Complete Beginner who really wants to learn.

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Permalink Reply by FloridaGull on December 29, 2011 at 9:35am

Hi Mike!

Check out this discussion in "Acoustic Newb":

http://www.acousticguitarcommunity.com/group/acousticnewb/forum/top...

Good info within... :-)

Never too late to start... :-)

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Permalink Reply by Marlene Hutchinson on December 31, 2011 at 10:32am

Hi Mike,

Congrats on your enthusiam to learn to play guitar, it's a great instrument to play!

I teach a 1 day workshop called "Learn to Play Guitar in a Day!".  In the 5 hour workshop I cover all the basics.  I teach at colleges in the western US, so if you are in those areas maybe it would be helpful for you.  Otherwise you may want to look at something local in your area like adult education classes with a begining guitar course.  It's a good way to get started. 

BTW...you are at the perfect age to learn ~ which is basically any age that you are ready and excited to learn to play guitar.  

Good luck on your guitar playing journey!

Marlene Hutchinson

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Permalink Reply by sonia kelley on December 31, 2011 at 11:29am

awesome ..... there is alot of info on u tube and tutorials ..   my best advice is to learn stuff you like first ... it helps when you know the song in your head .... there are alot of great three chord songs out there that will get you started ... just stick with it .... also a local music store usually will have instructors and /or books ....  are you interested in lead or just chords to start ...   if you want to play lead definitely get some theory instruction it will help you ... even some colleges have basic theory classes ... hope some of this helps

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Permalink Reply by Blackback Gull on January 10, 2012 at 7:04pm

Get a book showing the basic chords - then work on being able to form them, and move between them. The first month or so is the hardest - once you get three chords that work as a strum for a song, you're off to the races. A good website for songs is azchords.com - lots of stuff there. It's also easy to figure out the notes on the strings at each fret position - you can then noodle around, learning scales and little runs. Basically, each fret position equals a half note (e.g, on the A string: A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A) - remember that |B and E have no sharp...

Classical guitar is another whole bag of cats - I did classical lessons weekly for about two years, and while I've lost a lot of it, especially the ability to sight read music, a lot of the technique stays with you...

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Permalink Reply by Tony John on January 14, 2012 at 9:35am

Sound like how I started...when my brother wasn't playing it, I was. One of the main questions you have to ask is How far do you want to go with your playing? If you just want to knock out a few common tunes then any book of first position chords will do. But I always encourage people to learn as much about the instrument as possible A lot of people are happy just to stick with the basics but they may soon find themselves in a rut and I've found the only way out is to start exploring. (how many ways can you play a G7 or Dm, and, more importantly, why would you want to play a certain chord shape one way rather than another? Do you want the 3rd in the bass, on top...?) At this point you can go as far as you want. Recently, I've been getting into altered tunings, something I should have done 20 years ago.

YouTube has a lot of good stuff, a lot of bad stuff, too

Learning to read tablature is an excellent way to learn. But make sure its from a good publisher. Much of the tab on the web is either impossible to understand or all wrong to begin with.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Carden on July 28, 2012 at 5:17pm

I completely second this about the tab online, it has completely halted my progress over the last few years. I've been stuck in a huge rut for years, because I knew enough to get by but when trying to learn with tabs online, if one little note was wrong I'd just stop completely, because I'd become so frustrated with the internet tabs.

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Permalink Reply by Matthias Young on August 17, 2012 at 1:46pm

If you can find a local teacher, that's the way to go. Some teachers will offer online guitar lessons via Skype. There is a wealth of information out there online, such as YouTube (where you can find anything), and my personal favorite, Free Guitar Videos. They have several instructors covering different playing styles in different genres,

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Permalink Reply by Mike Duncan on September 18, 2012 at 8:23am

Try Guitar Pro 6.  You can get it free and if you like, you can buy it with all the extras.  I've been playing 34 years and I found a song on there I had been having a problem with.  It helped me get over that part.  Try it and tell me what you think.

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