Guitar lessons

[AoE]

For the most part, I just use an electronic tuning device. The other method is by ear, which is probably a little more difficult for first timers, but very easy to pick up on.

So you use a right handed guitar but play lefty style? So the strings go eBGDAE instead of the other way around (i.e. the high e string is the closest to your face)? I don't understand how being lefty or righty changes tuning, though. If you had to, you could change the strings to make it a lefty guitar...I'm not sure exactly how you are playing it right now.

If your E string is tuned right, you can tune the ADGBe strings by ear from that. Each fret is a half step note [A - A# - B - C - C# - D - D# etc are all half steps], so the first fret on the E string is F (no sharp/flat between B/C and E/F, just look at a piano if you are confused), the 2nd fret is F#, the 3rd fret is G, the 4th fret is G#, and the 5th fret is A. By strumming the 5th fret on the E string, it acts like you are strumming the A string. This way you can tune the A string now by ear. Same goes for the rest of the strings.

I find using a combination of the electronic tuning and tuning by ear to be effective for me. It took a while to get the sensitivity down when using an electronic tuner.

Guitar was a gift so I didn't have a choice. Was also thinking to just switch the strings but my interest kinda fell to the wayside being busy with college and all. Was gonna use it to learn basics because I ultimately wanna play electric. I have an electric tuner too but I worry about whether I'm strumming the guitar right. All in all I probably just need to sit down and have the patience to work with it more than anything else.

[Jaybar]

Guitar was a gift so I didn't have a choice. Was also thinking to just switch the strings but my interest kinda fell to the wayside being busy with college and all. Was gonna use it to learn basics because I ultimately wanna play electric. I have an electric tuner too but I worry about whether I'm strumming the guitar right. All in all I probably just need to sit down and have the patience to work with it more than anything else.

You just have to know what string you are strumming really. The tuner I have came with my guitar, it's called the QWiK TUNE.

http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/qua...cf2a62e3f0.jpg

The letters along the top indicate what string it is detecting (note: if the string you are strumming is VERY off, it will think you are strumming an adjacent string). So the thickest string, the bass string, is going to be the first E on, I think, every electronic tuner. As you move down, you progress to A, D, G, B, and again E, but it's an octave higher. The meter just tells you if you need to tune up or down on the string (takes some getting used to, just play with it and it will become second nature. Literally took me like 2 days to not have to think which way I was turning my knobs).

My advice is to to memorize the notes of the 6 strings; it will come in handy in the future if you plan on picking up guitar more frequently. So, whether the strings are reversed for you, there really is no difference when tuning - you're just playing upside down =P (Jimi can do it!)

[Fhloston]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I'm doing this as a hobby, but I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when I pick up new things. I'll try learning the basics online, I'm sure that will urge me to go in to more advanced lessons. I have an uncle who plays, but he lives a bit out of the way, and has a family, so jamming with him would be a bit difficult. None of my friends play any instrument whatsoever, so I'll most likely go for private lessons. The music school I looked up charges $20 per 30 min lesson, which doesn't sound bad.

I admire anyone who plays good that is self taught. Personally, I would prefer to learn the correct method from a professional though, so I won't look like a fool when I'm playing incorrectly. Also, thanks for the links. I liked that the guitarist in Sol's link had the same guitar I do. I'm sure he has a way better neck for his though.

[Day]

Oh and since no one else really mentioned it that I saw.

The real key to you learning and getting good is not going to be lessons or not, it's going to be how much you practice. I've seen so many people expect to just pick it up and rock out only to get frustrated and give up in a few weeks, mainly because they didn't really practice.

Shoot for at least an hour a day, hopefully you will enjoy it so much that will be cake =)

[Stiker]

I've been playing for about 8 years now and I still can't tune by ear (just don't have the ear for it, Lord knows I've tried lol). Tuners are cheap and well worth it IMO.

As far as actually learning, don't start with tabs. I tried that and I got confused. I took about 3 months of private lessons and learned a lot of tricks and got a better understanding of the guitar overall. Once I had some lessons and went back to tabs, things made a lot more sense to me and things got far easier. Once the guy that was teaching me couldn't teach in the only time slot I had free, I self-thought through tabs and chord sheets just fine.

I will warn you, be ready to be frustrated. Chord transitions alone will drive you crazy at first, but if you stick with it, you'll be surprised how easily you can catch on to things.

[Jaybar]

What Day said, and then some. Just spend an hour or so trying to perfect hand shifts to different chords in some of your favorite songs. The longer you practice, the better your fingers will move where you want them to.

Some of the first couple songs I learned to play were Kryptonite (3 Doors Down), Good Riddance [Time of Your Life] (Green Day), and uhhh, some obscure songs I can't remember. Those first two got seared into my head since I played the fuck out of them when I first started playing. You'll also find that a lot of songs are going to be easier to play if you have a capo.

[Lavik]

just practice practice practice
no matter how frustrating/bored/painful

my parents wanted me to play guitar when i was in 5th grade and payed for lessons FOREVER and i never practiced cause i didnt want to do it (also your hands are really small for guitar at that age) but by 8th grade enjoyed it and was getting ok and playing with friends and stuff; then i messed up my hand pretty bad and couldnt play for over 1 year. when it was better i started again and have played since very consistently with random moments in time containing a shitton of practicing or very little.
I kept taking lessons till like 11th grade and it was enough for me to learn the framework of scales; and i have been playing improv with the scales for a few years now (currently in sophmore year of college) now i feel ready to join a band but that theres still theory i dont know and would like to learn
teaching yourself music theory however=most boring shit ever
also people can almost instantly point out what you're doing wrong; for example with the barre chords they were mentioning earlier, your first finger is layed across all the stings and your others are stretched to some really strange positions and at first will probably sound really shitty (which is fine), a nice trick with these is to have your first finger not pressing on the strings flat; but kind of tilted to its side (see this is hard to describe with words) it hurts less and it sounds better but i didnt get it until someone showed me how
anyway its fun keep practicing even though that sucks it gets cool later
i look back at what i could be like if i busted my ass practicing since 5th grade
kind of depressing idk

[Jaybar]

Another note on barre chords, make sure the ridges in your fingers aren't on top of strings. For me, my index finger stretches over the neck just a bit, but it's different for everyone of course - just find the best position for you.

[Zalius]

Another note on barre chords, make sure the ridges in your fingers aren't on top of strings. For me, my index finger stretches over the neck just a bit, but it's different for everyone of course - just find the best position for you.

qft holy crap, most annoying thing in the world is that no matter how i hold my finger, unless i get the perfect angle a string lands in a ridge. Not only does it mute it, it hurts like a bitch when i wake up the next morning if ive played for more than 2 hrs.


Also, seriously, learn the neck. Its so freakin simple and i really do wish i did it sooner when i was playing. Knowing all of the notes on the neck is your best weapon, and youll start to notice things about music in general and be a better player overall.
Know Your Notes - The Guitar Fingerboard
Cyberfret.com: Names of the notes on the neck of the guitar
etc, jfgi

just google about the notes on the neck. seriously, if i could go back in time and tell myself to do anything sooner, it would be that. the best part about it is that you can understand other guitar players so much better, and the 12 note scale will seem a lot easier.

Guitar Scales @ Chordbook.Com is also a great tool and i still use it. Learn at least 10 chords before you start learning single note picking, and always try and practice maintaining rhythm (C Major chord will take you a few months to perfect, and so will the F Major. I recommend learning Eminor, G, Cadd9, D, Dsus2, Dsus4, A Major, A Minor first, as those are pretty simple). As awesome as playing lead is, it only takes up 10-30% of songs so you really need to diversify, and yeah your chord changes are gonna suck for 3-8 months. And theres like a billion chords and you probably wont remember half of them after a year. But you'll always be learning Try to play 10-30 mins a day. In 3-4 months you're gonna have your first real hour-2 hour day and its gonna be amazing and you're never gonna want to put it down. OH by the way, your fingers are gonna hurt sometimes. Its natural. You're gonna slowly build up callous fingertips and its really gonna make things easier. Kiss your soft fingers one last time, cause theyre goin bye bye


Theres a lot of terminology for you to know and it comes easy with time, promise. Musical keys i'd explain but it confuses everyone, so enjoy your time of confusion while it lasts Just to get it out of the way, a half step is a single fret and a whole step is 2 frets. So if youre at the first fret and you move to the 2nd fret, thats a half step, and you get the rest.

[Isindil]

Getting a private instructor is definitely the way to go. I've been playing for 13 years now (I'm only 20) and I've had instructors off and on. I've always felt I've learned more when I had someone to keep me on task and give me new material. It always helps to have a second set of educated eyes/ears to help you in your development. It's very important that you get the techniques right early on, instead of developing bad habits, which an instructor will help with immensely as compared to teaching yourself/online lessons. As well as, the theory is actually quite important which you will most likely miss miss from just messing around on your own and playing internet tablature. If you're serious about the guitar, I highly recommend a private instructor. If you just wanna mess around and be just another guy that plays guitar, nothing special, an instructor will help you get there faster, but it may not be worth it to you.

Edit: I forgot to mention, and this seems obvious, but I actually see it a lot in guitar players. They expect the instructor to learn for them (this goes for anything really), you've got to really put the time and effort into it if you want to get something out of it. At least 30 mins(read: a lot more) of practice a day just running through chords and scales in the beginning will go a long ways.

[Tricen]

Power Tab Editor - Reviews and free Power Tab Editor downloads at Download.com


Google search for a song you like through google like this "The leper Affinity power tab"

Find an appropriate powertab file, dl, ???, profit!

[Zalius]

fyi though, tabs will hold you back until you're at a point where you're just using them for simplicity. You need to know what notes you're playing, and tabs will only give you numbers. You can't do anything for yourself with numbers

[sephir]

I've been playing for close to 10 years now and I have been teaching part-time for about 3. Throughout the time of my playing I have always taken lessons and they helped me so much. Although you can self-teach yourself, going to a teacher can help push you out of your 'box' and experiment with different chords/sounds/melodies.

When you are starting off its true you will be cursing your hand for not moving how you want it to, and get really frustrated at how crappy it will sound, but a private teacher can show you some tricks with how to properly position yourself or how to 'control your fingers' in ways that you may not pick up on your own.

Guitar pro/Power Tabs are also great software if your taking lessons or not, as you can follow the notes and hear how they sound. Personally I find this to be one of the best tools out there as the Tabs are usually quite accurate - although I have found some really strange ones out there.

But above all, regardless of whether you take private lessons or decide to self teach yourself, do everyone a favor and BUY A METRONOME. When I recomend picking one up to many of my students, they laugh, but those that listen and actually go out and play with one advance at a far greater pace and sound a million times better within 1-2 weeks.

[Tricen]

fyi though, tabs will hold you back until you're at a point where you're just using them for simplicity. You need to know what notes you're playing, and tabs will only give you numbers. You can't do anything for yourself with numbers

Tell that to a mathematician

[Norellicus]

But above all, regardless of whether you take private lessons or decide to self teach yourself, do everyone a favor and BUY A METRONOME. When I recomend picking one up to many of my students, they laugh, but those that listen and actually go out and play with one advance at a far greater pace and sound a million times better within 1-2 weeks.

This x10000000000000

People who aren't already professional musicians rarely have a very solid grasp on timing, and they don't even realize it until there's an unrelenting machine there to keep them on target. Tapping your foot doesn't work because eventually your brain will lapse your foot into sync with the rest of you, so you think you're still on time but you're missing it by maybe a quarter beat. It's not so bad when you're playing alone, but it gets really noticeable in a jam session or anytime you're playing something familiar that everyone else knows...it throws them off.

[Konohamaru]

metronomes definitely

honestly private lessons are a very good way to go. Some people can teach themselves some people need help. Lessons every week will have you routinely practicing and working toward something.

the guitar handbook by ralph denyer is a great book for people first picking it up, i'd recommend it

also like said, practice practice practice. So much about playing is just being familiar with the material and the guitar itself. You get to a point where learning songs is so much easier when you know the theory and you are comfortable playing.

I'd also recommend getting a cheap acoustic. The action on an acoustic guitar (for the most part) is higher. It'll help strengthen your fingers vs learning on an electric guitar where its relatively easy to press down clear notes. It will also help your coordination when first learning simple chords. I'd recommend that to anyone first starting as well.

[Lavik]

my acoustic broke; id actually like to pick up a new one for practicing/writing
if you can make a song/riff/melody/whatever sound good on an acoustic; you can make it sound amazing when you play it on electric, both with the ability to add effects and just because its easier (as was just mentioned)

[Zalius]

ive been looking for a good software metronome for a while, i have a tuner/metronome i got as a present a while ago but its really complicated to adjust and isnt too simple, but its good for when im not at home. i've looked around but i cant find anything, any advice? visual along with sound would be good too, cant always hear clicks

[Fhloston]

/bump

So I took the advice here and finally had my first private lesson today. I'm really glad I did, because my teacher showed me a lot of things I was doing wrong, which is what I wanted. My cursed fat fingers will be the end of me though...just have to get used to it. Learned tablature, and I'm working on some practice notes and some tabs from "Rush - Working Man".

Not turning this in to a LJ or anything, just wanted to close my end of the thread. I saw one person say they were starting off as well. Always cool to read how others are progressing.

Thanks again for the help!

[Hercule]

Look at Mattrach video on youtube its crazy guitarist