I am wanting to learn. I have no false hope of becoming the next Eddie Van Halen etc, I just wanna learn how to play, just be able to sit around the house and play some basic stuff. How hard is it to learn? How long with steady practice before you can do some basic stuff?
Who here can play the guitar?
- Thread starter michaels
- Start date
It's not terribly hard to learn some basic tabs and some basic chords. Some people obviously learn faster and grab the concepts quickly....others don't. I could probably tell you within 2 weeks whether it will be a struggle for you or not. It is hard to become good though.
There are plenty of books and how-tos out there. It really doesn't matter which you start out with. Practice is what's important.
I've played for 15 years... It takes a lot of work at first but it gets a lot easier once you fall into it.
Fritzo
Lifer
- Jan 3, 2001
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It takes a lot of practice doing baby steps. I've been playing for over 20 years now. With an hour of practice per day you'll get some basics down within a month. You'll probably start sounding decent within a year, then after 2-3 years if you keep at it you'll get jam worthy 
You'll hear a lot of people say "oh...you can pick it up in a month". Nope. Unless you have some natural talent, it'll take quite a while to get your sea legs.
You'll hear a lot of people say "oh...you can pick it up in a month". Nope. Unless you have some natural talent, it'll take quite a while to get your sea legs.
I just started a month ago.
The tough part (in my limited experience) is knowing the chords well enough to get the transitions down.
strum...strum...strum...<....change chord.....>....strum....strum....strum
I know 3 chords and have a computer, so I'm pretty much as talented as most recent bands on the radio.
The tough part (in my limited experience) is knowing the chords well enough to get the transitions down.
strum...strum...strum...<....change chord.....>....strum....strum....strum
I know 3 chords and have a computer, so I'm pretty much as talented as most recent bands on the radio.
NikolaeVarius
Lifer
- Oct 25, 2006
- 11,036
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I started about 2 months ago. It was a VERY rough start. I couldn't play for more than 30 min without my fingers hurting like mad. Now I can play as long as I want. Though, my transitioning is still very slow.
lets see.. It took me two years to be able to transition between chords easily and to be able to play barre. My barre chord transitions are still not excellant and need to practice more to perfect it.. Reason for taking two years? I didnt practice for the first year.. I'd go for a one hour lesson once a week and thats about it.. I'd practice maybe an additional half hour a week but I slacked off pretty much.. So my recommendation: PRACTICE!!! It really helps... I remember asking my instructor how to chuck in the first six months and after he showed me, I still couldnt emulate it.. After a few months of intense practice, I unconsciously chucked while playin chords to a song! That was a great AHA moment! Hence, PRACTICE!
Cerpin Taxt
Lifer
- Feb 23, 2005
- 11,940
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"Chuck?" Not familiar with that technique.
Anyway, Electric Amish and tenshodo13 report the usual experience of beginners. Learning what the chords are and being able to transition among them swiftly in the midst of a song are two different things entirely. One is cognitive whereas the other is tactile/muscular. You can only accomplish proper fingering through training your muscles -- which means PRACTICE. Practice builds upon itself, also, which means that the more frequently you practice, the more progress you will make. That sounds obvious, but what I'm trying to say is that 20 practice sessions will confer greater development per practice session if they are distributed over two months instead of six months, because you will spend less time having to refresh your own memory at each session.
Get an acoustic with a light guage of strings and a tuner. Go to www.ultimate-guitar.com and learn to read tablature. Learn your favorite (simple) songs. Profit.
Anyway, Electric Amish and tenshodo13 report the usual experience of beginners. Learning what the chords are and being able to transition among them swiftly in the midst of a song are two different things entirely. One is cognitive whereas the other is tactile/muscular. You can only accomplish proper fingering through training your muscles -- which means PRACTICE. Practice builds upon itself, also, which means that the more frequently you practice, the more progress you will make. That sounds obvious, but what I'm trying to say is that 20 practice sessions will confer greater development per practice session if they are distributed over two months instead of six months, because you will spend less time having to refresh your own memory at each session.
Get an acoustic with a light guage of strings and a tuner. Go to www.ultimate-guitar.com and learn to read tablature. Learn your favorite (simple) songs. Profit.
I got a free accoustic right around xmas. Ive been playing it almost daily for 20-30 minutes a day. Im way far from being able to play in front of someone but I am getting better. It goes from being impossible to do something, to all of a sudden being alittle easier. And so on. It just clicks. I can get thru a couple songs fully now but my transitioning is what is holding me back.
I started learning casually last summer. I can play a few songs and I know quite a few chords. I'm not very good but I don't practice very often. I got Guitar Pro and I download tabs and just practice playing songs I like.
www.nextlevelguitar.com
edit for content: do the lessons, practice and you'll be playing way better than you ever thought within a month. guarantee.
edit for content: do the lessons, practice and you'll be playing way better than you ever thought within a month. guarantee.
Just depends on how fast you pick it up, but you should be able to play some stuff after a few weeks, albeit terribly.
I used to play the guitar some a number of years ago but I never really took it very seriously. I got to the point where I could sort of strum out some recognizable pop tunes but I never really got comfortable with the fret board. The piano and keyboards are my specialty. I remember one thing though. . .there were always a certain set of people who thought that reading tablature was "cheating" and only "hacks and wannabe's" read tablature. The "real" players with talent just read regular music and didn't need tablature to play. I guess not needing tablature made them feel more hard core or something. I could naturally read music well enough because of my years of piano before I started playing guitar but I'll say that tablature was sure easy and convenient. Is this still a raging point of contention among guitar players?
Fritzo
Lifer
- Jan 3, 2001
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Interesting- they put a bunch of videos on Google and linked them together on their site.
If you'd like more professional and structured lessons, I'd HIGHLY recommend Workshop Live. They're a "paid" site, but the lessons and production values are top notch, they have world class teachers giving the lessons, plus they teach theory very well (which IMO is vital to becomming a good musician...you have to understand why music is the way it is before you can get a grasp on how it's done).
Fritzo
Lifer
- Jan 3, 2001
- 41,920
- 2,161
- 126
The problem is written music is more suited for a keyboard than for a stringed instrument. There's not really any musical notation for bending, muting, and other things you can do on strings. Tab just fits well. I can read both, but I prefer tab because it's more accurate.
Nah. although I'm working on that now
.. I mean, muting the other hand which is on the frets..Fyi, the guy from nextlevelguitar calls it chucking .. Thats where I got the term from.. Not makin it up
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