FxpForce
Hi,
Just got my guitar yesterday, question now is where to start. I'm 35 years old, happily married, have a kid. So time is few.
Where is the best place to start. Was thinking about using the internet as a guide, but there are so my thousand videos
on you tube.
A point in the right direction would be appreciated.
Thank you!
ezietsman
Welcome!
Never too late to start learning guitar.
Go to www.justinguitar.com . Great place to start. Free video lessons. There's also documents you can download and print that explains the lessons.
What gear did you get?
FxpForce
Just normal acoustic guitar.
FruitarGeek
I'd say definately start with basic chords. Just to get you into the vibe of it, from there you can start making your own songs
Don't be confused by the pic, the diagrams are simple. (Look at the example of how to read it on the right). But this is just a few of the many thousands of chords waiting to be explored. For now, don't worry about any of the chords with a 7 in. That will come later. Take your time, and become familiar with how those chord shapes are on your guitar neck. From then on you learn some rythym.
Hope this helps.
Tonedef
Get yourself professional tuition if you can afford it.
pbrizzolari
Hey, I'm in much the same situation. 29, 2 kids and a demanding job. I'm getting tuition by a guy called Anthony from guitarexcellence. You pay a bit more I think, but he comes around to my place at 7:30 which works for me and I'm learning a lot.
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Bob-Dubery
I believe a lot of people give up playing early on because they have a poor instrument, or a poorly set up instrument that doesn't give them the best chance.
Now this is all new to you and I don't want to overload you with jargon, so let's just say that "set up" deals with the physical effort of playing the guitar and how well it stays in tune.
Take it to a shop with a good technician (ask around on GFSA, but obviously we'd need to know what town you live in). Don't be afraid to tell them that you're a beginner. Get them to make the necessary adjustments and you may find that straight away things get easier.
You might also want to tell us what you bought and where you bought it.
It has to be satisfying and fun for you. If it's not then, quite naturally, you will lose interest. However some early frustrations can be prevented by having a decently set up guitar. A lot of beginners get frustrated over what they think is them but is really the guitar.
IceCreamMan
35 ,u is a spring chicken ?
unfortunately there are no short cuts ...it takes dedication and motivation ..whats that platitude, 1 percent talent,99% perspiration or something like that...
you have to spend time at it ..otherwise yr progress is slow and may result in de motivation...
identify 30 minutes a day where you can practice free of disruptions... and then find more time to practice some more.
welcome to the forum...very knowledgeable ppl here and one of the better things i have done in my musical "career" was join here.
good luck and keep us informed of progress.
cheers
G-Man
Hi FxpForce
I started playing a little over a year ago and in the beginning I went to the CNA and picked up a book and DVD for R100 and just watched it and learned the basic chords from the book. I found that when I started losing interest early on I started learning songs from a genre of music that I really liked, had it not been for that then I think I might have stopped playing, so maybe that's also something to keep in mind.
But as tonedef says, if you can afford it then getting a teacher is the way to go.
Best of luck to you!
FxpForce
Thank you everyone, www.justinguitar.com will be my starting point.
domhatch
And a fantastic starting point it will be. Justin is a great teacher, even in bits and bytes. I'm going through the Blues section on his site at the moment, he has a great method, and will have you up and running in no time. If you get stuck, come around and ask in here, folks'll sort you out one time.
FxpForce
Anyone what the last chord is in this video? At the end of the clip.
I know i'm just beginning, but the tune is stuck in my head! ?
Thanks
flatfourfan
If you have the means, check out a tutor for a few lessons. To at least get the basics going. At the moment I'm getting about 20-30min with the earphones on each night and it's making a huge diffs in my playing.
Also, it's loads of fun meeting up with other players......you pick up stuff a whole lot faster when you have motivation.
Tonedef
The problem with self-teaching is that you dont have a proper yardstick to measure your progress by. I quickly found that my practise regime was stagnating, and it took all of one tutoring session to highlight that I had practised some bad habits into being.
Ferinstance, I was fretting in a way that maximised comfort for my left wrist, while the correct way was much more uncomfortable, but obviously without knowing any better, I did what felt better. Thats the thing, you have to make your extremities do odd, uncomfy things and you need someone knowledgable to point them out to you. Then your practising will give you maximum results in minimum time.
