New Guitarist

[space_cowboy]

Hi All,

Recently just bought myself a Fender Strat and want to start to play some music, I used to play Acoustic guitar when I was at school years ago and cant really remember anything from it.

I would like to teach myself to play if possible, is there any books etc that people would recommend?

Cheers

[smiller]

I can only speak from experience.

Buy guitar magazines. Lots of them.

Consider this: I can venture upstairs to a hooj collection of mags such as "Guitar For The Practicing Musician" / "Guitar World" / "Total Guitar" and there are tabs and lessons from some big players that are invaluable. Some that spring to mind?

Altered tunings? Kim Thayil
Speed picking? Paul Gilbert
Scale practice? Steve Morse (still refer to it now after, what, 12 years)
Jazz applications? Martin Taylor (the first time I heard about "10ths&quot
Sweep arpeggios? Malmsteen (tw@t that he is)

It's all there for you, but that's just me. The way I did it.

The problem is with that method of learning is that you have to work at it, and want to do it on your own without any mentoring.

It's not hard and fast rules. Do whatever you're comfortable with.

All the best to you, BTW

[Nimbus]

have a good look around the Internet for lessons, and youtube, lots of good stuff there.

but particularly

http://www.justinguitar.com/

and

http://www.nextlevelguitar.com/aforum/index.php

that should give you enough stuff to get back into it

oh, and don't discount having just a few lessons to get you going faster, and make sure you arent picking up any old bad habits

but most of all have fun !

[gbbird]

Never used it myself, but i have heard that Guitar For Dummies is really good starter for beginners. I have bought if for the GF for christmas.

g

[danger mouse]

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

Just ctrl+C'ed this from the other open tab I'm looking at right now.

Everything you need is here.

Personally I just use the TAB library but there are lesson, forums and everything else you might need.
This is my favourite site of this kind as all the TABs have chord box pop-ups so you don't have to keep refering to another source as you go along.

The library is pretty up to date too. Just working on a bit of Newton Faulkener as you read this.

It'll all come back I'm sure.

Have fun with the toy!

DM

[space_cowboy]

I have been checking out ulimate guitar every good site, now can do a couple of intros working on artic monkeys now.

[ih8thisname]

I found a program called PowerTab Editor very helpful, It's a tab (I understand you know what tab is?) editor that plays the song in time so you can play along to it and follow the notes.

Its available in a few places, I got it from here. Its the one at the top of the page, V 1.7. There is a power-tab file available to download from that Ultimate Guitar site for just about any song worth learning!

With that program you can even slow the tempo down till you pick it up.

Let us know how you get on, Good Luck!

[gingerpaul]

The ultimate guitar website mentioned already has a great set of beginner video lessons by a guy known on there as pick n grin. I can't remember where to find them, but I'm sure they're all still on there. They helped me out a bit when I was starting out.

[AnnieS1]

I have.. Starter Pack, Electric Guitar DVD edition, try that. It has a DVD, book, tab book, leads and some other useful stuff. Worked well for me

[Airbag]

Find a good teacher and take some lessons. There is no substitute for proper instruction. All internet material should be seen as supplement, not a curriculum. You will pick up bad habits, no ifs ands or buts. If you can't to commit to regular lessons for whatever reason, at least take a few lessons to get yourself on the right track.

Edited by Airbag on Thursday 13th December 07:09

[RobM77]

Lessons
Books

plus

Learn to play your favourite music. Nothing like honing your technique on a piece that's ingrained in your head - plus you'll want to pick up the guitar and play it more often. Search on the web and you can find tab to virtually any song. Do bear in mind though, most are personal submissions and not all are accurate!

It can be a steep learning curve if you play enough. I first picked up a guitar in March '94, and by the middle of July I was on stage playing lead guitar with Alice Cooper and Nirvana covers. That was about three hours a day practise.

[catmartin]

RobM77 said:

Lessons
Books

plus

Learn to play your favourite music. Nothing like honing your technique on a piece that's ingrained in your head - plus you'll want to pick up the guitar and play it more often. Search on the web and you can find tab to virtually any song. Do bear in mind though, most are personal submissions and not all are accurate.

Couldn't agree more, it's so important to play songs you are familiar with to get you into the swing of things. A friend and I started guitar on the same date, I taught myself with tabs of songs I liked and his dad got him a book with pretty much no songs he knew or liked,Mull of Kintyre etc. I now perform on a stage and he gave his guitar away a year after buying it.

911tabs.com - searches all tab sites,including ultimate guitar. I suggest making a cd or playlist of songs you are learning so you can put it on and play right through, and once you learn them, playing along will keep your skills up to date.

[RobM77]

catmartin said:

RobM77 said:

Lessons
Books

plus

Learn to play your favourite music. Nothing like honing your technique on a piece that's ingrained in your head - plus you'll want to pick up the guitar and play it more often. Search on the web and you can find tab to virtually any song. Do bear in mind though, most are personal submissions and not all are accurate.

Couldn't agree more, it's so important to play songs you are familiar with to get you into the swing of things. A friend and I started guitar on the same date, I taught myself with tabs of songs I liked and his dad got him a book with pretty much no songs he knew or liked,Mull of Kintyre etc. I now perform on a stage and he gave his guitar away a year after buying it.

911tabs.com - searches all tab sites,including ultimate guitar. I suggest making a cd or playlist of songs you are learning so you can put it on and play right through, and once you learn them, playing along will keep your skills up to date.

Glat to hear others have had the same experience. My first few months of learning were full of moments of "oh my God, I can nearly play that Pearl Jam song I really like!", and that spurred me on to think "Oh my God, I can nearly play that Slash solo".

I'm currently trying to learn the cello with the Royal College of Music syllabus and, whilst the cello is my favourite instrument and I'm enjoying it, it's hard going! I don't blame the RCM though, I blame the classical genre, as most of its music is virtuouso in nature, as apposed to Franz Ferdinand or Arctic Monkeys, which anyone can play!

[catmartin]

RobM77 said:

catmartin said:

RobM77 said:

Lessons
Books

plus

Learn to play your favourite music. Nothing like honing your technique on a piece that's ingrained in your head - plus you'll want to pick up the guitar and play it more often. Search on the web and you can find tab to virtually any song. Do bear in mind though, most are personal submissions and not all are accurate.

Couldn't agree more, it's so important to play songs you are familiar with to get you into the swing of things. A friend and I started guitar on the same date, I taught myself with tabs of songs I liked and his dad got him a book with pretty much no songs he knew or liked,Mull of Kintyre etc. I now perform on a stage and he gave his guitar away a year after buying it.

911tabs.com - searches all tab sites,including ultimate guitar. I suggest making a cd or playlist of songs you are learning so you can put it on and play right through, and once you learn them, playing along will keep your skills up to date.

Glat to hear others have had the same experience. My first few months of learning were full of moments of "oh my God, I can nearly play that Pearl Jam song I really like!", and that spurred me on to think "Oh my God, I can nearly play that Slash solo".

I'm currently trying to learn the cello with the Royal College of Music syllabus and, whilst the cello is my favourite instrument and I'm enjoying it, it's hard going! I don't blame the RCM though, I blame the classical genre, as most of its music is virtuouso in nature, as apposed to Franz Ferdinand or Arctic Monkeys, which anyone can play!

Have you tried looking for sheet music of the "String Quartet Tribute" they do versions of modern songs. Their version of Fall Out Boy - Dance Dance is class.

Oh and OP - try youtube, lots of video tutorials.

[RobM77]

catmartin said:

RobM77 said:

catmartin said:

RobM77 said:

Lessons
Books

plus

Learn to play your favourite music. Nothing like honing your technique on a piece that's ingrained in your head - plus you'll want to pick up the guitar and play it more often. Search on the web and you can find tab to virtually any song. Do bear in mind though, most are personal submissions and not all are accurate.

Couldn't agree more, it's so important to play songs you are familiar with to get you into the swing of things. A friend and I started guitar on the same date, I taught myself with tabs of songs I liked and his dad got him a book with pretty much no songs he knew or liked,Mull of Kintyre etc. I now perform on a stage and he gave his guitar away a year after buying it.

911tabs.com - searches all tab sites,including ultimate guitar. I suggest making a cd or playlist of songs you are learning so you can put it on and play right through, and once you learn them, playing along will keep your skills up to date.

Glat to hear others have had the same experience. My first few months of learning were full of moments of "oh my God, I can nearly play that Pearl Jam song I really like!", and that spurred me on to think "Oh my God, I can nearly play that Slash solo".

I'm currently trying to learn the cello with the Royal College of Music syllabus and, whilst the cello is my favourite instrument and I'm enjoying it, it's hard going! I don't blame the RCM though, I blame the classical genre, as most of its music is virtuouso in nature, as apposed to Franz Ferdinand or Arctic Monkeys, which anyone can play!

Have you tried looking for sheet music of the "String Quartet Tribute" they do versions of modern songs. Their version of Fall Out Boy - Dance Dance is class.

Oh and OP - try youtube, lots of video tutorials.

Thanks - I'll look for that . Obviously I love classical music, but as I pointed out it's just way too hard to play the stuff that I like at my stage.