How do you start learning guitar
 

Simple question, how would you start? How much money would it cost? And does age affect learning curve?

What kind of music do you want to be able to play someday? Acoustic or electric? How much quality time could you devote to practicing each day or week?

Age doesn't matter. Determination and practise matters.

Fortunately guitar manufacturers make it a very easy hobby to approach, there is something available in all price ranges from $100 to $5000 or more, cheapest starting at $100 for a guitar and practice amp (Robson is a common starter brand). For a first guitar you should probably consider a Fender Squier, that's the classic option, it'll probably cost you around a $150. I'd commit to spending $200 for a guitar / practice amp if you want something that'll get you through the learning curve somewhat smoothly without frustrating you out of the hobby.

Better, if you have a friend that plays, ask if you can borrow one of their guitars to learn. If they've been playing a while chances are it will be of higher quality and will make things easier on you. The difference in price points among guitars typically relates directly to build quality and hardware quality. More expensive guitars have more professional finishes that allow your hand to move along the neck much more easily, the fretboard will feel smoother and less sticky allowing for easier chord movement, the guitar will stay in tune longer, and of course sound nicer due to higher quality pickups. But if that's not an option don't be discouraged, starter guitars work fine for their purpose.

Judging by your Last FM you're going to be aiming for metal / rock styles. This means you'll want to start out by learning how to read guitar tablature, Google and YouTube are your friend. If you're going to try and learn on your own without a teacher I recommend the following order of steps:

- Tuning your guitar / note names along the neck in standard tuning
- Reading & writing tablature
- Basic chords: D, G, Em, C
- Basic 12-bar blues & finger exercises
- Learning and transcribing basic rock songs

YouTube is an endless resource for learning guitar on your own, just try to keep focused on a particular order of lessons, don't jump around to learning random techniques here and there, avoid videos called "How 2 solo". Once you've got a feel for your guitar and your fingers are starting to feel comfortable along the neck search up some YouTube tutorials on playing basic rock songs like Sunshine Of Your Love, or Paranoid, or Smoke On the Water, or Seven Nation Army. Even if you don't care for the artists, it's about teaching your fingers how to move, and pop songs are always the simplest to learn.

Force yourself to learn the basics first, make sure you can play those basic songs perfectly, then you can move forward and start learning to play along with songs you really like. Skipping steps and refusing to learn the basics first is the fastest way to get discouraged and drop the hobby. Pace yourself, take it slowly. Come back to this thread with any questions and I'll gladly help, I'm sure Plankton and Chula will be happy to help too.

My only advise... be bold. That. Is what makes a guitar player.

Adding onto this, if you're willing to buy a used guitar odds are you can get a Squier stratocaster for roughly anywhere between $40-$70. I'd recommend going to a brick'n'mortar store for it though and just running your hand up and down the neck or randomly playing notes. I didn't do this when purchasing my first guitar and kind of regret it.

There's also sites like Rondo Music that sell good instruments for cheap prices and odds are you can get a good Strat/Tele/Les Paul style guitar for a cheap price.

Of course what kind of guitar you should get all depends on your personal preferences in aesthetics, feel and what music you wish to play.

Also if you're a fan of video games you might want to pickup a copy of Rocksmith/Rocksmith 2014. It really helped me adjust to the guitar. If you do this, however, DO NOT only play with Rocksmith. Practice outside of it or playing guitar will become just a game for you and you'll find yourself unable to play without it.

I practiced about 50% of the time with Rocksmith and 50% of the time without it, gradually lowering the amount of time using Rocksmith as I progress. Now I'm at around 25% of the time using it and 75% not.

Last bit of advice would be to not ignore music theory. It just makes things so much easier, even if you only know basic music theory. Learn the fretboard as soon as you possibly can.

I'm learning for the first time myself and kinda finding that the facts of it are simple memorization. Its the training of your fingers that's a bitch, and improvement on that can only come with practice. Don't give up.

There is definitely rote memorization but it does not have to be boring. Learning Pentatonics for example is way more fun if you throw on pretty much any blues based classic rock song and play along paying attention to what they are doing. throw on some Trower and play until the patterns start to make sense. Thats what i did.

Think I'm gonna try to learn bridge of sighs next, speaking of trower

Befriend somebody who plays guitar.

i had the good fortune of having a friend who taught me how to play and used to lent me his acoustic guitar so i could practice.

Some practical advice would be to pick a simple song you like and start learning it by either reading its tabs or by learning it by ear. idk how to read music so i learned to do it by ear.

there's many ways to learn all you need is dedication & interest.

:yikes:

How long have you been playing?

Like... Two weeks haha. I come from a musical family and seem to have a knack though. Look up Orange Goblin's Beginner's Guide to Suicide. The slidy guitar parts? Almost got them down perfect.

Do you know how to read tab? If yes I can shoot you a tab of BOS to save you some time. Both the main riff and the bridge are super fun to play.

Yeah I can read tab. No need to send it over, I'll get it on my own, but I appreciate it. I wanna master that OG song and Ballad of Dwight Fry before I move on.

Another goal... Singing and playing. I'm finding it very ****in difficult.

That's very hard at first, you gotta train your voice not to follow the strumming. over time you'll learn how to do it.

i learned how to do it playing 'Come as you are' by Nirvana, that song is tough to play & sing if you're just starting to play the guitar.

Another thing to try is to sing and play while watching TV. It's weird but having the TV as a distraction lets your natural instincts take over.

Good feedback. Main question would be how much I should spend on a practice instrument. I don't care if it sounds bad or whatever, just enough to get the gist of playing the guitar. I can spend $100, but I can spend more if I can justify it.

The other day I picked up a friends acoustic/electric guitar, tuned it up and started noodling a bit, and was amazed at the quality and sound it had. I liked it enough to ask him if he wanted to sell it since I've been in need of one. He said he paid $100 for it, so I told him I'd give him $120 but I wanted to do some research on it first. I really thought I was getting a great deal. I took a few pictures, and the next day I decided to take a look and see what they actually go for. It turns out it was a Kona, and they sell them at Walmart and Target for around $130 for that model. I called him immediately to tell him of my findings, and that I won't be pulling the trigger on that sale.

It shocked me a little bit, but they are great guitars for beginners if you want to start with an acoustic, which I'd recommend. They also have electrics, and starter kits that come with pretty much everything you'd need.

KE2BPK

The Guitars||and amplifiers

There are other good names too like Yamaha, Ibanez, etc, that go for around $100 as well as starter packages from other various companies (like the Luna Guitar kit I bought for my daughter a few years back that came with a small Line 6 amp, with some amp modeling), just take a look into Musicians Friend or Guitar Center, but judging from what I played on the Kona, I'd personally go that route, and recommend it to anyone just starting out. I've been playing guitar for over 30 years, and have taught many students, so I do have a bit of experience.

Even though it may be beneficial for a novice (especially with getting a feel of the strings and the instrument) and help build finger strength, it's easy to develop bad habits that way (poor fingering, for example). It's like studying while watching a movie. Practice must be meaningful and free of distractions. Pay attention to what you play.

I was referring to being able to sync up singing while playing. But ya, I get your point. Both are very beneficial though. I use to practice while watching TV all the time. Finger exercises mostly but if a commercial came on with music I'd try to jam along. It's a great way to play in styles you'd normally not be exposed to.

i do that all the time then i wind up learning songs no one cares about, like, i learned the inspector gadget song.. why?? im never gonna play that to anyone!

But this is something you can only do when you've developed an ear for music and improvisation.

Advice taken.

Though upon some research, I feel that I need an amp. I don't want to find myself playing something only to realize that it sounds completely different with an amp and I got to relearn it.

If I were to buy a cheap guitar and I felt like this was something I was going to stick with, I'd probably consider looking for a used Squier stratocaster or an Epiphone Les Paul. I actually have a heavily modded Epiphone Les Paul Custom and when it comes to ease of playing, it's the best guitar I have.

This is just what I'd do. A stratocaster is the essential electric guitar played by artists like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Dave Gilmour or Mark Knopfler. They are made by the company Fender and are relatively expensive, but Fender also owns the company Squier which makes cheaper versions of strats and telecasters.

There's a similar story with the Les Paul, another of the guitar worlds most famous guitar models played by guys like Slash and Jimmy Page. Les Pauls are made by the company Gibson and are quite expensive, but Gibson also bought up their competitor Epiphone and now Epiphone churn out less expensive versions of the les paul.

Many other companies make knock-off versions of these classic guitars too, but if you get a Squier or an Epiphone, at least it has some tie to the real lineage :D

edit :

Amps are also expensive, so if money were an issue, I'd just get a practice amp like a Fender Mustang or something.

So I went to a guitar center today and as I was browsing through I saw a bunch of guitars which seem fundamentally the same except the prices and brands. $80-$500.

I was a bit afraid to ask anyone there in fear of sounding stupid, but I have no idea what's with the price range?

Some of it comes with the name, some are designed from better materials, and there are a lot of nuances that are different between guitars that you may not notice makes one better than the other even if you've been playing for years. Pick what sounds (and looks, if you're concerned about that) good for you and don't buy a $700 guitar just because of the price tag.

A lot of what makes a guitar great isn't immediately apparent when standing in front of it. It has a lot to do with build quality / materials, neck / body finish, hardware / parts quality, and inner electronics / pickups. The hard part about shopping for a beginner is that you may not know exactly what to look for when playing it.

Pay attention to how easily your hand moves along the neck, neck finish is very important for ease of use, you don't want a lot of friction or the feeling that your hand is resisting movement. Pay attention to how high or low the strings are above the fret board (this is called action), this also plays a big role in ease of use (although it can be adjusted after buying), most players prefer low action, having the strings as close to the fret board as you can without them buzzing when picked. Pay attention to the weight and how it fits on your body, you don't want to feel uncomfortable after playing for extended periods of time. It's hard to gauge tuner quality without spending a good amount of time playing the instrument but that's something you can ask the staff, ask which models seem to stay in tune the best.

As for electronics, it's hard for a beginner to decipher which guitars produce the best tone, but regardless, take any guitar you're considering buying and ask the staff to help you run it through a classic amplifier like a Fender Twin Reverb or something else reasonably high end, they'll tweak the amp settings for you if you don't want to. Use the pickup selector switch to hear the different tones the guitar can make, moving the switch towards the neck usually produces a warmer / jazzier sound, towards the bridge produces a brighter, clearer, and twangier sound. The tone knob controls the gradient between these extremes, allowing for a finer adjustment of tone.

If you don't want to play in public yet ask one of the guitar salesman if they'd be able to demo the instrument for you, most guitar salesman play guitar and would probably jump at the opportunity to jam at work.

When it comes to large brands like Fender, Squire, Epiphone, Ibanez, etc. your best bet is to choose the model you want and then play as many examples of it as possible. Those guys crank out hundreds of guitars a day and there's going to be some very happy accidents along the way. The right combo of wood weights, alignment, setup, etc.

One of the best strats I ever owned was a $300 Made in Mexico model that I hadn't planned on buying but just happened to pick up and mess around on. That guitar was as good if not better than a lot of much higher priced Made in USA ones I'd played.

That's one advantage of Guitar Center (and they don't have many) is that they'll usually have a couple dozen of any one model for you to try out.

For learning I appointed a teacher. And after 2 months of trying hard I gain this. LOL!