Learning a Song on Guitar?

I just love answering these learn guitar questions. Here’s another:

Question: Hey, so I’ve been teaching myself the acoustic guitar for around two months now. I’ve been doing pretty good but I’ve not been practicing enough at all! I know alot of chords, but I’m not fast real fast at changing from one chord to another yet. Do you think instead of learing a song this week that I should just practice alot on my chord changes? Also is it essential for me to learn scales? If so which ones?
And last question do you think that if I start next week and practice learning a song everyyday for like 3/4 hours that I will be able to play it properly within five weeks?

Thanks for your help1 (:

Answer: 1. dont start off practicing 3-4 hours. It will bore you. and plus what are you going to play for 3-4 hours anyways? itll do more harm than good. Practice 1-2 hours until like month six
2. Try and learn songs with tabs instead of only chords. it will help your transitioning.
3. you should try to learn 2 songs a week. a song should usually only take 3 days to learn. well at least for me to fully play it without mistakes.
4. good luck ^__^ dont give up, it will get tough and boring at times. Type in scales at
ultimate-guitar.com

Guitar Websites to Learn How to Play?

Keep the learn guitar questions coming! I liked this one:

Question: i can play by reading tabs and watching videos but i want to like learn all the scales, know the positions on the fretboard, etc. all the stuff that a music teacher or something would teach like reading musical notes. the website needs to be free.
guitarjamz has a free trial but it doesnt teach notation and it only teaches a few scales.
Answer: If you’re serious about learning how to play, get lessons from a professional guitar teacher. There is no substitute for that.

If I Dont Have Any Desire to Learn Notes on Guitar, How Should I Learn My Scales?

Another learn guitar question has come in this week. Let’s tackle it straight away:

Question: i know i should learn notes, but im not that serious about guitar. i just want to be able to play some songs and what not. should i just learn them by tab? any tips would be great
Answer: I’ve been playing guitar for about two years now, and at this moment I have not yet fully learned the notes, or the scales.
Matter of fact, I don’t know any of them at this moment

I can however read chords, tabs, do almost all techniques.
But yet, I can not call myself a guitarist.
Because I did not bother to learn notes/scales.

It’s dead boring, I know how you feel.
But you need to learn them even if you aren’t serious about playing guitar.

It helps construct yourself as a better player.
Mostly, it’ll help you with improvisation.

Learn scales in tunes/rhythms, not just simple regular manners.

Will Somebody Give Free Guitar Lessons on Skype?

What’s this week’s guitar lessons question? Let’s dive straight in…

Question: I’m in to metal, i can already play alot, i just need to learn more scales/chords.
Answer: my skype name is pokemaster1221

What Scales Do I Need to Learn if I Play Rock on the Guitar?

Well here’s a question I just had to answering straight away:

Question: What Scales Do I Need to Learn if I Play Rock on the Guitar?
Answer: You can get by with just the pentatonic scale, but you’ll eventually want to add different scales to add more color to your solos

How Do I Plan a Guitar Lesson for a Good Guitarist Who Doesn't Know the Fundamentals?

What’s this week’s guitar lessons question? Let’s dive straight in…

Question: So I told my friend I could give him some guitar lessons and teach him the fundamentals of guitar. How should I start this? He doesn’t know any scales or that kind of stuff, but what kind of scales should I start him out with?
Pretty much he’s a guitarist who’s learned everything from online tabs. What can I teach him that’s not note reading?
Answer: Well if he has technique down good enough, that’s a good start. Unfortunately, people who do this are often unwilling to learn the ‘basics.’

Start by making sure he knows the notes on the neck; sharps, flats, etc. If that’s good, start with the minor pentatonic scales. Those are definitely the most used, they’re easy, and sound great!

Depending how much you know, you can teach him different things about theory like harmony, etc.

Can Anyone Tell Me an Exercises or Tips on Learning to Shred Scales on Guitar?

What a great learn guitar question:

Question: Ive been trying to learn how to play metal solo’s and playing scales really fast is something ive been working on. I got a cowboys from hell album tab off the net and ive just been pullin licks and runs out of dimebag’s solos to practice with but any licks or excersises any one can tell me.
Answer: go to http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ then look at the tabs for the band’s solo you want to learn and to shred you have to start slowly and build up speed when you get used chords in the solo also you have to have a guitar that will sound good when you tune it down to a drop D or a drop C or whatever the tuning is for the song also the best pickups are EMG’s, and the best hardware is a floyd rose bridge w/whammy bar and interlocking tremolos for speed metal / shredding also you would need a high output distortion pedal and a good tube amp ( I like marshall amps but that is my opinion ) and medium-low thickness picks ( hoped this helped ) and keep playing METAL GUITAR >:() don’t give up!!!!!!

Do You HAVE to Learn Scales to Be Able to Play/write Songs on Guitar?

What’s this week’s learn guitar question? Let’s dive straight in…

Question: are they a must? and why do people learn scales? ha ha i’m a beginner, sorry i seem stupid :P
Answer: First of all, you are NOT stupid! You have a valid question.
No, it is not absolutely necessary to learn scales in order to write basic songs on the guitar. Many songwriters just rely on knowing several different chords, and use experimentation to "find" what fits together.
Scales do help with understanding more about music. Not only do they help with playing solos and building melodies, but they also form the basis of all harmony.
As you learn more about music, you will discover that the basic major scale (Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do) is the "ruler" by which we measure all things musical. We construct chords by stacking every other note in the scale. We use the basic structure of the scale to help create chord progressions. The more you learn about music the better you will understand the role of scales in creating music.
I strongly suggest taking lessons with a good qualified local instructor to help you better understand these and other aspects of creating music. A good teacher can help you learn much faster and open the doors to a whole new understanding of music and how it is created.

Songs to Learn on the Guitar from Experienced People?

Keep the learn guitar questions coming! I liked this one:

Question: I’ve been playing a little under a year and I have a quite small list of songs that I know how to actually play. Such as, Drive by Incubus, Closing Time by Semisonic, Wonderwall by Oasis, and Couple songs by 3 Doors Down & City and Colour. and I feel a bit behind compared to my friends.

I’ve recently gotten a acoustic so I’m kind of limited to some songs that I would like to play, and I would like to learn more songs.

Any help out there? Also any sites that I could also check out that informs about Scales, Ect.?
(Places that you’ve actually been to, not just google’ing and then posting it saying it seems legit) I know alot of people do that on this site.

Answer: I definately recomend learning stuff from Mason Williams. He wrote Classical Gas, and its an amazing fingerpicking song. Its a good song to practice your fingerpicking not to mention, its a very beautiful song. Um, if you really really absolutely want to amaze crowds and just to be different in your style, I recomend learning ‘Slap Acoustic Guitar’. There are all sorts of amazing guitarists that have this style of guitar, I always get the ‘jaw drop’ effect whenever I play music like that. You should look up ‘Candy Rat Records’ They have amazing artists with beautiful music. Excellent Choice on the acoustic :) ,

Look up Andy Mckee,
Acoustic stuff by Zakk Wylde is good aswell,
I dont know, Add me

acoustic_36@hotmail.com
and ill give you more recomendations if you like.

Should I Take Guitar Lessons..?

This week’s question is a good one. Let’s have a look:

Question: I’ve played for 2 1/2 years now, and lately I feel like I’m not getting as far as I want to at all. I really considered taking lessons, but I kind of fear that the tutor will drown me with super-easy things or just doesn’t understand my style (lots of acoustic-lovers up here). Some stats,
-I don’t know music theory, but I’m taking it my junior year
-I don’t know many scales (I know, I fail right? I just don’t know which I’m playing)
-I barely know chords
-Don’t know how to sweep, I suck at tapping
-In short, my preferred style is like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2SucmKpcl4&feature=related
-For my band, I’m lead guitarist so I guess melodic things help more

Kind of a minor thing but I wanted to learn that above video and play it before I graduate high school ;( My main issue for that is sweeping though.
Oh, in short I just wanted to ask how effective lessons are..

Answer: i was in a position similar to yours, except maybe a little further along (i knew all the basic chords and barre chords, and like 3 jazz chords). i started taking lessons a few months ago, and i’m already MUCH better. i actually stopped weekly lessons, because i figured out what i need to practice and wanted time in between lessons. no matter what style you want to play, lessons will almost always help (unless you find out you actually know more than your teacher…that happened to me when i got a sub :P )

so yeah. go take lessons.