learning to play guitar?

Question

ok so i wanna learn to play a guitar to later start a band, but i 1 cant afford a guitar (but i have a cheap walmart poo guitar)and 2 cant pay for lessons so any suggestions?

Answer 1

You don't need to buy a guitar to learn to play. The one you have is fine. It's worse to invest the money on a good guitar than to play what you've got and find that you don't want to play anymore, like most people do. Buy a new guitar when you're sure you like it.

And, unless you're a perfectionist, there's no reason you can't teach yourself how to play. It requires patience and consistency, but it can be done. Most of the people I know who play, including myself, were self taught. Go to your local library and see what they have on the subject. Look for "Guitar for Dummies," "Rock Guitar for Dummies," and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Guitar." Look for books that come with CDs so that you can make sure you're playing correctly.

Go online and learn how to read guitar tablature. It is really easy and you can get music for just about any song you'd want to play for free. Try the Ultimate Guitar Archive, just google it. Once you can read tabs, you can learn to play the songs you want to play which makes the process much more enjoyable.

Lastly, if you do nothing else, learn how to play power chords. Anyone who can play power chords can start a band. Just google that as well.

Don't let anyone tell you that you need better equipment or that you need to get lessons. Those things can help, but they are not necessary. If you want it bad enough, you can do it.

Answer 2

Probably not the one you want: get a job.

But if that isn't happening, then OK--

A beginner really, really needs a live teacher--a good one. You'll make mistakes as a beginner, and you won't notice all of them because you have so many things to think about--pitch, note length, right fingers, left fingers, instrument position, wrists... If you don't get mistakes fixed, they eventually become habits, and the consequences can be a little mild (Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues noted that he never taught himself to use his little finger when playing leads--and it slowed him down) to chronic (a good friend of mine, a self-taught guitarist, had to have carpal tunnel surgery on both wrists last summer).

If you can't pay, then try to find someone who will get you started for free. Ask all your friends. Put a note up on the bulletin board at the music department of a local college. Advertise on Craig's List.

If you can get just a few lessons to ensure that your wrists and fingers are in the right position, then you're ready to start learning on your own. Get books, cds, dvds. Browse the web for tutorials. Go to a public library and see if they get Guitar Player magazine.

Take your time when learning.

One other tip; as a beginner, try to practice many times daily for only a few minutes each time--you'll make faster progress that way. As you learn more, extend the length of one or two practices, and as you get to play longer at a time you reduce the number of sessions--until finally you build the stamina to play a couple of hours at once, right around the time that you learn enough about the instrument to use an hour or more of practice productively.

Answer 3

You are out of luck. ANY endeavour in life requires that you spend time AND MONEY to achieve what you want. Just toss that Wal-Mart piece of junk in the trash now and save your sanity later... those things are JUNK.

You don't need to spend $1000 on a Guitar and you don't need to spend even MORE thousands on lessons... but you DO need to BUY A GOOD GUITAR... something in the $300 range and you DO NEED to find a teacher that can help you get started... if you try to do it on the cheap and on your own, you will just have to unlearn stupid mistakes later on in your playing career.

Learning to play the guitar is a lifetime investment in time and money... and neither comes cheaply.

Answer 4

How long it takes to learn guitar depends on how good you want to get and how much practice you put in. How good you can get with 1-2 hours a day for a few months depends on what methods you use to practice. There are effective practice methods that will help you make the best use of your time. This course is one of the best. https://bitly.im/aMU84 It's not just about how much you play but how effectively you play that will determine how good you will get.

Answer 5

guitar is the most common instruments for a reason, use what you have, and save up while your learning, that way when you finally get better equipment you can shock all ur friends with ur awesomeness. learn chords and play the songs YOU LIKE from them for practice. I always found those "mary had a lil lamb" tutorials annoying, there are many mainstream songs which use simple chords, for example......oops copyright.

Answer 6

ok well first you can go to guitar center or go to a music/dvd store and buy a bigginers guitar dvd or just simply go online to nextlevelguitar.com and find the section where it says chords and click it and its all free and first start off by learning major and minor chords and you can also go to youtube and find rockongoodpeople for their profile and they show free lessons on quite a bit of things and if u have ? email me at [e-mail] my name's andres

Answer 7

Go to your local library, and borrow CD's that show you how to start playing the guitar. Then borrow books from the library, that shows you how to read music, and play from the music.

Answer 8

Go to Youtube search guitar lessons. Also try http://www.8notes.com/guitar/
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/
http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com/
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/
To name a few. Also you can look up other sites.