I want to learn to play the guitar. Any advice?

Question

Ok, I am 25 years old and have never played any form of guitar in my life but would really love to learn. I'm not looking to be in a band or be Jimmy Hendrix or anything, but I would really like to be able to sit back and play songs for myself and other people. The kinds of music I like are bands like the Goo Goo Dolls, Dave Matthews Band, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My questions are where do I start? What kind of guitar should I get? What should I do to start learning, how often will I need to practice and how long will it take me to get good at it? Thanks for the advice!

Answer 1

Well you could get classes for that not that expensive!

Answer 2

I started playing guitar when I was 25, my goal was much like yours, I just wanted to be able to pick up a guitar and make music. First you need a guitar. I suggest a classical guitar at first because the neck is wider and it gives you more room for your fingers. The strings are not as painful to play for long periods of time, especially before you have built up callouses. The strings don't need to be changed as often and don't break as easily. Then learn basic chords in the first position. (I found it very helpful to take a couple of semesters of classical guitar at my local community college, starting with "this is a guitar.") you can go to looknohands.com for chords. Make the chords, making sure each note sounds good. Play the chords, from one to another until you can do it smoothly. whatever key you are in is the One, say you are in A=1, so B=2, c=3, d=4, e=5, f=6, g=7. Many songs have a progression of 1-4-5 or some combination thereof, like 1-4-1-5, etc. So A, D, E or A-D-A-E. Or if the One is E=1 then f=2 G=3 A=4 B=5 so E-A-B or E-A-E-B and so on for all possible keys. Get a tuner, tune your guitar, put on your favorite songs, listen, play a chord you think might be the one you hear, play all the chords you know until you can figure out what the One is. Or you can go to a tablature site and learn tab, or at least find out the song goes from E to A to B or whatever. Play, have fun. Make stuff up. It doesn't have to be perfect. You should practice as close to every day as you can, however, there will be times you will put it down for a while. Sometimes when you do that, when you pick it back up, you have somehow gotten better, I think it is a matter of perspective. Good luck! Have fun. Remember they call it 'playing" guitar for a reason.

Answer 3

All the preceding replies are good so I can't add much to them except for these:

1. Use an acoustic guitar; disregard the electrics until after two years.
2. Be mindful that calluses will develop after two weeks of arduous practice. This will determine how well you want to play.

I started at age 16 with 11 chords drawn on a sheet of paper for me. Fortunately, the fellow giving me the chords was available to help me form the chords correctly without developing bad habits.

The common G chord is formed two different ways; I choose to use the ring finger on the sixth string, the second finger on the fifth string, and the little finger on the first string because that is great leverage to instantly switch to the G7 chord by dropping the pinky and applying the first finger on the first string, first fret.

G= 32OOO3 G7= 32OOO1

Maintaining good rhythm is key to playing the guitar and sometimes one that can play the instrument will help you in that effort.

Don't forget to change strings often--once a month at the least. Keep your instrument and your hands clean. Soiled hands ruin new strings and cause blemishes on the guitar finish.

Answer 4

It's always good to have a friend who plays, so they can guide you, show you simple songs, and correct your mistakes.

I would suggest getting an acoustic guitar, since you'll have to practice to sound good. And don't pay any less than $200 on it. You should get a decent guitar that you will be satisfied with when you start advancing.

Since you seem to be casually interested, don't worry about lessons. Just start learning some simple-sounding songs that you like by reading tabs. A great song tab site is www.ultimate-guitar.com. By the way, learning gets easier as you progress, most songs re-use the same general rhythms, chords, and playing-styles.

If all starts well, you won't think of it as practice. You'll just enjoy the process of learning a song because the payoff is pretty rewarding.

Answer 5

No your not too old....this is a great hobby, I promise that you'll never be bored. If you can't afford to have a teacher that comes to your home...or go to a music store once a week for lessons....either get lessons off the Internet, or get one of the great DVDs, Cd's, or Videos, that they have on the market today, you can get these off of one of the sites that I'm going to give you, check them out and see what you think, there are some free sites but there not too complete, I'll give you some of those to check out, but I like the others a lot better....I wish that they had these when I started !!!!!!!!
Free Sites :
http://www.learnhowtoplayguitar.com/
http://www.freebasicguitar.com/
http://www.abclearntoplayguitar.com/
Other Sites :
http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com/
http://www.billbrutal.com/
http://www.learn-to-play-guitar-online.info
http://www.8notes.com (click on the guitar, this site has a free electronic tuner on it, and if you want to know how to make a chord you just click on the name of it and on the left side a picture of a guitar comes up showing you how to make it...really neat site)
http://www.stringdancer.com/
http://www.worldguitar.com/
http://www.justinguitar.com/
http://www.guitartutoronline.com/
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/
http://www.fretplay.com/
http://www.learntoplayguitar.net
I hope that you can find something here that you like.....As for a guitar...I always recommend to my beginnig students to go the the Guitar Center and check out the Yamaha acoustic, they have one that's $200.00 and even less on sale...if it's not on sale at the time as for a deal....their very good with that....make sure that if they have eight of them to play them all as they all have a different action and sound... Yamaha has come a long way....especially at this price....I play classical guitar....but I liked this guitar so much I even bought one for myself !!!!!!! Well I hope that I helped you in getting started...good luck...and remember that in the begining your hands and fingers will hurt....it takes about three months of playing before you get the callouses nessasary to play without pain....in the beginning play for about a half hour a day....try to work up to at least an hour a day....more if you can....but work up to that slowly !!! Bye.

Answer 6

Whatever you get don't buy too cheap. You'll spend more time tuning than playing. The Mexican Strats are decent and fairly cheap but I would recommend getting an acoustic. Go with very light strings to start as they'll be easier on inexperienced fingers. I'm a self taught guitar player and I started with the "Ernie Ball" books. I think they're simply called "how to play guitar" 1 and 2. Later I bought a book on blues guitar and another called "Be dangerous on rock guitar" by Richard Daniels. I had previous music experience, however. I understood time and rhythm. The number one, best thing you can do is find someone better than you to jam with. After that find someone new to pass it on to. You learn by teaching, too. Enjoy the guitar! It's a marvelous instrument!

Answer 7

2 sites - i like these sites because the quality is good, they load fast and there isnt any junk meaning the instructors are PROS


http://www.musicmoose.com

http://www.Guitarnoise.com

for guitarnoise, check out the david hodges lessons. they are the best on the net for beginners.

music moose offers free video lessons youtube style for a variety of instruments and the quality is pretty good.

TAKE AT LEAST 3 MONTHS OF LIVE LESSONS for basic techniques and chords. if you dont, you will regret it a year or so later.