I have been helping my friend move for the past few days and he just gave me his old guitar, its just a cheap little fender squier. He never played it, just had it sitting in his room for coolness. I really love guitars and have always wanted to learn but didnt want to make the investment and risk not liking it and wasting a good chunk of change. I learned how to tune it, I have it standard tuned now. As much as I know is how to play mary had a little lamb...just because I made a guitar in the 6th grade out of siding, a 2x4, sheet rock screws, fishing line, and castnet drawsting for a science project. Here's a pic of it and the POS 10watt amp

I'm really excited, over the next few weeks I'm gonna get my dad to teach me the basics. Anyone have any tips for starting out or some helpful links?

 

True friend man.

 

Thats pretty good to start off on, I have one that my dad bought me that looks the same but I never got into it enough to really know how to play. All I can remember how to play now is the begining of smoke on the water and begining of hells bells.

 

Thats cool man iv been playing for almost 10 years dude, i have a friend named peter, hes been playing for 7 months and blows me out of the water

 

lol i wouldnt classify that guitar as "cheap" nor would i classify the amp as a "POS"

 

ouch! i've been playing about 10 years now myself..maybe a tad over. my friend that has played for half as long is the same as yours..shreds circles around me. though i haven't really spoken with him much lately cause we both moved and he was sort of MIA. i hit him up recently and he said he hasn't been playing for the last 2 years! i said "why the **** not!?" he is really amazing at that ****.

respekt - i would. [8D] it's a pretty cheap guitar..the amp, while not necessarily a POS is nothing to be overly proud of. ha no offense kokasian, i know you got it for free. that's fine. i'm sure it makes a great practice amp though..just not something you would show up to band practice with ahaha.

kokasian, that is a great beginner set up you have there..good friend you have there also. though i know how moving does induce us to giving **** away..i just wouldn't give away any of my guitars haha. it's really hard to give out advice for musical instruments without sitting down with someone and watching them play. that way you can point out certain things they are doing that they could change to make it easier for them in the long/short run.

generally speaking, i would say two things. 1. keep at it. you are gonna suck for a while..unless you are some virtuoso that just flies through beginner **** and keeps on going. we all start out bad, so don't let it get you down. i think that is the number one problem for any musician. they don't think they are good, when in fact it is quite a bit early to expect to be good, and they quit. 2. start off with easy songs you like..look up the tabs, or if you want a bit more of a challenge..try and figure them out by ear. figuring out by ear takes a little initial training though.. ie. you should know your power chords at least depending on the song. i don't listen to too much music that utilizes whole chords often.

basically..just keep at it. don't be afraid to go out on a limb and mess around/experiment. sure some of the time you'll think "what the **** was that??" but other times you might be pleasantly surprised. all in all, it's a great hobby that you can continue on into your grey haired days.

 

congratulations. learning the guitar is very fun and takes lots of practice. just remember, that don't get frustrated, you can't just pick up a guitar and start playing songs that you love, even though everyone tries to do that.

here is a website very useful to learn chords from.
click me

good luck

 

Best advice I can give is to NOT just jump in and start learning how to play songs. Search around on youtube for beginner excersizes and scales. Learn how to move your fingers first, or else you will never be good.

 

Thanks, everyone. I know I'm gonna be stuck doing scales and nusery ryhmesfor a while, but thats ok. The best things in life arent instant or free

 

nice friend you have, i always wanted to learn how to play but just haven't done it, I used to have an acoustic of some sort but dunno what happened to it, think i might see if I can get one after christmas and learn to play.

good luck with it though, learning a new instrument is fun