How to play the guitar

[Fidgits]

I got a guitar for Christmas (yay).

An Acoustic one.


And i have never played an instrument before.

I tried some of the DVD lessons that came with it, but it was chords and hard - whereas the gf's sister showed me 2 songs using "tabs" and i much preffered that as they were actually songs and i could remember how to play them.

So, how can i learn to play it with this method, and get good enough to bang out a few songs? Any song reccomendations?


oh, and the strap doesnt work - i have a tab on the bottom which one end attaches too, but no other one, though i has a little hook thing, but i cant see where to attach that either?

ta!

[Salgar]

Hey, when I learnt guitar, the first song I learnt to play was REM - Everybody hurts, its easy, and you will learn 3 chords while you go. you should be able to find the tabs online, or better a youtube video to help with the positioning of your hand for the G and D chords. Your fingers will be confused for a little while, and the tips of your fingers will be in pain after a very short amount of pressing the strings down. But trust me, it gets easier. The very beginning is always the hardest bit, push through and you'll be strumming along to all your favourite songs soon enough.

[AUDIHenry]

It takes practice! What sorts of songs do you want to play? I would recommend you get a chord book and practice all the chords, as well as switching back and forth between them.

As far as tabs, I suggest exercises where you go 1-2-3-4 on the E and work your way down to e, moving up the neck in the process. It will be frustrating as hell in the beginning, but it will help with positions.

I've been playing for over 10 years now and that's how I learned.

[JayKaybi]

Like this -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lbvSBNLLoo


I started with a song I like, playing it second by second with a tape recorder, and matching the notes I heard with ones on the neck. Twas a bh. (Green Day, Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)).

Tie the other end of the strap around the end of the neck, just past the nut. The far end.


HTH

[JayKaybi]

Oooh, I forgot - here's some shameless self promotion! Not my song unfortunately, but tis I playing it nevertheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptnNFuApWNo

[Fidgits]

JayKaybi said:

Tie the other end of the strap around the end of the neck, just past the nut. The far end.


HTH

???

[Tom_C76]

Fidgits said:

JayKaybi said:

Tie the other end of the strap around the end of the neck, just past the nut. The far end.


HTH

???

Tie the hook on the strap to the neck of the guitar using a piece of string just above the top of the fingerboard, so the string pulls against the plastic piece the guitar strings sit on.

Don't just play by copying tab, it's pretty important to learn chords too. A reasonable beginners mag is Total Guitar, comes with backing tracks and video lessons on a CD.

TC

[JayKaybi]

Fidgits said:

JayKaybi said:

Tie the other end of the strap around the end of the neck, just past the nut. The far end.


HTH

???

Sit with guitar on lap. The neck is the bit you play the notes on. At the far end (your left) there's a plastic bar that the strings pass through/on called the 'nut'. Beyond that, the blocky bit with the twisty tuning pegs and the brand logo on it is called the headstock. The loose end of your guitar strap needs to be tied (possibly this will require procurement of some string) around the tapered part of the headstock, just the other side of the nut (on the tuning peg side).

Edited by JayKaybi on Monday 4th January 11:59

[T350 Al]

I started learning using the Complete Guitar Player books before I took lessons at school many moons ago. My guitar teacher at the time really rated them and I still do. They're available here http://www.musicroom.com/Search/gsearch.aspx?searc...

[otolith]

YouTube is a great resource for someone learning to play - lots of lessons there.

It's also worth investing a few quid in lessons. I've had guitars since my early twenties, and I'm 36 now, but last year I realised that I hadn't actually got any better in years and so went and got some lessons. Not only did I improve my technique and get my head round some music theory that I'd never really understood, but it was great fun. You learn a lot more playing with other people than messing about on your own. I gave it a rest after a while to try to consolidate what I'd learnt, but I'll definitely go back to my tutor for some more at some point in the future.

Some people seem to be naturals, though - I knew a bloke who bought a guitar when he started university. By the time he was kicked off his course six months later, he was a better guitarist than I am now or will likely ever be. My wife had a go on one of my guitars at the weekend and could strum her way through "Hallelujah" within about 45 minutes - but she already plays the flute, piccolo, sax, clarinet and piano (a bit) and seems to pick new instruments up really quickly. The jammy moo. It is some small consolation that she says her fingertips are still sore

[freecar]

OK, I taught myself guitar over 15 years ago, I don't really play much now but I will pick it back up again!

I use tabs to start with as the progress is faster, you'll be able to play recognisable tunes earlier.

I agree with the earlier poster about learning "everybody hurts" as it will teach you a couple of chords along the way (and fingerstyle get's the girls moist!) as well as being a pretty easy tune to play.

You really need a "jam-buddy" as learning techniques when you haven't seen them is pretty hard. I mentioned fingerstyle (where you use pretty much one finger per string to pluck!) which is easy to do but more difficult to describe! Try searching for youtube videos of the techniques that are mentioned!



What music do you like?

What do you listen to?

This will decide what songs you are going to learn, as no-one wants to learn tunes they don't like!

[Fidgits]

so far i've learnt Smoke on Water on E and Green Day's Brain Stew on E.

I am trying Green Day's Time of my life, but its coming slowly.

[suthol]

A bit of Tommy and his brother Phil

And their latest protege Smokin Joe Robinson and more here

[JayKaybi]

Fidgits said:

so far i've learnt Smoke on Water on E and Green Day's Brain Stew on E.

I am trying Green Day's Time of my life, but its coming slowly.

The way I did it (as the first song I ever tried to learn) was to listen for the two distinct patterns in the notes - the bass notes he plays (basically on the beats), and the repeated high note structure in between them. If you can think of them each as 'a pattern' it helps your memory simplify it. You 'remember' just 2 patterns as opposed to trying to remember a long, continuous string of individual notes.

Took me a few days. Hugely satisfying once finished

[Gaspode]

otolith said:

It's also worth investing a few quid in lessons. I've had guitars since my early twenties, and I'm 36 now, but last year I realised that I hadn't actually got any better in years and so went and got some lessons. Not only did I improve my technique and get my head round some music theory that I'd never really understood, but it was great fun. You learn a lot more playing with other people than messing about on your own. I gave it a rest after a while to try to consolidate what I'd learnt, but I'll definitely go back to my tutor for some more at some point in the future.

Absolutely, couldn't agree more. I taught myself to play guitar when I was a kid, when New Musical Express published a teach yourself course. I'll never forget the line they used to sell it: "Remember, Chicks go ape for killer axemen!" (forgive me, we are talking about the mid 70's here!) and although I enjoyed playing a bit, I was really never any better than adequate. I could hold my own playing chords along with songs, bash out the obligatory "Stairway to Heaven" and suchlike, but that was about it. Years paseed, I played infrequently, and never seemed to get any better.

Recently, I decided to see if I could ever be any good, and started proper lessons. Wow, I wish I had done this 35 years ago! I've learned more in the last 6 months than I could have believed possible. Anyone can learn a few chords and strum along to simple pop songs, and great fun it is too. But there's a world of difference between being able to play the guitar and being a Guitarist, and I left it a long long time to find it out.

Get lessons, do it right. You'll enjoy yourself far more.

[TimmyWimmyWoo]

Salgar said:

Hey, when I learnt guitar, the first song I learnt to play was REM - Everybody hurts, its easy, and you will learn 3 chords while you go. you should be able to find the tabs online but make sure you buy cotton wool for any housemates you have

Sorry Paul…

[JayKaybi]

Gaspode said:

Get lessons, do it right. You'll enjoy yourself far more.

Interesting post. I disagree, however. I've had no lessons. Nor, if I recall correctly, did Eddie Van Halen. And Tommy Emmanuel is self taught as well. I would argue that with persistance you may develop your own style if you go it alone, allowing greater creativity.



*Edited to fix quoting error.

Edited by JayKaybi on Monday 4th January 15:17

[otolith]

JayKaybi said:

Gaspode said:

Get lessons, do it right. You'll enjoy yourself far more.

Interesting post. I disagree, however. I've had no lessons. Nor, if I recall correctly, did Eddie Van Halen. And Tommy Emmanuel is self taught as well.

And millions and millions of people who are really rubbish

JayKaybi said:

I would argue that with persistance you may develop your own style if you go it alone, allowing greater creativity.

I don't think you will be more creative by not having lessons. You will just take far longer to get to the same place.

[JayKaybi]

otolith said:

JayKaybi said:

Gaspode said:

Get lessons, do it right. You'll enjoy yourself far more.

Interesting post. I disagree, however. I've had no lessons. Nor, if I recall correctly, did Eddie Van Halen. And Tommy Emmanuel is self taught as well.

And millions and millions of people who are really rubbish

JayKaybi said:

I would argue that with persistance you may develop your own style if you go it alone, allowing greater creativity.

I don't think you will be more creative by not having lessons. You will just take far longer to get to the same place.

I hear what you're saying, but my suspicions are that the straight and narrow of lessons leads to excellence in the straight and narrow, as though the path is set - much as, for example, Steve Vai is more than slightly reminiscent of Joe Satriani....

A good friend had lessons, and is now a touring musician with a band getting US airplay and a record contract. A sublime blues/rock player, and fairly versatile in several other mainstream styles.... He knows his theory, keeps his time. Ask him to play like me though (the video I posted earlier is not representative) with the various percussive and irregular methods I use, some my own, some as employed by Tommy Emmanuel and Erik Mongrain*, and he just can't fathom it.

I'm sure there are counter arguments, chief among which is that most people WANT to play like a great blues/rock guitarist! Mind you, who taught the most stylish and individual blues/rock player of all - Slash?

No arguments against that, please



*I thought I'd be shooting myself in the foot if I mentioned Newton Faulkner - but then he was somewhat 'taught' by the late, great Eric Roche and so once again, the taught follows the teacher

[buffly]

When i started to play i bought an Oasis song book, with all the chords in there.... It was great because most of the songs are really very simple to play....

Just keep practising man!

And try to keep the guitar in tune, or it sounds terrible.

Madison Square Garden, here we come!!!!