Learning to play guitar finally after 30 years of putting it off!!

[mopar_nut_440_6]

Hello All,

Well I have not been on the site in a while. I have been busy buying and selling a few boats and enjoying the summer.

I had bought my son a guitar a couple years back and he just graduated and moved down to Chilliwack to play junior football with the Chilliwack Huskers.

I asked if he had been playing his guitar and he said no so I asked if I could look after it for him. I just started looking for online beginners lessons and man am I struggling. This is going to take a while. I really suck but my wife is keeping her cool! Haha...

Any tips or links to any sites would be helpful for me. I am hoping to stick with this and actually learn to lay as I have wanted to since my early teens. I have signed up for lessons starting in September but would like to at least be able to do something prior to starting.

I also picked up a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 Quad cab 4x4 with a Cummins engine. It has a few goodies in it and I recently too it out to our local drag strip and made some runs.It works really well and leaving the line easy on street tires it is running 13.8 at 103 mph. Pretty fair for a 7500 pound truck. It also gets great mileage. I am getting 30 mpg on the highway empty and 21 when towing my boat which weighs about 7500 lbs. I am pretty happy with everything but will likely take some tune out of it as it will spin the tires if I floor it while doing 60 mph.

Here is a link to the truck.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3871426


Cheers,

James

[Black Charger]

I have been playing guitar most of my life. I have not only played in lots of bands but I also had a teaching gig at the music store back in my hometown. My advice would be to learn to play by ear and forget about trying to learn to read music right off the bat. I would learn some basic chords first, then get familiar with the notes on your fretboard. Memorizing the note cycle can be done without even learning an instrument. While it isn't important to learn to read music, you most definitely need to know where the notes are on your fretboard. Besides, if you do decide to learn to read music later on, knowing where the notes are on your fretboard will make learning to sight read MUCH easier.

Here is your first lesson. This is the note cycle. Two things to remember when you're learning it:

B and E have no sharps
C and F have no flats

b = flat
# = sharp

Here you go:

IN FLATS- Ab-A-Bb-B-C-Db-D-Eb-E-F-Gb-G
IN SHARPS-A-A#-B-C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G#

ALso remember that the flat of one note is the sharp of another. For example F# and Gb are the same note.

Both of these note cycles start all over again. Memorize these and you will be on your way!

I would try YouTube for guitar lessons. Even to this day, I find myself learning new techniques from lessons I have seen there. The great thing about the guitar is, you NEVER stop learning, no matter how long you have been playing!

[tan top]

  nice looking truck   

[mopar_nut_440_6]

I have been playing guitar most of my life. I have not only played in lots of bands but I also had a teaching gig at the music store back in my hometown. My advice would be to learn to play by ear and forget about trying to learn to read music right off the bat. I would learn some basic chords first, then get familiar with the notes on your fretboard. Memorizing the note cycle can be done without even learning an instrument. While it isn't important to learn to read music, you most definitely need to know where the notes are on your fretboard. Besides, if you do decide to learn to read music later on, knowing where the notes are on your fretboard will make learning to sight read MUCH easier.

Here is your first lesson. This is the note cycle. Two things to remember when you're learning it:

B and E have no sharps
C and F have no flats

b = flat
# = sharp

Here you go:

IN FLATS- Ab-A-Bb-B-C-Db-D-Eb-E-F-Gb-G
IN SHARPS-A-A#-B-C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G#

ALso remember that the flat of one note is the sharp of another. For example F# and Gb are the same note.

Both of these note cycles start all over again. Memorize these and you will be on your way!

I would try YouTube for guitar lessons. Even to this day, I find myself learning new techniques from lessons I have seen there. The great thing about the guitar is, you NEVER stop learning, no matter how long you have been playing!

Thank you,

Now I need to figure out what all this means!! Haha..

I have been practicing scales I found on the internet to familiarize myself with the keys and try to get these fingers working and in the right position for the chords. Quite a chore for this older guy!! 

Cheers, 

[mauve66]

our cable company out here has free guitar lessons on the cable box you can access anytime of the day, its on THE LIST

[tricky lugnuts]

Good luck -

I'd recommend you keep it simple and start at the beginning, learning the notes on each string, open up to the fifth fret or so to start.

Learn all your first position "open" chords: A, C, D, E, and G, and also F and B.

Then go after the minor chords and the seventh chords and the minor seventh chords.

And in the meanwhile, learn the basic major and minor scales. The scales will help you understand keys and chord progressions and such. Don't get too frustrated. The big thing is to just stick with it, practice diligently and intelligently, and put the time in, practicing at least one hour a day. At that rate, in about 10,000 days you should be shredding with the best of them!

As far as helpful websites, there's all kinds of stuff on YouTube as another poster said, and it looks like this one has some of the basics on it:

http://www.chordbook.com/guitarchords.php

When I was starting I bought a little $1 notebook and filled it up with information: chord fingerings, scales, keys, progressions, songs, etc. That way you have a record of everything you're learning and a handy little practice notebook.

[Brock Samson]

 One of the things that helped me a lot, was playing along with anything that came on the TV, because the stuff is so varied and in so many idioms and flavors and changes so fast, I really think it went a long way to helping me develop a keen ear.
And I'd also strongly suggest you learn to finger pick before using a pick. The other thing that was helpful for me was to play in the dark, this began when i was playing in the Evenings and the light would fade and i would continue playing on in the dark. muscle memory means not having to look at the neck to see what string i needed to hit or where the "dots" were..
  Good Luck!

[captnsim]

The circle of fifths is a great tool to help beginners put cord progressions together.

[mikepmcs]

just use the whammy bar and some hi tech electronics and turn it up to 11! make sure the distortion is on too. 

i've started and stopped so many times in my life.....  i was happy using tab method and just liked to learn riffs.  DMB riffs were my favorite. good luck and post up some vids.

i was a sax player back in the day.