Learning!

What's the fastest way to learn to play guitar good? Reading the stuff off the Internet is just to hard for me and gets me way confused. Teachers around here charge tons of money. All help welcome!

Well, different people learn better different ways. If what you're finding on the net isn't helping much, then you'll probably need atleast a few lessons.

Do you have any friends who can show you some of the basics? That could give you the kick start you need to make more sense of TABs and what lesson books you might use.

Play the instrument as much as possible. Everyone is different so there is no one best way. I would suggest starting out half and half.

Spend one half the practice time learning the note positions on the fretboard and the other half playing simple versions of music you enjoy - whether in tablature or notation form. After a while you will find yourself wanting to learn the chords. Start out in the easier keys i.e. C, Am etc. and work on the chord formations and positions on the neck. If you have learned the fretboard this shouldn't be too difficult.

Then I would practice humming passages or tunes and then playing what you hear. Guitar is such an interesting instrument because it can be played well at so many different skill levels and sounds good with so many different styles of music.

No matter what style of music you play, as a guitarist there are five basic areas of technique that should recieve constant attention: Single string technique (scales arpeggios); Chords and rhythm; improvisation; ear training; and sightreading. Its safe to say that the first three speak for themselves, and the last two are rather ambiguous.

And remember to have fun, :).

-Joseph

I think lessons would be good. If only a few. I know my instructor corrected me on some things that would have given my problems further down the road. I like the lessons also because most of the people I know that play havent been playing long either. Kinda the blind leading the blind ya know. Of course, I feel lucky to have a good instrutor that is more interested in helping me with what I want to do rather than pushing his style on me too much.

Jason

Yes, lessons. Defintely lessons. Down the road, when you've been playing for a while, they can make all the difference between being mediocre and being a good guitarist. I know guys that have been playing for a while and have never had lessons. They might be really good at some things, but overall they're mediocre guitarists. I know it may seem like a pain having to shell out the money for the lessons, but later on you'll be glad you did.

-Christoph

I know you said that you had trouble with the net and learning, but i suspect thats tab you are talking about. There are sites that you can go to that teach you the basics and more...i found one at http://www.guitar-masters.com (dont mind the name :) I have only been there once and learned some scales. But try that see if there is a basic lesson (chords, etc). If not, search around, maybe a link or so on there..hope this helps


chris