Where to start?

I am 28 years old and never had an interest in music other than listening. Somehow, in the last few years, from out of no where, an interest in guitar playing began to form, although I am not around anyone who plays. I began to "connect" to music in a way I never did before. I don't know how to explain it. Suddenly listening was not enough. I had to play it. The funny thing is - I didn't own a guitar, I had never touched a guitar and I really don't know anyone on a friend basis who plays. I am not musical in any way. I don't know where this is coming from. This year for Christmas, my husband bought me a guitar. My only intention is for my own enjoyment. I just want to play for myself. I was just wondering what advice you guys would give to someone just starting out? I know I will not be a master overnight. I realize this is going to take a lot of practice. But since it is for my own enjoyment, there is no hurry, so the amount of time it is going to take to learn it does not bother me. I have watched the video that came with it many times already and did the best I could to follow along the first few exercises. Even though I stumbled the whole time, I enjoyed it more than words can say.

Any tips any of you have would be greatly appreciated!

I suggest that you learn some basic chords... such as D Dm E Em A Am etc...

And learn how to read tablatures (I think you can find explaination about tabs on this site)..

Since Christmas was just yesterday, of course you may find playing alittle hard. Guitar is not an easy instrument to pick up, it's gonna take you a while. As long as you enjoy learning, it will be exciting rather than a drag. You got a good thing going for if your enjoying it, even though your not all that good at it yet. So I would just stick with the video right now, you will get better at the exercises. Learning first from a video is good cause you are seeing how to play correctly, opposed to just reading about it. Pay attention to as much as you can in the video, how he/she positions fingers on the strings, the way he/she strums the guitar, try to imitate him/her as much as possible without being too fanatic. :) Once you got the video down, start working with chords and learn how to read tablature like linus said. Next try learning the songs that you like, there are countless sites on the net that have the tablature for pretty much every song out there. You can also search this site to find what songs are good for beginners to learn. That's pretty much all there is, or for you to think about at this point. ;) Good luck and remember have fun with it. latr

70´s rock is good stuff. Exciting, fun to play, zillion times cooler to know than any school song book. KISS, Zepp, Purple, Sabbath... go for it man.

A good idea would be just to learn the basic cords like A, E, C, D, Am, Em, Dm, F, and G. Learn those nine chords and just practice switching between them in different order with different strumming patterns. Then, start learning some easy songs, Nirvana for example, is not too terribly difficult. The first song I ever learned was Smells Like Teen Spirit. Also, this site is great. I wish I would have known about it when I started playing. Good Luck!

Thank you for all your responses! The part of the video I am on is the very first part where he shows you how to play 3 different chords and then puts them together. This was the very first time I had ever held a guitar – I had no idea how difficult it would be to get my fingers to do what I wanted! The hardest part was figuring out where to place my fingers. I mean, I could see where they were supposed to go, I just could not get them to do it! My ring finger and middle finger seemed to want to stay side by side! And boy were they sore – I understand that line in that Brian Adams song now. But, yesterday when I tried the chord that was giving me such a hard time, I did it almost right away. Now I just can’t picture being able to switch between them easily and smoothly, but I know it will happen with enough practice. Thanks again for your suggestions. I’m sure I’ll be back!

Are you still playing?

Hi, I'm Joe I'm an old dude, and trying to learn to play.   My wife gave me a guitar for Birthday present, and, unfortunately, I have really thick fingers, that made it impossible NOT to mute adjacent strings.   I was told by a local player to get a Big Lou Guitar... which I did (acoustic) and found I could actually play the easier chords.    Then I got to Anders lesson with the 6 String A chord....  it is COMPLETELY impossible for me to get on the 2nd fret of the D string AND the 2nd fret on the G string...  much less trying to go 1st fret on B string...  Honestly I feel so defeated, that I want to give it up... I'm sending you a picture of my fingers trying to do this chord so you'll get an idea what I'm dealing with....

Maybe some others with club fingers can give me advice (other than give it up Joe) Thanks in advance.

 

Joe

BrandNewToThis,  guitar_guy1083 makes a really good point:

"A good idea would be just to learn the basic cords like A, E, C, D, Am, Em, Dm, F, and G. Learn those nine chords and just practice switching between them in different order with different strumming."

As a teacher who specializes in adult beginners, I would suggest paring it down even further for starters.

How about G, C, D, and Em? Those chords are likely to show up in many songs that are in the key of G. 

And don't worry if the tone is not great yet - what is most important is that you be able to go from one chord to another as smoothly as you can manage. 

One of our responsibilities as STUDENTS is to keep a watchful eye on ourselves, and not shoot for goals that are going to put us in a state of overwhelm, filling us with negative thoughts about ourselves. That just ends up sabotaging the process.

If the lesson contains more information than you can take in right now, then simplify it on your own behalf.

Slow down, or go back and put more time into mastering things you learned earlier. 

Every single person learns in their own unique way, at their own pace.

Here at GuitarTricks, we have no hard and fast expectations of how quickly and easily (or slowly and with persistence) a student learns.

The lessons are here to support YOU in your desire to learn to play guitar. It then becomes up to you to pace yourself in a way that honors your love of music, your courage in learning to play, and keeps you out of the weeds of overwhelm or self-doubt (as much as possible - not always easy, lol!)

-Lisa 

Joe

really good advice from Lisa. I started late in life as well and it's a hard instrument to learn, especially for us older folks who have arthritis and general stiffness. We have to take it easy on ourselves and do the best we can with what we have to work with.

There are many different ways to play a chord, I assume the 6 string A chord is a barre chord. Those are hard for anyone. I play with some guys now and I cheat like a drunken sailor and play power chords when I need to - those are only 2 string chords. With the bass and drums going and a few drinks, who cares. Nobody is paying us!

But, things will come together for you with practice and you will be able to play songs, maybe not the way they were recorded, but you will be able to knock out some of your favorites. 

Best of luck

Bill