Anyone Just Started To Learn Guitar ? Or Can Play And Give Me Any Tips ?

IAnyone else out there having a go ?

Learn on an acoustic guitar, not electric. Practice a lot so you can build up calluses on your fingers as well as strength. A gripmaster can be helpful to learn how to move each finger individually and you can take it places you cannot bring your guitar to practice.

mindphuk said:

Learn on an acoustic guitar, not electric. Practice a lot so you can build up calluses on your fingers as well as strength. .

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I agree, and its gotta be nylon string. nah I'm just kidding play whatever you want, myself I play nylon acoustic.
don't force anything, play according to whatever speed your most comfortable with. don't stress your L hand pressing down chords, press and release, when I'm learning something new, I used to hold chords too long when learning something new. calluses is one thing but holding down chords too long can stress/injure your hand/ lead to arthritis

i found electric ALOT easier. can't be doing with them nylon strings, tbh just dont learn chords individually cause its tideious as fuck just learn to play some simple songs that you like and then soon your chord arsenal will grow as will your playing! good luck mann

kieranttt said:

i found electric ALOT easier.

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Electric is much easier, that's why it is often suggested NOT to start there. It then becomes more difficult to build the required finger strength required to play well. Also, many If all you want to do is rhythm guitar, then electric is fine but you will have a harder time transitioning to acoustic if you ever want to play one. However, it depends also on your music preference. If it is rock or metal then electric is fine. Acoustic is more strumming and you really have to have your fingering down for it to sound good. I think it's better to learn proper positioning without the cheating you can do on electric. If you get good at acoustic, then electric will be a cake walk but not the other way around.
Nylon string guitars although acoustic, are usually called classical guitars. Don't get one unless that is the style of music you want to learn.

www.ultimate-guitar.com lot of stuff on there that helped my g/f when she learnt

thanks for the replies.
i have cort aqoustic guitar. its got a spruce top. nice bright loud sound....well it is when i get it played right ! (metal strings)
im only a month into it and manage an hour a day.. ish...
fingers are starting to toughen up, very painfull at first.
i know 8 or so cords and can switch between them at about 40 bpm. Although G and C are not so smooth. i know practice practice and a bit more practice !
just starting to put them together to play basic songs.
my aim is to be able to play a few of the songs i like. oasis, bob marley, paul weller, floyd, jack johnson sort of stuff. maybe even a bit of hendrix !
long way to go yet tho.
just wondered if i am doing ok as i am teaching myself.
i have had a look at a few online lessons and they seem ok.

mindphuk said:

Nylon string guitars although acoustic, are usually called classical guitars. Don't get one unless that is the style of music you want to learn.

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yes but the thing with Nylon string, well classical style is more about playing exact compositions) but the flimenger style can teach you what your doing on the guitar, and how to improvise.You WILL learn great fundamentals learning that style. I mean you learn the core insturment itself. its not that that electric is easier than nylon or acoustic or whatever. its that the western style of playing and learning dosn't really teach you that well. but thats just my short little rant.

people will play what they want to play tho

Hey man sounds like your off to a good start. If you're any way musically inclined you'll be able to get yourself to a fairly high standard on guitar without tuition, though there's nothing as beneficial as a good teacher.

Keep on powering on through open chords, then learn some songs you like from basic open-chord tabs. For example say you want to learn a Metallica song, you can use google to search for 'Nothing Else Matters chord tab', and with a bit of skimming, you'll find a tab that works. Keep an eye on user ratings on tab sites though, they're a pretty good indicator of whether or not the tab sounds anything like what it's supposed to.
Learning the open chord progressions to songs you like a really good way to become aware of chord progressions and how different keys/notes/chord shapes etc interact with each other.

From there I'd say move on to learning the notes on the neck of the board, and then familiarise yourself with power chords. These are much more straight forward than what you'll have accomplished so far, but they open up more rock and metal sounding tabs that you can learn.

Then move on to full tab. Here you're going to be combining lots of things, like different chord structures (open chords/ bar chords / power chords), and shapes, like aumented and added 7th chords etc., as well as playing 'shapes'. By shapes I just mean when you're playing notes rather than chords. there's loads of different terminology and a lot of it is inconsistent, so just concentrate on getting your teeth into as much as possible and practice practice practice!

Also if you want to learn a particular technique, do a youtube search for it. For some techniques like bending or harmonic pinching you'll want to see what's going to really understand it.

Last thing I'd say is have fun man! The best thing you can do with any knowledge of music is entertain and express yourself!

You'll be rockin out in no time man!

An old trick I used to do to help me learn the notes of a guitar is to take masking tape and lay it in between all of the frets and write the corresponding notes under the string with a sharpie. Instant reference. And in case you didn't know already, you'd only do that up to the 12th fret, because afterwards you've gone up one octave and are just repeating the same pattern of notes as the first 12.

Oh yeah, and check this place out too: www.cyberfret.com

I tend to disagree with the starting on the acoustic mentality. Start with whatever you are going to play.

Too many people want to learn to play lead and get some shitty country acoustic guitar that wasn't meant for it and get discouraged and quit after learning 3 chords. I started on electric, learned the scales and picked up a nylon acoustic to try my hand at flamenco...and my hand didn't crumble...

Get some books to get the basics down and then find someone GOOD to get lessons from

the hardest thing will be doing chords at first, without calluses it stings and hurts holding down chords.


i haven't played regularly in years and i can pick up a guitar and play a few songs before my hand tires out..... the strength needed to play like slash for 4 hours straight comes with hours of practice.....