Quote Originally Posted by 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.
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.