HELP ME.i dont have a clue what im doing

hey, people i just lending an electric guitar, but theres 1 problem......i dont have a clue how to play it.I dont know a thing about what to do.so if any1 could just help me out a little bit. please please please help me. cheers guys and gals.p.s.HELP ME

go to a teacher would be the answer that is probably most effective however...
i started by getting tabs of lead guitar and just playing them note by note listening to the original. it's hard and long work but it worth it.
after i know the lead i start improvising on it at the beginning it sounds aweful but after a time i get it.
it's all just a matter of practice
keep cool and try not to damage your guitar too much when you throw it to the wall with frustration :)

cheers dude,how long would you say it takes to be able to play anything and know what ya doing?so you reckon best way is to sit there and just mess about wit it or get a teacher?smart.cheers.

You should get help from somebody first.
A teacher,friend,Instructional video or a beginners book.

If you've never played guitar before, then it will take you a week at least to play things like 'Twinkle Twinkle', a month for playing a simple Nirvana song , a year to play some full Metallica tunes... and years to play stuff like Steve Vai, Malmsteen , Satch , Jason Becker ,etc.

The most important question is what kind of music do you want to play on your guitar?

i started from beginner websites, here is some descent ones http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/f/p/fpm108/glw/ and http://guitar.about.com/library/blguitarlessonarchive.htm . Learning and playing will be slow. You WILL have errors (some of which will correct themselves and others that defintly dont), questions, frustrations etc. Dont worry everyone goes thorugh the problems you will encoutner, practice is the key. their have been some great guitarist who are self taught. With that aside i say get a teacher, but not a teacher that just doesnt it for the money or he keep u coming back by giving you little of info each time. Feedback is important but most of all never give up.

start at those websites, any questions come here.

cheers,just what i needed to know.just gotta try and make sure i dont chuck it at the wall.but hey, thats it goes.how long you lot been playing????i dunno what typa music i wanna play, maybe stuff like guns n roses and aerosmith and that type but hey twinkle twinkle will do me fine.hee hee. cant wait.cheers

yeah for the very beginning get someone to show you few notes and the basic chords after that you can do it by yourself but it's not easy as it sounds. if you love it like i do you'll practice it until you can't move your fingers anymore and you don't need anybody to tell you to practice.
that's what i did.
the first week or so i practiced chords and moving between them.
than "the House of Rising Sun".
than "Nothing Else Matters".
it took about two weeks of daily practice to play it fairly.
and then a lot of other songs and writing my own stuff.
now after two years and 3 month i can play a bit Malmsteen and Eric Johnson

however remember that old habits die hard and i've got tons of bad ones and i could use more theory so if you want to be great and know exactly what you're doing get a teacher

[Edited by Psycho Amram on 12-12-2002 at 12:54 AM]

Yeah, old habits die hard, specialy bad ones. ;)

Since you're still begining you must learn "Alternate Picking" first. A very famous bad old habbits for beginning guitarists is Downstrokes.

Alternate Picking, from it's name means that you don't use the same picking direction all the time, you should pick every thing up-down-up-down ,etc.

But that's just for the beginning, you'll see more difficult picking patterns in the future. For now search for Alternate Picking exercise on this site or others, and remember to play everything very slowly till you memorize the notes quite well then raise your speed gradualy.

wow thanx,i love you guys.hee hee.only messin dont worry. cheers. i will try that.nice1.i wish i did it earlier. but hey. we will see.i will get back to ya when i can play twinkle twinkle.YEAY.so its all kinda dedication n commitment????

Originally posted by Hessy
so its all kinda dedication n commitment????

Sort of... 30 min of daily playing is quite fine.

30mins a day?????thats all???no problem.just need to be able to be shown summat.lets wait n see.any1 play for a band?

Hey, I usta only practise 20 minutes a day and that worked out fine.

And yes, I play for two bands. One is a rock band which is actually a school music program, and the other is a band with me and my friends. We just do it to have fun usually, but lately we've been getting serious about finding gigs and getting some sets down.

First of all, have an experienced guitarist look at the guitar to see if it is playable, then,and this is extremely important...get the guitar tuned,and have the tuning checked as often as possible.(keep away from the tuners and dont lean the guitar against them.) I think the most important thing is having a tuned guitar, and one that is easy to play. If the guitar is not made too well and the strings are 2 ins. away from the frets you will only get discouraged. In other words use the best guitar possible. Get a book on chords or from the net and start with learning a c chord and so on. As the singer from an old 45 I have from the 50s called "All American Boy" says..... "Buy you a Guitar and put it in tune...You'll be a Rockin' and a Rollin' Soon. Good luck

What's this about keeping your guitar away from tuners? You need to buy a tuner and keep it close by if you want to keep your guitar in tune, which will make for more enjoyable playing. Don't rely on other people to tune your guitar! True, you will want to learn how to tune by ear at some point, but you still want to know where the low E is. Otherwise, you'll tune to relative pitch and you'll always be too high (usually).

OK, my other advice is: start with an acoustic and then try an electric after you get somewhat good. Otherwise, you may never be able to play an acoustic because it will seem too hard to play. And also, you can bring an acoustic with you to parties and camp-outs and such, and you can practice almost anytime anywhere without worrying about all the technical crap. For instance, when your town is hit by an ice storm and you have no power, you can still jam!

good luck

I think he ment that you shouldn't get dependant on tuners. (I didn't know you could, heh heh)

I'm sorry. What I meant was that being a beginner,after someone tunes your guitar,keep your "your tuning gears.you know those six little knobs that the strings are attached to ie. Grover Kluson etc. from accidentally being turned or the guitar will go out of tune. Actually after you've played for a number of years, you dont really need a tuner, just a root note from any source like a synth or harp etc. The rest can be done by ear......that is after your ear gets used to the different beats of the tones, and after you've learned that a guitar is tuned in "egual temperment" meaning that there is no such thing as a perfectly tuned guitar. but that is a whole different ball of wax.. I should have said tuning Gears...I didn't mean Guitar tuners...All beginners need em...All the best...

Oh, machine heads.

LOL

After reading these confusing posts, I agree that every body should consider using unified terminology "Josh" . :D

Hey, i just got a guitar from school and i dont know head nor tail of what i am doing, other than the fact that i'll have to go to a teacher do any of know an online site where i can learn or teach myself? if so let me know, thanx!