So, today I bought a guitar!

[NSFW]

Never played before in my life but always wanted too, got one off eBay, second hand (electric) with a practise amp. Now, I just have to get to grips with learning the fret board and all associated chords etc... It's a lot harder than it looks but something I've wanted to do for years, and having outlaid a little money, hopefully this will spur me on.
I have spent this afternoon watching videos and trying to teach myself but I think I'll employ a proper tutor for a bit and get to grips with it.

Any tips for a newbie?!

[Laplace]

Justin Sandercoe has plenty of courses including a beginners course, it's free but you can donate if you like.

http://www.justinguitar.com/

I learned most of my basics from Marty Schwartz on youtube, him and Justin are the two biggest online guitar tutors and have some great material easily found on youtube.

Good luck!


ETA Post us up a pic of your new axe

[davepoth]

What sort of guitar did you get? Any pictures?

I've been playing for 15 years or so but I still learnt some stuff from this guy's beginners course.

http://www.justinguitar.com/

[justin220]

I bought myself an acoustic a couple of months ago after always wanting to learn to play.

So far all I've done is play along with YouTube tutorials, and I'm loving it. However I feel I may be picking up some bad habits so might get a couple of lessons..

[NSFW]

Thanks all, this is the beast (don't think it's anything special, but for £20 with an amp and carry case I can't complain!)

[davepoth]

3/4 size guitar by the looks of it, may be a little difficult to play properly if you have fat hands...

[gbbird]

davepoth said:

3/4 size guitar by the looks of it, may be a little difficult to play properly if you have fat hands...

I feel sorry for the poor baby sleeping bottom left ;

[NSFW]

Oh, the baby sleeps through most things...

The guitar is a little fiddly, but I just put that down to me being a bit kack handed. A friend plays so I might have a grapple with his and see if there is much difference. Its's abut 38" long (vicar!).

[Laplace]

NSFW said:

The guitar is a little fiddly, but I just put that down to me being a bit kack handed. A friend plays so I might have a grapple with his and see if there is much difference. Its's abut 38" long (vicar!).

Just a couple of words for starting off, words which might have helped me stick it at when I first picked up a guitar and gave up as a young teenager.

Picking up a guitar for the first time everything feels pretty alien, you're trying to tell your fingers to go here but they want to go there. You may also be trying to hold down one string whilst not touching any others which could mute/deaden them. I still vividly remember struggling with my first few (and then some) chords, as most players probably will, we've all been there.

Your fingers aren't used to performing these strange shapes and the frustration of not getting anywhere fast can make it easy to give up at first. They key to guitar is practice practice practice repetition repetition repetition, it's all about muscle memory.

Start off by maybe choosing 3 Major chords G, C and D or A, D and E. These represent what's called a I, IV, V. What that means at the moment is pretty irrelevant but there are so many songs that can be played with these 3 chords so it's a good place to start. Having a song to play along with is good as it gives a reward if you like after the struggle.

Once you have a few of these chords under your fingers then you can add another chord to pratice, then another and before you know it you've got a dozen chords in the bag and the guitar isn't feeling as alien in your hands as it once was. Learning new chords becomes alittle quicker as you've built on the dexterity in your fingers.

This is just advice for getting yourself started off and I've no idea if it's good advice but I think it would have helped me a little years ago.

The first month or so will probably be the hardest but if you stick through that and practice a fair bit you will probably have nailed a few chords by then and started to have got the bug, then the sky's the limit!

Good luck!

[NSFW]

That's excellent advice, thank you!

[The Lone Groover]

I started playing the guitar properly around three years ago. I'd mucked about for a while, & my son had shown me the basics. I took the plunge and found a tutor who'd teach me a few tunes that I'd like to play along to. Best thing I ever did! I've progressed from "inept" to "mediocre", and aspire to "average" eventually, but once a week I get to lock myself away for an hour with a proper musician who encourages me and makes me feel good about my playing.

The downside is that I now have three rather expensive guitars because I love them!

Go for it!

[Justin Cyder]

Don't give up. If I could offer one piece of advice to beginners it would be that.

It's not easy & I have seen so many people put one down permanently because they weren't Jimi Hendrix within a fortnight! However...there's always a however..! the fact that's it difficult is what makes it so brilliant.

It's like learning to drive - you can't do it, you can't do it, you can't do it. Then you can do it, then you wonder how couldn't do it before. And that part of it is addictive.

[Jaykaybi]

Happy NGD


Re-visit this thread in a few years when you've got five out on stands, three under the bed, and one ornamentally displayed on the shelf under your glass dining room table.......