How to learn guitar quickly and cheaply?

Andyb01

Good luck learning guitar - it's a very satisfying instrument to learn and you can become fairly competent pretty quickly with regular practice. If you can read dots you'll already be ahead of the majoity of guitarists many of whom have poor or no sight reading skills (hence the popularity of Guitar Tablature which I will leave you to discover whether it works for you). Also if you play piano - even a little - you may already have a good sense of scales and chord theory and these two are the essence of the guitar - particularly learning different inversions of chords (same chord played at different places on the neck).

The most important thing to learn is the notes on the strings all the way up the neck (ideally to fret 12 which is a full octave). Start at 3, then 5, 7 and so on.

You have bought a steel strung insturment so you will get sore fingers, they will toughen up with use. Forget tips about smearing them with superglue and soaking your fingers in white spirits - just start slowly and let nature condition them. You may also find the action a little high on your new purchase (this is the distance you have to depress the string behind a fret to sound a clear note - usually measured at the 12th fret). The lower the action the easier to play - it can usually be altered but get a guitar specialist to set it up for you.

When buying also check the intonation at the 12th fret (how close is the plucked harmonic to the fretted note - they should be the same). Once again a decent guitar technician may be able to adjust this for you on a guitar with an adjustable bridge.

Echo the suggestion on websites - there are loads out there and try your library too for instruction books to see which work for you.

Hope you enjoy your new purchase.

mamabuddah

I'm a bit late to join on this thread, but here's my observations:

as you have a "musical" background and you have now bought your first guitar, the second purchase I would recommend is a G7th capo. This will make life easier for you, once you learn the basic chord shapes at the first neck position, e.g. C, F, G and the relative minors Am and Em you can then transpose up and down the neck using the capo, e.g placing it at the 2nd fret and using the same chord shapes you can now play in a different key with the chords D, G, A and the relative minors being F#m and Bm.

with those chords you can play most songs and with your music theory it will get you up and running really quick. You also have the added advantage if you play along with someone and you recognise the song (but don't know the chords) just use the capo.

For those "purists" who claim you cant play a song with only 4 chords, check this out, ok its for a laugh but can prove the point,

http://youtu.be/QpB_40hYjXU

I have played guitar for nearly 40 years now, theres not that much to learn...just practice and good knowledge of theory will speed you on your way.

Incyder

dont forget a guitar goes out of tune easily, particularly with new strings and changes in room temperature. Learn to tune it before every session.
Here is some inspiration for you....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wTVLIZaxMk

vax2002

If you find one let me know, I have been at it 28 years and I am still learning.
However a good tip is learn the basic barr chord shape, practice holding it down until your fingers bleed. Learn the notes of the bottom frets, (those nearest to you) and get some chord and lyrics sheets and play along to songs you like.
Just move the Chord to the note of the fret to match the sheet.
The rest will quickly follow on from inquisitiveness and good ears.

John_3:16

If your fingers and brain can cope then you can learn as fast as they will let you. It wil take time for you fingers to harden up.

Little_Vics

I'm a pianist, and tried to learn the guitar once. The hardest thing I found was getting to grips with strumming - I found it a LOT easier to finger pick. John 3:16 (great user name btw!) is right that it will take time for your fingers to get used to it.

Must confess I gave up.

flexrider

One Thing i would suggest with the Tuning side is one Question: If you have a macbook or mac computer use GarageBand that comes with Macs.

The reason is you can tune your guitar to the right chords using it and learn chords from that also.

Best video i watched when starting with Guitar's was The dummies Guide to guitaring. Cost around 3.00 from amazon and shows all the types of strumming and chords

Another book i reccomend is "You can Play Guitar Dammit". Which is a whole book that teaches you all the styles for the Guitar and comes with 2 CD's,

Anything else i use Youtube for lessons and for tuning buy also a Electronic tuner ebay sells em for around 2.00

P.s have the same Guitar in my collection what you have...Not a bad Guitar prefer the wishbone guitar but for starting out that will do you fine.

GarretNew

Practice, practice and only practice. Try to visit ultimate-guitar.com website. You can find a lot of video, gtp tabs, lessons from professional teachers. I think it is the best online recourse for guitarists.

rygon

If you have an android phone, theres an app called gstrings, which can help tune up the guitar (its a free tuner app). Works pretty well and very easy to use.

I used a book by progressive called guitar method book1. It starts off really easy (one string at a time) then working your way through them all. Its written in proper music mainly buts has tabbed music to help at the start. Was recommended by my guitar teacher and found it very useful. Remember to keep a spare set of strings around as they can easily break, also you will need to change them from time to time (ideally before they rust )

Kaybenson

little bit off-topic

What about learning piano?