Learning the Guitar

Learning the Guitar

I'm getting ready to learn the guitar this summer. Yay! I've always wanted to learn and now that I'm "guitar-sitting" for the summer I'll be able to play.

Anyone else here play the guitar? Recommend any good books or online guides to learn?

I taught myself how to play bass. Well most of it. A couple of my friends are really good bassists, and taught me a thing or two when I first got it. was fairly easy to pick up since i had played piano, trumpet, alto/saprano/tenor/baritone sax before.

Hey look, my 300th post.

Cool! I've been playing for about 10 years ... something like that. It's been so long I can't keep track.

Well I would recommend www.olga.net if you want play songs from tabs.
I don't know of any specific beginners book to recommend. But I would look for one that teaches you everything from stringing and tuning your guitar to chords and scales. You'll just need some basic knowledge to get started, but make sure you take the time to learn them properly. Make sure the book stresses proper finger placement and order. You just don't want to develop "bad habbits" early on if you can help it.

USE YOUR PINKY FINGER! As much as you can. Most people don't like to because it is weak and might hurt or slow you down. Trust me if you don't develope it now, later on it will cause you problems.

It's not as bad as I make it sound

Yea thats something I learnt when I was taking up bass and playing some guitar on the side. use the pinky!! don't cut corners and develop bad habits right off the start.

www.chordbook.com i like their guitar solos by the key guide... i started with bar chords... i only learned by myself... after two years, i got pretty good...

i've been playing for about 10 years too and taught myself. I'd recommend any book that teaches the basics and then progresses from there. I have one I got a long time ago called the Guitarist's Handbook - has background info on guitars, all the different kinds, how to string, tune, scales, chord progression, basic musical theory, etc... not to mention a full chord dictionary in the back.

And yes, use your pinky. I played for years using all the bad habits I'm now finally over. But I would also say go with E's advice if you can and get lessons. It's gotta be better to have someone teach you the right way straight from the start than to screw around and figure it out yourself. (Though it is quite satisfying when people say "hey you're pretty good, where'd ya learn? And you say ya taught yourself lol)

werd...talented i guess.

yup... i started w/o using the pick... and it sucks... but now i'm used to it... i cant pick though... i only use finger picking...

wow that's crazy! what do you play without a pick? I mostly play rock/punk music so it's a lot more strumming than picking. Just picking for the solos. Which are the most fun anyway lol

HarmonyCentral.com

Learning the guitar is really cool, I need to catch up in the practicing too. If you played instruments in the past it'll be easy to learn anything music related. I played piano, alto and Baritone saxophones, clarinete, snare drums, flute, trumpet, trombone. Yes I was a band geek back in the day lol hell I still am I'm a musik/car freak lol gotz to love musik though

i finger pick slow songs... lol... ones you sing to the girls...lol... hehe... like john mayer stuff... im also starting to learn some punk stuff... im trying to learn a song by my chemical romance...

the guitar was the best 100$ i've ever spent.