"house is a total mess and smells of fags"

I'm sure it does.

ROFL :D n1 :)

HARr LouL1@

imho, forget the lessons, forget the movies, forget the books, forget all that bullshit. just learn the basic chords and start playing along with whatever punk rock emo trash you're listening to atm. guitar is a very easy instrument to teach yourself. you sound to me like you're very anxious to show off in front of your friends next month. that's a problem. be patient and play guitar for yourself.

ye, true, i know its gonna take a while, its something to do when im bored tho, dont play games anymore, so this is a better hobbie for me!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/b.glenn/giveup.mp3

Taken from a film called crossroads. Download the vid clip from P2P, then get depressed and give up cuz you'll be collecting your pension by the time you get this good:)

vai>god.

Vai sucks.

sure, the only you'll ever make a noise like the above mp3 is shagging your cat.

No =[

is that the same crossroads film with britney spears? ooh ooh let me see!

DECONSTRUCTION ON SUNDAY!!!

Learn some basic chords and learn how to read tabs. Then download tabs for you favourite songs and keep practicing until you get it. That's what I did at least and I can play like anything as long as I read the tabs for a while.

"Learn some basic chords and learn how to read tabs. "

And, pray tell, how do you accomplish that?

thats what i been doing! :) guess im on the right path then :x

Yeah, like others mentioned, best to learn the basic chords and then goto tabcrawler.com or summin to get the chords for songs you like (lots of my mates start off on things like oasis, coz their pretty simple).

Once your good at chords, learn to read tabs and play some songs that aren't just pure chords, but ones that have some riffs etc in them.

Then once your good at those get tabs for solo's n stuff, and pickier tunes like stairway to heaven, nothing else matters, blackbird etc.

Then go into things like learning music theory on scales etc, which will teach you how to improvise and play solos over a progression. To be honest i think this is the most enjoyable part of playing the guitar by far but it will take a long time to get to this stage, but if you pull through it will be worth it. Nothing like hearing some song on tv that you can improvise over with your own solos on the spot etc.

And don't listen to your own playing (recording, etc.) for the first three years. It will only frustrate you.

P.S. I do believe a good teacher is well spent money. I went to music school for a couple of years and got a glimpse of how Jazz or pop can be taught academically. It helped my playing.

I've started playing it since january. I've got one lesson a week which is certainly helpful. I do some exercises (from a notebook) and he tabs out a song every week which I can practice then.

I think it is good to take lessons at the start, but when I reach a certain level I will probably stop with the lessons. You can figure stuff out for yourself but he gives me lots of helpful hints on accord changes and stuff which I would never have thought of myself.

It normally takes about a year or so before people can play nicely. My teacher says I'm pretty talented at it but I find it quite hard still. Practice, practice :) Lots of accord changes have to been done in 1/2 second which can be hard with the more difficult chords. But I find that the changing time decreases very fast with practice. I often take my guitar and just play a riddle for 5 minutes and then continue with what I was doing. After some days I think "wow, I can play it quite well already" :)

PS Keep practising! I've heard from numerous friends they gave up after 1 or 2 years because the progress wasn't there.

The best guitar tip anyone will ever give you is that if you're trying too hard, you're doing something wrong. The second best tip you'll ever hear is that if you're not having any fun playing the guitar, you're trying too hard.

Fuck what everyone else here said, they didn't play with Slash in Guns N' Roses.

Anyways, this is how you get good:

You have to have all the songs you want to learn on your computer nicely setup in front of you. The best idea is to get a program like SoundForge or some other type of program that can take clips of the songs and you can save those clips as mp3s. Therefore you can get the segements of the song you would like to learn and get them down correctly and nicely.

Get the Tabs of the songs you want to learn. I like the website OLGA. There are plenty of tab sites, download the tabs and have them on your computer neat and organized. You can even print them out.

Once you have the tab and the segment of the song, you are ready to pick up the guitar and start learning it.

NOTE: If the tab sounds wrong, then you do not have to trust it. Either get another tab or if you figure out a way where it sounds better than the tab, play it that way. Remember: you do not have to play the songs exactly like the way it is tabbed, if you find a cooler way or anything, use that way because you are probably not going to sound exactly like the person you are trying to play like anyways. And having a cooler sound is better for you in improving the way you play.

Ok, listen to the song carefully and play it as best as you can with the song. Once you get the fingering down pretty well, you can even play the part with the song and make sure you have it correct.

I like to loop the segment and make sure I get every detail right (or at least make it sound nice and close with the song).

Guitar Tip: If you want to sound awesome and bluesy, learn to bend notes. It's pretty simple, you basically bend the string at a fret to make it sound like a note above that fret.

For example, if you bend the B String at the 12th fret, a full step bend is making it sound like the 14th fret, and a half-step bend is making it sound like the 13th fret. They are fun, make sure you learn to bend. Most tab talk about both bends, so thats a tip on that. You can read more about bending other places.

Since you have a computer, make it very useful. Get everything ready on it before trying to sit in front of it with the guitar (because its hard to type and hold the guitar in your lap).

Tell yourself I want to learn this one part. Just learn that one part. Then start on the next.

For example, start by learning the intro to Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine.

If you want to learn chords, learn the chord/rhythm part of the song.

If you want a solo, learn the solo of the song, and when learning a solo, ALWAYS take it by segments. Learn each little segment and then put it all together. Never try to sit down and just learn the solo all the way through, you will get too discouraged and you will walk.

Learn some Zeppelin, they have catchy riffs that everyone knows. Learn Black Dog, it's a must, and it sounds really good alone, the first riff does.

Here is what will help:

Led Zeppelin - Black Dog - helps with scales and moving up and down the strings.

Radiohead - Stree Spirit [Fading Out] - helps with finger picking. Fingerpick this song with the following (thumb plays lower three bass notes, index finger picks the G, Middle finger picks B, Ring finger picks E).

Pink Floyd - Time Solo - helps with bending notes (which makes your guitar strings nice and soft, never worry about break ing a string because of bending, its worth it, like every song has bending. This solo sounds great and it is easier than most solos to play, and you appreciate it a ton more after learning it.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication - just learn it.

Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine - the solo is a very ambitious project. It's intro is not that hard, but the wah wah pedal stuff is tricky, you can probably never really get it to soun d like Slash, but it's worth playing around with. This will build up speed and comfort and bending with guitar.

Metallica - Fade to Black - this song has it all. It has the intro that is an easy Metal riff. It has the intro solo that sounds great, and it fun to play, and has a tricky speed part in the middle of it. It has a middle solo that is not too hard. It has a finger picking melody in the middle and a power chord melody in it. It has an ambitious last solo that takes lots of work to learn, but can be learned.


Anyways, thats some info. Private Message me if you want me to tell you any more.

hah. none of these posts about the guitar are helpful for anyone wanting to learn, at all. they basically go like this: 'first you learn how to do this, then you learn how to do this'
Yea. Right. you probably don't know what you're talking about anyway. I'd probably go with a real teacher, a book, or a video. Most guides on the internet are pretty dense as well.

At least he's helping more than you, you whining mule.

Who, retard? If you'd read my post, you would understand that I can't help him, since I don't know shit about it. I'd like to learn myself, and none of this advice is really worth a shit to me.

Your reply was nontheless WORTHLESS, since you wrote that you'd rather take lessons than trying out his advice.
Well, go get a teacher instead of acting like an ass towards helpers.

Uh. Nevermind, you'll never get it.

hah.

it was usefull to me and im planning on learning...retard:<

That's nice.

Die in a Fire.

why? I have better things to do.

do as he says, faggot.

no, you have no self esteem.

learn theory. If you want to play guitar you need to learn all your theory, to make it fun practice with your favourite bands. I would suggest getting a teacher who can set projects for you, like learning a classical or jazz piece. Also it helps to be able to sight read if you ever want to play with serious musicians.

Imo, dont try and copy whatever your favourite rock/metal guitarist does, because its pretty safe to say they are shit and only pass on bad habits and poor technique.

And dont listen to anyone who gives you tips but isnt a serious musician themself.

Since you're eager to proclaim most famous rock/metal guitarists shite, I'd like you to present us a few of the "worthier" ones.

it would be my pleasure to educate you. Remember i only consider most mainstream guitarists to be technically shite, usually ppl like them because they write good songs a la hendrix.

When i was learning, my teacher was trying to push all these great guitarists on me, but i was more interested in being like Kirk Hammett from Metallica, i now wish i could go back and slap myself for being a retard.

check out chick corea, allan holdsworth, robert fripp, steve howe, John McLaughlin, frank gambale blah blah i could go on...

I dont consider myself knowledgable when it comes to networking, or programming, but i do know my music. Its just odd how every Joe Random gets offended when you tell them they dont know the first thing about music.

ouch, sorry, but I have to point out that Chick Corea isn't a guitarist. He's a guru on the keyboards/piano though ;]

yes well spotted :P although i refer to him since many great guitarists have played with him over the years so he is kinda synonymous with great guitarists.

Aah, you're one of those jazz elitists. I know your kind all too well, because I'm a huge jazz fan/studied in a jazz college for 2 years. For guys like you, if it's not cerebral it sucks. Also, if the musician becomes too popular he sucks.

Yes, Kirk Hammet is a godawful musician, but that's not to say that all rock/metal guitarists suck. Frank Gambale is a well known fusion guitarist but I have never heard anything come out of his fingers that sounded even remotely emotional; his music is mediocre at best, IMO, but since he perfected the sweep picking technique, immature guitar players will always sing his praises.

I love jazz, but I'm a good enough musician that I can appreciate good music everywhere, even rap. And rock has of course the most technically talented guitarists on the planet, such as paul gilbert, michael angelo, john petrucci, yngwie malmsteen etc. (even though I think all these guys are horrible musicians). Then you have steve vai and joe satriani, the dinosaurs of the instrumental rock era who are absolutely incredible musicians and know their instrument like the back of their hand, and loads of pop guitarists that can't play 'Come to Jesus' in whole notes (cookie if you know which movie that's from) yet compose incredible, memorable songs (kurt cobain for one) <-- I bet that made your anti-popular pseudointellectual self cringe.

hmm you didnt understand anything i wrote. ill try again, im into jazz guitarists for their TECHNIQUE. When it comes to appreciating music, it doesnt really matter what style it is, but since people stopped trying to push classical music forward, jazz is where the innovation is. i do still like metallica, but mainly the pre-black album stuff.

What? Most jazz guitarists have very humble technique. It's only in fusion where a very select few have world class technique, such as Al DiMeola. Almost all guitar virtuosos (plectrum) are in rock.

Perhaps I should be the one educating you and point you to a true display of world class technique:

http://shawnlane.com/soundbytes/shawn_lane_de...y_1983.mp3 (this demo starts off alan holdsworthy, but then he starts picking every note which, combined with exotic scales and clever accenting sounds absolutely mesmerizing.).

Shawn Lane (RIP) was IMO one of the very few virtuoso guitar players that could make extreme speed sound musical. Guys like Yngwie make me want to throw up.

nice recommendation there m8

and thanks for the link

i would class fusion as jazz, but its subjective. Most of the jazz guitarists have played fusion at some time or other.

I presume by "holdsworthy" you mean legato, even though holdsworth is more renowned for 4 notes per string licks. This guy is just widdling on fancy scales, its funny how malmsteen makes you throw up whereas this is pretty much the same type of guitar, ie: endless 16th's with a stupid tone that hides many notes.

If you think stuff like this is the pinnacle of guitar technique, then i guess steve vai, malmsteen, Michaelangelo (lol..) should be in the same bag.

Actually, michael angelo is (or was, he's gettin' old now!) the pinnacle of electric guitar virtuosity (too bad he doesn't have a single musical bone in him). 'Course, there's more to guitar technique than playing sextuplets at 140 bpm, but nothing else requires more precision, coordination, and just raw talent to do.

It's a sad day when people listen to Mclaughlin for his technique rather than his soul; he has always had a very sloppy picking technique.

P.S. 4 notes per string legato, what's your point?

what do Jazzo-philes think about Roy Buchanan? :)

Trying to be elitist, still doesnt get you away from the fact that Kirk Hammet got you into playing the guitar in the first place.

Why do people want to discredit so many of the rock artists. I always hear people go from one rock artist to the next talking about how they suck and stuff.

You guys are saying that Kirk Hammet is godawful. Like, his music is so terrible that if you listened and learned it you would sound god awful. Kirk Hammet was a student of Joe Satriani. So Joe Satriani must be godawful too. (Go ahead, reply that you didnt say that, or implied it, or thought of it, or said it, or anything). So anyways, Joe Satriani taught his style to Kirk. And you guys start saying how Joe is a great guitarist, I don't get it. I don't get what the hell you guys want to go on about... Do you want people to kiss your feet or something? Why are you opinions so god damn special?

I don't understand that when people know a lot about guitar, they know so little about people that want to learn guitar. It's so useless telling people who are just starting on guitar that all their favorite artists suck. That just discourages them. Do you want them spending all their time not appreciating their music in search for some special music at the end of the rainbow that solves world piece and makes everyone happy? Just because you do not want to be happy with whatever music you find doesn't mean you need to tell everyone else they need to go on that self-depricating struggle.

Besides, most of the "music gurus" and such still say they started playing because of the mainstream music. Most people dont pick up an album of Beethoven and say, "Holy Shit, I want to play Cello, Violin, or any other classical musical instrument." Lots of people picked up an album of Zeppelin or Guns and Roses and said I want to be Jimmy Page or Slash.

For the love of god, if you love music so much and say you promote it and know what good music is, support people in learning guitar in any shape or form. Some of the greatest guitarists had little to no training or teaching. Jimi Hendrix for example, had very little training from what I have heard. I also heard that he was too poor to buy a left handed guitar so he played a right handed guitar "backwards." That's completely against "technique" and "correct learning standards."

Anyways, whatever, just play what you like. It's your guitar, your time, your ears. Do what you want. Keep up the good work, enjoy and have fun.

What talks against your later statements about Hendrix and ways of learning is that not everyone has the talent Hendrix had.

www.mxtabs.net - all you need :)

Not that bad. Thanks.

Learn some basic open position chords and then some songs using say just 3 of these chords. (You'll be amazed of how many songs out there use just 3 chords)

Once your abit confident, get yourself a teacher.

i wouldn't recommend self teaching. You might hit a barrier in your playing and get totally frustrated and give up guitar altogether a la my housemate and other friends of mine.
At least with a teacher you can see how riffs/chords are played. Hell they can be goodmates too.

I've known my teacher for 7 years, i have huge respect for him and we are good mates. Never looked back.

Thumbs up to the guy who mentioned John McLaughlin;)

Is there any chance of hearing some of your playing? Always fun to hear community people "show off" a bit, heh.

i've currently got a site in the works dude, ill keep you posted once its up and running and has some sound clips ;)

thanks, and good luck! :)

you look just like gunvald in beck.

ill post a link of me widdling like that retard in noobers link sometime. it isnt big or clever.

Just learn power chords, then you will be able to play by ear after a while:>

go to http://www.powertabs.net/, find some songs you like, download the tab to them and try to play 'em - loads are just simple power chords anyway :)

your wannabe guitar playing is a fad, it will not last, give up already.

True

so how are your guitar skills coming along



:DDddD

See above comment.. :D

LOl, I jsut found a pic of my infamous keyboard on an old FTP.

NOW, this pic was taken in 2004, imagine how this thing would look 18 months on. I'm telling you my arrow key snapped off!

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/b.glenn/1.jpg

And that's why fuckheads I could not use another keyboard, as you can see it was HUGELY customised.
Yes you are seeing two keys glued on top of the other AND a burn mark to ensure I knew which key was which in pressured situations.

yes yes, i'll just take a picture of my penis and claim it was this big in 1992, IMAGINE HOW BIG IT IS TODAY

Fuck, idiot, nobody cares.

You are the jonesey of copout excuses

so basically you're not a timefragger but a keyboardcustomisationfragger



except you didnt frag anything or anyone xD

a

bring back the electric guitar and buy an acoustic one. You should always start on an acoustic because it requires more strenght. If you can play barré cords on an acoustic you can switch to electric