The best thing is to find a teacher. I learned the hard way, just plunking along.
Beware of tabs, they are basically a shorcut to nowhere. A useful tool perhaps, but they don't really teach the real deal of music. usually with adult beginners I start out with just strumming the chords to easy songs, like maybe Hey Joe, Knockin on Heaven's Door, or other similiarily simple songs. I also have this great book "The Beatles Fake Book" which has 200 Beatle songs in the right key with the right chords(mostly).
It basically just takes time and work, you got to build on success. Learn stuff that is easy enough for you to accomplish, better to learn one tune enough to play it alll the way through then to just have a bunch of half ass stuff.
Having said that, on the other hand perfectionism is a problem. Perfection is neither neccasary or possible, and it can keep you from progressing.
If you love playing and respect music you will figure it out given enough time.
Some tabs, had a semester of guitar in college, some guitar books.
I guess the one book that had the biggest influence on my learning was a thin book containing about 6 or 8 Jimi Hendrix songs tabbed out note for note. It wasn't the notes that helped but the part of the book describing different blues scales.
After I had that visual cheat sheet for where to play blues leads everything started to fall into place. I guess if I had it all to do over again, I'd go straight to scales (after learning the basic chords and achieving the ability to play bar chords effectively.) The last guitar book I bought was nothing but a visual cheat sheet of scales for each key; just pick one that sounds good and key running up and down the neck while watching TV...
-TM
One thing that needs to be mentioned in this day of information overload is that the single best thing is ear training.
When I was learning we would wear records (big black cd's with a hole in the middle) out, trying to master this lick or that chord. That is the way real players all learn, in spite of what they tell you.
It's really about listening and hearing, if you want to get out of your bedroom with it. Even if you just figure out 2 notes in succesion, you have learned something.
Right on. Nowadays you can throw some tunes on an iPod (or whatever) and have instant, non-destructive, back-and-forth listen/play forever. I never messed with trying to learn anything from an LP (though I'm plenty old enough to have), but I did try with cassette tapes and that totally sucked. There's even software out there these days that will slow down the song without changing pitch. Everyone and his mom should be able to play any song with that kind of stuff.
I'm not much of a player but have just bought an Ovation deep bowl, accoustic/electric and am determined to learn to play better so i can sing along.
I first learned when I was 10, sent to music lessons by the parents. They were singularly unmusical and didnt realise I only wanted to sing and was looking for an instrument to accompany myself. I wanted to learn piano coz it had such a big sound (to go with my big voice) but my father said 'piano players are a dime a dozen' and told me to learn guitar. I'll never forget that; those words still echo in my head. I found learning guitar was soooo boring coz it was string-by-string and no big sounds so i dumped that and just learned a few chords.
I continued learning the chords to songs i liked for years but i didnt play much at all- always seemed to hook up with good guitarists who would play my guitar and I would sing.
In those days one would listen to the song and figure out the chords or get them from some sheet music.
NOW ... its sooo easy ... i just go here:
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ (http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/)
Cassie maybe down there piano players are a dime a dozen, but up here I can't hardley find a good keyboard player in my price range, whearas you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a real good guitar player.
(why do think I became a bass player?)
ovation, nice...
i got an ovation "legend" model --- sorta shallower rounded back...
passive controls for electric output (volume & tone, but no graphic eq...)
put some flat (ribbon) wound strings on it (smooooth!) & tuned it down to a DADDAD open chord... (one of the easiest alternate tunings for me...)
i can capo it up to E or whatever, but the As & Ds make it easy to jam with mandolin & banjo (& dulcimer in myxolidian mode!) & whatnot (D whistles, recorder playing D-scale, yaddayadda), & nice for campfire singin' o' dylan & dead & folk music & such...
ymmv...
Here is another tip:
There is a book called "The Beatles Fake Book" published by Hal Leonard.
It has over 200 Beatle songs almost all with the right chords and in the same key as the original recording. Being in the fake book format, which means all you get is the chords, melody and lyric, you don't have the usual song book problem of one simple song being spread over 6 pages.
The Beatles being master songwriters right from the start have left an amazing body of work with much to teach about music and songcraft.
there's so much to put into consideration when you're first starting to learn an instrument. it's funny, after years of playing i'm into different kinds of music i never could have forseen myself even considering liking when i first started out playing an instrument. playing instruments has made my life much more fulfilling than it would have been without the instruments there as a creative/expressive outlet.
looking back i can see the errors of my ways when i started to learn the guitar (my first instrument). i started out having a friend teach me a couple songs, but without having the resources to extrapolate from there i started to take lessons. i improved very fast playing mostly jimi hendrix and stevie ray vaughn songs that i learned from tabs and with the help of my teacher at the time. it grew to a point where i felt like i was hitting a brick wall and i couldn't improve anymore (which couldn't have been further from the truth). i stopped taking lessons and set the guitar down for a while (not completely but just didn't play 8 hours a day like i used to). eventually i met the guys who i currently play with and they inspired me to get better myself so i could keep up with them. i taught myself as much as i could about music theory which i really didn't grasp conceptually before when i was learning from my teacher/tabs. i took it upon myself to learn all the modes of the major scale, all the chord formulas, how to sight-read, and how to incorporate all these things/ideas/concepts into the "sound" i wanted to create. eventually things just started to click for me, and i improved a lot in a very short period of time again. but to me it seems like there are peaks and troughs in one's journey of learning music and/or a specific instrument. you get stuck in a rut and then need to be inspired to free yourself of the rut and move past it.
honestly the best learning experience i feel is playing with other ppl. try being able to put a song together from start to finish (both by yourself and with other ppl playing). and also try voyaging into the unknown by jamming and "exploring". i think this is the best way to train the ear because it gives you hands on experience to see what does and does not work in certain musical situations.
anyway...
i could go on for hours but i shant
best of luck tho and i hope you end up loving the guitar and music in general as much as i do :)
-c
Quotehonestly the best learning experience i feel is playing with other ppl. try being able to put a song together from start to finish (both by yourself and with other ppl playing
You made some good points, Camel. I think the key words are "start to finish". A lot of people have the tendency of stopping and starting over if they feel insecure about their performance. But in my opinion it's like learning to say fly a plane, ride a bike, or any skill like that. You got to log the hours in a plane, not just work on simulations.
A lot of people make the mistake of thinking it's just about accumulating knowledge, but that's just vocabulary. You certainly don't have to know every word in the dictionary to hold a conversation. One of things I do with my students is help them figure out what they need for THEIR goals. If someone just wants to be able to accompaney themself singing songs there is no need for them to study the Lydian Chromatic System, or even scales and modes. If on the other hand someone wants to be a great jazz player then much scale and chord work is in order.
In this era of information overload, a teacher can be really helpful in helping you design a program for your abilities and interests. I have a small number of openings, I will give any SPFer a free Guitar Workshop shirt for signing up!!