Best way to learn Guitar??

[Cobber]

Good afternoon all-

Received a guitar for the holidays from the family as I have always been pretty in to music, and now trying to figure out how to play the darn thing.

Not worried too much about becoming wonderful- just would like to be able to learn some basic ways to play some old country music for around the campfire.

Does anybody have any great suggestions or ideas as far as the best ways to learn that type of thing?

Thanks!!

[pureinsanity]

Guitar tabs, you should be able to figure it out if you put google in on that.

[Double D]

Youtube.

You will be able to kill hours.

DD

[Jmeyers]

If you have any friends that play i would suggest having them over to play and help teach you the basic cords. Learn the basic cords first and you'll pick the rest as you go.

Also try www.ultimate-guitar.com they go most songs you'll ever need. practice practice practice

[pureinsanity]

If you have any friends that play i would suggest having them over to play and help teach you the basic cords. Learn the basic cords first and you'll pick the rest as you go.

Also try www.ultimate-guitar.com they go most songs you'll ever need. practice practice practice

That is the site i used to learn tabs.

[Farley]

That is the site i used to learn tabs.

Same here.

I think they have a lessons section also. Biggest thing I think is getting to know the major chords (A B C D E F G) and being able to switch between them all is the first step. Start out with G A C and D and just practice playing them and switching between them. Lots of songs use those 4 chords.

Or you can just pick a song you know really well and want to learn, look up the tabs or chords, and try to play along with a recording of it. Read books, search the internet, talk to players and friends. Learning guitar isnt all that hard, depending on what you want to get out of it. Have patience with yourself, you're not going to figure it all out in a week, the first song I tried to learn was "Over the Hills and Far Away", 12 years later I'm still learning parts of that song here and there.

[Slabasaurus]

Step one: Learn chords (I used a combo of friends who played and my 56k modem back in the day. Or was it 33.3 still when i was 16?) Start with the majors, then go to the minors, then go to the 7ths, dims, etc etc.

Step Two: TRANSITIONS. Switching between some chords can be tricky. (example is the Dm form of 1x3-2-3x where the 1 is on the low pitch e string) to an e7. Example of this transition is radiohead's paranoid android... during 'What's this??'

Step 2.5: SCALES- I did not get into this right away and regret it. My fingers are quick from all the fiddlin as a yongster, but the muscle memory isn't there to this day, and I've been playin for 12 years now. This is by far my weak spot. I can jam just fine but I bet I'd be tons better if i did not have to think about the scale i was jammin on.

Step 3: Tabs - go to a site and grab some tabs. Keep in mind most tabs are off, some substantially so. Keep this in mind as you work through them. You'll start to notice you know more than you thought (Hey, that says e7 but I think it's actually an em7. Oh wow it is!! SWEET!!)

Step 4: Jam with people. This will get you used to that beautiful thing called improvisation, and allow you to really tie all of your personal knowledge together.

[PartyWhine]

Not worried too much about becoming wonderful- just would like to be able to learn some basic ways to play some old country music for around the campfire.

Does anybody have any great suggestions or ideas as far as the best ways to learn that type of thing?

Welcome to the club !

I got my first guitar as an Xmas gift too .... and I still play it.

Always glad to help a newbie strum country tunes.

Before I even talk about playing though 2 things you must have, if you don't already.

1) you must have a tuner... you probably have this. If not, get the cheapest.

2) you must have something that keeps your guitar from drying out !!!

You probably DON'T have this.

You could ruin your guitar in a year without it.

Again, very cheap.

Any store that carries guitars will have these.

The clerks will know exactly what you need.

YOU MUST HAVE BOTH.

[PartyWhine]

Ok ... now lets talk playing !!

Your a newbie, so my advice will be very simple.

IMHO, you should not look at tabs or scales, etc, ... your head will be swimming.

You won't have enough success.

Here is a great country song for a newbie to learn.

I would highly reccomend it as your first song.

Montgomery Gentry ... Long Line of Losers.

Here is how to strum it : same pattern every 4 beats

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

D U D U D U D

Here are the chords you will play, 4 beats per strummed as above

D G

D A

D G

(D A) D

(D A) = play D on 1 & 2, play A on 3 & 4

And thats the whole song !!

You can play this !

And it will be a success you can build on very easily.

[PartyWhine]

Here are the chords you will play, 4 beats per strummed as above

D G

D A

D G

(D A) D

D D G G

D D A A

D D G G

D A G G

You'll hear it

[Nick Kuhn]

Just play the thing and you'll get better. I'm a pretty sloppy player myself, mostly because I don't play very often. The thing that helped me most though was playing a wide variety of songs. Always be sure to have some songs in mind that are beyond your current ability, and work at them until you can play them.

[mainbutter]

To be honest, the best thing I ever did was take lessons in college. It was a little bit of a GPA buffer as well, but compared to how fast I picked things up when I was just using the internet, lessons were a great idea. The best thing was that I got lessons in classical guitar, which I wouldn't have bothered with on my own but am really glad I've learned a bit of. So many self-taught guitarists ignore classical guitar and fingerpicking styles.

[mr_jman]

I taught myself how to play guitar and have never taken a formal lesson. I learned through guitar tabs found on sites already mentioned here.

For me it was picking easier songs that I REALLY liked or was into at the time and refusing to give up.

The biggest thing is not to get too frustrated or give up too quickly! IT TAKES SOME TIME TO REALLY GET IT and if your going to learn chords, it can be frustrating figuring out where your fingers are suppose to go and then actually moving from one chord to the next! IT TAKES TIME & Chances are you'll be like "what cruel person decided on these chords... My fingers CANT do that?!?!?!?!?!" LOL..... at least thats what I thought when I was first learning!

Thats about all I can add to the other great suggestions here!