Getting started with acoustic guitar.

April 10, 2008 3:06 AM

So, this afternoon I am going to pick up my first guitar. What's the best way to get started?

It's an acoustic guitar. I sing pretty good (have a couple of tracks on music if it's useful to hear) and would like to be able to write some complete songs. Of course I need to pick up the basics first!

Starting with tuning. I've got a pretty good sense of pitch but I'll want to be able to get this perfectly in tune, particularly early on as. Is there a good Mac computer program I can use to detect proper tuning? I have a condenser mic if that helps. Or should I buy a gadget? And if so, which gadget?

Secondly, I want some excellent guitar drills. Stuff that will strengthen my hands and get my muscle memory to the point where I can remember all the chords. Things that will get it so I can play fast and have lots of choices.

Finally, at what point should I take lessons? I'm very grateful that a fine folk singer/guitarist indeed is offering me some lessons in exchange for nerd-labour, but I don't want to take him up on that early on if I can do the very very basics myself. Do actual experienced guitarists agree?

I've been singing my whole life. Took some forced piano lessons at a young age but they never really took - three years in a gospel choir did more to raise my game than that ever did. Singing is very easy for me. From my vague recollections of piano lessons, the rather indirect translation between shit one does with one's fingers and sound coming out was never a smooth process. I've completely forgotten how to read music, too. :)

posted by By The Grace of God to media & arts (31 comments total)

Sorry, no time for a proper answer, but definitely take him up on the lessons sooner rather than later. The sooner you get proper technique drilled into your head the better, and he'll easily be able to give you some good scales etc to practise.

For tuning, get a small electronic tuner - they're not expensive and they save a headache, especially at first. That said, try to learn to tune by ear over time. It'll just take practise, but probably come easier as you've got experience in musicy things.
posted by Magnakai at 3:21 AM on April 10

You can't do anything by yourself...you need a teacher. Have him show you how to hold the guitar from day 1. If you try to teach yourself eventually you'll have to unlearn everything you learned wrong. Believe me.
posted by sully75 at 3:43 AM on April 10

To tune the guitar I'd recommend a tuning fork in the key of A, which will help train your ear. You hit it hard on something (NOT the guitar!), then place it on the body of the guitar and the A note resonates.
posted by essexjan at 4:01 AM on April 10

Finally, at what point should I take lessons? I'm very grateful that a fine folk singer/guitarist indeed is offering me some lessons in exchange for nerd-labour, but I don't want to take him up on that early on if I can do the very very basics myself. Do actual experienced guitarists agree?

I think any of us experienced guitarists would tell you to take him up on it right now and go from there. It doesn't make sense to try to work out the basics yourself and plan to take lessons when you're beyond "beginner" and have gotten to "intermediate" or even "advanced." The most useful thing lessons can give you is the basic, rudimentary mechanics of how to play notes and chords with the guitar. Once you have those down, it shouldn't be long before you can start making progress on your own and develop your own voice.

You should buy a physical electronic tuner that you can plug into your guitar to get it tuned up. Tuning is surprisingly difficult -- you want to be able to get the guitar tuned up very quickly without worrying about it so you can start playing whenever you want (not just when you have your computer around).
posted by Jaltcoh at 4:03 AM on April 10

You need nothing but the internet and a good ear for tuning. You'll get a little closer to perfect with a small electronic tuner - cheap at any guitar shop.

For drills, just find songs that you like, and memorize them. You'll enjoy playing them more and as long as your variety is big enough, you'll start getting all the basic chords down. You might want to consider picking up a book to train yourself on the 5 bar blues and that kind of thing, but googling tab on the internet for your favorite songs and then playing along with them will really help you get the basics down.

Start with the lessons now.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:06 AM on April 10

If you want a great online resouece for tutorials, drills, chords, etc my friends and I used to check out Whole Note. It is by far one of the best online resources for any guitarists.

(I'm in no way affiliated to the website or author.. just find it a great website!)

Best of luck to you!
posted by mrbloo at 4:40 AM on April 10

Mute the strings using your left hand on the fretboard and strum along to some songs to practice various strumming rhythms. Come in and out of the beat, half time, double time, add some flourishes. Make sure you have this mastered before you even learn your first chord, you'll find it hugely advantageous in the future when you will want to sing along with your guitar, or play with a partner or a band. Too many are quick to jump ahead when they have no sense of rhythm or concept of keeping proper time.
posted by fire&wings at 4:44 AM on April 10

Lessons first. Get the basics solid, then you'll be in a position to elaborate on your firm foundation.
posted by Wolof at 5:22 AM on April 10

If you're in the Chicago area, the Old Town School of Folk Music is very much your friend.
posted by LSK at 5:23 AM on April 10

Can I tack on another question here? If you were considering learning guitar, should you really learn acoustic first or can you / should you buy an electric and just go to town on that?
posted by fusinski at 5:27 AM on April 10

should you really learn acoustic first or can you / should you buy an electric and just go to town on that?

Doesn't matter in my view. Get the one you want to play — that's a much more powerful motivator than some kind of superego command that "you must do things in the proper order".

I don't play the guitar any more, but I have done 30 years on the bass.
posted by Wolof at 5:32 AM on April 10

You can't do anything by yourself...you need a teacher. Have him show you how to hold the guitar from day 1. If you try to teach yourself eventually you'll have to unlearn everything you learned wrong. Believe me.

What? Do your parents still tie your shoes for you?

Listen up

If you get lessons, it would impress your teacher if you could already do the following:
1. tune the guitar
2. know what the notes the strings are.
3. Play these chords: G, C, D, A, Am, E and Em.
4. play these scales: major, minor

Don't forget to have fun. It is very important that you also start practicing your moves. Although you can't play anything now, it is important to get your moves down so you look cool when you finally do. I suggest starting off simple with some basic moves before moving on to the advanced techniques listed in the wiki article.

1. Look over the shoulder with a head bobbing movement, acknowledging another band member. Your motivation here is to convey the message that this song you are playing, rocks. "Yeah, man. Right in the pocket."

2. Bringing the neck down and playing a loud chord on the 1 of the measure. This simple yet emotive move adds a nice dramatic flourish that is especially useful during a transition between, say, a verse and chorus. This signifies to the audience that the transition is important. This move can also be combined with a jump or crouch letting the audience know that they are about to get their asses rocked.

3. Foot on the stage monitor. This move works best with an electric, but if you can pull it off with an acoustic, props to you. This position works for both rhythm and solo parts, but is most common with solos. Once you get used to the issues associated with balance (falling over on stage while doing this move is a huge NO NO! You might be able to save face if you land in an on-the-knees solo position, which I discuss next.) you can add a flourish by whipping your hair around or closing your eyes and looking at the ceiling while using your mouth to make goofy sex faces. Change it up and experiment. It's up to you and how you wanna express your self.

4. On-the-knees solo. This position only works if you are indeed playing a solo so it may take some time until you can actually use this in your performance. The hair whipping and sex faces from #3 also apply to this move. For the meantime just try to get comfortable with getting in and out of position. Remember, if you need help getting up, don't do it unless you have a stagehand waiting to drape you in a silver cape as he helps you off stage. Then, law dictates, you have to throw the cape off, rush back to the front of the stage and do it to death in a cold sweat like a sex machine. That is definitely for advanced.

So I hope this helps. Good luck.
posted by chillmost at 5:40 AM on April 10 [5 favorites]

Btw, tuning new strings takes forever. You have to keep playing and re-tuning, playing and re-tuning. They have to get a bit worn-in before they stay in tune.
posted by creasy boy at 6:05 AM on April 10

Good for you. I started to learn the acoustic guitar seven months ago so I can remember the eagerness. I started right off with a teacher and it worked great for me. I would say that you should judge whether your friend is a good teacher as well as a good musician. I appreciate how my teacher constantly asks me where I want to go with things and adjusts accordingly. I would run away from a teacher who says, "This is how I teach things, in this order, and you follow."

As for tuning. I bought a small electronic tuner. Works great.

As for what to expect ... all I can offer is my experience. In seven months, with two to three lessons a month, practicing 45-60 minutes a day five days a week, I went from total newbie to:

• knowing a chord vocabulary of a couple of dozen chords
• knowing a dozen songs by memory and being able to play dozens more
• moving past basic chords and on to bar chords
• multi-tracking my own blues playing, that is, improvising off scales over blues strumming
• playing with other people at parties

Good luck
posted by lpsguy at 6:32 AM on April 10

You should buy a physical electronic tuner that you can plug into your guitar to get it tuned up.

I'm kind of a noob myself, but there's not such a thing for acoustic guitars, is there?

The single best thing I did while learning was to get very, very light strings. Your fingers will get sore from any strings until you build up callouses, but the light strings make the process a bit easier, and you'll be able to practice longer without quitting in agony. It was a huge step forward for me when I figured that out.
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:01 AM on April 10

IMO it's perfectly reasonable to teach yourself with something like The Guitar Handbook (what I used) if that's what you're inclined to do.
posted by tomcooke at 7:10 AM on April 10

I'm kind of a noob myself, but there's not such a thing for acoustic guitars, is there?

An ordinary cheap electronic tuner will have its own mic and will work great with an acoustic guitar.
posted by tomcooke at 7:14 AM on April 10

No, I meant the plugging in part. I have such a tuner, and do, indeed, plug my electric guitar cable into it, but you can't "plug in" an acoustic, right?
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:32 AM on April 10

With your Mac, Garage Band has a tuner function built in.
posted by andrewraff at 7:46 AM on April 10

You can plug in an acoustic if you outfit it with an internal pickup, which is easy to install. I use one and plug into my tuner.

You can also get clip-on electric tuners - great for gigging. You clip them right the headstock and get a digital readout showing whether you're sharp or flat. It can sit there all night if you don't care how it looks - and the huge advantage over a handheld tuner or a tuning fork is that you can tune in a noisy environment. It is only picking up vibrations from your guitar, so interference from other instruments doesn't have any effect. Highly recommended.

But you don't need that to start if you're not gigging and you're not playing out yet. Use an online tuner - they're accurate, free, and because they give you a real guitar-string tone to tune to, they're very easy to use. I use one most of the time.

I wholeheartedly agree with those who recommend starting lessons right away. There is really nothing to be gained by trying to teach yourself other than bad habits which your teacher will then have to undo. I have yet to see a beginning guitar student who thought they "could play a little" who didn't have band hand positioning, bad flatpick grip, messed-up fingering, and bad right-hand technique -- all things a teacher has to correct before anything else can happen. Don't bother! Book an initial lesson on basics - ask to learn about those things I just listed, plus learn 3 basic chord forms in a single key (probably G). The teacher will most likely teach you the forms for G, C, and D, which will allow you to play approximately 700 bahundredmillion songs. You can then use those simple songs to practice changing between chords to build your dexterity (the hardest thing for a newbie) and getting your right-hand movements down, learning to play various strum patterns.

After your first lesson, plan to set aside a ton of time - at least an hour a day - to practice chord changes. Practice every day. You've got to get the motions into your physical memory so you can think about other things one day, like singing. Practice practice practice. One good reason to schedule lessons every week or at most every other week is to keep you accountable. If you keep showing up to lessons and you clearly haven't practiced, you're wasting everybody's time - knowing a lesson is coming up may make you do your 'homework.' Fortunately, once you hear yourself making music, practicing can be addictively fun. But definitely don't look at the lessons as practice sessions. The lessons are your chance to show how you've improved in practice, discuss problem areas and prescribe exercises for getting over them, and introducing new technique. Which you'll then practice. Treat your teacher's time as very valuable.

From there you should learn some chord theory to see how chords are constructed, learning first minor chords in the key of G, then learn how scales are built and start learning chords in open tunings for other keys. After that, barre chords and alternate voicings. Then, depending on your interests, maybe some style elements like flatpick soloing, fingerpicking, jazz theory. Depends what your tastes are.

For those who say "Why not just start with electric?" I'm boggled. Electric guitars aren't some kind of advanced form of acoustic guitar. They're essentially a different instrument. I play acoustic and though I noodle around and do basement sessions on an electric guitar on occasion, I have no desire to play it as a primary instrument and neither do a lot of musicians. The resonance and tone are completely different. The portability and lo-fi nature of acoustic guitar are very attractive features, especially for old-time, country, folky, bluegrass, and certain styles of jazz players. If you want to learn acoustic guitar, learn acoustic guitar; if you want to learn electric, learn electric. The skills are largely transferable but not completely. And one is not superior to or harder than the other. They are both infinitely complex - a minute to learn, a lifetime to master kinds of things.

Good luck! You'll love it. And don't be intimidated. It can be learnt. My mom learned to play guitar at 45 and she's pretty good!
posted by Miko at 7:47 AM on April 10 [1 favorite]

Internal pickups (have a pro install them. They run about $150 with installation. Worth it - at least if you play out a lot).
posted by Miko at 7:50 AM on April 10

Here's why we should all be excited that By The Grace of God will be soon writing more songs. She has one of the best voices on Mefi Music.

I admit I'm not answering the question directly, but listening to her songs might give you a better sense of how she plans on using the guitar.
posted by umbú at 8:57 AM on April 10

Step 1-- Buy and use an electronic tuner (<>
Step 2-- Have fun. That's why you're doing this, right? If someone's idea of "one hour a day of practice" doesn't suit you, don't do it. Learn songs you like. Learn styles you enjoy. G, C, D? Power chords? Open tunings? (Extended voicings? Voice leading? Soloing? Jazz theory?)

Step 3-- Tune again. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as needed.

Lessons are not *necessary*. They may help ensure you get past the really rocky bits in the beginning without quitting. They may help you progress much more quickly. You may prefer puzzling out your own solutions to challenges, though.
posted by lothar at 9:22 AM on April 10

Heavens, I had no idea Gracie was such a terrific singer!

BTGoG--when are you cutting an album, and where can I buy it???
posted by hadjiboy at 9:57 AM on April 10

I am a guitar teacher. I agree with everyone else. I will add that you'll get the most out of your lessons if you make an effort to communicate with your teacher about what your goals are, what specifically you'd like to learn, what you're finding difficult, etc. And take care to self-monitor when you're practicing at home and your teacher isn't there to tell you you're holding your hands in the wrong position. Some of the physical aspects of guitar may seem awkward or uncomfortable at first, but they'll become natural over time. Don't fall into the trap of just doing what's most comfortable or you can develop bad habits.

If you keep showing up to lessons and you clearly haven't practiced, you're wasting everybody's time. But definitely don't look at the lessons as practice sessions. Treat your teacher's time as very valuable.

I wish somebody would tell my students this.
posted by ludwig_van at 9:57 AM on April 10

Sorry, I shouldn't have used the "plug in" language since I didn't know whether your acoustic has a jack. (Some acoustics do plug in.) But semantics/details aside, I still recommend using an electronic tuner to tune your acoustic guitar. If you can't plug it in, it should work acoustically.

And as others have said, and as gets said in every one of the many AskMe threads about learning guitar, you need to practice every day. Absolute minimum 20-30 minutes -- that would be just OK, not great. An hour or more would be good. (This is at first. Later on, once you start to master the instrument, you can ease up.) If you don't want to or can't practice every day, that's fine as long as you're not interested in becoming a good guitar player.
posted by Jaltcoh at 10:12 AM on April 10

I just started playing in November, and I'm really enjoying myself! If you can, find friends to practice with.

A number of my friends are learning guitar as well. They're much more advanced than I am, however, so they can show me chords I'm missing, correct my fingering, &c. They aren't so advanced that they don't mind playing simple stuff, though.

For example, one of my friends can rip through the rhythm section at full speed, but needs to play much slower to get the melodic / solo stuff. Myself, I need to play pretty slowly for the rhythm parts, so it works out well.
posted by Squid Voltaire at 10:41 AM on April 10

If you're in the Chicago area, the Old Town School of Folk Music is very much your friend.

Both my parents used to take lessons there in the 70s. My dad used to play & sing some of the songs to me when I was very little, but he quit a long time ago. On one of my visits there I showed some interest in one of his guitars so he gave it to me. I replaced the case but I just had to transfer over the Old Town School bumper sticker from the old case, and with some clear packing tape it's on there quite securely. He also gave me the song book they used there, and I found several good ones in there that I'd like to learn. I don't have big ambitions but someday I hope to be decent enough to sing some songs back to him.

I never got far with it, but I've been looking into it more lately. A couple things I found:

From a mefi thread I found this guy's site: justinguitar.com which has all sorts of lessons that look pretty good.

I found various flash-based tuners but this one seemed to be the best to me.

Thanks for posting this, and thanks for all the great answers.
posted by marble at 7:26 PM on April 10

For those who say "Why not just start with electric?" I'm boggled.

Does this mean me? Perhaps you should read the question directly above my comment.
posted by Wolof at 6:32 PM on April 11

No, Wolof, I'm responding to the person who asked the question "should you really learn acoustic first?". I agree with your answer.
posted by Miko at 7:30 PM on April 11

Ah. Cheers, then!
posted by Wolof at 6:32 AM on April 12