Good resources for learning Guitar?

[lxskllr]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Yah, definitely. I just got the book "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory". I also setup a blog:

http://digitalhomestudio.wordp...-book-on-music-theory/

Basically I'm just going to take it uber-slow...study 3 pages a day, 6 days a week, for about 15 minutes. At that pace, I'll be able to absorb the new material easier. By December, I'll have the book wrapped up and should have a decent understand of music theory. I'll look for some good guitar stuff tomorrow

So my guitar stable is: 6-string nylon (classical), 6-string steel (acoustic), 12-string steel (acoustic), 6-string steel (acoustic-electric), and a 6-string electric. Oh, and a couple Guitar Hero 2 guitars for Xbox 360 Yay for family...the only thing I had to buy was the electric

That looks like a good book. I'm personally not cut out for scholarly discussions of music theory. It's very "heavy", and quite the dry read. I may look into that book for myself. I haven't fooled with music in awhile, but I've been helping my daughter out with her sax the last couple of years. Learning more theory would help me expand on what she learns in school.

If you have a decent news stand near you, there may be some good guitar magazines you could buy. I don't know what's available anymore, but the ones I use to get were Guitar For The Practicing Musician(rock oriented with tab transcriptions of popular music), Guitar(not much in the way of transcriptions, but good columns and workshops as well as first rate articles), and Frets(acoustic oriented with tab transcription for acoustic songs).

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: lxskllr

Originally posted by: Kaido

Yah, definitely. I just got the book "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory". I also setup a blog:

http://digitalhomestudio.wordp...-book-on-music-theory/

Basically I'm just going to take it uber-slow...study 3 pages a day, 6 days a week, for about 15 minutes. At that pace, I'll be able to absorb the new material easier. By December, I'll have the book wrapped up and should have a decent understand of music theory. I'll look for some good guitar stuff tomorrow

So my guitar stable is: 6-string nylon (classical), 6-string steel (acoustic), 12-string steel (acoustic), 6-string steel (acoustic-electric), and a 6-string electric. Oh, and a couple Guitar Hero 2 guitars for Xbox 360 Yay for family...the only thing I had to buy was the electric

That looks like a good book. I'm personally not cut out for scholarly discussions of music theory. It's very "heavy", and quite the dry read. I may look into that book for myself. I haven't fooled with music in awhile, but I've been helping my daughter out with her sax the last couple of years. Learning more theory would help me expand on what she learns in school.

If you have a decent news stand near you, there may be some good guitar magazines you could buy. I don't know what's available anymore, but the ones I use to get were Guitar For The Practicing Musician(rock oriented with tab transcriptions of popular music), Guitar(not much in the way of transcriptions, but good columns and workshops as well as first rate articles), and Frets(acoustic oriented with tab transcription for acoustic songs).

Yah...half of my library of books consists of the "for Dummy" books. My friends make fun of it, but whatever...they're so easy to read and you pick up on the concept so quickly because you're not mired in the mud of "heavy" and dry writing. It's like being able to get straight answers out of a friend who knows what they're talking about, haha.

 

[Kaido]

Wow, music theory isn't light stuff. I set a goal to read 3 pages a day, 6 days a week, and it took me 45 minutes just to burn through 2 concepts :Q

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Gibson486
I do not care if you are a self learner. Get a teacher if you never even picked up a guitar before.

I can do that. I have a music center near me. Anything particular to look for in a tutor or a course of study?

Most instructors have a set of lessons for beginners. You'll start with fingering. Most people quit at this point because guitar strings hurt your fingers at first.

You'll then learn notes on the bottom 3 strings, most likely with 3 string chords.

You'll then most likely move to the top 3 bass strings and learn how to make full chords.

Then you'll learn strum patterns and learn about rhythm and beat.

Then you'll learn about scales. The next group of people usually quit at this point because it's hard to grasp note relationships and requires a lot of memorization. Root notes are the most important thing to learn here.

Next you'll learn flavors of scales that fit different flavors of music and keys.

If you get past all that, congrats! You are now Joe Satriani! Plan on at least a year (if you practice a lot) to get the basics, and 2-3 years to begin to sound listenable.


Music theory isn't really needed to play guitar since scales are in set patterns, but it is helpful if you wan't to compose or play by ear. Music theory actually gives you universal knowledge, so you can apply methods to any insturment if you can figure out how the notes are played. I highly recommend music theory being integrated into lessons for this reason.

 

[rbV5]

Here is an excellent site with a ton of lessons, nice tab archive and a busy forum for guitarists. Ultimate Guitar

Youtube video lessons are great as well, wish I had those kinds of resources back when I was learning.

Good Luck!

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Wow, music theory isn't light stuff. I set a goal to read 3 pages a day, 6 days a week, and it took me 45 minutes just to burn through 2 concepts :Q

Yeah, it's pretty much math. But if you can dedicate that kind of time just to reading theory that you won't even need for a couple years, you shouldn't mind the necessary daily practice

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Kaido
Wow, music theory isn't light stuff. I set a goal to read 3 pages a day, 6 days a week, and it took me 45 minutes just to burn through 2 concepts :Q

Yeah, it's pretty much math. But if you can dedicate that kind of time just to reading theory that you won't even need for a couple years, you shouldn't mind the necessary daily practice

Yah I'm committed (in one way or another :laugh. I was planning on studying the follow for 15 minutes each, each day:

1. Music Theory
2. Piano
3. Guitar
4. Music Composition

But I got my Comp book and it said don't even bother until you've master Music Theory, so I'm not going to start on that one until mid-December, when I finish with the Music Theory book. My piano book came in, so I'll be making a schedule for that, and I'm still putting together a good plan for approaching the guitar.

After how long it took me today, I may have to revise that schedule anyway - everything always takes 10x as long as you think it will, even for small things I think I'll turn #4 into just 15 minutes of learning about digital audio, which is the ultimate point of all of this - get the music into the computer to screw around with.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: rbV5
Here is an excellent site with a ton of lessons, nice tab archive and a busy forum for guitarists. Ultimate Guitar

Youtube video lessons are great as well, wish I had those kinds of resources back when I was learning.

Good Luck!

Awesome, thanks! My bookmarks list is growing very nicely! Starting to see the bigger picture of the path for learning Guitar...

 

[Kaido]

Got all the guitars in:

http://digitalhomestudio.wordp.../my-new-guitar-stable/

I bought the electric, the rest are lenders from my family :thumbsup: I'm pretty excited!