Playing Guital

September 6, 2005 1:29 AM

How do I learn playing guital quickly...?

I am totally un-musical.... No talent in rythme... or even remembering songs...

But I like Blues (BB King type) and songs like "The Weight" by The band....

I would like to be able to play some tunes with guital and hople also the electric guital... I don't have to be the great player nor even average player.... Just know enough to play couple of songs like the mentioned above for my self and for my friends sometime....

How should I go about learning it cheap and easy... I don't want to learn the "WAY" of guital playing... but .. just enough to be enjoyful... I don't know how to read thouse music books nor directions...

I don't want go through all the basics from point A through Z to do this....

Is there some very easy way ?? video class ... web site... or something.....

Give me some pointers... And if I have to take classes.... how much will it cost and how long? how should i even try to find a place.?? what kind of guital should i get...?? As i said before.. should I just go right out and get Electric ones??? what is difference in playing...??

posted by curiousleo to media & arts (15 comments total)

I learned to play guitar when I was ten and have played since. I wouldn't say there was a quick way, but starting on an electric should make it easier. It will be a lot more painful on the fingers at first than say a nylon string acoustic, but it's easier to learn chords on an electric, not as finger mangling, and the strings should be a lot closer to the fret board, requiring less strength in your fingers. In time your fingers will hurt less.

A simple Encore electric guitar with a strap, a lead, a small amp and a plectrum should be all you need. Encore used to do beginners bundles, I'm not sure if they still do, so check around. You could get a good deal on a better 2nd hand guitar, but it might save you a lot of frustration just to get a cheap new one at first. There is nothing worse than loose connections, buzzing, crackling etc. Some new, low end kit will be fine for learning.

Everyone's advice will differ, but I would say take some classes until you know the basics and the chords. A local musical instrument store will know tutors in the area. After that buy yourself a book like this and start playing along to simple stuff like House of the Rising Sun, What shall we do with the drunken Sailor, Bebop a lula. Not what you want to play I know, but it will quickly speed up your chord changing, get you used to different strumming rhythms, and also start to give you the knack for identifying chords by ear. Early Beatles is a good next step, and will introduce you to faster chord changes and weird 7th chords etc. There are plenty of Beatles for beginners books out there.

Once you can string some chords together then I would find some friends who can play and get together with them, whether it is a full band setup, or just you and another guitarist, or you and a bassist. Nothing will speed up your development faster than playing alongside someone more experienced than you (providing they know you are a beginner and let things move slowly.) It's also a lot of fun, and great satisfaction to hear a song "come together," especially when you have been playing alone for a while.

When I started all I wanted to do was play the solo's from November Rain. Patience is important, and for someone starting on guitar it may surprise you how simply some of your favourite songs are constructed. You may not be able to break into the lead from Hey Joe, but I guarantee that being able to play the chords along with the record for the first time will be a massive thrill, and not too hard for a beginner. I found it very easy to make meaningful progression, fast, when learning the guitar. Of course all natural abilities may differ!

That's more or less how I learned and it did me fine for the first two years when all I wanted was "campfire" playing level. I learned a lot since then, but all of it by ear and by playing with other musicians and I've never taken more than those initial lessons.
posted by fire&wings at 2:02 AM on September 6, 2005

Heh, god it's early. Maybe I should learn to read.
posted by fire&wings at 2:10 AM on September 6, 2005

First off, learn that it's called a "guitaR" - even your tag is spelt incorrectly. (Can one of the mods change the tag at least, or this thread will never be found...)

Secondly, if I read your question right, what you want to do is learn three or four blues songs by rote so that you can flick them off when required, without really learning how to play the guitar? This is, of course, possible to do - it's merely a sequence of patterns which you can learn parrot fashion - but without some of the basic techniques of guitar-playing under your belt, they will never sound how you want them to sound - ie: like the real thing. It will ultimately be a disappointing and frustrating project and it's likely you'll come out of the end of it without having acheived your goals.

All the same, if it's what you want to do, choose the songs you want. Go to www.guitaretab.com and search for the tablature for the songs you're after - you will at least need to learn to read tab. Then just practise alongside the records, repeating often, stopping when you make a mistake and starting again until you do it right (you're trying to develop muscle memory here). It'll come eventually.

Oh, btw - in doing so, you'll be learning to actually play the guitar. Sorry...
posted by benzo8 at 2:37 AM on September 6, 2005

what you want to do is learn three or four blues songs by rote so that you can flick them off when required

That shouldn't be hard. Something like half of all blues songs follow the same 1-3-4 progression.

Whassatmean? It means:

• Buy a cheap electric guitar and a cheap amp. (Pawn shops or Guitar Center Fender Squires)


• Get a "teach yourself guitar!" book


• Look at the little pictures of where you're supposed to put your hands


• Learn the E, A, and B chords.


• If you want to get saucy, the blues "progression" (order of notes for soloing) is: E-F#-A-Bb-B-C#-E. This will be easier to understand once your fingers are on the E-chord. Here is some guitar "tab" that will probably come out all screwy (the lines correspond to guitar strings, the numbers are frets):
  E Progression
  __________________________
  ______________________3_5_
  ________________2_3_4_____
  __________0_2_5___________
  ____0_1_2_________________
  0_3_______________________
  
  A Progression
  ______________________3_5_
  ________________3_4_5_____
  __________0_2_5___________
  ____0_1_2_________________
  0_3_______________________
  __________________________
  
  B Progression
  ______________________5_7_
  ________________5_6_7_____
  __________2_4_7___________
  ____2_3_4_________________
  2_5_______________________
  __________________________
  
  You'll probably notice how similar they are.

Anyway, that should get you started.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:08 AM on September 6, 2005

Er, that was off the top of my head, and I might be a little off. Anyone else feel free to correct me.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:12 AM on September 6, 2005

Learn how to read guitar TAB files. You can find them online for tons and tons of rock songs. They're basicaly listings of where your fingers need to go to play the melody of the song.

You'll learn how to play various songs very easily. There are some popular rock songs that are very, very easy to play.
posted by delmoi at 6:55 AM on September 6, 2005

I had a friend a couple years ago that learned to play guitar pretty well in under a week by taking a lot of acid and playing until his fingers bled every day. No, seriously. He just practiced scales and chords over and over and over, and would put band-aids on his fingertips and keep playing until there was blood dripping out from underneath them. For that week or so, he was pretty fucking insufferable, but he joined a band right after that and was able to learn all of their songs in about another two weeks.
That's the quickest and cheapest I've ever seen anyone learn an instrument.
posted by klangklangston at 7:12 AM on September 6, 2005

would put band-aids on his fingertips and keep playing

For the record, that's how Stevie Ray Vaughn learned, too. Only he superglued the calluses back on his fingers instead.

Now that's hard-core.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:24 AM on September 6, 2005

Something like half of all blues songs follow the same 1-3-4 progression

That should be I IV V.
posted by ludwig_van at 8:13 AM on September 6, 2005

ludwig_van writes "Something like half of all blues songs follow the same 1-3-4 progression

"That should be I IV V."

Oh, I dunno - I quite like I-iii-IV. But no, it sure ain't blues! (And the only thing, Civil, I'd correct in your answer is that the tabs you describe aren't "progressions" (which are chord structures) but are "scales" - the "blues scale" to be exact. And for I-IV-V in E, you only need the first one, in E. And perhaps the Dorian mode too...
posted by benzo8 at 8:52 AM on September 6, 2005

As you can tell, I, too am self-taught. I mays not gets tha terms right, but I gets the music good. :)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:33 AM on September 6, 2005

My suggestion is to build calluses on your fingers before taking a ton of acid.
posted by delmoi at 10:56 AM on September 6, 2005

As a semi-pro musician, I would just like to add that you might want to disregard Fire&wings' suggestion that you start on an electric. If he is suggesting that you do this just for the sake of ease and only want to learn one or two songs, I suppose this is okay.

BUT learning good technique and developing good habits are essential in the beginning. An acoustic will naturally force you to be a better player on a number of fronts and will not reward sloppiness and bad technique... Most serious guitar teachers agree on this, no matter what style of guitar you are instrument.

I did take lessons early on, but learned a lot simply by noodling on my guitar whenever I was sitting down watching TV. Again it's no subsititute for formal practicing, and this may drive your spouse/S.O./roommate nuts, but it's a good way to make sure you actually spend time with the instrument.
posted by Heminator at 11:21 AM on September 6, 2005

An acoustic will naturally force you to be a better player on a number of fronts and will not reward sloppiness and bad technique...

This is true, but some "beginner" acoustic guitars are so poorly setup and difficult to play that I can't help but wonder how many people give up out of frustration before developing any ability. That was my experience, anyway. I first bought an acoustic guitar when I was in 8th grade, played it for a couple of weeks, found it painful and difficult, and gave it up. I didn't start playing again until I was a sophomore in high school, and by then I had the determination to stick with it until I could get a better instrument. I soon borrowed a friend's Squier strat, which was itself quite crappy, but a lot easier to play.

My advice for the beginning guitarist is to find a good teacher (get recommendations from knowledgeable friends, if you can) and do everything that he/she tells you to do. Music can be difficult when you're starting out, but you're not going to get anywhere if you practice half-heartedly or you neglect your weak/uncomfortable areas. When something is hard to do, that means you're not good at it and you need to give it even more attention. It's easy to only do the things you're good at, but you don't get better that way. Exercises may be boring and seem pointless, but if your teacher is good, he's telling you to do those exercises for a good reason.
posted by ludwig_van at 11:37 AM on September 6, 2005

Practice for an hour or more every day.

Same way you learn Russian while drunk.
posted by ewkpates at 11:47 AM on September 6, 2005