How can I learn guitar?
I can’t afford to take lessons… but I really want to learn! If you know any free resources I can use that would be great. Right now I have absolutely no knowledge of the guitar except the terms (frets, chords, and some notes). I’ve had a guitar for 5 years now and I pick it up and try to teach myself… but I don’t learn anything. 🙁
Please help if you can.
October 8th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Well, its not easy to learn by playing random notes. If I were you, I would buy some cheap music books. Practice different chords http://guitarcastle.blogspot.com/. Search tabs on some songs you would like to learn on google or on youtube, they have some pretty good guitarists. Also, If you don’t have any, go to your local music store and buy some guitar picks. You also need to buy a Guitar Tuner to make your guitar sound as it should. You can get a cheap one for about 15 dollars.
October 8th, 2010 at 10:56 am
just pick one up and start messing around with it. there are tons of sites on the internet to help you. also, go to a local music store and they will help you learn to tune it. then you can go online and use a free tuner site.
some of my fav. sites.
http://www.hotfrets.com/tuner.asp – this is the tuner.
http://www.hotfrets.com – this has a lot of good tools
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com – this has a lot of tabs & good articles.
guitar takes a lot of practice and patience. but once you figure some things out, you’ll love it forever.
October 8th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Well the obvious you probably don’t want to take lessons or else you probably wouldn’t have posted. So you need some cheap guitar books. Go to a music store and ask what brand of guitar book they use. Then buy book one of that. If it is a good book it’ll teach you some of the stuff in there with words included.
Just go through book 1 and keep trying to pick up on things. This will take a LOT more practice than taking lessons so be patient with yourself.
Eventually you’ll have gone far enough that you will eventually need instruction. I went through a year of my life teaching myself to play. And I progressed quickly, but I found out that some things are just too difficult to figure out on your own so that is when you need instruction.
I did all of this when I was very young, in a range of when I was in 2nd grade I started teaching myself, then I took lessons at the end of 3rd grade, and took them all the way to the beginning of 5th grade when I had to quit because of band. Right then I loved guitar so much I started buying more books and started learning different styles on my own. I started learning even how to shred solos by listening to music I liked and getting tabs off the internet and I learned the different ways of how to play. What I am trying to say is that instructors can’t teach you everything. You need to find the inner music inside of you. (Kinda of chinese fortune cookie haha)
I don’t reccomend online lessons just because it is a pain if you have a question or want to skip ahead and find a certain peice to practice more and go through it. I just really don’t reccomend it. Others do wich is fine but it is ultimately up to you.
Good Luck!
October 8th, 2010 at 12:27 pm
depends. for me i love to play rock/metal music. you cant learn that in a book. instead i go to 911tabs.com and learn songs from bands i listen to.
to increase speed buy a metronome and practice arpeggios.
i have self taught myself for 4 years and am in the process of starting a band. it is very possible to learn to play by urself u just need to practice ALOT. like as much as you can until you master a song. then get a tab to a harder song and repeat. thats how i did it and i still am.
most of all don’t give up and have fun 😉
October 8th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
i suggest you go to http://www.justinguitar.com – a site that has everything that you need to know about guitars. or buy the book “The Complete Billboard Illustrated Guitar Handbook” which also does the same thing.
Well if you’re new i suggest you could start by learning the chords and chord progression. once you get it. play playing some rhythm songs, and try to get used to it. After learning rhythm guitar try to switch to lead guitaring. Which can be done by learning to improvise solos. try to learn the scales so that you could learn to improvise. and lastly practice. it’s the only way to improve
October 8th, 2010 at 1:53 pm
My brother was in the same boat as you when he was in his teens, He brought a Guitar and didn’t know how to play it and he couldnt afford lessons, so he learnt his self through books and watching Guitar players like Jimi Hendrix play the guitar.
he soon learnt and withen a year or two he was the best guitar player i’ve ever heard (am not saying that because he’s my brother) but its true,
Sadly though has he grew older his interest of playing the guitar grew away too.