Attempting to guitar myself.

[Zalius]

http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/

this should be a really good theory course for you if you have the patience. it's basically everything that's covered in the first two levels of introductory collegiate music theory, so it's solid.

[Plow]

this is exactly what learning music teaches you. you no longer see the fretboard as a daunting evil messy set of numbers, you see it as a tool to make music with.

tabs arent bad, practicing nothing but tabs and never working out your own music is bad. it promotes NOT learning music, which is what eventually cripples most players. they dont know music, they know songs, but they dont know how to make a song because they dont know music.


also, in regards to private lessons: they're worth it to see what you can really learn from others. being around other people that have a love for the instrument is a good way to expose yourself to the environment and be comfortable with talking to others about the instrument, which, in my experience, is just as helpful as exercises.

beware of guitar teachers though. some of them will just carbon copy a few scales and waste your time to keep you as a student to support themselves financially, without ever really teaching you how to make your own music.

browse around for some online sites. the best free one that i could possibly recommend is http://justinguitar.com. he doesn't really get too in depth in theory very often, but he does a very very good job of explaining things in a clear and concise manner, which is always good. he's a nice dude and you can hit him up for things on his forums and he's CONSTANTLY adding new videos and stuff. i have a pretty good deal of musical education and some of the stuff he has, especially in the categories of voicing and rhythm, are still totally new to me. i don't use it too much, but when i do, i can always find something i'd like, and from what i've seen browsing the beginner content, everything is rock solid.

Fully agree, if you want to learn some songs to play for your friends and crap, go right ahead with tab.

If you want to actually have some fun with it and get creative at all, let alone just join in and play with people playing random shit, solidly learning a couple scales alone will give you like immeasurably more entertainment/flexibilty.

And it's not like you can't be learning music properly and learning some songs from tab at the same time either.

[Woozie]

Bleh, I will argue for the other side.

There's nothing wrong at all with tabs, it just depends on how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go. You could become a famous musician and never really know how to read sheet music... granted that doesn't happen often... however I think people are too quick to discount tablature and too quick to harp on learning to read music when that can be a bit much for someone who just wants to learn to play guitar with their friends and such.

You can learn a lot from Tabs because you can quickly look up a song you know and like and quickly figure out how to apply it to guitar. Trying to learn a new instrument and a new language (sheet music) at the same time can be disheartening.

I do think it's important to learn at some point, as well as theory but I don't look down on the use of tablature or chord music at all.

Tabs are so popular these days that most guitarist can do just fine relying solely on tabs. So I agree that relying on tabs isn't as bad as non-guitarist view it to be. But when it comes to interaction with other musicians or just being overall a more well-rounded musician, I think it's important to learn to read music at some point. And when it comes to music reading, the best time to learn it is when you're first starting your instrument. It will also help immensely if he ever decided to learn another instrument (well unless he learns drums or something).

Also, knowing how to read music becomes even more important when trying to learn music theory (unless they make music theory books specifically for guitarist, which apparently they do based on a quick google search I just did).

I agree that having to learn a new language while trying to learn an instrument (on top of having to learn tabs and chords and such) can be a lot for a beginner, but it's virtually impossible to convince a person to learn to read music after they're already good at their instrument. I know this from so many frustrating experiences working with church musicians.

[Day]

That's just because they are christian woozie, we all know how open minded they are about new things.

[wipers]

When I was taking guitar lessons I took them from two different types of teachers. One I would just come in and learn a song from my CD's. The other teacher taught me music theory. But before I ever took guitar lessons I learned music theory for piano. As much as I love playing guitar I sorta miss playing piano. I guess I would say that I find playing piano easier than guitar. I'm not saying learning to play the guitar is difficult, but for me I find it difficult to play some chords because I have small hands. lol


Also I agree with the person that said you should learn on acoustic first. It is much easier for a beginner from my experience.

[Woozie]

That's just because they are christian woozie, we all know how open minded they are about new things.

I was just thinking in my head "maybe church musicians are just stubborn" lol. One day I'm going to have to watch a band practice and/or practice with them and see how much different it is than church musicians.

By the way

http://books-videos-music.musiciansf...ELAID=26050670

Found this in my google search. Only 32 pages, but I'm sure there are more books like this. So I guess they do make music theory specifically for guitarist in tab.


Edit: This one is bigger and goes over a lot more

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Theory-W.../dp/0964863243

[Day]

Nah I was jokin' you are right it is hard to learn after you pass a certain point.

[Jakson]

All he really needs is big hair, make-up, and pro-photographer. Fuck scales and practice.

[Zalius]

All he really needs is big hair, make-up, and pro-photographer. Fuck scales and practice.

all i got is power chords and this burnin deep inside

[Davricle]

Some of those pages are really helpful! Thanks!