How did you learn guitar?

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  • guitars4youguitars4you Frets: 14032
    tFB Trader
    Sassafras said:
    Once I'd decided not to try and sound like famous players and chasing their sound, I progressed quite rapidly.
    I think that is a valid comment - sure we need to steal a few licks and ideas but don't try to copy and nail to the nth degree - make it your sound - Maybe this is the advantage of learning by ear as against by say tab - By ear you end up getting something wrong and such 'errors' become your sound - By tab there is a case of trying to nail it to the nth degree and we can be in danger of sounding the same - I know there are errors on many tab songs, so it is the principle I'm applying here - However, I've used tab and I dare say many have

    Going back to your comment Sassafras, I think many spend years of pain trying to copy to the nth degree and failing  make your own voice - vocalist do it this way, so why can't we
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  • SkippedSkipped Frets: 2371
    edited April 2017
    When we had the music radar forum a guitar teacher who was a regular poster would dismiss the idea of learning on an acoustic (if your plan was to play electric).

    I started on an acoustic guitar.
    As did;
    Brian May
    Jimi
    Slash
    Joe Perry
    Johnny Marr
    John Scofield
    Larry Carlton
    Clapton

    This may be an "old school idea" but I like it. I am not a guitar teacher but if someone asked me for pointers I would get them started on a good (cheap) acoustic and as soon as they had 5 or 6 chords - and good changes - I would have them playing the Tom Petty songbook.
    "Timing" is important for any musician......
    If I see a guitarist on Youtube (or playing a small gig)....I am interested in his/her grasp of the basics. If the soloing is good or great but the rest is mediocre......that is depressing IMO.

    Pete Townshend's first three guitars were all acoustics.
    It shows.
    That is all I am saying.

    I am trying so hard to avoid talking about "not running before you can walk" because some people really hate that. The poster on music radar hated that.



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  • GuitarZeroGuitarZero Frets: 254
    Interesting post from Skipped.  I myself started on acoustic, I taught myself pretty much all the main chords and barre chords, but I never really enjoyed guitar much, I just kept at it because I'm quite bloody minded and wouldn't let it beat me.

    Once I got an electric guitar however, everything changed. I absolutely loved it, right off the bat, and 20 years later I'm still playing electric guitar pretty much exclusively.  I have an acoustic upstairs in the spare room and the only time it gets picked up is if I'm upstairs in the spare room and I see it and I give it a strum. It then gets put down not likely to get touched again for many many months.

    Also you don't need to take guitar lessons to learn guitar, judging by the posts in this thread so far, many of us have taught ourselves, but you have to focus, you have to divide your time between practising and just playing.  You will not learn much if you keep playing what you already know.  It sounds like a cliche, but set yourself some goals, and work hard to reach those goals.  If you can't focus well or aren't particularly self motivated to reach your goals, it will take you longer to learn, and you might find that a teacher is better for you.
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  • axisusaxisus Frets: 28280
    A friend showed me three chords on acoustic when I was mid teens. I took about 5 seconds every time I tried to jump to F.

    I figured out how to play the melody of 'tales from the riverbank' (naff TV show) on one string. 

    35 years later and I can play guitar. I have no idea what happened but it didn't involve teaching or t'interweb.
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  • Thanks too all. In all this time I've never really tried to strum songs I like. 
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  • not_the_djnot_the_dj Frets: 7306
    edited April 2017
    I had a teacher. Kerry Minnear (from prog rock legends Gentle Giant). I was at college at the time and he gave lessons from his home studio in Solihull (he did film and TV soundtrack work from there I think). 

    He taught me the basic, and would transcribe and teach me things I wanted to learn so it kept it interesting for me....and i'd play all evening and weekend! 
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  • pintspillerpintspiller Frets: 994
    I borrowed a Neil Young songbook from library and stuff strummed along. Gotphotocopiesofsome of the songs and continued. A few years later I got a tuner.
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  • fretmeisterfretmeister Frets: 23940
    Learnt 4 chords and then started gigging. I sucked but it was a good start!
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  • usedtobeusedtobe Frets: 3841
    Old mate of mine taught me half a dozen chords, then said, and with these chords we can play all these songs...
    Went from there, really..
     so if you fancy a reissue of a guitar they never made in a colour they never used then it probably isn't too overpriced.

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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10357
    Danny1969 said:


    All those Youtube guys showing people how to play popular riffs using tab .... they aren't teaching anyone anything at all. Just creating a generation of guitarist who don't even understand what key they are playing in!


    I can count on one finger the number of guitarists who can actually read music, that I have been in a band with. I don't think youtube tuition is to blame.
    It's not important to be able to read music in all the bands I've been in \ still am in, I can't and I've worked on professional sessions in the studio

    What is important though is to know what notes your playing as the name of the notes, the intervals and the keys are the common language of music. When you an a keyboard player decide on a key you can't say "well I start on the 7th fret on this string" ... that means fuck all to a keyboard player or brass player or anyone other than another guitarist. 

    @Voxman I think vids showing people how are great as long as they communicate in terms of notes and not just fret numbers. I did a dep player quick guide to Mr Brightside amonst others as it seems to be a song people struggle with but I'm always referring to notes ....... a keyboard player could watch it and play it on their instrument



    I watch a lot of country technique videos and those guys are generally pretty good a showing the licks in terms of notes. keys etc. 


    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    I started with a bugger of an acoustic and Roger Evans' "How To Play Guitar Book". A few friends showed me a couple of chords, and I went through almost every guitar book in Hendon Library.

    Getting an electric, as crap as it was, was the kickstarter, played through a hacked cassette recorder ans with more guidance from Harvey Vinson's book on blues guitar.

    But playing along with records, hours and hours of it, was hugely important.
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  • vizviz Frets: 10645
    edited April 2017
    I am self-taught for 30 years, but in the last couple of years have been having fortnightly skype lessons; it's great, really great - I love it - it's improved my vocab and understanding of jazz no end, and the lessons are really fun and fulfilling. 
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
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  • mudslide73mudslide73 Frets: 3049
    I watched Jimi Plays Monterey and Zeppelin's Denmark tv special over and over again. I quizzed a few lads I knew that played and they taught me a few things. My mates Nick and Chappie (not Chappers) taught me loads of stuff. They'd both been playing a while. I could play some quick lead stuff but knew hardly any chords.

    I then got a good teacher who's since worked with a few name vocalists and went onto run a couple of university music depts. Similar to @not_the_dj s teacher he would transcribe anything for me. He worked out The Seahorses' ""Love is the Law" for me on the week of release - I could play most of it before it charted. I learned all of my technique by learning songs. I stayed with him for around 3 years. I tried another teacher but I found it hard to adjust to his style. He did give me some insight into the caged system and some nice chords I wasn't aware of. I didn't really know what I wanted from him. 

    I moved away but had a field based job which allowed me to get home by 3pm most days. I'd then practice for 2/3 hours until the Mrs came in from work. I managed to do this for nearly 2 years before redundancy came calling. This was when I improved the most I think. This period coincided with me getting into some regular gigging bands.
    "A city star won’t shine too far"


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  • SassafrasSassafras Frets: 30273
    I started playing long before tuners came into existence. Maybe that helped to train my ears, I dunno.
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  • thermionicthermionic Frets: 9499
    When I was about 14, one of my friends started playing his mam's old nylon string acoustic and he showed me a couple of chords. After months of scouring the classifieds in the local paper every week (the ubiquitous Avon/Hondo II/Kay LP Customs for £80 were out of my price range) I bought a Satellite short-scale thing for £25 from a Crack Convertors type place in Shotton. We popped into my aunt's house on the way home, she gave me a copy of Bert Weedon's "Play In A Day" which she had when she was a student and I was off!
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  • olafgartenolafgarten Frets: 1648
    When I bought my first guitar the internet went out and I didn't buy any books and had no idea how to play. I just played notes until it sounded acceptable. I ended up working out the standard E Major and A Major shapes just from knowing basic Piano Chords.

    In reality, the real learning came from Youtube Videos and tabs on Ultimate Guitar.
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  • VoxmanVoxman Frets: 4718
    @Danny1969 watched your vid & yup, I sussed out all those different inversions myself for Mr B.  I can do it with the stretched G quite comfortably (I'm used to stretches like that from The Police 'Message' & 'Every step' etc) but as you say at a gig you probably want a slightly simpler version because the nuances won't come out if you play it the 'right way'.  I'm pretty comfortable with it now & tend to vary it pretty much as you do in your vid - but for me it was actually the picking pattern with the 'string jumping' at the beginning that took me a while to get my head/fingers around because its not a 'natural' fret position or picking pattern, particularly if you mainly play blues/classic rock!  
    I started out with nothing..... but I've still got most of it left (Seasick Steve)
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  • NeilNeil Frets: 3594
    A lovely old chap who was a jazzer taught me A-D-E and left me to it.

    I then bought this book, complete with record (still have it) and I was off.

    Not much better now TBH!

    Image result for Harvey Vinson
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  • octatonicoctatonic Frets: 33725
    edited April 2017
    I had it easy- did music at school and was shown a good approach to practice music.
    When I decided to 'be a musician' (rather than just playing an instrument') I then got a part time job and spent the rest of my time playing.
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  • samzadgansamzadgan Frets: 1471
    about 28 years ago (I was 13) my parents bought me a piece of shit acoustic guitar (which i still have) and a metallica ride the lightning tab book, and i began to try and play For Whome the Bell Tolls....had about 3 lessons about 15 years later and discovered pentatonic scales!

    so...self taught and only in the last 6-7 years i've delved into a bit of theory, but i really dont have the appetite to learn it at this stage, i pick up what i can...but mainly just noodle and come up with riffs and bits...
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