Some advice on getting started

[bigG]

Hopefully this will be helpful to those of you who are just beginning the wonderful journey of playing the guitar. Some general ideas on the most basic stuff:

Get yourself a good guitar! Whether electric or acoustic (I believe electrics are easier to learn on, b/c, in general, the action is lower), spend a little $ on a guitar w good action. This is most important!

Action broadly refers to string-height (the closer to the top of the frets, w/o any fret-buzz, is better action; this is known as "low action"), the thickness of the neck (make sure it fits your hand nicely and isn't as thick as a tree trunk), the width of the neck (fretboard), the fret size (medium, jumbo) and the "straightness" of the neck (actually, a poperly set-up neck will be ever-so slightly bowed in, or concave, not completely straight). Some of this is purely subjective for a beginner, mainly having to do w the size of YOUR hand and fingers - girth and length. And do yourself a favor by starting out w .009gauge strings. They're the thinnest gauge and, thus, easiest to mash down on, causing the least finger-tip pain and wear and tear! You can always go up to 10 or 11 gauge strings (preferred by many players - I've used D'Addario 9s all my life) once you're ready.

I've known many a would-be player who simply gave up right quick b/c the strings were a mile off the fretboard, the action horrid! Spend $150 - $300 on a good starter guitar (or much less on a nice used one) to give yourself the best chance of succeeding at learning to play! These guitars might not have the best electronics or fit and finish, but they're certainly good enough these days - and the action is THE thing! (Also make sure your tuners are good enough that the guitar won't be going out of tune every 15 minutes of playing!)

Unless you're hell-bent on your guitar having a tremelo bar (whammy bar), buy a stop-tail (no trem bar). A much easier bridge to work with when learning to play and, especially, when restringing!

Now, you might wanna be EVH or Steve Vai or Malmsteen (or whomever) from the git-go. BUT, remember that every one of them had to learn the basics first. There's simply no other way to become an EVH or Vai or Satriani. I've heard Robert advise that getting a guitar teacher is the way to go, and I agree, but it's not absolutely necessary. I learned basic chords (major, minor and 7th are the most basic) from a couple of Beatles songbooks in 1963, BUT, I had learned music theory on keyboards, so I knew what notes made up a major, minor and 7th chord. So, although that knowledge didn't help me at all in learning how to mash down on guitar strings, or with fingering positions, I did quickly come to understand the notes that those fingering positions were playing within the chord.

Most every song book shows a drawing of the fretboard w dots placed on the string and fret where each finger is placed. These are usually pictured above the treble staff and show when to change the chords w/o having the ability to read music This is especially cool b/c you can start to hear yourself stringing together chords by your favorite artist/song fairly quickly, thus motivating your own desire to keep on playing and moving forward, w/o someone "cracking the whip" to get you to learn stuff that isn't motivating you. When starting out, this is much better than buying a "book of 1,000 chords", b/c in this type of book, you have no idea what to do w those chords! Although, and this is a tip of the hat to Robert: if you can find a good guitar teacher, he or she is priceless. There are good ones out there who can move you ahead by leaps and bounds in a very short time, and w much more knowledge than finger-position drawings in a book can. I know Robert, and his teaching is this type.

I'll end w learning basic chords in what's known as the "first position". This usually involves the nut (that "zero" fret that's at the headstock end of the neck that's grooved for the strings to run thru on their way to the tuners (or tuning keys or tuning machines - all basically the same thing), and the first, second and third frets. Learn your basic chords here. You'll find that many can be made using different finger combinations, but still on the same strings and at the same frets. Ex: the ever popular A Major chord. You can use your first 3 fingers, or fingers 2, 3 and 4, or just one finger (usually the first, third or fourth finger mashing down all 3 strings at the same time). In all cases, you're playing the second, third and fourth strings at the second fret.

Once you get these down in the first postion, you can move to barre chords anywhere on the neck. Ex: play an E Major chord in the first postion using you second, third and fourth fingers. Notice the relation of this chord to the nut (zero fret). Now, just slide the chord up one fret (you'll be at the second and third frets now), and place your first finger across all six strings at the first fret (notice how your first finger is now in the same position that the nut occupied in the open E chord). If you have done the above, you will now be playing a barred F Major chord! And you can take this EXACT same finger postion up and down the neck to any fret. The fret that your first finger is barring will be that Major chord, ie: If your first finger is barring the 3rd fret, both the high E and low E strings (known as the first and sixth strings, respectively) are the note G, so you're now playing a barred G chord.

I hope this has been of some help, at least, to someone just beginning out there. Keep at it, don't give up. EVERY guitar player has been thru it, I promise you...

All the best,
bigG

[Viking Power]

Great post bigG!

I don't know if this forum stickys threads, but if so, this would be a great candidate for sticky-ing.

Just curious, bigG, do you have any recommendations regarding books, DVD's, etc. for a beginner to use to teach himself? I spent about 3 months recently taking lessons from an instructor but felt that the curriculum was not very structured and although I definitely learned, I crave more of a structured environment. In other words, I kind of need "homework" so to speak. Anyway, any thoughts would be much appreciated.

[bigG]

Great post bigG!

I don't know if this forum stickys threads, but if so, this would be a great candidate for sticky-ing.

Just curious, bigG, do you have any recommendations regarding books, DVD's, etc. for a beginner to use to teach himself? I spent about 3 months recently taking lessons from an instructor but felt that the curriculum was not very structured and although I definitely learned, I crave more of a structured environment. In other words, I kind of need "homework" so to speak. Anyway, any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks for the very kind words, Viking! Glad you found it helpful! I hear ya about some teachers, bro...they just don't get it! :

I haven't bought a book in ages re general learning. A good general one from years ago is "The Complete Rock Guitar" by Fred Sokolow. It's nicely comprehensive and not too deep, but explains the basics and moves you along w helpful explanations of some theory, many chords (and Sokolow's original songs to play 'em) and various styles such as rock, country, blues, etc. Includes the famous "circle of fifths" that every guitar player should know, or know about. (This book is so old that it includes a "tear out" vinyl "LP" to play along with on your turntable!) I'm sure Robert and many other fretters can chime in with more recent recommendations. In fact, Arlen Roth, whose daily lessons for gibson.com are posted on here frequently, used to have a 6 audio-cassette tutorial listed in the back of Guitar Player Magazine for sale. I bought it, and still have it in its original manila shipping envelope. He was much younger and slimmer back then (the early 80s) and had a long-hair fro type do - but then, so was I!

I would strongly suggest finding songbooks by some of your favorite artists. Pop-rock, power-pop, blues and country are recommended simply b/c they usually have the simplest (most basic) usage of standard chords - as opposed to power chords and dropped-D tuning, etc etc. included in most metal of all types. Get the basic chords down in standard tuning (there's alot of 'em!), then, if you want to, move on to metal-ish stuff (or whatever) if that's your thing. Take a gander thru some of these type books at your local music store to judge which ones seem to be comfortable for your level of playing, but still have enough ooomph to move you ahead. One very big goal is to get your hand and fingers SO familiar w fretting each chord (muscle memory) that you don't have to think about it. Ex: if you see a G chord is needed, your hand automatically forms that chord's fretting position(s). Same w D chord, etc...

As DVDs go, I 've seen some tutorial ones from Guitar World Magazine's online store - guitarworld.com - going from learning the guitar to more advanced, such as learning lead guitar, blues guitar, Hendrix, etc. In fact, the teacher on these is Andy Aladort, purported to be THE Jimi expert, and the only teacher that I know of to be licensed by Jimi's estate (Experience Hendrix) to teach COMPLETE Hendrix albums on DVD. So far there are two Jimi's: The Complete Electric Ladyland and Axis: Bold as Love. This guy KNOWS guitar and has been a sideman and studio player for many of the most popular artists of the last couple of decades. He's good, and a good teacher.

Robert also offers a two DVD tutorial set on dolphinstreet.com that are great, but it might not be for beginners. In these he assumes that you're fairly familiar w the guitar - frets, notes, etc...BUT, to challenge yourself, they're highly recommended. I think they're $16.99 USD for the set, incl shipping.

I hope this is of further help, Viking. Take it one day at a time and don't try to learn too much in one sitting, you'll get confused and frustrated. Set a do-able goal for each session and repeat it until you think you have it down before moving on. And, most of all, keep it FUN!

That's it for now (Jeez, I wrote a book here! ) Keep us up to date as to your progress and any help you might need.

[Robert****]

Thanks G! Lots of good advice here.

[Viking Power]

Thanks for the additional info bigG! Definitely a great help to us struggling beginners! I will begin this weekend following up on some of the ideas you posted. It will be all the more fun since I should be picking up my new Epi G-400 SG this evening! Yeah, I know, that was a shameless plug for my new axe, but I'm entitled to it aren't I?

[bigG]

Thanks Viking and Robert!

Hey Viking, brag about that guitar, man! It's a great guitar! You chose a great neck to learn on! Not too thick, and the fretboard is relatively wide, not thin and cramped...

Let us know when you get it, man! Are you getting the Vypyr today, also? If so, you're all set to make some righteous sounds! A couple of very good choices to get crankin' with! :

[Zip]

[stevec71]

Great advice on this page. nice one

[leejohn]

Thanks for the advice. I consider myself a tweener. Beginner/intermediate player. I'm lacking consistency in my practice.

[Tig***]

Basic Chord Chart

Very useful for any beginner and beyond. I suggest printing each chart and exploring from there.
http://www.learnguitarwithrick.com/f...ords_Basic.htm

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C-A-G-E-D Open Chord Charts

http://www.learnguitarwithrick.com/files/caged.htm

Example:


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Power Chords Chart

http://www.learnguitarwithrick.com/f...ords_power.htm

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Moveable Chord Shapes (Barre Chords) Chart

http://www.learnguitarwithrick.com/files/chords_Bar.htm

[player***]

Splendid explanation big G! nice graph Tig.
I'd just like to ad what another guitarist wrote me.

Are you your own worst critic?

I know I am... I can't tell you how
many times I've stepped off a stage at
the end of the night feeling like I've
never played so badly...

... only to have someone then come
up to me and say that they've never
heard me sound better.

What!? You've got be kidding me, right?

Well, that's what I'm thinking anyway...

But here's the thing - what you are
listening for and noticing while you
are playing is completely different from
what someone else is hearing and thinking
when they hear you play.

You might be hung up on the fact that
you missed a note 12 bars back while
someone else is impressed by the sound
of the note you hit just now.

Now obviously you have to play for
yourself and your own enjoyment...

... but just for today try not to be
so hard on yourself.

Take a step back and try to enjoy the
music and not what you're having to
go through to make it come out