Any advice for learning to play guitar? (1 Viewer)

[ikiru]

I have a Seagull also and I love it!

Mark me down as another satisfied Seagull owner!
I have the entry level C6 Cedar model and I think it sounds wonderfully warm and I love playing it. This is probably the most important part about learning an instrument. You have to enjoy playing it. I recommend Seagull guitars to anyone!
-ikiru

 

[TheoGB]

I await your first material on MP3.com Rain.

 

[Joe Bernardi]

If you'd like some computer instruction, check out the products at www.emedia.org. Their basic guitar instruction CD-Roms contain digital tuners and metronomes as well as instruction.

 

[Brad_W]

Rain, my advice to you is: Once you start getting the hang of playing the guitar, get with another musician friend and play together. Next to individual practice, writing/jamming with a friend helps with creativity and helps yous find your style in writing/playing music. This also helps force you to learn at a quicker pace.

Even better, get with a drummer. Better than that, get with a friend who's a drummer. That way there is no pressure, just fun and playing practice.

I've been playing the drums for 10 years and I played mostly with friends so my creative energy was produced easier.

 

[John Besse]

Take lessons I cant stress that enough to new guitarists. I've been playing for 7 years and I want to go back to lessons for some new styles and techniques.
Also, learn your basic chords, scales and modes. If you're ever interested in being a soloist... Learn your scales and modes. That's another thing I cant stress enough.
Last, buy a guitar.

 

[TheoGB]

I'm still not sure about lessons. The music should come through you. If you learn when you're a kid you will pick it up and be very fast. If you learn, as I did and you are doing Rain, when you're past your teens, you're never really going to be as fantastic as you could have been.

Lessons are fine and it's good (though not essential) to know where all the notes are and so forth on your guitar but if you want to write stuff just play it and don't worry. You might think later that you'd like to learn how to use slide or whatever - then that's the time for lessons.

However, most of the guitarists that seem the most innovative and impressive to me, seem to be pretty much self-taught. If you don't follow the trends sometimes you hit an untapped vein of originality.

 

[Rain]

Well, my "lessons" are pretty informal, which is kind of nice. My teacher is a good friend who also plays in bands and stuff, so we can jam or just do whatever we feel like when we get together. This seems to be working well so far.

Plus, when I do something right, he gets even more excited than I do about it.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I'm still not sure about lessons. The music should come through you.

If you don't really learn theory and chords it's very difficult to break free of "I-IV-V", at least as a songwriter. Lessons IMO are a good thing, the more you learn about music the more you know. When letting the musuc just come from "feel" it takes much longer and much more effort to expand your musical horizons.

 

[TheoGB]

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that all lessons are bad - it is good to have the sort of support that Rain obviously does - but I am self-taught as are all my mates.
Not all of them know what I mean when I say play an 'A' or even necessarily where they can barre an 'A'. This makes some jams tricky but on the other hand if I'm playing and they're trying their thing it can sound so different. They also tend to write far more innovative stuff than I do.
Comparitively if you all know your various theories then you easily end up all playing in a very standard pattern and it looses the looseness.
One thing I've never been able to take well to is re-tunings. Rain, try out some open chord tunings on your guitar and stuff like that. Sonic Youth do that a lot and it can make your sound really distinctive and give a lot of inspiration. I personally just can't seem to get my head round more than drop-D tuning.
Also nice is to tune the whole guitar down 2 or even 3 steps to get a really muddy loose sound. Mmmmm.

 

[Dominic Scolaro]

I haven't been around here for a while, but I just checked in and noticed this thread. I am 40 and just started playing 6 months ago after saying "I wish I could play the guitar" for the last 25 years. I could go on and on with advice, but the best advice I can give you is to go to the Link Removed
It doesn't matter that you don't have a Fender or even an electric. Some people there don't even play guitar. But if you want endless information about guitars or music, tons of help, and good people in a well moderated forum, you must go there.
And the previous warning about G.A.S. is completely true!
Good Luck!

 

[Jack Gilvey]

One of the first things Sir George Martin did when taking on The Beatles was to get them started on piano lessons. Learn the theory and mechanics correctly, as it will allow your creativity to come out more easily, as opposed to stifling it.

As an aside, I played a Tacoma DM9 ($600) acoustic today...wow, very nice. I much prefered it to the $2000 Martins sitting beside it, probably due to the wider neck and brighter tone more fitting my fingerstyle playing.

 

[Kevin Potts]

Any advice for learning to play guitar?

Yeah. Stop messing around with kiddie toys like the guitar and learn to play a real instrument like the drums.
Just kiddin Rain

 

[Dan Whalen]

I would also like to start learning to play the guitar, but I don't have the time for lessons, plus I'd probably have to drive at least 45 minutes to take lessons. Are there any good books out there that can teach me how to play? I've got an acoustic guitar just sitting in my spare bedroom, and would like to put it to some use (it was my grandpa's, and I got it when he died, so I don't really want to sell it).

Dan

 

[Jeff Kleist]

My problem is that I have a very hard time switching to chords. Barring I'm fine. I wish also that everyone would write stuff in 1 tuning, it's VERY annoying when the chords in the music don't match up

OK, I admit it, I suck

I have a chord transcription of one song, along with what I think are the chords. Can anyone help me with correct fingerings/tunings? I can send an MP3

 

[TheoGB]

Dan: I'll have a look at the book I've got back home. Most of my stuff I learned by buying the TAB book for albums I really liked from music shops and just playing along to it.
Jeff: you can email it to me at [email protected] and I'll have a listen, as long as it's under 10MB please!
I'm not sure about hearing different tunings - they're not that common in my experience but it certainly does happen. More often I find that the recoding may be a little sharp, usually I guess this is the producer tweaking the track a little faster for brightness or the band tune to 450Hz or something. (The Bends is mostly a little sharp)
Changing chords can be a tricky business at first and barre's are faster I guess, but it's usually not so important to be hitting those chords right. Concentrate on your strumming hand getting the rhythm and if there are a few bum notes as you change it's not so important. You'll improve.
Different tunings are pretty useful for all kinds of stuff - tuning down or up using a capo to go up is really useful for vocal ranges. Hendrix and Cobain both liked to detune all the guitar, I guess because bending is a lot easier and it gives a nice 'fat' sound. Some things just sound so much nicer in a different tuning.
Are there any tracks you're specifically thinking of where you're having trouble with the tunings?

 

[JonZ]

Theres been 2 other treads in the past here in After Hours. You may want to search for them as there was some good advice in those threads well.
I also learned to play on a acoustic. I learned from tablature playing Black Sabbath,Led Zeppelin and Metallicas Kill Em All.I switched to a electric guitar a year later.
Practice is the key and learn as much as you can. Any kind of song, every if its not "your cup of tea".
Learn chords, practice while u watch TV.I do this. I sit on the bed on the couch and just play(unplugged)while watching tv. But its important when your starting becuase your learning so many new chords.Its a good way to get them into your subconscious. Just change chords trying to get changing them down smoother, then you can add alternate picking and then finger picking into it.
Also scales are important and hopefully u wont find them too tedious. Try to play by ear and most of all, have fun.
And I cant finish here without recommending Metal Method, which I think is really great instruction series. I saw the first 6 lessons, a friend has the series and I think he does a really good job on it.
www.metalmethod.com

 

[Dominic Scolaro]

Go to the "Chop Shop" at the Fender Discussion Forum that I mentioned a few posts ago. There you can do a search or ask as many music related questions as you want, and there are some real knowledgable people that will reply. There are many Pro instructors that will reply, and they are very patient. I can't stress this enough. It's a great place.
Link Removed

 

[Samuel Des]

Is it common to have to pay for X number of lessons up front?

 

[Jeff_A]

My eight year old daughter was recently given a very cheap, very small, childs guitar as a gift. I am very happy to report that she has quickly demonstrated some some skill and dexterity - as well as a love for the instrument.
I am considering purchasing her a nice starter accoustic for Christmas. Can any guitarists out there recommend a solid guitar for a child? Say something in the $75.00 to $150.00 range? I am also concerned that we find her a smaller scale accoustic so that her fingers can adapt to the size of the neck. Thanks ahead of time for any input you can offer on well-made brands, etc... I am just a clueless ex-drummer.

 

[TheoGB]

Hey, go for broke. Rickenbackers electrics come with 3/4 scale necks. Splash out the extra $$$ and buy her a guitar she'll still be able to play in 10 years time and that will get everyone going 'WOW!'...Or not.