Learning Guitar

[Ace-o-fire]

Anyone know how to play guitar or could give me some pointers. i would love to learn since playing the violin doesn't get you much pussy, and also i just want to learn how to play decently.

Ive surfed around and Ive found a lot of acoustic lessons and stuff like that, but i'm looking to well to sound lame "metal" guitar lessons

so if anyone can point me to a book, or a website or hell even give me pointers i would love ya

[antihero]

Guitar Lessons for Beginners Archive - Free Guitar Lessons Online - Acoustic and Electric Guitar Lessons

I used this to learn basic chords/how to read tabs, then went from there

[Neosutra]

She still wont sleep with you dude.

[Cyn]

Playing any instrument will not get you pussy by itself. But to be fair, I'd say playing the violin is much more badass than playing the guitar these days.

[Colenzo]

hear anything back from that letter you wrote SE about the security tokens? lol

[Howard Roark]

She still wont sleep with you dude.

[Guitarman]

/flies in

did someone say...guitar?!?

Seriously though. Find a band you love, go find tabs, and start playing. Best way is to just dive right in. mxtabs.net or ultimatetabs is a good place to start. If you like nirvana even a little, i would recommend their music as it's generally easy to play and fun. (just dont play teen spirit in any guitar store. That song, or stairway to heaven or enter sandman will get you kicked out of most places).

you want some specific tips feel free to message. I've been playing 14 years come december. I've taken in dozens of students. I'd be happy to help.

Edit: Just to add, and i hate i have to even mention this now; but if you interested because of guitar hero or rock band, YOU CAN'T REALLY PLAY GUITAR. I'm sure you know that, but ive had so many people come to me and claim "oh man guitar must be easy i can do so and so song on rock band". Game is not the same as the real deal. FAaaaaar different.

[Zalius]

pay for lessons.


if not, find a good site (riffeo would be ok i guess). there's a lot of sites with pay guitar lessons but really you only need a format

should be learning like this:

Basic parts/terminology. Buy a guitar. Buy a tuner. If you get an electric, get a mexican fender strat. Under 400 bucks for a guitar that can make a lot of sounds, very very good deal. Can also check out rondomusic.com for a lot of cheap guitars that are fairly high quality, but youre probably gonna be better off buying your first guitar in person, and from a store (probably guitar center) that does setups prior to buying a guitar. If you feel like you'd prefer an acoustic, get an acoustic, but electric guitars are cooler. its the truth. there is no actual difference between the 2 in learning how to play them musically aside from how difficult it is to press the strings and the size of the guitars body. also bends sound awesome on electric guitars, and you get to make sweet faces when you do them

Rhythm. Learn 2 chords first, rec:Em & G. Try to learn 2-5 per week each week for 5 weeks. After that you can slow it down a little cause you're gonna want to play around, but you should still be going for 1 a week for the rest of your life cause there's like 6 bazakaflilion chords or something

Continue rhythm. Buy a metronome. Don't get involved in learning tabs for everything, it gets real boring real fast. It is fun to play stuff that you've heard before though.

Learn EVERY NOTE on the neck. I personally recommend memorizing the 12 note scale, then finding all of the A notes on each string up to the 12th fret and memorizing those and just ascend the scale. Start to memorize where other notes are and fill in the blank spaces. Learning 1 fret at a time is boring and feels like learning charges of elements on the periodic table. Whatever feels more comfortable for you is best though. Right around here you can learn single note picking and that's pretty fun. Never give up rhythm though, it's the most used part of guitar and if you suck at rhythm you suck at guitar.

Learn music theory. It sucks at first, it really does. It REALLY does. But knowing its gonna suck usually gets you through it a lot faster. A lot of people will tell you its fun. It isn't fucking fun at all, but it's really really useful, like learning multiplication without fun video games or anything. It comes in handy a lot. Your primary concern is learning how to stay in key and how to play in any key. This isn't necessary until you start working with other instruments, but it's expected of you after a year or so.

Practice at least 15 minutes a day. Your fingers are gonna hurt like fuck sometimes. Always stretch before playing or you'll fuck up your wrist and not be able to play for days a time and then eventually be an old man with painful wrists. Try and pick up a new strum pattern every 4 days if you can. Don't worry if you get behind. Try not to get rage mode when you feel like you're not getting better as fast as you want to.

uh, there's more stuff i'm sure, but i'd say thats a pretty good general foundation. Shoot for expert in 3-5 years. You should be good(intermediate) after a solid 1-2 years of playing.

Once you get close to intermediate, you get better a lot faster because you realize that you're actually making stuff that sounds good to you and enjoying yourself, so playing more will come naturally. By this point your fingers wont hurt anymore and you'll find yourself jammin in your room for an hour or more and wondering where the time went.


You don't have a choice anymore. You're picking up guitar. It's infected your brain. You have to learn. It is your calling.




Also, don't learn metal first. Metal is a lot of intermediate/advanced rhythm, but power chords are easy so thats at least something to pick up. But you really do just want to learn basic melody and blues styles first, those come easy, and you learn a lot of skills that translate.


iwrotetoomuch

[Howard Roark]

iwrotetoomuch

uh yeah no, I'll be bookmarking this when I get home, sticky worthy

[Zalius]

as to what guitarman said, i actually really wish i would have learned to read tabs sooner because there's a lot of simple riffs you can learn from bands that really endear you to the instrument, and the more fun you're having the more you'll want to keep playing. I usually pick up my guitar 2-3 times a day for a combined total of about 30 minutes minimum. It's just fun <3


Also guitarman, Agile AL3000 or 3100 or a minarik lotus? (specifically her: http://minarikguitars.com/images/pro...burst.zoom.jpg). I'd say i'm mid range intermediate, and this would be my first non-sidegrade from the strat (played with cheap used epiphone stuff, not much to be found there, but i do like the way SGs sound). Don't know if you know anything about either, but Agile's get ridiculous reviews and minarik is a fairly newish company, but from the only firsthand experience i've heard they're really high quality. That and sexy. I just need something new before i go crazy :/ Upgrading amp later. But i need help, and i'm biased towards the lotus cause it looks so good

[Soupbowl]

/flies in

did someone say...guitar?!?

Seriously though. Find a band you love, go find tabs, and start playing. Best way is to just dive right in. mxtabs.net or ultimatetabs is a good place to start. If you like nirvana even a little, i would recommend their music as it's generally easy to play and fun. (just dont play teen spirit in any guitar store. That song, or stairway to heaven or enter sandman will get you kicked out of most places).

you want some specific tips feel free to message. I've been playing 14 years come december. I've taken in dozens of students. I'd be happy to help.

Edit: Just to add, and i hate i have to even mention this now; but if you interested because of guitar hero or rock band, YOU CAN'T REALLY PLAY GUITAR. I'm sure you know that, but ive had so many people come to me and claim "oh man guitar must be easy i can do so and so song on rock band". Game is not the same as the real deal. FAaaaaar different.

GOD yes! i have been playing for 12 years and this guitar hero BS drives me crazy. on a side note, do not play 'Smoke on the water' or I will kill you.
Guitar is a passion. either practice hard or GTFO.

[Obev]

Guitar is easy. Far easier than violin. Learn power chords. Learn regular chords. Learn barre chords. Learn inversions and variations of all of them. From chords come scales (or was it the other way around...). Learn scales. Combine scales and chords. Give yourself repetitive strain injury. Learn to sweep-pick. Learn to tap. Start hero-worshipping an overweight Swedish man with a stratocaster and a mullet. Realise that three years in you still can't play "Technical Difficulties" as fast as the record, and that you still haven't got any pussy from the guitar playing. Give up guitar, try playing bass. Fail to get any playing bass either. Give up music altogether and waste three years on Final Fantasy. Quit. Come back to music. Do moderately well as a double bass player in a ska band, but still fail to get pussy. Start playing your ancient acoustic guitar in a folk band. Finally get off your arse and start a metal band. Realise that you quite like this whole guitar thing despite the lack of intimate female attention. Buy a seven string. Get Pro Tools. Start recording. Learn to program drums. Write some brutal riffs. Forget that you ever started this whole odyssey to get laid, because while you may have had sex along the way, your guitar didn't help a whole lot.

On the plus side, you've got a couple of pretty cool bands that write songs and doesn't afraid of anything, and you've got enough music theory floating around in your head to write anything in any genre in any key.

AFK, hanging myself with a guitar string.

[Despain]

Guitar is easy. Far easier than violin.

I've been playing both guitar and violin for 8+ years now, and I'd have to say that Violin is easier than Guitar. Although it usually goes that if you know how to play one instrument and can understand Music Theory pretty well, you can play any other instrument if you just practice.

[Lebzile]

(just dont play teen spirit in any guitar store. That song, or stairway to heaven or enter sandman will get you kicked out of most places)

YTMND - Wayne's World - No Stairway - Led Zeppelin First thing I thought of.


On topic; had a friend who played for a long time and said it takes a LOT of practice to get any good at it, could be wrong or he's just a dick though. :<

[Konohamaru]

take lessons

get a metronome

get this book
Amazon.com: The Guitar Handbook: Ralph Denyer: Books
(helps a lot)

practice practice practice till your fingers bleed then practice more

EDIT lol@that college humor video

[Qalbert]

Out of curiosity, while I know the 'skills' except for increased dexterity don't carry over, GH and RB have gotten me far more interested in what is actually going on in the music, as opposed to just liking a dong. Like I now separate the different guitar parts etc to some degree, and actually appreciate music more, plus have increased knowledge of 'classic rock'. My dexterity and coordination have always been kind of slow though, like I can only play on Hard after having the games for 3 years. Would an actual guitar be feasible. as I have started to enjoy and appreciate instrumentation more, or would I likely lack the manual dexterity to do much? I realize that playing a guitar is nothing like the games, but if I can't even play the games that well, would I be hopeless on the real thing?
EDIT: dong should read song, but the typo is funny so I will leave it in. The typo that is, not the dong.

[Obev]

Out of curiosity, while I know the 'skills' except for increased dexterity don't carry over, GH and RB have gotten me far more interested in what is actually going on in the music, as opposed to just liking a dong. Like I now separate the different guitar parts etc to some degree, and actually appreciate music more, plus have increased knowledge of 'classic rock'. My dexterity and coordination have always been kind of slow though, like I can only play on Hard after having the games for 3 years. Would an actual guitar be feasible. as I have started to enjoy and appreciate instrumentation more, or would I likely lack the manual dexterity to do much? I realize that playing a guitar is nothing like the games, but if I can't even play the games that well, would I be hopeless on the real thing?
EDIT: dong should read song, but the typo is funny so I will leave it in. The typo that is, not the dong.

Pulling the dong out is great birth control.

I'm shit at Mario Kart but I still have a driving license. Being hopeless at a crude simulation of a real-life scenario does not mean you will be unutterably bad at the real thing. Buy a dirt cheap acoustic guitar off eBay and give it a try. It can't hurt, and apparently if you learn the chords to Wonderwall you'll pick up ladies.

I've been playing both guitar and violin for 8+ years now, and I'd have to say that Violin is easier than Guitar.

My post was less an honest assessment of the relative practical or percieved difficulty of the two instruments, and more a ramblingly incoherent description of my life as a musician. I still play the damn violin when I get a chance, but I'm not going to challenge Satan to a fiddling competition any time soon.

[Qalbert]

ok, I wasn't sure since, while buttons are obviously no analog for strings chords etc, that my coordination might be an issue. You recommend acoustic over electric to start with?

[Obev]

Price-wise, I certainly do. You have to buy an amp to make noise with the electric.

Continuing the driving-guitar metaphor, it's (spuriously) similar to learning to drive a manual car, even if you spend the rest of your life behind the wheel of an automatic. Typically acoustics, and certainly cheap eBay'd ones, have a higher action (distance between string and fretboard) than electrics. Additional difficulty makes things stick in your mind, or something, so I suppose it's a bit of a better learning tool than the electric.

Plus, you can like, serenade people with an acoustic. Chicks dig the serenading.

Helps if you can sing and remember the words though.

[Qalbert]

I am told my singing is like unto a cow trampling a bag full of sick cats. =(