How hard is it to learn to play ELECTRIC GUITARS? Can I teach myself or learn over the web or anything?

Question

Well I want an electric guitar for my b-day and I wanna play rock. From a scale 1-10 how hard is it? And if it helps or anything I was really good at violin til I quit...Thanks.

Answer 1

its different for everyone like me i had no teacher taught myself from the internet and it was easy. go to musiciansfriend.com for the guitars and ultimate-guitar.com for the lessons and forum

Answer 2

First of all practice, practice, practice, if there's anything i've learned about guitar it's the better you want to get the more hours you have to spend practicing, a lot of patience is needed. You'll get it but it will take time. As for the inspiration...maybe choose songs that you really want to learn since you have the basic chords down already. This way it's not all the boring beginner songs. Choose a song you like and just practice it until you get it down. After a few songs you will have learned a lot more, and your fingers will get more used to it. And I don't know how much you've learned already, but maybe pick up a dvd on learning how to play guitar some of them are really good. That way you can just put the dvd on when you're in the mood rather than HAVING to go to your lessons to a teacher. Hope this helps you out a little!!

Answer 3

The difficulty rating is subjective. My opinion is: It's been done. However, the average person probably can't do it.
I currently teach guitar lessons and I know I wasted about about 8 years trying to learn by myself. On th other hand, Wes montgomery, Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, all great guitarists who were self-taught. Try this website. http://www.8notes.com/guitar_chord_chart/C.asp

I just discovered this site and it looks like a good beginner's site.

By the way...if you quit the violin, you'll probably quit the guitar.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Gosh, why not play rock violin? You could be the next Jon-Luc Ponty or Jerry Goodman or David Cross or Boyd Tinsley...

But OK, electric guitar is actually maybe a bit easier than violin, so be of good heart.

I usually recommend lessons, but since you're an experienced string player then you already have some idea about proper left-hand position and fingering. Remember that your right-hand technique must be "apoyando" if using fingers or plectrum--you must stroke the strings toward the guitar body, not hook them and pluck outward--the hook-outward technique causes carpal tunnel.

Now, for materials--I'd recommend buying used books, cds and dvds via ebay or a half-priced book seller. Dont' worry about the level, just get a stack of them--the ones that are too advanced you put aside for later.

As a beginner, do the "Suzuki" approach to practicing--many short practices per day at first, then slowly increase the length of each practice until you have the stamina to do an hour or more at a time.

Oh--once you find your way around the fingerboard, Guitar Player magazine is a superb resource for tabs and tutorials and techniques.

Finally--the sound of your electric will be dependent on the amp and speaker more than the instrument itself--and the second biggest factor in the sound is the pedals and effects you may incorporate, pickups and internal electronics are third. So don't skimp on the amp for your b-day present!

Answer 5

Its like any other musical instrument. If you're willing to practice, and be patient, and put the time in to really learn the instrument, you'll see good results over time.

Its been said that the guitar is one of the easiest instruments in the world to play really badly, and one of the hardest to play really, really well.

If you think you're going to be on stage with a rock band in a month, or 3 months, unless you're a prodigy (which is really rare) you'll probably find it a lot harder than you expected, get disappointed and quit.

If all you want is to learn a handful of chords that you can strum while you sing simple 3-chord rock songs, you can probably learn to do that in 6 months. Or if all you want to do is mindlessly play a few well-known guitar riffs or song intros that you learned by rote off of tablature -- maybe 6 months for that too, depending on how much you practice.

But if you actually want to learn to PLAY REAL ROCK MUSIC on a guitar -- if you want to learn to play by ear, play in all keys, improvise your own lead guitar solos in a variety of rock styles, and be able to hold your own in a band with other accomplished musicians, you can expect it to take years of careful study and practice.

There are no shortcuts.

You've played violin before so you have some idea of the time and dedication it takes to get good on an instrument, I hope. Its the same for guitar.

You can teach yourself -- many well-known guitar greats did just that by listening to records over and over and over and spending hours and hours figuring out the chords and lead solos to songs they liked -- but if you have the opportunity to take a few months worth of lessons to get the basics under your belt, I would advise that. Your teacher doesn't have to be a great performer, but be sure he or she can play the kind of music you want to learn or at least doesn't hate it . People will tell you - go here or there on line and get tabs -- and tabs are OK to start with, to get you playing something that sounds like music right away -- but you can get too dependent on tab and not be able to play anything that isn't written out for you. If you actually want to make your own music with the guitar, eventually you have to break away from tabs and learn to play by ear. You'll need to learn scales, and chords up and down the neck, and theory, and how to put all that together. You can do it out of books and such but a good teacher will get you started and point you in the right direction much faster than doing it on your own by trial and error.