Hello, I have been trying to learn how to play the guitar..

Hi I have been trying to learn how to play the guitar since July of last year, my uncle got me an acoustic guitar, but I didnt do good at it at all, and I didnt enjoy it, to tell the truth, so we got an electric guitar, which I love so much! But I have heard my friends around me play the guitar soooo well, I couldnt even believe how good they were. It makes me sad to see how good other people are, and how terrible I am lol. I need so much help with my guitar, I want to learn how to play rock music, but I know I still need to learn all the basics. :(

Dude...don't sweat it. You WANT to learn & that's half of the battle. Just take your frustration and channel it into learning everything that you can. Everyone was a beginner at some point...some of us were beginners for a long time...I feel like a beginner when I hear other people play all the time. It's a good feeling though, because it's what pushes you to improve.

Just start messing with anything and everything you can dig up and fire away if you have questions.

Best of luck to ya,
Don

Thank you, that makes me feel better, thanks for the support :)

There is no such thing as learning guitar "fast" and "easy". If it were truly "fast" and "easy", everyone would do it. And "free" guitar instruction materials are generally worth what you paid for them.
Instead there are a lot of clueless beginners who buy guitars thinking that its going to be fast and easy to learn guitar off the internet -- then they find out that they're NOT going to be good enough to be in their friend's band in a month, get frustrated and quit.
Or they learn a few intros and solos to a half dozen songs from tabs they got off the Internet, but they skip over the basics of MUSIC. They can't play chords or keep a steady beat when they're playing rhythm, can't improvise, follow a chord chart, or play anything they don't have tabs for. Then they hit a wall in their guitar playing and come on here looking for advice on how to improve -- and the advice is -- TAKE SOME LESSONS. LEARN THE BASICS before you dive into playing solos right away. Learn what you're doing and why.
If you're truly interested in becoming a good musician on guitar, you can't go into it expecting it to be fast and easy. You can learn a handful of chords in a few months, well enough to strum along on some simple 3 chord rock songs without messing up too badly. And if that's all you want to do, great. But truly mastering the guitar takes YEARS, and its a neverending journey, because no matter how good you get you never run out of new things to learn about music.

Resources :
About.com - Beginner Guitar Lesson Archive
Expertvillage.com - Videos OnLearn the Math of an A-Minor Guitar Chord
Learn Various Guitars and Rythems
Also you can find teaching Guitar for beginners on YouTube, and if you have iTunes, there are plenty of Podcasts which you can learn from.


Cheers
Charles.

Great advice Charles.

I've been messing around with the guitar since like 1988 and I can only play chords and some bits and pieces of songs, because I haven't taken lessons or had any instruction at all.

I've finally decided to get serious about learning and know the only way I will advance is with real instruction. It would be nice to have friends around who were better than me to help me along but unfortuneately I don't but I would think that would be a great asset too.

For some people it comes easily and they will pick it up much quicker while others like myself seem to really struggle. Just have to stick with it.

I feel your angst.I've been a subscriber to this web-site for a week,and have learned so much in that time.And I've been playing for years.Not good though.Do not give up on yourself playing guitar.Just think about why you want to play,and go from there.Everyone sucked when they first began playing,me included,but the lessons on this web-site inspired me to become a better player for myself.Back in the day,when I was growing up,I didn't have web-sites like this to help me out.Some truly excellent guitar teachers here.

Personally, I would say stay away from the theory at first, ( Ill get bitched at for saying this) but get the feel for some stuff you like so you can not get bored with guitar before you start. Tabs are great for people starting out. After you think you somewhat have a feel for the guitar you can then decide wether you want to follow learning by ear, tabs, and being creative in your own way, or backtrack to theory, ( Which in my opionion in moderation is ok, but theory freaks are actually wasting there time, Youll bore yourself to death, and remember your playing for fun, untill you get very good, then you can be creative, its okay to know what your doing but i no intermediate theory and im 10 times better then theory freaks i no.)

But ya thats just my opionion. just learn what you like and youll apreciate your playing much more.