Does Anyone Play The Guitar?

Hiya all,

Does anyone here play the guitar? I don’t play myself, I used to have a cheap acoustic guitar a while ago but I have got rid of that now, I couldn’t really play too much anyway.

But I’d really like to learn and am dedicated in spending the time in doing so. But, I am not paying for a tutor. 1) Because I can’t afford to be splashing out the money for it right now and 2) Because I don’t want a tutor, period.

So, I’m thinking of picking up a cheap’ish electric guitar to start with. I have seen a website too, with in depth tutorials and am also prepared to search around prior to this website also.

I know a few people who have learnt to play themselves and if they can do it, then why can’t I? I take pride in what I do and am quite some perfectionist.

So I was just wondering whether anyone else here has anything to share with me about the subject? :smile:

what kind of music interests you?

Lots really.

Guns N’ Roses, Oasis, The Darkness and loads of others. If you’re under the impression I’m thinking that I will be able to play all these after the first month, then don’t worry, that’s not what I am expecting. :tongue:

Its not to be expected of course unless you put in a little bit of practice each day. Sure yer not gonna learn how to rip leads like slash right away but you can learn the rhythm parts to sweet child o mine or any darkness tune.

Get a hold of some guitar magazines and learn the simplest riffs you can find. Learn a simple riff every day and as you learn them, your abilities will progress until you can play more complex passages.

It will take a bit of conditioning your fingers to do whats needed of them.
If you can make this process an enjoyable one, you will become a good guitar player.

Thanks.

Yer, I’m certainly willing to put in the time and effort. Do you play?

www.rondomusic.bigstep.com

get an agile LP before it’s too late…that’s my advice for a good starting guitar that is really inexpensive but high quality.

damn i want that silverburst, but I don’t “need” it especially since I already ahve an older original horned model…

starting on your own is fine, but my advice is

  1. do not play drop D, at all, for about 6 months, it will ruin you and make you lazy and make you suck.
  2. learn scales and chords, and learn them early.
    looknohands.com/chordhouse/g … ex_rb.html
    www.cyberfret.com is a good all purpose learning site too.

3)you have to read tab, it’s a virtual necessity and VERY EASY)
www.olga.net
www.mxtabx.net

  1. PLAY ALONG WITH THE CD… you won’t be able to starting out… so… USE A METRONOME… i bet there are free metronomes you can download… once you get fast and proficient enough… PLAY ALONG WITH THE CD as much as possible.

  2. always take it really slow, never push yourself to be fast if there are mistakes present, that’s how you end up learning a solo, and, despite playing it for an entire year, you still suck at it and are sloppy… you have to learn it right as slow as possible, and just constantly play it slow, you’ll naturally be able to speed it up over time.

i guess that’s about it.

NEVER TRUST GUITAR STORES… they will rip you off to the extreme.

musiciansfriend.com/

if you’re gonna buy something, look up musiciansfriends price and make them match it, and try to get free stuff like cables thrown in.

www.harmony-central.com this is a good place for gear reviews and has good forums, if you’d look around the amp forums you can probably find good suggestions on what kind of amp would be good/cheap for a beginner to have…

I can’t really make amp recommendations, other than the Marshall MG series kind of sucks, that’s what I have.

holy reality, you mentioned cyber-fret (now www.guitarlodge.com <-- go there).

Are you a member of the forums?

holy reality, thanks for your post.

Well, I got an electric guitar today. I have been trying some chords and so on. My fingers are just stiff at the moment, but they will loosen up over time, right?

hey holy reality, are you a member of the guitar.com forums as well?

I’ve played for 9 months now, I’m still very unsecure, but I’m really content with the progress I’ve made. It’s so fun in the beginning when you get better for each day… :content:

I’d say: do learn to fingerpick from the very beginning (do not use the thumb for picking only, as I did for a long time…Which I regret now, because it’s hard to relearn)
Yeah, learn everything from the beginning. No cheating with the “a-grip” barré chords if it’s difficult and so on.

I have a question to you guitarplayers: why does it hurt so much when I play barré, and what can i do about it? It hurts in the muscle between the thumb and index finger.

nope, and i’m a sucky guitarist, if I’m on a music forum (i’m on harmony central) it’s because i’m killing time or leeching advice from others.

nope… I used to use it for my mp3s until it changed and stopped being free, or something like that, though.

there’s nothing wrong with cheating barre chords, it limits you in some ways, such as, playing appregios, though…

i myself barre power chords with my pinky… I wish I’d stuck with it the hard way but hell it’s easy… (it’s very hard for me to barre with my middle finger if not impossible the way i hold the guitar)

umm…

-play standing up, it’s easier once you get used to it, especially with a damn LP… I wonder why I suck, it’s because I can’t hold the danged thing right sitting down!!!

TheLateShinobi what guitar/amp did you get?

I am learning how to play the guitar…I learn chords from a book, and not with a teacher…

I do. I paid for a tutor for a while, as i always find it benificial to start off with human help so they can show you what you’re doing wrong. Books can’t do that.

Granted the chords and riffs can be learnt through books, but the things like palm muting can’t really be learnt accurately through books it needs the human touch so to speak.

Few possible reasons.
-You have small hands, so it’s a strain on them

-Your thumb is in the wrong possition

  • You’re putting too much pressure on them during the barre chords, when you do the bar chords use less force with your thumb.

  • More practice. The obvious one is that you’re still not used to it and it will pass the more you practice. Although if you have been doing it a long time it’s probably one of the other reasons.

i have been playing guitar for about 4 years and its alot of fun. for the beginners in this forum, if you are having trouble, fdont give up because it definitely pays off. its so cool when you achieve something really fun to play

Yeah, I play guitar. I have been playing about half a year. I am happy with the progress i have made because I play A LOT. about an amp… if you plan on getting serious with guitar, and plan on playing for years to come, go ahead and make the leap of buying a tube amp and not some shitty S.S. Believe me, i made the mistake and I wish i would have just saved up a few extra hundred dollars and bought a Peavey Classic 30 or a Fender Twin reverb. BUT if you don’t have the cash to go for that tube amp, get a good S.S. amp. one of the best ones is a Roland cube 30. thats what i have and it has the best clean channel than any other SS amp i have heard. it is about $225.

As for the guitar, spend more money on a good amp. you can have the nicest guitar in the entire world and play it on some shitty SS amp and it will sound like crap. a guitar is only as good as the amp its playing through. how much are you wanting to spend on your guitar by the way? i know a lot of good guitars around the $200 range. and when you start playing, you are going to become very stressed at yourself when you can’t play that favorite lick that you have. just try not to get mad. that is what leads players to quit guitar altogether. It almost happened to me. I would also suggest finding a guitar teacher for at least the first month or 2 that you start. believe me, it will start you off on the right track.

i wish i could find a good guitar teacher that i could see every day for at least an hour at a time, or at least, 3-4 times a week.

i am so sloppy… :silent:

what I don’t get is I’ve been working on the Enter Sandman solo for like a year, at first I was pretty good at it, like 2-3 weeks after trying to learn it, then I started sucking… so anyway.

there’s this 16th note scale run thing, and you’re supposed to pick almost all of it, not cheat your way through with pull offs, and, the other day, I DID IT it was like i was disconnected from my body and possessed, my fingers were flying, and I was like “how did I do that?”

because I had no idea how I did it, it’s like, a zen type thing, there was no thought… just playing.

and… I normally can’t do it… I can’t move my left fingers that fast to save my life…

what gives?

Well, there’s hardly any more to it than the “Zen experience” you describled. Sometimes when you are in the right state of mind, the stars align and you connect.

yeah but if the only way I can play something is by “not playing it” then how I can practice it and learn to play fast?

I play the guitar, i thought myself.

I’m saving up for an electric, but I do have two acoustics right now.

Actually I just got home from leading worship on the guitar at youth group:)

I like Lynyrd Skynyrd, i’m in the process of learning FREE BIRD, but it doesn’t sound near as good as it should on an acoustic.

Oh yeah and I have been playing for about 7 months…

Actually, if I’m correct, then that is exactly what practice should do. By practicing what you want to play, your finger muscles “memorize” where they are supposed to go. I’m sure you know that things don’t seem so hard once you’ve learned them, well you’re probably getting pretty familiar with whatever you were playing. You were probably relaxed so your brain could freely exercise what you taught it.

It’s actually a lot like lucid dreaming :content: