I have just recently picked up the guitar. I have loved to hear the sound of a great guitar, and wanted to learn how to play. Does anyone have any tips or things for me to use so I can get better?
Also, many people said that Guitar Tabs are a very bad way to start out learning the Guitar, is it true?
Yes, Guitar Tabs are terrible.
Get a chord book and learn all the basic chords,
Then move onto bar chords, learn all the notes on the E and A strings to be able to play the bar chord notes correctly, and actually know what one your playing.
Learn a few slow finger picking songs you like.
Next learn your Minor Pentatonic Scales.
Then finally, when you've mastered all that, get a teacher, there's only so much you can teach yourself.
Learning your basic chords is the most important step.
Also, if you HAVE to have guitar tabs, look up a program called Guitar Pro, it contains both tabs and timing for songs, and even plays the tabs back to you to help you get an idea of the sound.
Get a teacher, learn classical guitar.
Guitar tabs are in fact, NOT terrible. They just have some down sides. They are good for certain things and work better for some people than they do for others. But we don't need to get too into that now.
First you should start by learning all the basic chords. Start by getting the fingerings down and work on accuracy accuracy accuracy. If you build bad habits early on it'll be hard to shake them later. After you can play chords right and well, work on transitioning between chords.
A good exercise for this is to choose two chords and time yourself for one minute and count how many switches between the two chords you can make in one minute. Remember ACCURACY. If you can only do 3 changes that is alright. 3 perfect changes is better than 11 inaccurate ones. Eventually after practice, you will be able to do many switches flawlessly between all the chords.
After becoming well familiar with basic chords move onto more advanced chords like the Barre Chords and some other more obscure ones, also it'd be a good thing to learn about power chords even if you are not interested in rock guitar.
Along with that also learn scales and modes to supplement your knowledge of chords.
All in all if you are dead set on teaching yourself the pathway I suggested can give you good direction for the beginning to intermediate levels, but I really do suggest that you look into getting yourself a teacher either now or some point down the line. But make sure you find the right one.
Hope this was helpful.
[QUOTE=jesseluver93;17953068]Guitar tabs are in fact, NOT terrible. They just have some down sides. They are good for certain things and work better for some people than they do for others. But we don't need to get too into that now.
First you should start by learning all the basic chords. Start by getting the fingerings down and work on accuracy accuracy accuracy. If you build bad habits early on it'll be hard to shake them later. After you can play chords right and well, work on transitioning between chords.
A good exercise for this is to choose two chords and time yourself for one minute and count how many switches between the two chords you can make in one minute. Remember ACCURACY. If you can only do 3 changes that is alright. 3 perfect changes is better than 11 inaccurate ones. Eventually after practice, you will be able to do many switches flawlessly between all the chords.
After becoming well familiar with basic chords move onto more advanced chords like the Barre Chords and some more obscure ones, also it'd be a good thing to learn about power chords.
Along with that also learn scales and modes to supplement your knowledge of chords.
All in all if you are dead set on teaching yourself the pathway I suggested can give you good direction for the beginning to intermediate levels, but I really do suggest that you look into getting yourself a teacher either now or some point down the line. But make sure you find the right one.[/QUOTE]
Isn't that exactly what I said, but with more words to describe it?
[QUOTE=TJCTakSUn;17953093]Isn't that exactly what I said, but with more words to describe it?[/QUOTE]
Umm yeah pretty much. Sounds like you gave him good advise. It doesn't hurt that I elaborated does it?
[QUOTE=jesseluver93;17953105]Umm yeah pretty much. Sounds like you gave him good advise. It doesn't hurt that I elaborated does it?[/QUOTE]
Nah. ;]
Thanks guys, trying to look for a good teacher currently. One I am looking at studied with a Megadeth guitarist (Not Dave Mustane)
If you want a good book(I have suggested it before and I will suggest it again) [url]http://www.berkleepress.com/catalog/product?product_id=11250[/url]
It will teach you to sight read, which is invaluable. It is an all round great book as well.
I've never had a teacher myself, and I wouldn't consider myself [i]horrible[/i](not great either), so if you really can't afford one then don't get too worried, but if you can then defiantly get one.
WHy are tabs terrible, that's what i used to learn.
And learn music theory, will be incredibly useful as time goes on, i'm now regretting not learning it along with tab.
[QUOTE=bravehat;17956284]WHy are tabs terrible, that's what i used to learn.
And learn music theory, will be incredibly useful as time goes on, i'm now regretting not learning it along with tab.[/QUOTE]
Because if you learn nothing but tabs, you honestly have no idea how to play.
You can play songs if you know them, but you can't play on your own properly.
Learning just tabs without ANY theory means you can't even build basic Barre chords or pentatonic minor scales, let alone their relative majors or anything else.
Tabs improve technique, like being able to play fast :banjo:
I think tabs are fine, as long as they include the time signature, tempo, and if the notes are half, quarter, eighth, etc.
[editline]06:33PM[/editline]
That's one of the great things about GP; you'll always get that.
Yeah, guitar pro 4 lyfe.
I learned by just picking up my dads guitar and messing around, I normally look at tabs for songs, learn a riff I like and mess around with it playing it differently and such, trying to play a song by ear is the way to go though.
[QUOTE=SolidSnake52;17957591]Because if you learn nothing but tabs, you honestly have no idea how to play.
You can play songs if you know them, but you can't play on your own properly.
Learning just tabs without ANY theory means you can't even build basic Barre chords or pentatonic minor scales, let alone their relative majors or anything else.[/QUOTE]
Ok yeah i'm with you there, and that's made it pretty difficult for me since i decided i would learn from tabs.
I can remember one position for the chinese scale though :downs: and now i have to teach myself theory, and whenever i dick around and just do random improv stuff it's usually in open tunings =D
I'm following along with this:
[url]http://guitar.about.com/library/blguitarlessonarchive.htm[/url]
Does a pretty good job of introductory lessons: from tunings, chords, scales, gives you some basic songs to play along with at each level. And it's free. I think it's paced well and if you use it in conjunction with theory lessons and song tabs, you'll be pretty well on your way. If you can afford a teacher, hell, go for that.
ok heres the deal
tabs are fine when you first get your bearings for guitar, just dont rely on them much further beyond that.
A lot of people go straight into guitar with the notion that they must start out on chords until they know them all (or at least a respectable amount) before they can go on. While it is good to know chords, there's no real reward for a beginner other than the small satisfaction of knowing that he learned them all.
Tabs on the other hand, offer pretty big rewards for beginners because they learned to play something that sounds nice (and play something that inspired them). Once they learn a song from one of their favorite artists they feel a bigge sense of accomplishment and want to pick out another song and keep playing guitar.
People who get into guitar and dont see any reward or accomplishment out of it wind up getting burned out and drop the instrument. It happens a lot to people who go out and hire a teacher right away and all he tells them is to learn chords and scales straight away.
[editline]04:33PM[/editline]
i guess the main point i want to get across is that i dont want you to get burned out on the instrument.
here's how I started:
1. Start with tabs of good songs
2. when you get bored with tabs (and trust me you will), learn chords and scales
3. when you gett bored with learning your chords and scales, try to make some cool songs or chord progressions or whatever.
4. after you get bored with that, try learning a tab and look at the song and try to figure out what makes it sound good (does it use a specific scale/chord progression you know?)
beyond that its pretty much about having fun and chillin out with a guitar while you watch yourself get better.
[editline]04:33PM[/editline]
and smoke weed every day
[QUOTE=AxisofIdiocy;17962923]and smoke weed every day[/QUOTE]
Agreed.
Nothing wrong with tabs, just learn to read notation and learn theory aswell otherwise you can get boxed in by the tab.
There are a lot of chord progressions in songs, so if you learn how to play the chords of songs you like it helps out. It's just muscle memory, being able to switch to any chord you want whenever you want.
Also learn to read music and classical guitar.
[QUOTE=Louie XVI;17968782]Also learn to read music and classical guitar.[/QUOTE]
Why? If he isn't interested in classical guitar then there's no reason for him to play it. You might aswell say "Learn to play the piano".
Nothing wrong with tabs. They are excellent when it comes to learning a song quickly. Especially in the beginning when you're starting out and you don't want to think too much. Just don't become one of those people who ask for tabs for a simple melody.
All in all, just play. Play because it's fun. Don't limit yourself because "you don't want to play tabs because people say it's bad". And a teacher is not required at ALL to learn advanced stuff if you got some self discipline.
[QUOTE=|RoaringCow|;17997394]
The reason I suggest learning on an electric guitar is because, it's not too bulky and uncomfortable, it's quiet if you need it to be, and it has greater flexibility in terms of genre and music style. The whole point of learning an instrument is to have fun, if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong(that doesn't really count when you're memorizing a song or something).[/QUOTE]
Just a note:
Basic Chords sound SO bad on electric guitar.
[QUOTE=TJCTakSUn;17997749]Just a note:
Basic Chords sound SO bad on electric guitar.[/QUOTE]
No they don't, they just have to be executed well.
For me, I started on tabs, and through extensive tablature practice, I picked up the chords.
It all just falls into pieces.
Go here.
[url]http://www.justinguitar.com/en/BC-000-BeginnersCourse.php[/url]
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