reverend gary davis's advice!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uIQTgndAWM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uIQTgndAWM
Guitar buying and learning advice.
- Thread starter vipper
- Start date
~cough~ Jimi Hendrix ~cough~
I've never had a lesson in my life on the guitar. I have no doubt I would be a better guitarist if I had, but I am more than happy with my ability as a self-taught player and, frankly, I just can't be arsed to learn scales for hours on end. It's a hobby, it's fun. Learning scales & forcing myself to play when I'm not in the mood just so I can feel I'm doing the right thing is not going to work because I'm just not interested and it won't teach me a damned thing.
To each their own
I've never had a lesson in my life on the guitar. I have no doubt I would be a better guitarist if I had, but I am more than happy with my ability as a self-taught player and, frankly, I just can't be arsed to learn scales for hours on end. It's a hobby, it's fun. Learning scales & forcing myself to play when I'm not in the mood just so I can feel I'm doing the right thing is not going to work because I'm just not interested and it won't teach me a damned thing.
To each their own
I'd also say go for a second hand guitar as your first.
For two main reasons.. one it's cheaper and so less of a problem if you decide you don't like playing and if you're a learner then you want to keep your guitar out of it's case... that way it's always visible and you are more likely to pick it up for a random strum. But this means it can take a bashing.. you won't mind this so much if it's cheaper.
two.. a played guitar (in decent condition) is easier to learn on because the strings, frets and fretboard are all smoother with use. With new guitars come new strings.
And I HATE new strings.
For two main reasons.. one it's cheaper and so less of a problem if you decide you don't like playing and if you're a learner then you want to keep your guitar out of it's case... that way it's always visible and you are more likely to pick it up for a random strum. But this means it can take a bashing.. you won't mind this so much if it's cheaper.
two.. a played guitar (in decent condition) is easier to learn on because the strings, frets and fretboard are all smoother with use. With new guitars come new strings.
And I HATE new strings.
well thats bollocks, but I think you have a point. Having lessons doesn't equate that you'll never be a creative guitarist, and you'll probably learn at a much faster pace. The main danger I think people get with lessons is either being given songs they don't like to learn and so losing interest, which can be rectified, but also the lack of motivation some people get (like myself), when they are being told they have to do something as oposed to doing something for themselves.
You definately need to learn the basics somehow, but a book from a library will do the job for a lot less money.
again, do you really think jimi hendrix just sat on his own in his room and emerged a fantastic player? well he didn't, he learnt from more experienced players, in person (this is all i mean by lessons, i don't mean you have to go and do grades or anything). it depends what you want out of tho.
don't really understand this. i believe what i said to be true, show me a decent guitarist who has learnt solely from a book and i will admit i'm wrong (but i'm not)
Im a fucking great guitarist, and I learnt from a book.
solely from a book?
I'd recommend some basic lessons to begin with preferably in a group scenario because you can then get a good gauge of how naturally you can pick it up compared to others.
I could play 'The Black Hills Of Dakota' by my second lesson and the others couldn't so I knew I was going to be a wizard
I could play 'The Black Hills Of Dakota' by my second lesson and the others couldn't so I knew I was going to be a wizard
yeah a group sounds like a good idea. it gives a bit of structure to learning, if yr just starting you don't even know what it is yr meant to be learning so it's easy to spend a lot of time accomplishing nothing at all.I'd recommend some basic lessons to begin with preferably in a group scenario because you can then get a good gauge of how naturally you can pick it up compared to others.
I could play 'The Black Hills Of Dakota' by my second lesson and the others couldn't so I knew I was going to be a wizard
Well, you watch other guitarists technique at gigs sometimes, but that's hardly a one to one lesson. The difference is, its taken me about 12 years to get to a standard that I'm pretty happy with. Whereas, if you had lessons you could probably get there a hell of a lot faster.
yeh i guess that's about the size of it really.
ooh youtube is good, here's big bill broonzy:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm1qtX7Mz5w&feature=related
ooh youtube is good, here's big bill broonzy:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm1qtX7Mz5w&feature=related
heinous seamus
Perfect in an empty room
I snapped a string on Wednesday so I bought new strings yesterday. I put them on the guitar tonight and they fucking snapped when I tried to tune it up! Fiver down the cunting drain 
Dillinger4
Es gibt Zeit
Buy yourself a Danelectro
Not me. Pundits will be comparing me to Segovia within 6 months. Honestly.
3. You will marvel at the wealth of advice that is on there.
My head is already spinning cheers.
Thank you.
skunkboy69
Reverend of Eternal Light
I was passing a St Oswalds shop a few months back and they had a beautiful emerald green electro acoustic Danelectro in the window.Looked at the price and it was £16.It looked perfect and I was having it.I ran to the cashpoint to grab a £20,went back n it was gone
Got home,checked the net to see it was worth a couple of hundred at least.I cried.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
Rut: When you said 'get a teacher' I assumed you meant hire a teacher, from the newspaper or something. Pay money for lessons, that kind of thing. I would fully endorse hanging around other musicians, and getting tips, and learning the basics off them if you can (certainly not necessary to play good guitar, as I can prove) but it helps.
It was the 'getting a teacher' thing I didn't think was necessarily good advice - if you want to just check out your commitment to an instrument, and have fun, then being a bedroom strummer is as good as any other kind, imo.
It was the 'getting a teacher' thing I didn't think was necessarily good advice - if you want to just check out your commitment to an instrument, and have fun, then being a bedroom strummer is as good as any other kind, imo.
SpookyFrank
Don't swallow the cap
I was passing a St Oswalds shop a few months back and they had a beautiful emerald green electro acoustic Danelectro in the window.Looked at the price and it was £16.It looked perfect and I was having it.I ran to the cashpoint to grab a £20,went back n it was gone
I did the same thing with a fucking gorgeous danelectro 12-string. I won't put it on the card, i thought, I'll get paid on friday. On friday the guitar was gone
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
Lessons from a good teacher, you could.
How do you know if you have a good teacher if you've never picked up an instrument before?
You can't - hence my point.
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
Case in point -
My sister was paying 90quid a term for guitar lessons for my niece - two terms in (that's 20 lessons) and I asked her to show me a D chord.
She looked mystified. Don't know what a D chord is, she says.
Well, show me what you do in class - she aped a really lame strum.
When I asked her if the teacher thought that was a good, clear chord, she told me: 'We only strum all together at the same time, when the teacher says to - and there are four of us in the class, so the teacher hasn't ever heard me on my own...'
She's now doing ballet, and I doubt she'll ever pick up her guitar again. Too many weeks banging her head against a brick wall.
Conversely, I learned the Spanish Ballad when I was about 12, note by note, from a piece of A4, and I can still play it. One tune got me into it, and I taught myself the rest over the years, slowly, yeah, but I'll be learning till the day I die, hopefully.
My sister was paying 90quid a term for guitar lessons for my niece - two terms in (that's 20 lessons) and I asked her to show me a D chord.
She looked mystified. Don't know what a D chord is, she says.
Well, show me what you do in class - she aped a really lame strum.
When I asked her if the teacher thought that was a good, clear chord, she told me: 'We only strum all together at the same time, when the teacher says to - and there are four of us in the class, so the teacher hasn't ever heard me on my own...'
She's now doing ballet, and I doubt she'll ever pick up her guitar again. Too many weeks banging her head against a brick wall.
Conversely, I learned the Spanish Ballad when I was about 12, note by note, from a piece of A4, and I can still play it. One tune got me into it, and I taught myself the rest over the years, slowly, yeah, but I'll be learning till the day I die, hopefully.
skunkboy69
Reverend of Eternal Light
My daughter was upset when she didn't manage to gain a school place for guitar lessons.I showed her guitar pro and 2 websites with all the chords and she's bashed away and can now play some pretty complicated stuff (she's only 11).When she left primary school last year all the guitarists who got a place did a little concert.My girl laughed all the way through it because they were playing things like Mary Had A Little Lamb on 1 string.Now she's overjoyed she didn't get in
Wookey
Muppet is not a slur
My daughter was upset when she didn't manage to gain a school place for guitar lessons.I showed her guitar pro and 2 websites with all the chords and she's bashed away and can now play some pretty complicated stuff (she's only 11).When she left primary school last year all the guitarists who got a place did a little concert.My girl laughed all the way through it because they were playing things like Mary Had A Little Lamb on 1 string.Now she's overjoyed she didn't get in
Exactly! If you wanna play, you'll play. It's about being in love with the sound, imo. Or some equally romantic bollocks.
I was lucky enough to have a few free lessons. having someone show me chord positions and a few scales was invaluable. Started on a really cheap small nilon string guitar, that felt like it was made of ply wood. Then borrowed a mate's steal string. Couple of months later, got a cheapo strat copy for Christmas. That buzzed at the first thret and I played through a battery operated Rockbug amp. Spent hours practising every day. No computers for distraction then. Bought my first guitar, second hand Ibanez RG couple of years down the line.
Learning went in stages. Frustration, then break through. Getting the strength and dexterasy is the hardest part. The rest is a little theory, listening and experimenting.
Learning went in stages. Frustration, then break through. Getting the strength and dexterasy is the hardest part. The rest is a little theory, listening and experimenting.
