did the same thing when i started squire and shitty practice amp, next thing i knew i was playing for about 8 hours a day for a year until i learned every song i had wanted to when i started.
Be diligent, whatever you want to do just do it slow then speed it up and you'll be able to do everything! worked for me, to be honest i didnt learn real chords until after id played for like 5 months then i just learned them all in a day lol, you dont have to worry about areas of focus or anything
just find something you cant play and learn to play it, you'll learn so much on your own by trial and error. Just observe good guitarists and try to emulate their posture/technique which you certainly wont be able to do at the start but after you've learned some stuff then you improve your technique it'll make worlds of difference, good luck and if you want to get good practice all you can, if not still take pride in casually enjoying a fine instrument
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Hyrule19049 Posts
Picking one guitarist, not many, is probably a better idea. But yeah, I started with just trying to play songs I wanted to, and learned chords+scales later. A song that I recommend for practicing hammer ons & pull offs is Radioactive by Kings of Leon.
Regardless of the fact that I still suck, I definitely appreciate music more now that I personally know how damn hard it is to make something that sounds good. At the least you should get that feeling (which will help you power through being awful for a while).
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On April 22 2011 05:12 FireBearHero wrote:
@Skyze and 13th Marine
Thanks for the tips guys. I'll definitely look into Levy Leathers.
@DwmC_Foefen
Do you mean guitar wise? It is just a lowly Squier Affinity. The quality certainly isn't the greatest, but it was cheap and is durable (or at least I gather from reading reviews of it). Considering it has already been dropped once durability would be a good thing lol. Good luck with your quest.
No I meant, what will you be practicing? Just chords? Immediately try to play songs? Spider technique? Stuff like that. Or don't have something specific yet?
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I HIGHLY recommend getting a copy of guitar pro, It is a program that is great for learning songs. You pretty much load a file of a song that somebody has tabbed out and you can see the tabs/notes and you can play along with it. Really good guitar pro files have all the instruments put it which is awesome.
there are some good websites out their dedicated to tabs, just search the song/band you want and open/save the Guitar pro file.
Putting songs into guitar pro can be hard to learn, but just learning songs from it is much easier.
Also is you don't know how to read tabs I recommend learning, its pretty simple, you can't sight read, but you memorize the notes.
most of all, GLHF!
PM me if you have any questions about how to use guitar pro.
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Nice!
I just started playing the guitar (self teaching) as well, except I'm using a cheapo steel string piece of crap that my brother got second hand a couple years ago, before quitting. I'm seeing if I like it enough before buying one myself.
Good luck learning!
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Hyrule19049 Posts
Yamaha Pacifica 112v is a very nice guitar for its price (you can get them for $100 used off ebay :D), if you want to get a bit more serious. I love mine so much ♥
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EPT
