learning to play the guitar

[saint francis]

As has been mentioned, steel strung acoustics are tough work for a beginner. The cheese wire will make easy work of your softie fingers. What I did was to buy a £17.99 spanish guitar from Argos which has the benefits of being cheap as chips, stays in tune, strings don't hurt your fingers, can be played like a normal acoustic. After six months if you're still enjoying it you can upgrade if you want to. If not, no harm done.

[hamster]

for some reason have the urge to learn how to play the guitar..

 

I have never picked one up in my life but fancy getting a 'starter kit'...if such one exists...

 

anyone else done anything like this..?

 

DD, this is what you need:

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=508802#post508802

 

Seriously mate, you can plug your earphones/headphones in it and jam away to your hearts content. It'll fit perfectly into your kitbag too.

 

Go on treat yourself....

[St Landrew]

I suppose I should mention that Lidl still have stock of both their Acoustic and Electric guitar offers. They are pretty cheap, and won't be a sh!t as you think.

 

I bought a guitar stand from them, for £6.99, for my Epiphone, and now it looks as good as it plays. That means good. The guitar is good; I'm sh!te.

[Rattlehead]

The guitar here is a bit gay (i.e. it looks like a Fender Strat), but I think it's a good deal for a starter electric package:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000SSGHUG/ref=s9_sima_gw_s0_p23_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1DQ39TPCBAYHZ8AG475F&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467198433&pf_rd_i=468294

[St Landrew]

Thought I'd offer some encouragement to TDD. For a few weeks now I have been strumming away, just for 5 or 10 minutes here or there, and something is beginning to happen. I'm finding some relationships in the chords. Instead of that dischordant sound, that always happens, I find that I'm stringing some chord changes together of my own, and they are making a little sense. I also find that I'm picking up the guitar, and I barely get a buzzed note out of it, unless I do something totally untried. And I'm not looking where my fingers are going either. It's all feel. My cousin, who plays the guitar very well indeed [the sh!tbag ], but doesn't play from year to year, calls it finger memory.

 

I suppose this is doing the picking-it-up method, instead of rigorous practice. I'm never going to be anything but a strummer with perhaps a little picking inbetween, but, unlike when I was appalled at my lack of talent as a teenager, and throwing the guitar down in disgust, I find that strumming will do. Back then I wanted to be Hendrix. Now, I know that isn't possible. And every time I pick the guitar up, I'm starting to find something slightly new. Sadly, I can't force it, but it's such a bloody thrill when I get several chords together nicely. And dare I say it, but it doesn't sound too bad either. In timescale, that's after lots of non-practice over the last 10 months, with June to October being taken up entirely with Motorbiking and Sailing, and the guitar being back in its case. Of course, now it's on its stand, plectrum pinched in the wires, and ready to go whenever I want it.

[Dr Who?]

So how has this gone Delldays?

 

I got a guitar nearly a year ago with a starter pack, but only picked it up and fingered it on the day I got it and not touched it since.

 

I was going to have lessons but now doing a degree ditance learning so cannot really give the time to it I would need.

 

I would love to be able to play the guitar even just a little bit!!

[Jonnyboy]

So how has this gone Delldays?

 

I got a guitar nearly a year ago with a starter pack, but only picked it up and fingered it on the day I got it and not touched it since.

 

I was going to have lessons but now doing a degree ditance learning so cannot really give the time to it I would need.

 

I would love to be able to play the guitar even just a little bit!!

 

practice 20 minutes a day, youll be pretty good within a year, surely you can spare that?

[St Landrew]

practice 20 minutes a day, youll be pretty good within a year, surely you can spare that?

 

I can sort of understand why people drop the idea of learning to play the guitar. But to go and actually buy one, have a go for ONE DAY and not touch it again, makes me think it was a half-formed idea in the first place.

 

Over a year ago [with a gap of the summer months], when I decided to try to learn, I realised that I was never going to be dedicated enough to become any good. I'm happy to strum along, and perhaps pick a few notes occasionally. Well, I have been very easy on myself, but I can change chords, without making the notes buzz [most of the time], and I can play the odd tune. I'm normally utterly crap at this sort of thing [still am], but just plodding on, picking up the guitar when it suits me [i don't let more than a couple of days go by] for 10-15 minutes or so, has got me so far. Looking back, one year passes very quickly too.

 

Pick the thing up again or sell it on.