Where do I start in learning?
musicismylife78
Posts: 6,116
I have the guitar now I want to learn to play it. How? What books/websites would you recommend?
Whats a good starting point?
Whats a good starting point?
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It's everything you will ever need...
Also check out ivideosongs.com podcasts. They are very good...
http://www.cyberfret.com
It's an amazing site
GTW is amazing for PJ though
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy
Typo Man: "Thanks kidz, but remembir, stay in skool!"
I was at ground zero a month and a half ago, and here's what helped me:
Get a chromatic tuner, or whatever the hell it's called. Little gizmo with an LED screen you attach to the guitar. About $20, and even I can use it.
Like Binfrog suggests, go to cyberfret and learn the major open chords. See them, hear them, play them, hitting each applicable string until the sound is clear and true.
Expect and accept that your fingertips will hurt something fierce for the first few weeks. Take the pain with pride. Wince a little when you're in a crowd and state, to no one in particular, "Yeah, I'm learning to play guitar." (No real reason to this, except that it's interesting to see the varied reactions.)
Go to Youtube, type in "acoustic guitar lessons" and learn, at your leisure. I've had a couple of in-person lessons, and the material I found (for free) on Youtube was every bit as helpful, if not more so (so far, anyway). When you get comfortable with forming the chords, look for the guy on Youtube with the nerdy voice who teached chord progressions. HUGE help.
Learn a couple/few strumming patterns. Make it interesting. Watch a guitarist you admire on Youtube and mimic his or her pattern.
Go to giventowail or some other site and learn a song you like. Nothing to advanced, obviously, but something that motivates you to learn.
Practice, practice, practice. Start with 5 minutes a day, then 10, 20, and so on. If I miss a day, my playing knows it.
And have fun. When you screw up, laugh. If that doesn't help, get mad as hell. Just stay motivated.
In all honesty, the past month-plus has been one of the most rewarding of my life. Music is a gift. And you don't even have to be gifted.
No lie.
1. Get a good teacher. This is one thing Ian and I will never disagree on, though it sounds easier than it is.
2. Definintely use a tuner. Tune you guitar before you start playing, EVERY time, and check it regularly during your playing session
3. Use a metronome from day 1. Correctly played intervals are what turns noise into music. You can buy them combined wiht tuners, or download them free from the web. I bought a groovy clip-on tuner/metronome the other day for $30, great investment.
4. Books and web-sites are OK, but you will learn much more quickly from a human.
5. Learn to read music. Written notation is the basic means of communicating between musicians. Learn to read rhythm, standard notation and tab. They are all necessary ans useful.
6. Walk before you run. The post aboev that said "learn some differnet rhythms" only applies once you have learnt to strum chords and make smooth changes in a basic up/down pattern.
7. Use both a pick and fingerstyle. Start with a very soft floppy pick. It will be more forgiving.
8. String your guitar with 10 gauage strings, both electric and acoustic. These are tough enough to make your fingers tough and strong, but not so tough as to give you tendonitis or excessively sore fingers.
9. Have fun !! Music is meant to be fun. If someone or something is pushing you to hard to do scales or exercises, step away and learn some songs. You need both, but you can incorporate your exercises into pieces of music.
+8676546
JEFF HARDY AND JEFF AMENT USED TO LOOK THE SAME
"Pearl Jam always eases my mind and fires me up at the same time.”-Jeff Hardy