Learning Guitar

[Obev]

Serenade chicks with death metal. Buy an electric.

[Jakson]

I started on old Metallica songs (mostly MoP stuff), riffs are pretty easy and there's a few decently easy leads in there, first one on Sanitarium comes to mind.

[Isiolia]

Depending on learning environment though, the "needing an amp" aspect of an electric may be better. Can practice with it unplugged, or with headphones, and not make much noise.
If you've got your own place though (or are less self-conscious than me), then that's probably not much of a concern.

[Jensken]

Dumping all my guitar-related bookmarks. Hope they can be helpful

Tab site/community home - ULTIMATE GUITAR TABS ARCHIVE | 300,000+ Guitar Tabs, Bass Tabs, Chords and Guitar Pro Tabs!
Fretboard navigation - UG Community @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com - Fretboard Navigation Using Relativity
Big technique guide - UG Community @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com - READ THIS STICKY (guide to all techniques)
Site with lots of good video lessons - Free online video guitar lessons : Dolphinstreet
Site that maps modes/scales on the whole fretboard - GuitarTools.net
Lots of lessons here - Guitar Noise - Free Online Guitar Lessons
Chord encyclopedia plus lots of other stuff - JGuitar
Online metronome (in case you don't have your own) - METRONOME ONLINE - free!

Have fun learning. Playing guitar is a great way to relax and forget about any problems you may be having. It helped me get through my uncle's death (he was a great musician, played in a band and for his church) and anytime I'm having a rough day I can just play for hours and feel so much better afterward. Good luck!

[Selamis]

I too have been strongly considering this as I've become greatly bored with playing the same songs on rockband over and over and want to learn the real thing. I've been trying to tell myself to just man up and go get the guitar but I'd have no idea where to start either so this thread has some good ideas to play around with.

I think if I do start learning to play guitar, that I'd want to learn on an electric one, and I was even at the local Best Buy and went to their music department to see what they had. I saw a pretty nice black and orange sunburst Les Paul for $250 that I was considering...is that a decent price for a guitar? I mean I saw ranges from $250 to $1700 depending on the model...

Obviously I don't want to spend too much but I want to spend enough to get my value out of the purchase, but then after that, does the type of amp you get for the guitar matter, or are they pretty much all the same?

[Selamis]

Also, my dad got the Esteban guitar and package deal for Christmas with Esteban's lessons.....would watching that help at all? He's teaching on an accoustic but I'd imagine that the same thing would translate to an electric guitar right?

[Obev]

Generally, play before you pay with lower-price guitars. When you're paying big bucks to a respectable company or luthier it's generally expected that you'll get what you pay for, but with $250 bargain basement Les Pauls you might want to try it first. I'm not saying there aren't some damn good cheap guitars out there, but there are some right stinkers as well so take it off the wall and give it a play first.

Of course, not knowing how to play guitar is a bit of a stumbling block there. Have any friends who play? Get one of them to accompany you to ensure you don't get ripped off paying for a hundred-dollar unplayable plywood monstrosity.

Though a lot of those plywood monstrosities come with "teach yourself geetar!" books and a crappy but serviceable amplifier. I suppose it comes down to how much you see yourself still playing the thing in a few years.

Electrics and acoustics are tuned the same. Whatever this Esteban fellow's teaching you'll be able to use it on either.

Well, "tuned the same..." whole different can of worms there. "Standard" tuning is "standard" for both instruments, is what I should have said.

[Trajan]

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.

Playing ANY instrument is better than playing guitar these days.
There are way to many emo kids in bands these days who think they are talented/cool/straight and it simply isn't true.
I wish I would have learned how to play the piano instead of the guitar.

[Despain]

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.

Well yeah. I mean, whatever interests you more in terms of learning how to play a certain instrument is going to seem easier. For instance, I can't play piano for shit... not because I don't know HOW to play it, but because I'm really not interested in piano (although piano is actually hard as fuck to play lol).

Honestly, if you want to learn how to play guitar, you need dedication. Learning to play music isn't something that'll just come to you. You have to make a lot of commitment and accept the fact that its going to be very time consuming if you really want to master it. It won't come to you, you have to go for it. I thought myself guitar, with some help from my father, and not to toot my own horn but I'm pretty exceptional at it. When it comes to violin, I'm a beast.

I never took a single private lesson. Most of the things I learned on violin came from 6 years of public schooling, and guitar just myself and my pops. Good luck, honestly, its never easy learning music.

[Yuri-G]

just learn air guitar, it's easier.

[Jefe]

Stand out from the rest by learning THIS:

[sephir]

I said this in the last thread about guitar playing but I'll say it again to stress its importance.

BUY A METRONOME AND USE IT! This in itself is the best tool for anybody learning to play guitar. Although it will annoy you to know end with the beep beep beep beep, you will teach your muscles proper rhythm and techniques without realizing it.

[Zalius]

if you jam in your room, you dont really need to buy one. just google online metronome, theres a ton of em

[Shiroikage]

I play guitar but I am not fistdeep in pussy.
What am I doing wrong?

[Konohamaru]

Personally, like what was said, I'd say start with acoustic.

The action is going to crash course you in finger exercises. (especially if you are start out like most people do, cheap, and cheap acoustic means your fingers are going to bleed). Its a lot harder at first but you'll thank yourself.

[Konohamaru]

I play guitar but I am not fistdeep in pussy.
What am I doing wrong?

playing the wrong songs.

[Zalius]

I play guitar but I am not fistdeep in pussy.
What am I doing wrong?

you
a. have a general lack of good qualities (confidence, social prowess, conversational material) or you do and are simply poor at communicating them
b. you dont get women to the stage where they hear you play, meaning your problem has nothing to do with guitar
c. spend too much time enjoying yourself and not enough improving yourself


i believe in you




also, i'm happy i started on electric. I honestly think it's a lot nicer to start gradually on an instrument and develop strength and go more comfortably to acoustic. Electric is a more expensive investment, but its still a good platform

[sephir]

I don't really want to make a thread for this, but somewhat guitar related.

After a few years of teaching and a few months of savings I finally bought a brand new Gibson Les Paul Standard 2008 model (made ON my birthday earlier this month).

Here are some pictures
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...h/IMG_0582.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...IMG_0579-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...h/IMG_0580.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...h/IMG_0581.jpg

Heres the backplate:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...h/IMG_0583.jpg

And here it is with one of my stage amps
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...h/IMG_0584.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...h/IMG_0585.jpg

I'm right now in the process of deciding whether or not to put on the pickguard. I prefer the look of the LP with the pickguard but I do not want to drill holes in a brand new $3000 guitar.

[Sythe]

I have an classical guitar that someone gave me. I wanna learn how to play but im not sure which hand to use. Im a lefty but i hear alot of lefties just play like righties do. Halp?

[Obev]

I have an classical guitar that someone gave me. I wanna learn how to play but im not sure which hand to use. Im a lefty but i hear alot of lefties just play like righties do. Halp?

Put the strings on backwards, learn it lefty. If you suck, turn it around and re-string it. Doesn't take long.

Les Pauls look far better without pickguards. A Gibson isn't quite what I'd get if I burnt a few thousand on a guitar, but I still wouldn't drill holes in it.

Also we have the same amp. Rock on! http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t...v/shredder.gif