Best way to learn guitar...?

I was at guitar center several weeks ago and there was a 12 year old kid playing Smoke on the Water on a Squier Strat with his old man proudly looking on.
On my way out, I looked at the employee bearing up under the strain and said “I feel sorry for you”.

 

I have heard about alot of people getting kicked out for playing that riff lol. That's funny too I started playing at 12 one of the first riffs I learned and crazy train intro

 

light PhBronze stings as suggested above... good idea.

if you get strings on and get it in tune a good test to see if you have a decent guitar...
...at the 12th fret play a harmonic... that is, just gently rest your finger on the string above the 12th fret and pluck the string. then hold down the string on the 12th fret and play the note.... those two sounds should be the same pitch. if they aren't, the neck needs adjustment....if it can be adjusted.... not always the case.

 

Who ever charges $10 a lesson must not value their time or be very good because that’s not what lessons cost. $25 an hour is cheap 10 is bargain basement no quality cheap

Start learning how to read and interpret tablature.
Then focus on your hand technique. Your left hand fretting fingers should be aiming to land right on the metal bar, not the wood space between them. Also your thumb should stay on the high part of the neck’s arch so you can. Pivot better. Unless your bending or sweeping then your thumb will move to compensate on either direction.
Then learn how to alternate and economy pick / inside and outside picking.


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I’ve used Martin Marquis strings for decades... choose light gauge if you are beginning.
Spend a few bucks and have the guitar ‘set up’ properly... to include new strings.
I do NOT like my local Guitar Center store; bozos.
Look for an independent guitar store... or a local luthier.
Learn how to tune.
Sit and play....
Play with a friend...
I gave lessons for free and I was taught... for free.
I play just well enough to entertain myself and ‘sit in’ on anything.

 

Sure! It's pretty standard to detune 12 string guitars at least a whole step down and capo them to get to pitch because it lowers tension on the neck and increases the lifespan of the instrument. The rule of thumb for alternate tuning is pretty straightforward: if the string won't stay in tune it's tuned too low, and if it breaks it's tuned too high. lol. Just remember to take the capo off when you tune up.

 

All of these replies I want to ask... How is your search for lessons going?

 

It's f***ed..coz I learnt acoustic first..I'm not an acoustic man..

 

Thanx man yeah ive been playing a good few years now just like the feel of a shorter neck scale...but wothout changing guitars simply use a capo..

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I don't read music but I teach a lot of kids how to get started. I tell them to learn C, D, and G chords and learn them well. So well you can switch your hand from chord to chord easily.

Once you have that, you can start playing so many familiar songs as so many songs are based after those three chords alone. What I find is once they have that mastered, they have some confidence and naturally want to take on learning more chords. After that, they start to teach themselves.

 

Oh God, Stairway to Heaven. Brings back memories of eighth grade dancing with Larry Kramer who was a foot shorter than me. It was so awkward especially because the music goes from slow to fast to slow. Ha!

But any other Zeppelin song is fine with me.

 

That was my first dance, also in 8th grade. I accidentally slobbered all over her neck! I hope she's gotten over it, I know I still haven't.

 

Build the callouses and everything is downhill from there. Honestly, find a chord you really like, play it until it hurts, break, and repeat.

 

Guitar Hero. Heehee

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I live in a poor town so I learn from youtube. Cifra Club channel has both easy and advanced level tutorial videos for each song. Another way is using tabs (mainly for solo or intro) on some web such as Songsterr, ultimate guitar,... They also have versions for mobile on techbigs.

 

I was decent at acoustic rhythm guitar and singer. I knew all open chords, most barre chords, etc... I always used rhythm/vocals together as my talent, but I decided to start learning lead guitar at 40. My goal was to practice non-stop for a year+ and become a lead guitar player in a local band.

I used Yousician as a way to learn. I really did like it. The biggest issue with it is the songs you actually learn and get decent at aren't real songs, so if you want to have a jam session or something with other musicians, you're kind of screwed. But it does help you get your fingers going and learning how to play.

Using Yousician and other YouTube teachers (Marty Schwartz for example) I practiced like a FIEND for 1-2+ hours every day for about a year. I learned the basic pentatonic patterns and got to where I could get through songs such as "All Right Now" by Free, "Back to Black" by AC/DC, "Fooled Around and Fell In Love" by Elvin Bishop. All iconic guitar solos and riffs, but even after all that time and practice, I still couldn't play them completely clean and without error "live". I would have been embarrassed to try to play with a band.

All-in-all I just realized that without a foundation of years and years of learning riffs and/or a large repertoire of blues/rock licks in your long term memory, I just simply won't ever be a true guitar player. I won't ever be able to ad-hoc solo and make anything sound better than just walking up and down a pentatonic scale. It sucks and is depressing, but is what it is.

I've been in bands with AMAZING guitar players. There's just something about these guys that learn when they're children or in their teens. What they learn there just sticks and they build a MOUNTAIN of licks and riffs and always have them at the ready for solos.

All that to say, it was still a good experience. I learned a helluva lot and you should keep at it

 

There are some general principles and schemes; without mastering them, you will not be able to move forward. Sooner or later, the wrong finger position, instrument position, or technique will stall your development. And it's always harder to retrain than it is to learn for the first time. Some basic techniques that a beginning guitarist must learn include Guitar position, hand position, use of personalized guitar picks, Chords, and barre. It would help if you knew the names of all the functional elements of the guitar at once to make it easier to navigate in unique literature.