Current Events > Just bought a guitar. Any tips?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Used to take lessons as a kid and stopped. Figured Id surprise my dad by picking it back up. This guys been trying to sell me one for months.

Any tips?

Grow out your hair.

play it

ellis123 posted...

Grow out your hair.

Im bald.

https://imgur.com/a/Lz7yXe2

Pic if anyone is interested.

www.ultimate-guitar.com has been my go to source for lessons, tabs, and general music news for over 15 years. Check them out.

In general learn good habits because bad habits are hard to break. For instance, anchoring your thumb on the back on the neck instead of sitting the neck in the bend of your thumb and index finger.

you're going to suck for a good while. just keep working at it and eventually you won't suck, and then shortly after that you might end up being good.

Surprisingly a large amount of high quality YT tutorials out there. More or less taught myself through that.

Should've went with the sunburst les paul.

Chicks dig the sunburst les paul.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

www.ultimate-guitar.com has been my go to source for lessons, tabs, and general music news for over 15 years. Check them out.

In general learn good habits because bad habits are hard to break. For instance, anchoring your thumb on the back on the neck instead of sitting the neck in the bend of your thumb and index finger.

Thanks Ill be sure to check out.

Norman_Smiley posted...

you're going to suck for a good while. just keep working at it and eventually you won't suck, and then shortly after that you might end up being good.

Yeah I didnt have the attention span as a kid but this will be something good to learn in my downtime.

bladegash posted...

Should've went with the sunburst les paul.

Chicks dig the sunburst les paul.

This guy gave me the guitar, an amp and some other small stuff for $150. I figured it seemed like a pretty fair deal. If I git gud Ill get another eventually.

HovaRex posted...

Surprisingly a large amount of high quality YT tutorials out there. More or less taught myself through that.

How long did it take you to learn?

bladegash posted...

Should've went with the sunburst les paul.

Chicks dig the sunburst les paul.

i prefer all white or black beauty myself.

IMO music is learned socially, or in the case of the modern internet nerd, parasocially, so if you want to really learn beyond the basics you need to throw yourself into music, watch other people play (youtube helps in this case), learn songs, try to deconstruct why the songs work (i.e. why does the artist play chord X after chord Y, why does he add this specific note to this chord etc)

the basics are pretty easy to get down thanks to youtube (and now that you are older) so once you know the notes on the neck, your major + minor scales, pentatonic scales, intervals, CAGED system etc I recommend working on songs right away. look for any popular classic rock song at first, there is bound to be 100 videos on YT of some guy showing you how to play it, which is infinitely better than tabs.

Also, make sure you dont neglect your timing, if you can shred but you cant play on time then you'll sound like shit

You should get a drum machine. Playing by yourself is a lot better if you have a beat to play to.

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Guy that sold it to me put it there but good tip. Dean Vendetta. Not anything crazy. Seems like a decent guitar.

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a-c-a-b posted...

You should get a drum machine. Playing by yourself is a lot better if you have a beat to play to.

Good tips Ill look into this!

classical chops. get 'em.

Romulox28 posted...

IMO music is learned socially, or in the case of the modern internet nerd, parasocially, so if you want to really learn beyond the basics you need to throw yourself into music, watch other people play (youtube helps in this case), learn songs, try to deconstruct why the songs work (i.e. why does the artist play chord X after chord Y, why does he add this specific note to this chord etc)

the basics are pretty easy to get down thanks to youtube (and now that you are older) so once you know the notes on the neck, your major + minor scales, pentatonic scales, intervals, CAGED system etc I recommend working on songs right away. look for any popular classic rock song at first, there is bound to be 100 videos on YT of some guy showing you how to play it, which is infinitely better than tabs.

Also, make sure you dont neglect your timing, if you can shred but you cant play on time then you'll sound like shit

I have no idea what I just read but Im sure Ill understand when the time comes.

check out JustinGuitar and/or Synyster Gates School

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Shh

learn the song Playing God by Polyphia first

Rida_Go_To_Bed posted...

learn the song Playing God by Polyphia first

i don't know whether to hate what Tim Henson and Ichika Nito have done to the guitar or not

on one hand things needed a shake-up

on the other hand i genuinely think their style is closer to a party-trick than a genuine music style

MrDrMan posted...

How long did it take you to learn?

I mean like 3 months of solid practice until I sounded like the video.

You took lessons as a kid so you have some background.

Welcome back to the journey into the world of music.

If you're just playing it to amuse your dad, the biggest tip is to be realistic. You'll probably only be able to actually entertain him for a handful of minutes. Learn a really basic song he might recognize and try to sing to it and give him a laugh. Itll also probably be a good experience for you

Otherwise? Depends on a lot of things. Remember, you can . play . anything. Nothing is too hard for you. The most beautiful music and the most powerful music is often the most simple in terms of skill. You don't need to try to impress anyone to be impressive.

Xethuminra posted...

You took lessons as a kid so you have some background.

Welcome back to the journey into the world of music.

If you're just playing it to amuse your dad, the biggest tip is to be realistic. You'll probably only be able to actually entertain him for a handful of minutes. Learn a really basic song he might recognize and try to sing to it and give him a laugh. Itll also probably be a good experience for you

Otherwise? Depends on a lot of things. Remember, you can . play . anything. Nothing is too hard for you. The most beautiful music and the most powerful music is often the most simple in terms of skill. You don't need to try to impress anyone to be impressive.

Man I remember next to nothing from those lessons. I knew it would be a grind though.

Honestly my dad probably doesnt care much but I just think itd be cool to go back and show him I finally learned. I got it to show him but also to show myself I could do it.

Plus Im gonna get so much ass with this thing.

I play acoustic fingerstyle. Hope you have fun!! Blue Oyster Cult - Dont fear the reaper is a good song to learn as a beginner. Make sure the tabs you look up have good reviews.

I started off playing metal/rock, but in recent years I started leaning towards folk/celtic world music on fingerstyle. I find it more challenging and fun to play.

Whenever youre fretting something let your fingers release just a bit to be hovering over what youve done instead of flaying them outwards - pay attention to chords that share the same frets and even the same note and work on switching the other ones instead

practice hammer ons and pull offs starting with index-middle and then index-ring followed by index pinky.. then do middle-ring, middle-pinky to lead into ring-pinky

for the right hand practice playing the low string to the next string and then from the low string to the string after that, etc

then start from the next lowest string (this would be your A string) and repeat the same pattern.. then start with your highest string and go to low, the next low string, etc

there are many combinations and variations to practice and they all come in handy.. Dont Fear The Reaper is a great place to start

MrDrMan posted...

I have no idea what I just read but Im sure Ill understand when the time comes.

boring beginner shit to learn, in order

• what note each open string is in standard tuning
• the notes on each string, take it one string at a time and you can just learn up to the 5th fret at first. you'll start to notice patterns here between the strings. then you can go up to the 12th fret, at the 12th things repeat so that part is easy
• what a half step and a whole step are, what the difference is
• now its time to learn scales, look up the major scale, learn a form of it
• learn what intervals are, you should be able to tell what is the 3rd in a major scale, a 5th, a 7th, the octave etc
• now look up the minor scale, how is this different than the major scale? like what notes are different between the C major and C minor scale for example
• learn what a chord is and learn some major/minor chords. now that you know the major/minor scales you will understand why the chords are what they are and start figuring out the ways to play them on the fretboard
• congrats, if you made it this far you have enough understanding of the guitar to be able to form power chords and play just about every single pop punk song
• Bonus: look up the CAGED system, sounds more complicated than it is

all this shit can be easily found on youtube for free, i like the lessons from Paul Davids and Steve Stine but a lot of people also swear by Justin Guitar

Just try hitting a single note and wiggling it with your fretted finger to make it sound good. Move it around. Bend it. Give it life.

Try the same thing with a power chord

Now a bar chord

Maybe a note or two. Not even 3. Although you can write stuff with just 3 notes! With octaves it gets crazy