Walwal

My mate is moving to Australia soon, and he's gave me his guitar and amp, as I said a while back, I wouldn't mind trying to learn how to play. Very kind of him I might add. It's not a top notch one, and one string is missing, but bar that, it's in good nick.

The question is, how easy is it to learn how to play. I've never played a guitar in my life, and I can't read music. I found some "tab" music (???) on a website, and it seems pretty straight forward to understand the basics, but gets confusing when things like hammer are mentioned.

Obviously going to need lessons, just wondered if anyone knew roughly how much these are, and once I get new strings (5 still work at the minute, 1 is missing), how will I know when the new string is tuned??

Seems a lot to take in, wondering if I'm taking on too much....

Andy.

Hanslow

Get a copy of Guitar Pro, download some tabs from My Songbook and learn away.

You can slow them down, repeat bits, etc. Gives you the notation so you can learn some more about hammer-ons (hitting the string at another fret without plucking the string), pull-offs (pulling your finger off the fretted string in a downward motion to effectively pluck it at the same time, but with your left hand, for a right handed guitarist), etc.

hedgehog

There is a guitar playing for dummies book that I have seen and which looks very good at covering all the basics. Might be a worthwhile investment. I'm no expert, 3 chords and I'm beat, so I might buy myself a copy.

rik-1

it's easy to play guitar these days especially if you have lessons. Lessons should cost about £15 - £20 for ono-to-one. Because the guitar has been popular for years, most books now are easier to follow and you can make good progress. It's still best to, at least to start with, have a few lessons-then carry on with books. This time of year there shold be many courses starting up. Good luck.
(New string might set you back about a £1 ) !

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I used to be able to play guitar....'til I broke my left wrist and ever since I can't rotate it enough to get my fingers on the top 3 strings

Ahh well, my playing sucked before I knackered my wrist anyway

Walwal

Hanslow, that's some great stuff you've posted there. Thanks.

Ali, I broke my left wrist in 4 places in 1997. You've now got me worried that I'm not going to be able to cut the mustard before I've even started. That would be just typical for me. Maybe I can be like Hendrix and play left handed

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Andy.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Try it, you maybe fine.

Never got my hands on a left handed guitar.....hmm you've got me thinking

Hanslow

On the topic of kak-handed guitar players

Gary Moore plays the guitar right handed, even though he's left handed. His reason? He states because he never saw anyone playing left handed (back in the old days ) so assumed you had to play right handed. So it's certainly possible to play kak-handed, me, I just sound like it

On a thumbs up for that guitar pro program. I had the transcription to Pantera's Cowboy's From Hell but just couldn't get the phrasing even though I had the record. Once I slowed it down in guitar pro and gradually sped it up, learnt how to play it Well the intro and main verse / chorus riffs....I don't do solos (I'm too crap )

Jamesemt

Getting back to your original question - the answer depends on what you hope to achieve. I played (past tense) the guitar for 7 years and did a fair bit of teaching. Anyone that can put aside time every night can become proficient.

It took me about 4/5 years of absolute dedication (3 hours + every day including christmas!!) to develop to Slash's ability (wish I could write solos like him...). The secret is to find some kind of practice routine. Too many people just play along to songs (which is great...but it's not practicing). You need to sit down and work out your weaknesses.

Split the practice down into 15 minute chunks (or less in the beginning).

So the answer is it depends how much you want to put in. If you can set aside 30 mins a night you could be to band potential easily in 6 months...

If you need to know any more specifics send me an email and we'll go into more detail...

BTW I don't teach anymore...too much like hard work

hedgehog

The friend who bought the guitar for dummies book (and who is tempting me into picking up my guitar again) has just mailed me to say that he has signed up for a beginners course at the local university which is £40 for 10 weeks. I imagine some further education colleges do something similar.

I'm probably too crap even to go on a beginners course! Actually the bridge on my acoustic has collapsed but it looks like there are big screws holding it in place. Anyone know are the bridges standard sizes such that I can just walk into a music shop and ask for an acoustic guitar bridge or is there more to it than that?

fast bloke

Lift the old one off and take it with you. You can get standard sizes or 'trim your own' - avoid these - you will fek it up and end up with strings that you can't keep in tune or strings that buzz

re left handed guitar - can you not just reverse the strings?

GaryCat

You can, that's how Jimi Hendrix played but the nut and the bridge are designed to take the strings in the normal thick-to-thin top-to-bottom order and as the guitar is upside down you catch your forearm on the *****.

Going back to the question, I'd recommend signing yourself up for lessons at your local college or whatever.

If you have Sky TV check out channel 475

NotoriousREV

I'm left-handed but play right-handed simply because it feels natural, after all, your left hand does the complex stuff when you play right handed. Confused? You will be.

When I say play, I mean in the loosest possible sense, however

David Lock

Have a look at www.stringsdirect.co.uk as they are the best I've found for all things guitar including strings, picks and other essentials. Set of strings is about £4.00 or less. They'll send you a catalogue and then, for example, you can buy a tuner which will be a great help for setting it up. Happy plucking

philc

if you've got wrist problems - rsi or whatever, I've wondered whether it's worth playing slide guitar.

Don't know how hard it is, but it sounds good and doesn't require as much wrist flexing