I bought an electric guitar. Make me better.

[burningyen]

No shame in learning a bunch of power chord songs:

Smoke On The Water
You Really Got Me
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Sweet Jane
plus lots of Cars and Nirvana songs

[Dilznoofus]

[ QUOTE ]
I am jealous of anyone achieving anything in this regard, yet too lazy to do anything to alleviate my jealousy. Therefore, damn you all, as I am damned, and good luck!

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm pretty freakin' good at guitar. Having said that, I might give it up if I could write like you. So damn you, Blarg. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Dilznoofus]

Bison,

It doesn't bode well for you that you are apparently tone deaf when you try to sing. If you don't have a good ear you will have a bitch of a time trying to become a good guitar player.

Having said that, I would advise you to get a chord book and learn the positions for the basic major and minor open chords. Learn how to strum with rhythm and you'll be able to play a thousand folk/rock/country songs.

It sounds like you don't have much of an ear, but given that you're apparently really smart I imagine you have a good memory. That goes a long way in being able to retain a good number of fun songs in your head.

I like to get together with friends and drink and play. Sometimes we go 4+ hours with me never doing anything but strumming open chords.

[BeaucoupFish]

Bison, you any good at Doom?

[domesme]

lol so funny.. i love it - ppl who are good at guitar hero thinking they could actually play guitar.

i've been playing guitar for 8 years and teaching for 4 of them. in highschool they used to call me "guitar god". i tried playing guitar hero a few weeks ago and i was horrendous at it.

conclusion: no correlation between playing guitar and playing guitar hero.

having said that, good initiative on actually investing time and money in a real hobby that will develop your musical talents and make you a sexier person.

real guitar >>>>> guitar hero

[Emmitt2222]

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

is my favorite place for tabs.

Guitar is really hard at first, much harder than it looks. You have to start building some good finger calluses to make it easier and hurt less, but electric is a little easier so that's a plus. Pick some songs you really like and look up the tabs to see how easy they are.

The goal is to find a song that is easy and you really enjoy so that you will continue to strive to play it. Learn how to read the tabs and then don't be too afraid to learn one simple chord song [something like G, C, D] and one picking song.

Just keep working at it. When you are watching TV or just sitting around pick it up and just practice switching between chords because that can take a long time to learn. Remember to try and keep it fun so that it doesn't seem like a chore.

Good luck.

[john voight]

My friends, youtube has great instructional videos for all levels. Just search for specific keywords like "picking" or "pentatonic scale" or whatever.

I suggest you join a guitar forum: http://jsguitarforum.com/forum/ (2+2 to poker, guitar forum to guitar LDO)

I suggest you get a teacher who teaches what you want to learn. The main thing is to retain interest. If you start off w/ boring scales, you will lose interest and say "[censored] this [censored]"

Guitar tabs. So many songs are so easy to play; even the difficult ones have dumbed down versions.

Notes are for pussies.

If you sit around the TV alot, invest in an acoustic or classical guitar. I watch tv and screw around on the guitar all the time.

[Banks2334]

Bison,
Once you drop this new hobby ina few weeks, I'll gladly take your guitar off your hands for 30 cents on the dollar.

And yes, your fingers will eventually stop hurting so you can resume playing xbox.

[bobhalford]

All I can say on this matter is that if you want to do the "EZ" way, you can memorize chord shapes and basic pentatonic scales. That will furnish you with the ability to do quite a lot. You won't know much about the guitar, and will have limitations as far as developing as a musician, but who needs that? You just want to play some songs and rock out. To do that, you just need basic knowledge. I can't suggest a book, but there are probably a million that teach you the basics. The guitar is very difficult to learn, but playing basic rock tunes and even playing an improvised guitar solo should not require much study. Most songs you can play on the first 3 frets. The first 3 frets, chords with open strings, that's where it's at.

But if instead of memorizing chords and scale patterns, you understand the music theory behind them, then you open yourself to a whole other world of possibilities. Then you can construct your own chords because you know where all the color tones are relative to the root, 3rd, and fifth. But it's easier to memorize chord charts than to study intervals. To learn guitar this way would require more time and practice, because it's not easy to learn the guitar this way (actually, it's much easier this way if you want to become very good at the guitar, but requires a "long run" kind of attitude plus commitment to getting better).

But for short term enjoyment, I think it's pretty easy (and really fun) to learn the guitar, on the first 3 frets. Once you develop some coordination between both hands you can rock out! It's fun and shouldn't take too many hours of practice.

[turnipmonster]

lessons are the best thing you can do. have fun with it, once you learn a little jam along with albums you like. try to pick out little melodies by ear and play them, and mainly focus on playing and learning music that you like.

also, guitar teachers are like poker players in that you wouldn't want to take lessons with most of them, so make sure your teacher is good and can play and/or teach you to play. if you don't like your first lesson find another teacher.

probably the most important thing is to learn to use your ears to figure things out. music is a game of the ear, not the eyes or the fingers.