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So my gf got me a guitar for Christmas...

K

KDOG

Diamond Member
She got me a full size Fender Starcaster acoustic. I've always wanted to learn the guitar so that appeared under the tree Christmas morning... It came with a halfway decent DVD that teaches you, but I wonder if there are any excellent resources online I can check out. The one thing I noticed is that the guitar seems kinda big for me since I'm 5' 5". I may have to go with student/parlor sized guitar which will make me sad since she bought me this nice instrument. Anyway, if anyone has anything they'd like to share, I'd appreciate any help I can get since I'm a *COMPLETE* noob to guitars and playing any type of instruments.
 
Originally posted by: KDOG
She got me a full size Fender Starcaster acoustic. I've always wanted to learn the guitar so that appeared under the tree Christmas morning... It came with a halfway decent DVD that teaches you, but I wonder if there are any excellent resources online I can check out. The one thing I noticed is that the guitar seems kinda big for me since I'm 5' 5". I may have to go with student/parlor sized guitar which will make me sad since she bought me this nice instrument. Anyway, if anyone has anything they'd like to share, I'd appreciate any help I can get since I'm a *COMPLETE* noob to guitars and playing any type of instruments.
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The size of the guitar is fine. Eddie Van Halen is like 4 foot 11.
 
Good info here. Thanks.

I bought a real cheap guitar for my 6yo daughter, to see if she's really interested. I am musically inclined but have never played a string instrument before. I bought a tuner and adjusted the strings to the right notes, but I wasn't sure how tight to make the strings (which octave). I'm pretty sure I got it right, but is there a guideline for how much tension is on the strings at the right pitch?



 
Oh....just keep widning it until you get there. AT first, it does seem tight....once you get used to it, you are no longer scared.
 
You can't learn to play from scratch the Internet. Everyone has good attempts, but if you don't get your fingering down, you're going to be screwed. Get some lessons from an instructor to start out. 5-6 of them should be enough. They run $15-$20 for 30 minutes once a week.

THEN go out and get tabs/videos/whatever. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to use the Internet to learn from scratch.
 
Originally posted by: Fritzo
You can't learn to play from scratch the Internet. Everyone has good attempts, but if you don't get your fingering down, you're going to be screwed. Get some lessons from an instructor to start out. 5-6 of them should be enough. They run $15-$20 for 30 minutes once a week.

THEN go out and get tabs/videos/whatever. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to use the Internet to learn from scratch.
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that is what I did. I took lessons for 6 months and then dumped them right before they taught me scales. I kind of wish I quit AFTER learning scales though.
 
Originally posted by: Fritzo
You can't learn to play from scratch the Internet. Everyone has good attempts, but if you don't get your fingering down, you're going to be screwed. Get some lessons from an instructor to start out. 5-6 of them should be enough. They run $15-$20 for 30 minutes once a week.

THEN go out and get tabs/videos/whatever. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to use the Internet to learn from scratch.
Click to expand...

Why can't an internet video do the same as a live instructor?
 
Originally posted by: Amoreena
Originally posted by: Fritzo
You can't learn to play from scratch the Internet. Everyone has good attempts, but if you don't get your fingering down, you're going to be screwed. Get some lessons from an instructor to start out. 5-6 of them should be enough. They run $15-$20 for 30 minutes once a week.

THEN go out and get tabs/videos/whatever. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to use the Internet to learn from scratch.
Click to expand...

Why can't an internet video do the same as a live instructor?
Click to expand...

The internet can't tell you what you're doing wrong, and you can't ask questions!

Edit: Plus if you don't practice from one week to the next, the internet isn't going to care. But having to answer for your lack of practice to a live person, well that's another story.
 
Originally posted by: Amoreena
Originally posted by: Fritzo
You can't learn to play from scratch the Internet. Everyone has good attempts, but if you don't get your fingering down, you're going to be screwed. Get some lessons from an instructor to start out. 5-6 of them should be enough. They run $15-$20 for 30 minutes once a week.

THEN go out and get tabs/videos/whatever. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to use the Internet to learn from scratch.
Click to expand...

Why can't an internet video do the same as a live instructor?
Click to expand...

because the internet can teach you method, but not right form. WHen you learn guitar, you develop bad habits because they bad habits make it easier to play in the begining. Without a teacher, those bad habits stick and make playing much harder down the road, especially when you get to scales and improvising sround them with speed and accuracy.
 
Originally posted by: Sawyer
I want a cheap but decent acoustic to try to learn on, any suggestions?
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I've been playing about 2 years and I have one of these: Very impressive quality for the cost I've had several guitars and play mainly electric but I like having an acoustic for certain songs. I'm very impressed with these Ibanez acoustic guitars. The quality and workmanship of these guitars are amazing for the price.

ps, you can buy these on ebay for half the price as they are new and many times will get a gig bag with it. I paid $99 plus about $20 shipping for mine and it's great. It needed strings and a minor setup when I got it, but still, that's a bargain.

 
Thanks for the link Jemcam. I'm gonna bookmark that. I definetly would like to take lessons with an actual instructor. Just gotta find one....
 
Originally posted by: Ramma2
Originally posted by: Amoreena
Originally posted by: Fritzo
You can't learn to play from scratch the Internet. Everyone has good attempts, but if you don't get your fingering down, you're going to be screwed. Get some lessons from an instructor to start out. 5-6 of them should be enough. They run $15-$20 for 30 minutes once a week.

THEN go out and get tabs/videos/whatever. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to use the Internet to learn from scratch.
Click to expand...

Why can't an internet video do the same as a live instructor?
Click to expand...

The internet can't tell you what you're doing wrong, and you can't ask questions!

Edit: Plus if you don't practice from one week to the next, the internet isn't going to care. But having to answer for your lack of practice to a live person, well that's another story.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Something people tend to do when they start is laying the guitar down flat on their lap so they can see the fretboard. This makes it impossible for your wrist to curl around the neck. Also, curling your fingers so you "point" at a note instead of laying your fingers across the strings (which causes muting). These are some of the dozens of mistakes that beginners make that a video can't correct you on, which in turn will cause frustration and discomfort for the player.
 
Originally posted by: Fritzo
Originally posted by: Ramma2
Originally posted by: Amoreena
Originally posted by: Fritzo
You can't learn to play from scratch the Internet. Everyone has good attempts, but if you don't get your fingering down, you're going to be screwed. Get some lessons from an instructor to start out. 5-6 of them should be enough. They run $15-$20 for 30 minutes once a week.

THEN go out and get tabs/videos/whatever. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to use the Internet to learn from scratch.
Click to expand...

Why can't an internet video do the same as a live instructor?
Click to expand...

The internet can't tell you what you're doing wrong, and you can't ask questions!

Edit: Plus if you don't practice from one week to the next, the internet isn't going to care. But having to answer for your lack of practice to a live person, well that's another story.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Something people tend to do when they start is laying the guitar down flat on their lap so they can see the fretboard. This makes it impossible for your wrist to curl around the neck. Also, curling your fingers so you "point" at a note instead of laying your fingers across the strings (which causes muting). These are some of the dozens of mistakes that beginners make that a video can't correct you on, which in turn will cause frustration and discomfort for the player.
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Seconded 100%! My first guitar instructor taught me a lot, but he never corrected me on some bad habits that I developed, namely, my left (fretting) wrist position. My current guitar teacher picked up not only on that, but also the way I hold my pick and it's been a bitch to correct it, even though I'm trying to be mindful of it, when I'm concentrating on the music, I quickly fall back into my old form.

I don't think it's a bad idea to switch teachers once a year or so just to get a different set of experienced eyes looking at you.

Oh, and even though it doesn't sound like much, practicing only 30 minutes a day is a great habit to develop. It's amazing how you can practice something that is difficult for a little while, set the guitar down and pick it up the next day and for some reason it comes together. It's like your mind is working on it when you sleep or something, at least that's been my experience many times.

 
Originally posted by: KDOG
Thanks for the link Jemcam. I'm gonna bookmark that. I definetly would like to take lessons with an actual instructor. Just gotta find one....
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Get out the yellow pages and start calling local music stores. I've paid anywhere from $12 per lesson to the $70.00 per month which includes once a week whether it's 4 or 5 lessons during the month. My current instructor teaches me both the regular lessons out of the book and every couple of weeks we work purely on tabs because they're more fun but you can't really just pick up a tab and play a song because you can't figure out the rhythym unless you know how the song goes. Whereas with regular sheet music, if you know how to read music, you can play the song even though you've never heard it before.
 
Originally posted by: jemcam
Oh, and even though it doesn't sound like much, practicing only 30 minutes a day is a great habit to develop. It's amazing how you can practice something that is difficult for a little while, set the guitar down and pick it up the next day and for some reason it comes together. It's like your mind is working on it when you sleep or something, at least that's been my experience many times.
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I believe I've read that's exactly what happens, your practicing isn't actually committed to memory until you sleep.
 
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