HI. I'm Amy.

HI. I'm Amy. I'm new to this and excited about getting some help with my skills as a "guitarist", a term I use very loosely at this point. I've always sort of played guitar because my dad played all the time when I was growing up. I know the very basics; how to hold, string, and tune. I know the basic chords and some finger picking. I suck at strumming a good rythym. And I really have the desire to get really good. I write some pretty good poetry and would love to get the the point where I'm actually writing songs. I checked out the web site of that guy who taught himself how to play in 30 days. It looks pretty interesting but I'm often leery about spending money online. Does anyone have any good,bad or indifferent feedback about that? Or any other ideas. Thanks!!

Use the search icon at the top of the page and you will find a lot of good stuff in the archived threads.

For strumming practice, mute all of the strings with your fretting hand and just bash away with your pick hand. CHUCKA-chucka-CHUCKA-chucka You can soon get a feel for how to emphasize different beats. Have fun with it, playing along with some of your tunes.

I would avoid the 30 day thing. It's just not possible to learn the guitar in 30 days. There are endless websites available for free that can help. If you want to spend a little money, look into getting Guitar Pro 4. It's a great learning tool. Check out this site, it's where you can download songs of all styles to use with guitar pro 4....

http://www.mysongbook.com/

The great thing about it is that you can slow down the tempo of the songs without changing the pitch, so you can learn them slow, then speed them up when you feel comfortable. This will help with your rhythm playing.

Originally Posted by: amythompson315I checked out the web site of that guy who taught himself how to play in 30 days. It looks pretty interesting but I'm often leery about spending money online. Does anyone have any good,bad or indifferent feedback about that? Or any other ideas. Thanks!!

If you're into online learning, it's like Lordathestrings said; this site and this forum is a veritable repository of learning. Some people (read: me) get annoyed at seeing the same questions posted over and over again here, so, as a general rule, search first, post later.

It would probably be best to find an actual teacher in your area and get some lessons. You'll get the most rounded out education that way, if you supplement it with this forum. However, many people (me included) have been able to learn how to hack around a guitar without lessons at all (well, OK, 1 lesson).

Welcome!

Welcome! check out the instructor pages, the categories of tricks and search the forums.

After you search, then post questions you are still wondering about.... we will answer.... (hopefully).

Originally Posted by: JFRICKI would avoid the 30 day thing. It's just not possible to learn the guitar in 30 days. There are endless websites available for free that can help. If you want to spend a little money, look into getting Guitar Pro 4. It's a great learning tool. Check out this site, it's where you can download songs of all styles to use with guitar pro 4....

http://www.mysongbook.com/

The great thing about it is that you can slow down the tempo of the songs without changing the pitch, so you can learn them slow, then speed them up when you feel comfortable. This will help with your rhythm playing.

Amy, don´t spend money in guitar pro 4, when you can download it for free ;) . I think the demo version works endless, or at least at my computer.

The Demo Version of Guitar Pro 4 lasts for 30 days. Atleast that's what it did on my computer. It would be a good idea to try the demo first before investing in it.

Welcome to the site Amy, I think you bring the chick count up to 3 on this little sausage-fest I like to call guitartricks.com :p Ok, I'm done being johnny-pervo on ya. Like the other guys said, take a good look around the site because it is indeed a bona fide cornucopia of guitar knowledge.

Originally Posted by: JFRICKThe Demo Version of Guitar Pro 4 lasts for 30 days. Atleast that's what it did on my computer. It would be a good idea to try the demo first before investing in it.

Good that it lasts unlimited on my computer :D

welcome amy,

Now that the pleasantries are over, man, there is A LOT of new people around. I go on holidays for a couple of weeks I come back and boom, there is like 3 or 4 “hi, I’m new here” threads on the front page alone of the open discussion forum. I guess its good that the population of the GuitarTricks is growing.

If ur gonna consider getting a tteacher wich is a very good idea u shud look into it good. Kuz wen i was 8 i started guitar and quit soon after kuz the teacher was a mean old man who yelled all the time but now 4 years lateuitarr ive started agen but this time i got a really good teacher who makes it lots of fun so i wud definetely reccomend a teacher kuz then unlike a program u can ask watever u need to and stuff like that. Also , your dad plays guitar thats really good. I wish my dad played guitar. You could learn a lot from him.

but on the demo version you can only make so many bars and you cant print

welcome to the site Amy. I have to say, this is a great place to come because 1) we all get along (ok I'm exagerating a bit on that) 2) nobody will mess with you for bad spelling (ok, big exageration [eggman] lol) 3) you can find out anything you want to know (and some things you dont) 4) contrary to popular disbelieve there are actually some great people on this site 5) and lastly some of us actually know a thing or two about the guitar and music in general;) . Hope you enjoy :)