teaching yourself guitar

So very shortly a really nice Fender acoustic guitar will be coming into my possession. I have always wanted to play, and never let myself learn. There is music inside me, and songs starting to grow that really want to get out and stretch their wings a little. Well now I have this beautiful instrument, and I can't let it go to waste.


They say when the student is ready the teacher will appear. Yogi Bhajan said that if you really want to master something, you teach it. I can't afford lessons. So I guess I have to start by being both student and teacher, and teaching myself to play.

Any advice?

 

Start goggleing...

 

I taught myself to play and I would say that I'm a good guitarist. I've been playing for around three years. Just learn all your basic chords first, because you can start playing full songs with just a few chords. Then learn your scales so you can get to work on solos and stuff. I learned alot just by using TAB and figuring out my favorite band's riffs and such. It's really that hard if you like to do it. If you don't have fun doing it, you're never gonna last.

 

do you have any friends that play? cause you could just get them to teach you the like the basic chords and you can go from there...that's what i'm going to start doing, my dad has been playing for years, so that will be very handy when i start to play.
good luck with learning, it sounds like you definitely have potential

 

Learn to read music. If you are to be a musician, learn the language. It's not as hard as some people make it out to be. And you get respect from fellow guitarists. I suggest Mel Bay's Method for Guitar.

 

Just learn songs you like..... www.guitartabs.cc used to be great, but a lot of songs were taken down. Google never fails when I search for any that aren't on there, though.
And if you learn this way, rather than learning the "proper" way, playing by ear will come naturally to you, quickly, as it did with a few friends of mine and myself.

You pretty much won't get any respect from me, with that statement. Jimi Hendrix couldn't read music, neither could Stevie Ray Vaughan. I take it that there are no "guitarists" who respect them?



kitty fabulous: don't worry about reading music unless youre planning on joining a choir, its really not all its cracked up to be.

 

Just listen to songs you enjoy over and over again, and look up the tabs online. Thats what I did, and it worked well for me.

 

buy a chord dictionary.... i don't know where i would be if i had never purchased it

 

I don't read music, but I really wish I did. Sure, you can play just as well without it, but in my case, it would make jamming easier. I'm getting into alot more jazz stuff lately and I really wish I could apply theory to it and just generally always know exactly what I'm doing. I can jam very well without it, but it definitely would be nice and it would definitely make me a much better musician. I reccomend learning to read and learning at least basic theory.

 

I play pretty well considering I've never had any formal lessons ever in my 14 years of being a musician. I say you listen to music LOTS, try to play the songs you like by first getting familiarized with the basic chords, then barr chords, and power chords. May sound like a lot, but trust me, it is NOT.These chords should let you play amazingly many songs. For lead playing, again, learning scale shapes isn't hard at all. First, get into the blues scale. This can allow you to play a solo over, once again, quite many compositions. From there, you can figure out different scale shapes. The more you spend time on the instrument and the better friends you two become, the better you will understand her.

One thing, though. Listen to as MANY different kinds of music as you can. Never be afraid to WANT to learn something technically advanced. If you can't master it today, you will eventually. The important thing is to maintain the high level of communication with your guitar. The more you get to know her, the more she will respond to your touches. The more you love her, the more she loves you back.

Good luck!

 

Isn't jamming pretty much the polar opposite of being able to read music?

 

Thats like inverted posing.Alot of good musicians who can't read music say it like its something to be admired.I'm even worse cos I passed all the theory grades when I was 19 and haven't picked up a book of music since then cos I'm lazy - 12 years later - and I play jazz for a living.

Some of the legendary jazz improvisationalists knew the language inside out - then on top of that - were exremely creative and mighty intense listeners.I had a go at trying to understand modes - myxolydian,aeolian n all that - but got a very bad headache.

When I jam with my friend,it's the best,cos if we play anything that sounds like music - we consider ourselves to have failed

 

I just think learning music is important if you want to be a musician. You can get by in rock, of course. A lot of people were musical geniuses, and couldn't read music. But I think it's an important addition to any guitarist's toolbox. And like I said, it's a lot easier than it's made out to be. You just have to do it.
Say you're in a jam session, and you're told to play a "C" here. That's a lot quicker than saying "play the third fret of the second string". Or if you're being given instructions by say, a keyboardist, who doesn't know the notes on guitar, he can simply say to play a certain note, and you're ready to go.

 

Well, as far as jamming goes, I was referring more to theory. Reading a score and playing what you read is the opposite of improvising, yes. I was talking more in the sense of improvising with other musicians and knowing things about the different techniques you can use or the different modes or notes you can use to give your music a different mood or to build tension in the jam etc. Alot, I would say most, of the jazz cats know their theory and use it in improvisation every time they jam with others.

 

Well, I know what you mean...but the note of C is on the third fret of the 5th string. You're counting your strings backwards. I don't guess that matters though.:sunglasse

 

You'd think in that case that all of the musicians "jamming" would be very unknowledged.... I've never seriously studied theory and I could tell you where each note is on the guitar and what they sound like (until the double highs, I can't get that high )
Just cos' you don't know theory doesn't mean youre musically retarded.

 

Yeah, I don't know any theory at all and I can jam. If you don't know the notes on the neck though, you have no place in a jam session. You gots to be able to play in key.

 

Well, I never learned theory so I don't know the note names off by heart, but they're pretty easy to work out as long as you know where the sharps/flats are.. anyway when I'm jamming no-one ever says what key they're playing in, it's always an instinctive thing (it takes like 4-5 seconds to work it out at the most).

Teaching yourself on the other hand... it is hard work, but if you teach yourself to read tabs and then work at some songs you like, it can be done.. improvisation helped me loads as well, so did finger picking, and they're both generally good skills to have.. the only downside is that you won't have any feedback on how you play (it's easy to get in to bad habits when you're learning, only to find when you're a bit better you've gotta change your whole style of playing).. my advice is to have a friend who plays guitar, lol.

 

I think someday I would like to learn to read music, because I want to write it someday, and because I think it would be a good exercise for my brain. I brought Johnny (my guitar) home from the pawn shop today. He's a Fender Squire. The bridge is just the tiniest bit high; he needs a set-up eventually but in the meantime he's quite playable. I brought him over to the wellness center where I hang out and was immediately pounced on by wonderful people wanting to help me learn.

I am learning the notes on the neck, I think it would help me. I like to know the names of things. I've been practicing by playing each note on each string up and down the neck, and saying each note as I play.

I was in luck, I guess. I got Johnny for $65, and he came with a case, strap, pitch pipe and spare set of strings - I thought I was paying for just the guitar! I went into Barnes and Noble the other day birthday shopping for my daughter, and right there by the door was a display of beginner guitar books. I picked up a book and DVD set (I'm a "show me" learner) for ten bucks! The pitch pipe is really helping me learn to hear the notes and tune the guitar.

Now my son wants to learn! I've got to find a smaller guitar for him, because Johnny's almost bigger than he is! It could be fun for us to learn together.