How difficult is it to teach yourself to play the guitar?

Question

I have no experience at all with the guitar (though I did take about four months of piano lessions a few years ago). ;-)

Answer 1

Depends on how well you want to play & the difficulty of the music you want to play.

I've been around music schools all my life and 98% of self-taughts suck. Yeah yeah they can bang away on chords, they can play in a local garage band, they can have a lot of fun & entertain friends. If you're not a perfectionist & don't aspire to too much more than hobby/local loud gig then self-taught is OK. But if you later decide you want to improve & you're a self-taught, then you'll need to undo all the bad habits you picked up in "teaching" yourself. And undoing bad habits is really hard & time consuming especially as you get older.

Bad habits can hurt you too. You can play w/so much tension in your hands/arms, or in bad finger/hand positions, that worst case you can damage your tendons and may never be able to play again. I know several guitarists that this has happened to. They've lost movement in several fingers.

A teacher can watch out for these bad habits (bad habits are hard to pick out on your own because you're so focused on just getting through the music) and correct things from the beginning.

Without a teacher you also end up practicing over & over again your mistakes, and you end up getting stuck on an early plateau; many then give up the guitar in frustration thinking "I just don't have the talent" which really may not be true.

I haven't seen a self-taught book or video that's really good yet.

So it's EZ to teach yourself to play guitar. Difficult/impossible to teach yourself to play really well and very difficult music.

Answer 2

I switched from piano to guitar myself but had some basic knowledge of guitar I could play about 6 chords. I would not call it a difficult process to do but rather a dedication you will have to make to learn this new instrument. It took me about 12 months of practicing about 4 days a week to become profiecient at the guitar but in 12 months was playing professionally in a band. And good luck with this and give it time to come.

Answer 3

no i have not had any lessons and i have played for 2 years, all it takes is persistence and some valuable resources can come in handy too. first off i would reccomend some basic fundamentals of guitar, a correct grip on the neck is important. youtube is an excelent source of lessons and ultimate guitar hav many lessons available for beginners. you should probably learn some basic chords first up, once you can easily make the chord with your left hand (if your right handed) its time to start learning some rythoms with your strumming hand. i like to treat the top 3 strings (the low pitched ones) as bass strings(symbolising a bass drumm, if you will) and i like to think op the bottom 3 as the snare drum strings(bare with me here) while holding your chord try a symple bas bas snare pattern. that should get you started. once you have learnt to read tabs (extremely easy) you can pretty much pick up a song just by listening to it and reading the tabs.

Answer 4

Do you want to play chords, to accompany yourself as you sing the melody?
Or do you want to play complicated riffs?
Just heed the advice given you by all the previous answerers.
Start slow, take it easy, and do it because you are having FUN doing it.
A professional instructor has publicly posted that when a student says "I'm going to learn this, if it KILLS me!", he knows that student is NEVER going to learn it.

And, when you're not progressing as fast as you'd like, and hate the way you sound, remember what another wise person once said: If only the BEST -sounding bird ever sang, the forest would be a silent and dreary place."

Answer 5

Just look up the tabs to your favourite songs and make sure your guitar is in tune. Tabs are the easiest musical notation to read... I learned how to play a few songs in a week.

Answer 6

Firstly you got to have interest.get yourself a medium priced guitar and get a chord book.don't push yourself too hard.take one step at a time and soon you will be able to play guitar.mix around with people who play guitar and observe how they play.the important thing is not how many technique u know but how u feel.it is important that u enjoy when u play.NEVER NEVER compare yourself to a pro as it will dishearten u.

Answer 7

Pretty Hard- Playing the Guitar is hard!!!

I take lessons- (pretty expensive) AND IT'S STILL HARD!!!



I suggest that you take about a month of lessons- and just learn how to read a simple guitar tab... then when you know how to read one (VERY EASY TO READ IT), you can play most of the songs you might wanna play

Answer 8

lots of practice, i have a nephew that plays like a champ and only been at it for about a year. must have dedication and spend alot of time with it..good luck

Answer 9

its not hard - just get a chord guide then learn the different chords as you learn to play the songs you like.

Answer 10

nothing is difficult. Just scared you don't want.