Jump to content

Recommended Posts

To all the musicaly inclined out there, one of my items on my "Bucket List" is to learn how to play the electric guitar. Is there a basic setup out there that can teach you how to play without taking lessons from another person?

Link to post
Share on other sites

That website looks like a good place to start. As for someone teaching himself how to play guitar, I don't know anyone who has been successful in accomplishing that goal. Either way, it's going to take lots of dedication and perseverance. If you have any questions, contact me via private message, I might be able to help you.

Here's a pretty popular guitar forum: http://www.thegearpage.net/board/

Link to post
Share on other sites

About 6 months ago I picked up the guitar once again. Like you it is a bucket list thing.

I appraoched learning with books, internet, and taking lessons. All of them have their pros and cons but I found the lessons and the internet to be the most usefull.

Do a quick search on YouTube and you will find 1000s of videos starting from some simple lessons to how to play specific songs. You might want to try that first to get started but I would recommend lessons some time down the road. The lessons for me give me the chance to ask questions and my instructor guages my progress and makes recommendations on new technique.

I wish you all the best with this.

Rob

Link to post
Share on other sites

There are plenty of youtube guitar lesson videos. I see no reason you couldn't at least learn the basics from a book or video, but at some point I think you would really want a live instructor.

I learned to play several musical instruments in school, and I can tell you far more important than instructors is the disciplne to practice. That was always my weak point, I seem to have a fair talent for music quickly picking up the basics of any instrument I've tried, but I am terrible at sticking with it, with the result being I'd probably starve as a street musician, not being good enough for people to drop money in the hat, and not being bad enough for people to pay me to stop. :nanner:

Steve Martin taught himself how to play the banjo by playing along with 45s played at 16 2/3 and he now is a well respected banjo player. I don't think his results can be thought of as typical though.

Edited by Aaronw
Link to post
Share on other sites

As for someone teaching himself how to play guitar, I don't know anyone who has been successful in accomplishing that goal.

Other than many famous musicians? And a friend of mine is totally self taught, can't read notes, doesn't know much musical theory, never had teacher, but still plays great. It is about talent and dedication.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Other than many famous musicians? And a friend of mine is totally self taught, can't read notes, doesn't know much musical theory, never had teacher, but still plays great. It is about talent and dedication.

Actually, there are many players out there who say they never took a lesson and are self taught, but that is not to say they never learned something new from someone else. Every musician, at one point in their life, is going to learn from (or be influenced by) another musician. Whether it's paying someone to teach you, or watching a free instructional video on You Tube, having another musician show you how to play a lick, chord, progression; reading guitar tabs, etc. I think if you asked most musicians if they received any kind of help or advice from another musician, they'll probably say yes. Of course, that is not to say your friend isn't one of those rare savant musical genius types. When it comes to playing music, I have no problem admitting I'm not a gifted natural.

For beginners wanting to be proficient at playing guitar, my advice is to practice with a metronome and record yourself practicing. Beginners, with no prior experience in playing an instrument, often have difficulty playing in time (no sense of rhythm or groove). If you play out of sync, you won't sound good. Practicing with a metronome improves your sense of time. Some people have difficulty in learning how to use and play along with a metronome...this is where having a teacher or instructor helps. The reason for recording your practice sessions, is recorders never lie. At the start, most beginners think their playing sounds ok. However, when they hear themselves playing on a recorder, they hear their mistakes and want to crawl inside a hole.

Edited by waterman
Link to post
Share on other sites

buy a decent cheap acoustic and an electronic tuner first !!

electrics are easier to finger notes so you don't learn to put pressure on or how to hold chords correctly ( you can be sloppy on electrics and get a result ) acoustics you learn to play !!

if you learn electric first you will have great difficulty with an acoustic afterwards ( believe me !! you will want an acoustic anyway ) you cannot take an electric everywhere !!

books are great there are many methods of learning ( my prefered method is tablature ( very popular) i use this site

ultimate guitar , guitar tablature

your favourite groups will be there , it always gives an incentive playing something you want to learn ( instead of " puff the magic dragon " ) unless you want to learn that in wich case i appologise !!

[although i also use and read correct music but that is a lot harder and takes quite a while to learn

a tutor can be benefical but by no means essential

something that helps far more is playing along with others

a good but not too pricey piece of kit is fenders G.DECK an amp for electrics to download tracks to so you can play along it incorporates metronome backing tracks etc etc

if i was in the position of starting from scratch again my first choice set up would be an electro acoustic guitar ( the ability to use as both )and a fender GDECK

everything is there you can possibly need and then some more to further you on a full electric guitar can then be a good later addition

Edited by tornado64
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...