Best method to learn guitar

i think it's guitartricks.com that has a lot of free stuff, forums, and videos of how to do stuff

You sound like someone who wants to get better at swimming but does not want to swim lots. . Aside from that of you are hangng out watching the tv, do it with a guitar in your hand and tinker. Whnever you are able to sit and tinker. Familiarity with the instrument is key to beginner learning.

Learn to tune it well.
I learned by ear and tablature. If you want to read music I can not help bit there is a ton of free tablature out there. Try the online guitar archive OLGA.com I think.

You tube has TONS of instructional video as well as lots of videos of people falling or getting hit in the nuts. I say stick to the instrctional video.

Rule number one in my book is tinker with a well tuned guitar as often as possible and have fun.

I hadn't played for years and when I finally decided to pick it back up again I watched a ton of youtube videos and practiced a lot of scales. Practiced Practiced Practiced scales.

I can't read music, I play by ear, so the books do nothing for me.

LOL

I learned years ago long before the advent of video lessons and the internet, so you have a huge resource available to you.

I used the brute force method by sitting down every night for hours listening to my tapes and trying to replicate what the guitarist was doing. The first few months were brutal, but once I got over the hump it got a lot easier. By learning to play this way I became fairly adept at hearing a song (or just thinking of it) and being able to spontaneously play it.

Although there are times when my band mates wish I didn't have this ability.  Like last weekend during sound check when I proceeded to do an impromptu version of Dolly Parton's "9 To 5".

Learn the basic "Cowboy chords". Learn the bar chords. Then start trying to play along with your favorite songs.

This user's post has been ignored.

Edited by Sharyn5 2010-05-26 3:33 PM

This user's post has been ignored.

Theres a couple of options really in my view

 The musically inclined method would be to learn scales, learn about music, intervals chord progressions etc. This will enable you to pick up a song very easily and most often either predict chord changes, or ply something nice. Also means you can write stuff, and just fiddle in hopefully a melodic manner.

Option 2 Is just to learn songs  and learn by example. Won't make you a good musician but you'll be able to "play" guitar and much more quickly

Option 3, Somewhere in between, go learn lots of chords and just strum chords. Good for the rhythm guitarist/singer in you.

Option 4. Learn Bass. Laugh at those crazy guitarists playing 5 strings at a time.  

Been playing guitar for 23 year...I still kinda of stink

Learn C, D, G. You can impress your friends as i'm not sure I'm overstating this but just about every rock song are those three cords and the truth.

Learn the 12 bar blues progression. It works in every key. A simple song like Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" is a great one to learn this progression in the key of E. It also has a real easy solo and timeless intro riff.

www.911tabs.com is a great place to get tabs for just about any song. If I want to learn a new song I'll usually go there. I'll also have the song playing on my computer either from a download or youtube which is great because often times you see the artist playing the song on guitar and you can pick up some pointers on how they do it.

You have to play a lot. You can't get around it. Most great guitarist are social misfits and had no friends growing up so they played guitar all day. If your fingers aren't calloused you're not playing enough.

And finally. I didn't really improve at the guitar until I got over being scared to make a mistake. Have fun with it and don't be afraid to just put yourself and your emotions in your instrument. Sometimes mistakes sound pretty cool and almost no one will ever notice.

For tabs , try ultimate-guitar.com
Although my band has guitar pro on a multi user license so that helps massively for that site.  

911tabs is just a portal that links to all the ultimate-guitar tabs as well.

One last thing. Learning bar cords is the quickest way to start playing. know all the notes on the top E and second A string frets (ie 3rd fret top E string is a G). Once you know that you can bar the open E cord (and variances of the cord like minor, 7th, 5th) all the way down the E string and the open A cord and varainces all the way down the A string.

It's a heck of a lot easier to do that then to transition from a open F to an open B.

This user's post has been ignored.

Sidebar tip - Don't give up when your finger tips start hurting and/or bleeding. Then, keep at it once the callouses develop our you'll have to go through it all over again.

The best begginer site is www.justinguitar.com. I've tried lots and this is the best for begginers. He has a great begginer lesson plan and then lots of other technique lessons. The site is donation based.  His lessons are well thought out and thorough. He also has a good sense of humor which is an added bonus.

Sharon is right,but you can also do song title and "guitar lesson".

Not sure what type of music you want to play but try Good Riddance by Green Day. It's so easy that after a couple of hours you will sound like you've been playing for years.


Derek

X2.

Your fingertips will eventually be like leather and you can play for hours without any pain.

bah, i can only manage 4 hour practise at the moment on my bass.


maybe i should stop putting vaseline in my glove