I bought a guitar....?

Question

and I have no background at all. I want to teach myself. Can anyone suggest how I go about it? Any good books out there you would recommend? Thanks!!

Answer 1

I wouldnt buy any books when you can find a lot online,

http://www.cyberfret.com

just practice scales and learn some songs and work on it basically,

Answer 2

I bet I tell fifty people this every week, if you can't afford a teacher go to Sam Ash, they have more books then the Guitar Center, tell the clerk what style of guitar your into and ask him to recommend a good method book, and then go from there. Here are some good web sites to try, some are free and some you have to pay, but there all great, the first one that I'll give you has a free electronic tuner on their home page, just type in this,
stringdancer.com/
http://www.jamplay.com/guitarcords
http://www.billbrutal.com/lesson1.html
http://www.learnhowtoplayguitar.com/
http://www.cyberfret.com/chords/beginnin
I hope some of these help you, are you going to learn to read music or tabs. Later on when you get the hang of all this write back and I'll see what else I can suggest for you, good luck !!!


stringdancer.com/

Answer 3

If you have no musical background at all, it's going to be kind of difficult, but with a bit of guidance from any friends who play guitar, it should come along...

first off, i suggest starting with chords, and trying to learn some of the main ones (such as G, C, A, E...etc). Chords are one of the biggest fundamentals with guitar, and probably one of the easiest to master. I suggest going to a guitar website to download a complete chart with chords; r you could always go with a book...almost any book on begining guitar will have all the chords.

After learning chords, what worked for me was learning a simple song (one that has chords is best since you just learned some)...I suggest visiting www.ultimate-guitar.com for a song. Start off with something easy...pick an easy acoustic song by a group that you are familiar with...also, teh great thing about ultimate-guitar.com is that they often have the difficulty of the songs listed, as well as a distinction between which ones contain only chords.

when you're first starting out, this is the best, and easiest path i've found, to take. It's kind of discouraging at times, because you feel like no matter how much you practice, you will never get any better, but really, if you are dedicated to it, you WILL get better in a matter of weeks. It just takes patience.

The last thing i can tell you, is you can only teach yourself so much...when you've mastered all the basics, it's usually a good idea to find someone (it doesn't necessarily have to be a professional musician who gives lesons), but find someone to help you out with the nitty gritty of playing guitar (how to stylize, what and how to hammer, fingerpick, etc)...for this, i usually turn to my musician friends. Other guitarists are often very enthusiastic about sharing their knowledge and information, and I find that to be a better learning experience that going to lessons week after week, and seeing little progress...but you never know...the self-teaching method is not for everyone, sometimes lessons are the best way to go.

well, i hope that some of what i have said proves to be useful, and good luck!

Answer 4

I just bought a guitar about a month ago and am teaching myself how to play as well. The easiest thing that I have found is to find a list of the most basic and most used chords and start by learning those. There are only about 15 of them. Start with E, A, D, G, and C and go from there. Practice going from one chord to the next without any problems. It takes patience but you'll find yourself getting the hang of it a lot faster than you think. good luck!!

Answer 5

About any beginning book will give you the basics and there are many to choose from. A chord chart is useful and buy song books with songs you like and chords you can play. Nothing takes the place of a dedicated teacher who can get you started out right. Practice chords and scales, learn how to sing along as you play, it helps a lot. You can only get so much from a book, get a teacher if you really want to learn it right.

Answer 6

A good guitar book is Mel Bay's Modern Guitar Method (grade 1) to start with.

Answer 7

Mel Bay books have taught, probably millions, to play guitar at a basic level. For an absolute beginner, that's what I would recommend.

You can order them online, or go to any good music store in your area.

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Answer 8

There is NO substitute for an excellent guitar teacher.Teaching yourself is the guaranteed way to frustration and error. Getting ideas from other amateurs is a guaranteed way to become another amateurish, bad player.

Answer 9

I also tought myself to play guitar. The easiest thing to do is to google it. One website that has songs you can play is www.ultimate-guitar.com you can search for them by song or artist. If you dont know the chord, move your cursor over the chord name and it will show you how to play it. Also, if you dont have a tuner you can try an online one.

Answer 10

Get a book that comes with a CD or DVD. The Hal Leonard one is good. You can get it (3 books in one) on Amazon.com.

Answer 11

if its acoustic youre going to be playing a lot of chords [simultaneous notes]

www.all-guitar-chords.com gives a comphrensive chord generator along with scales.

learn the chords then you can start playing some songs