Want to finally learn to play guitar. Advice/Tips please

You have to have somebody show you some tricks here and there, would be hard to learn all on your own

To me, an electric is easier to pick up and play because you can play simple, sloppy power chords (complete with distortion or other effects) and approximate a song.

With an acoustic, you're playing clean, and sloppiness becomes more of a detriment than a charming attribute.

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To me, an electric is easier to pick up and play because you can play simple, sloppy power chords (complete with distortion or other effects) and approximate a song.

With an acoustic, you're playing clean, and sloppiness becomes more of a detriment than a charming attribute

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See, I agree with this as well, even though I know it's probably bad advice.

I also found that crappy acoustic guitars are just plain hard to play/make chords, whereas even an inexpensive electric can be found that easy to play.

Once you kinda learn what you're doing a little bit, and figure out how to use your pointer finger to "bar" the guitar/use other fingers to "make the chord", you'll see why you should probably start out on an acoustic/playing chords though.

Here are some other things that may help you "learn right"....

1. Make yourself play with your thumb on the backside of the guitar, and not the back of your hand. That'll "force" you to "wrap" the guitar neck better.

2. Use you pinky whenever you can. You'll figure out that you make every pretty much every chord without using your pinky. But learn to use it/and use it when you can. Otherwise, you'll be like me and play lazy man guitar/will never get good.

3. Hang out with folks that play. They can teach you the tricks.




Edit: don't do like my lil bro, and practice more on facial expressions and leg kicks than making chords.....he sucks worse than me.

I would get a low end model acoustic with a low action. This will be easier to play for a beginner. The first 2/3 weeks will be pretty brutal on the fingers but once you get over that hump, it will get easier. In the beginning, I found it hard to make much progress because I could only practice for 15-20 mins before my fingertips were killing me. After you build calluses, you can practice for longer periods and make more progress.

justinguitar.com is good if you are a true beginner because he talks about everything you need to know about starting out playing

I've only been playing for 4 months so I've just gone through all this. You just have to get over that hump in the beginning.

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2. Use you pinky whenever you can. You'll figure out that you make every pretty much every chord without using your pinky. But learn to use it/and use it when you can.

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A good transition to learn is from open G to C using fingers 324 to finger the G, which means using the pinkie for string 1. You just have to shift fingers 32 over from strings 65 and 54 to go back and forth between G and C, which is quicker than using 213 to finger the G and 321 for C.

Another tip is that you don't have to finger the open A using 123, from bottom to top. Sometimes it's better to go 213, or just to bar it. It sometimes doesn't matter if the top string isn't allowed to ring.

Here's an example, the first three chords to Pink Floyd's "Breathe". Do the Emin with fingers 12, then go to A using the 213 fingering (pinkie for Asus4), and then to Cmaj7/G using 342, which is just an E shape but starting on the 6th string. Your middle finger (2) stays on string 4, fret 2 the whole time, and the chords kind of rotate around it.

So definitely learn the shapes with the traditional fingering, but don't be afraid to go outside the box and find the right fingering. It can make all the difference, and a lot of tabs I've seen ignore this and use really stupid fingerings. Sometimes things don't sound right if you use the incorrect fingering and play in different positions than the artist did, even though the notes are all the same.

Start with an acoustic. Strengthen those fingers.

What's your budget?

Get something that you want to play, regardless.

Learn your open chords first, then move on to your bar/power, 7th, and 9th chords.
Main thing is to just practice, practice, practice to get your muscle memory up, even though it really sucks and sounds terrible at first. Just hang in there, you'll be amazed how many songs you can play with just a few open chords.
Justinguitar.com, YouTube, and Marty are good teachers

Touchedtheaxe you wanna jam?