Any self taught guitarists?

kinger8938

kinger8938

kinger8938

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I have a basic yamaha acoustic and did try to teach myself a few years back! Got on ok but just didnt practise enough and eventually stopped altogether!

However lately been wanting something to do in free time other than gaming etc so thinking about trying again.

Any suggestions, pointers etc?

Thanks!
 
Self taught myself for years, and got to a pretty good standard but totally let it slip.

Really need to get back into it and see if I can break the old skills back through. :(

Biggest piece of advice? Persistence.

Play often. Find a certain technique that you want to learn (even just the basics of fingering, or alternate picking for example), look up an instructional video on YouTube and do it over, and over, and over again until you've mastered it.

Don't fall into the trap of moving on to something else because you're frustrated. Stick with learning that ONE thing until you've mastered it, and then move on. It takes time.

And don't ignore the pinkie finger.
 
I'm self taught but I did have about 3 lessons.
Best advice is to keep at it and keep your guitar in a place where you can pick it up easily - if you put it back in it's case and in the cupboard under the stairs you are far less likely to grab it for a 10 minute session.

Also...10 mins good practice is far better than 2 hours of bad practice.
 
Get yourself a decent guitar tuner. Keeping your guitar in tune when you're a n00b is crucial to teach you how to hear the notes without a lot of faffing about.
Eventually you'll learn how to tune by ear.

Get yourself a simple book of chords / scales... you know, 'my first guitar' sort of thing. Read it, learn it so you've got some basics down, then have a go finding guitar tab* for something you'd like to learn how to play.

Same goes for youtube lessons too. Though I have found there to be less comprehensive total beginner tutorials.


Play every day. Doesn't have to be for hours and hours. Even 20 min to half an hour is enough to keep your skills up and running, progressing; especially if you are learning something new.

Don't try and learn that chord progression/lick all in one go. Slow it down and break it up into smaller chunks - run them over and over until you get it right, learn the next chunk then put them together and learn the transition between the two. Repeat.


There's so many styles of guitar to learn, but the basics (imo) for acoustic guitar should be
1) strumming with nails/plectrum
2) finger picking (3/4/5 finger picking)
3) using a plectrum (including palm muting - chugging)
4) chords (open and barre)
5) scales (+hammer ons, pull offs etc)
6) clear articulation of notes (muting, dead notes, percussion, harmonics, open tunings**)


But most of all, playing should be a joy, not a chore.
Ok so learning something new and difficult can be frustrating and sometimes you will just have to put the guitar away and come back to it again later, or the next day. But keep at it and you'll have the satisfaction of mastering something you couldn't play before.

There's always something new to learn. Then there's how it feels to play with others when everything comes together. I cannot speak for improvisation in a group (I'm not good enough for that), but there's definitely something a little bit special when everyone is on the same page.


* learn to read/understand guitar tab. It won't show you the timing of a piece of music but it will show you where to put your fingers. When read in conjunction with music notation you can almost learn to play stuff without having to be totally familiar with the track.

** open tunings can allow you to explore some interesting places. Start with DADGAD and go from there.
 
The other poster is correct regarding persistence.

Remember, talent is simply the result of years of honing your craft.

If you're right at the beginning, practice your basic chords and alternating your hand between the positions.

Learn these:

E, Em, D, Dm, G, A, Am

When you're comfortable with that, start to learn how to barre chords and learn:

B, F, etc

When you're comfortable with that, or if you're feeling brave, go to www.ultimateguitar.com, pick a song you really like and have a go. Some songs will be far too technical for you at this juncture, but there are a lot of transcriptions of songs into basic chords.

When you're comfortable after that, try upping your game and start to learn some technique such as hammer-ons and pull-offs and pick harmonics.

Practice both with and without a pick. Grab a selection of thickness from your local guitar shop and see what you're comfortable with. If you're playing an acoustic, generally a thicker pick will be better for you. Similarly, you will find that you will have to press harder on the strings as the 'play' is a little higher than on electrics. It will hurt your hands for a while at the start but it does go away as your skin gets calloused and you begin to develop some muscle memory.
 
Yeah, to begin with I found thicker picks really hard to get the hang of. I started out with a dunlop .73mm nylon. My preferred pick is a 1mm nylon these days.
Thinner picks will bend on the strings when you strum and generally be quieter, but they are slightly more forgiving when you are trying to get the feel for strumming; a lighter pick will not have the tendency to jam against the strings and come to a dead stop when you fluff your technique. ;)
Get a few and try 'em out and find what's comfortable.

DADGAD is a forgiving tuning - I only suggested it because the tuning itself is a harmonised chord. As such you can have a little more freedom when you shape simple chords to strum. I wouldn't suggest it over learning the basics on 'standard tuning' but it gives the guitar a totally different feel and sound. And if you have a play about as a beginner, then when you've got a few riffs under your belt, exploring the guitar just got a whole lot more diverse.
I've met loads of guitarists who stare blankly when you show them the scary black art of dun dun duuuuh! 'altered tunings' :p
 
Wow great response to this, at work atm but will have a proper read of your replies when i am home!

I was on something called Jamplay before (i think) had a load of stuff but i think like you say persistence is key and i didnt stick to that :(
 
I taught myself to play over a period of two years by not going out and using any spare time I had to practice, practice and practice. Though it was frustrating at first you'll soon see the rewards.

I used books from library and used to buy guitar magazines, it was still early days of Internet, 1998/99. Today, there is a wealth of stuff on YouTube and the WWW as a whole.
 
Best advice: play what you want to play, learn songs you want to play. Don't allow yourself to get bogged down with a book.

You want to learn a Radiohead song, go for it! Learn the chord shapes and strum along with it.

I was interested in blues when I first started at 14 because of Jimi. I learned one scale and one shape, G minor pentatonic . I would play to a blues backing track in G minor, over and over and over again changing out notes mixing the scale up and experimenting. I will admit this does lend itself to bad habits but its far more fun.

Update: Was just thinking about this, if you're into games might be worth trying the demo for Rocksmith on steam. Gets good reviews. Ive never used it might be garbage.
 
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I'm majority self taught. Had a guitar for a good 10 yrs now, and maybe had lessons for 2 months of that, but didn't enjoy them so I sacked it off. I just played the songs that I liked, and by doing so you'll learn different techniques and scales, and it shouldn't get boring since you're playing what you like. I can recommend a loop pedal, that's a lot of fun and very useful to learn with.
 
I've been teaching myself for around a year and a half now and can recommend getting Rocksmith 2014 and using it as a practice tool.

It makes practice fun and you get to play along with some great songs plus the lessons section and guitarcade are very helpful.

The only thing I would say though is have a couple of lessons with a real teacher along side teaching yourself as they can teach you things you wont pick up for any software/game/book and help correct bad habbits.

Above all else as others have said stick with it and have fun. :)
 
jsmoke said:
Pentatonic scale.
Click to expand...

Dimple said:
I've been gigging and playing guitar for 45 years and this is great advice once you've learned a few chords.
It is the secret to playing lead guitar.
Click to expand...

Good old faithful

Never had a lesson in my life here's me below jamming and improvising the pentatonic blues scale with a few additional notes here or there:p



I like the lick at 2.35 in blues in C :p
 
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easyrider said:
Good old faithful

Never had a lesson in my life here's me below jamming and improvising the pentatonic blues scale with a few additional notes here or there:p



I like the lick at 2.35 in blues in C :p
Click to expand...

There are 5 positions on the pentatonic you know :D
 
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