What is the Best Way to Learn How to Play the Electric Guitar ?
Posted in electric guitar on 18. Jun, 2009
This week’s question is a good one. Let’s have a look:
Question: I have just bought a electric guitar and i can’t really afford lessons. Does anyone know what is the best and easiest way to learn how to play. Time is also a problem because i have to young children. My inspiration to buy and learn is Brian May, i have been a Queen fan for as long as i can remember. Thank you for your help
Answer: Plenty of tab sites my friend, take agood look at them 1st, it’s like a map gets you used to where notes are etc, learn a few scales, again shows you where notes run etc, get into the habit straight away of picking the string uphill aswell as downhill, downhill is somewhat natural to do and easier, but uphill picking gives you the speed, i had the habit at 1st of downhill picking only! wish someone had given me the advice on that one!
your fingers will kill you at 1st, the tips will burn like mad! you may have to keep laying off a couple of days, but they do harden up trust me.
keep your finger nails short on your fret fingers.
SOUND is very important, if you have a sound that you are happy with it gives you the motivation.
iv’e just bought a korg fx unit brilliant you can get one on the internet for apx 90.00…. all the best mate. hope this helps?
your fingers will kill you at 1st, the tips will burn like mad! you may have to keep laying off a couple of days, but they do harden up trust me.
keep your finger nails short on your fret fingers.
SOUND is very important, if you have a sound that you are happy with it gives you the motivation.
iv’e just bought a korg fx unit brilliant you can get one on the internet for apx 90.00…. all the best mate. hope this helps?
Video’s
Teaching Youself
=l
Practice.
start strumming it right now and dont hang it on your wall.
Well if you can decipher guitar tab, you can pretty much learn anything you want. Pick up a Guitar magazine and look at the fret numbers on what string and learn to play. Simple as that.
http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Lessons/
look here, or look for guitar lessons on the web by yourself, i have a guitar teacher but i know a lot of people who learned to play the guitar online. good luck!
Look up simple chord shapes on the Web: A, D and E for starters.
Play until your fingers bleed and your kids can’t stand any more.
Find a song in your extensive music collection that follows bog-standard 12 bar blues chord progression (rock’n'roll, wild thing, status quo etc.)
Play along with it several hundred times.
Simplest Queen song to learn – Crazy Little Thing Called Love (it starts with D then sus4(flick of the pinkie))
There is only one way to do this and that is with a tutor. You could try a night class or a course of tuition at college. After that how much practice you do and how well you play is all down to you finding the time. Nothing replaces a good tutor though videos, dvd’s books with cd enclosed can be used to supplement your course, but ultimately a tutor hears what you don’t and see’s errors you don’t.
Most college courses are reasonably priced by comparison to private tuition, which is more costly. Good luck.
Do you have any basic knowledge of music? If so, then it would be easier to learn to play guitar, if not, then you should learn basic knowledge of music first. Get the basic and you can learn how to play it yourself. Basically learning to play guitar is only a matter of common logic and sense.
get a tutor
taking lessons is great..i take lessons from for my trumpet. and i kno i would not be as good as i am now if i didnt take lessons!!!!! good luck with your guitar!
-brandon
I have just started learning to play the guitar and I have used a book called
"Guitar For Dummies"
It goes through everything, from buying the guitar to playing it. It starts really simple with some cords and gradually gets more complex.
I have only been using it for 2 weeks and i can play fairly well, "Kumbaya" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".
it also covers all styles of music and includes a CD of all the songs in the book
get a book
the great thing about learning to play a guitar is there are no rules. try a few different things, video, a book of chords. then choose whatever works for you.
As a completely self taught guitarist (Electric, Acoustic and Bass) I know the problems you’re facing starting to learn. I’m just going to blurt all the advise I can give and hope some of it is helpful.
For starters, pick up a good guitar magazine. Flick through and accustom yourself with the basic principles of the guitar. Knowing and understanding your guitar and what it can do is crucial in my opinion.Most good mags have beginner sections and always break songs or riffs down into small chunks. They should guide you through basic chords and rythm patterns. This is ideal if you’re pushed for time.
Try to set up a routine at home to practice to. Say 30 mins a night at first or whatever you can spare. It might not sound much but the regular practice will prevent your playing from going stale (which is always common when starting out)
Take thing’s slow at first. Don’t tackle the Brian May solo’s straight away however tempted you are. You need to build yourself a solid base to progress from. Precise picking/strumming and good rythm are the most important aspects for a beginner. Pace yourself and you’ll find the learning curve is much smoother.
There’s a world of books, magazines, CD’s, DVD’s and websites out there geared towards guitarists. It’s a case of finding a medium you’re comfortable learning with and regularly practicing.
Possibly the most important thing for an electric guitar player is BUY A PAIR OF GOOD HEADPHONES!!!!
That way you can still play when the kids have gone to bed without disturbing anyone.
Good luck with the playing and I wish you all the best. Hopefully it’ll open you up to a world of possibilities like it did for me
Feel free to mail me at kriss_1805@yahoo.com if you have any more questions
the best way is to use dvd’s or free online lessons i too love queen and may is better than hendrix, but he uses a slide