Please help!! Starting to play guitar!?

Question

I need to know everything about starting to play guitar and take lessons. Should I start with acoustic, and move on to electric. I LOVE rock music, but my brother has been playing guitar for about 5 to 6 years and he said that it is very helpful to start with acoustic. How long should I practice for everyday? How long do you think it will take for me to get good? I am a very fast learner and if I put my mind to it I can get VERY good at something (guitar hero for an example hahaha...).

Thank you so much for all answers! I need to know everything.

i never said that guitar hero would make me good at real guitar. That was an example of learning fast

Answer 1

maybe you should try an electric-acoustic

Answer 2

Electric or acoustic? Pick whichever you like best. Whatever music you like to listen to, play that stuff first. The more you are interested in what you're playing, the more likely you are to keep at it.

Pick one song and practice it over and over until you get it down. Then move on to another and do the same. Then start switching it up until you can play several songs. It will take some time just to sound OK.

Practice make perfect. You should be able to play a few songs and sound descent in a few weeks or a month if you practice 30-60 min a day. It take s a lot of time and patience. I've been playing for almost 10 years, and I am still learning new things and improving my sound.

Buy or download a tuner, and make sure to keep your guitar in tune. That will make it easier to hear what you are play. Also, Guitar Hero is nothing like playing the real guitar. Even Slash said so when he was on Conan O'Brien last week.

Keep your head up, and find a buddy to jam with. That'll make it more fun, they will probably have plenty to teach you, and give you some motivation. Good Luck!

Answer 3

Ok well first I would say get both acoustic and electric that stuff is just whether you like the acoustic sound or the electric sound, but electric going to be more expensive cause you have to buy amps and guitars and cords and all sort of stuff. But Id say if you want to start you should find a classical teacher and learn classical guitar, then you will need to practice at least two hours a day for sure if you want to get good. At the start you will only need to practice for 1 hour or so a day. And it would only take your 2-3 years to get decent if you want to be really good anywhere from 5-20 years. The more years you have the better you will be. So I hope I helped and good luck. Im a guitar player myself and I've only played for 2 or 3 years and I think Im pretty good so Good Luck with it and stick with it no matter what unless you ain't dedicated enough.

Answer 4

Absolutely acoustic first. You are forced to teach yourself the mechanics of playing guitar on an acoustic, which are the most important things to know in the long run. If you start electric, you will eventually hit a wall as you get more advanced because you haven't learned the basics to playing. I started on an electric and played it for a year or so and payed for it when I hit the wall so I'm speaking from personal experience. You should be playing at least 30 minutes a day, but the best way to judge it when you're first starting out is to play until your fingers hurt like a *****. You're going to need to develop callouses on your left hand before you're going to be able to play for extended periods of time. Once you get those down, you'll be good to go for hours, which is what it's going to take. If you're a fast learner and you're musically inclined, you should be able to get all the basics down in a couple months, and you should be playing virtually anything you want (minus leads) in six. The variables are all based on what you know naturally about music, as well as how well others can teach you what you need to know.

Answer 5

Guitar hero does not help you learn to play guitar ; the time is better spent practising the real thing. Practise should be regular...one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening.
Starting off on the acoustic guitar is a good idea but if that is not what you like then go straight to electric. No point wasting time on something you do not like.
Start off by learning as many open chords as you can then progress onto barre chords. Single note work (lead guitar) can be begun by learning your scales which will also help you learn where the notes are on the fingerboard.
Perhaps one hour a day on chords and one hour a day on single note work. More is a bonus but two hours is the minimum.
Learn to read music properley...not just tabs.

Answer 6

I had an acoustic and it might have been better for me to have started with an electric. Acoustic guitars have strings that are harder to push down. Also you need to decide if you want to be a rocker and play mostly chords. Most acoustic training begins with picking and playing simple one note songs. It is like learning to play a trumpet in this regard. The true power and versatility of a guitar comes in the ability to learn and play chords. Any approach will work in the long run, but you might lose interest if you are not playing the kinds of songs that you want to play. Daily practice is needed for you to get good. Good luck.

Answer 7

i started with electric right away...they people at the place i take lessons from actually said i should do that...if you like more music that is played with electric guitar then you should play that because you'll definitely enjoy it more. plus if you are planing to switch to electric anyways then why don't you just start out with it? it takes quite a while to get good at it... i've been playing for 2 years and i'm not that great (i'm a pretty fast learner too)
hope i helped
ps: while guitar hero is an amazing game just b/c you're good at that doesn't make you any better at real guitar, i know from experience

Answer 8

its better to start with an acoustic because the strings on an acoustic are harder to press and you develop calacus on your fingers faster...also lessons arent really necessary you can get TABs off the internet which is 100x easier to learn then regular guitar notes and just teach yourself...thats how i did it and i learned how to play my favorite songs at the same time instead of learning 3 notes and then Mary Had a Little Lamb -,-; and if possible i would get an electric acoustic just so ya can be louder :P
as far as practicing an 1-3 hours is good, it all depends on how much effort you want to put into it...the more practice the better and faster you will learn

Answer 9

Start with an acoustic, and if you focus, you will become better and better. Electric guitar is the next step up from the acoustic guitar so if you want to play the electric guitar, start with the acoustic.

Answer 10

Woahh.. slow down!!!! Before you do anything, try to find a good guitar teacher who can guide you along. He can make suggestions not only on what kind of guitar to get, but also on how to get better!! I'd take your brother's advice, though, to start with acoustic. And practice really does make (almost) perfect, so use any free time you would've spent differently (like the amount of time you spend asking questions on yahoo answers, for example JK :-P) practicing!

Answer 11

Acoustic is better for starting off, because it's a little harder than electric. (so if you start on electric, then move to acoustic, acoustic will feel impossible!).

There's not really a set amount to practice to become good, just do it when it would be fun! Also, the Guitar for Dummies book (you know those yellow and black books.. they have one for everything.. gardening for dummies, spanish for dummies, investing for dummies, singing for dummies.. etc) are excellent for helping you learn basics. :)

Also, if you learn how to play tabs, you can play pretty much any song in existence because people will sit and pluck songs out and then post tabs on the internet.