Learning the Guitar Online

[donsjuand]

Hi there everyone, My name's Don and I'm new to the forums. I would be happy to hear from some experts!

My Dad showed me a few chords years ago, but I was young and lacked the patience. 15 years later, I've decided to give it a real go for the purposes of musical expression; but I can't play at all yet. After having about 20 guitars played for me at the local Steve's Music store, I've decided on a Yamaha F370 because I liked the sound, the solid spruce top, was told it was fairly easy to play and comes with a free setup; tuned and can have the play lowered if need be. I'll be picking the guitar up later this week and I can't wait!

Now I'm looking for some sort of a visual and explained learning resource to learn, practice and grow with online. I have an odd schedule, so I thought about using the web.

Can anyone suggest an excellent place to learn the guitar properly and build a wealth of musical knowledge for more advanced techniques down the road?

To give you an example of what I'm looking for, I was thinking about something like www.nextlevelguitar.com...
Does anyone have any experience there? If so, what do you think about it?

I'd be grateful for the help.:D

[paul84]

Hello - firstly welcome to the forum - lots of good advice and plenty of opinions here :)

Well, in my opinion you'd have to go a long way to better the lessons and material here http://www.justinguitar.com/index.php
Justin's a great guy, and knows his stuff.

Paul.

[Danno]

Hi Don,
Welcome aboard and congrats on your new guitar. Here is a site that caters to all levels....from beginners to more advanced players. The lessons are broke down well and easy to understand. Give it a shot.

http://www.justinguitar.com/

Enjoy!:guitar:

Danno

[ccasey]

+ a million for justinguitar.com; what a wealth of information and quite a few tunes you can learn (including beginner tunes). I'm on there all the time.

Also, check out www.guitarnoise.com and look for the lessons by David Hodge. He teaches many, many "easy" songs for beginners (he's up into the 40's, I think ... meaning that many easy song lessons) and in the context of learning tunes, you can learn chords, picking patterns, bass lines ... all kinds of useful stuff. No video that I've seen, but he has very detailed text lessons with tab and audio examples. Here's just a sample:

http://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/lay-lady-lay/

it's all free, by the way.
chris

[pedro]

Justinguitar.com is exellent, well worth a look

http://www.justinguitar.com/

[unimogbert]

Getting some face-to-face time with someone who knows how to play to show you how to hold the guitar and maybe 4 chords would be a good jump-start.

The 'net is good but sometimes you need some interactive time with a real human.

For what I'm thinking of the player doesn't have to be terribly accomplished - just someone who can play adequately. (like me :-)

[sunvalleylaw]

Justinguitar is good, but I think for good, solid, foundational lessons that prepare you to grow, also check http://markweinguitarlessons.com/ Mark Wein starts with some very basic stuff, rhythm, keeping time, etc. (metronome work included) then a variety of techniques for proper fretting, picking, etc., then on to basic fretboard knowledge, then more knowledge (scales, theory, triads, etc.), phrasing, timing, improv, etc. Really great stuff. You can get a book he sells too that goes with it, but it is not at all required. He plays electric on the lessons, but the knowledge is certainly applicable to acoustic as well.

The difference in my mind from many online lessons is that the focus is not on learning particular songs, but on learning the foundations for playing well, and expressing well, on your guitar. Check it out!

P.S. No connection, etc. Just like his stuff.

[wooki97]

www.chrisliang.com

this is my blog for classical guitar songs. classical guitar and no pick. i started this for fun and it's free. each song comes with a video. free tabs with tips and technique explaination. left and right hand fingering included.

[rhythmstrummer1]

I'll put in a plug for our site, http://www.rhythmstrummer.com If you are interested in playing blues, country, Beatles, folk, or rock we have over 40 video lessons that are well laid out with entertaining teachers.

You can check out our free full length lessons to see if its for you.

http://rhythmstrummer.com/free-easy-guitar-songs-techniques.php

[denny1948golf]

On line and video guitar lessons are great. You have so much available now. But don't overlook live lessons with a top notch instructor, especially when first getting started. A good instructor will point out your playing flaws that you would never know you were doing. Little things like how to hold your wrist, economy of motion, how to get from one position to the other. Believe someone who has been there. It invaluable. Once you havew a good foundation, the online stuff is great.

[arthur]

On line and video guitar lessons are great. You have so much available now. But don't overlook live lessons with a top notch instructor, especially when first getting started. A good instructor will point out your playing flaws that you would never know you were doing. Little things like how to hold your wrist, economy of motion, how to get from one position to the other. Believe someone who has been there. It invaluable. Once you havew a good foundation, the online stuff is great.

This is good advice.

Where are you, we could probably recommend someone.....


Keep in mind musicians have weird schedules to match yours. I've taught students as early as 8 AM to as late as 10PM.....

[luckycanine]

Find a friend who loves it and will spend some time with you...really loves playing guitar. Does not really matter if he/she is good, as long as he/she knows a little and imparts enthusiaism...you need to enjoy to learn. Its a start, getting the thrill, the uuuumph. Its fun!! The rest will follow if you are having a blast. WC

[donsjuand]

I've checked out justinguitar.com, http://markweinguitarlessons.com and a couple others you've mentioned and justingguitar.com seems pretty good for explaining potential common pitfalls etc to watch out for and I like that; not to mention it's free!...got my new guitar 2 days ago and my fingers were sore after the first day (I practiced for about 3 hours hehe)...gotta build up the callouses! So far I'm trying to make sure my thumb and hands are in the right spot, guitar is straight etc, have learned to tune (super easy with my korg tuner the guy at Steve's music gave me for free!) and can now play the A, D, and G chords and am still practicing the F chord which is a bit tougher but will be fine I'm sure after a few times. Messing around too with removing/adding fingers from those chords in the mix if it sounds good.

Thanks everyone for the advice to get someone with experience to watch and instruct on form etc...my girlfriend who plays the trumpet agreed also. I've been talking to my Dad who is quite interested in helping me and my progress, so I'll likely get some help from him with face time. I'll continue on with Justinguitar.com as well, and practice about 15-20 minutes per day until i know each chord by heart and fingers. Then I'll need to figure out how to segway them together! That'll be a landmark and stepping stone once more. I'm pretty pleased all in all with the sound my little Yamaha gives off provided I play tightly. One thing I noticed is that the 1st string rings sometimes and upon closer inspection, the winding has a gap.

Are strings more of a personal choice??? I hear the medium-light or medium Elixir and Phosphor bronze d'Addarios are very popular among acoustic players...
If this is off topic, my apologies...I can repost in another segment of the forum.

[ccasey]

Glad you're off to a good start!

Re: strings, they are certainly a matter of personal choice, particularly between coated/uncoated, phosphor bronze and 80/20 (or other), etc. Your ultimate choice may be influenced by a number of factors, however, including your guitar and style of playing. Certain guitars just seem to respond better to certain types of strings (i.e., they have a brighter or warmer natural sound, based upon the woods used and the way they're built, and certain strings tend to enhance those qualities more than others). Some guitars are also intended by the manufacturer to be used with a certain guage strings; that being said, your Yamaha should be able to handle the medium/light or medium gauge strings you mention, but I would guess it came with lights? So if you are going to switch, particularly to mediums, get it properly set up for that guage.

Once you've decided on a guage, both the brands you mention are excellent, IMHO.

[donsjuand]

But thanks for the advice and prompt reply...I get the impression alot of choices are based on just trial and error/experience, so I'll likely just have my first string swapped out and go from there, seeing as I don't have a style yet :P I just have a rough idea of what I'm supposed to do and some ideas thanks to the good people here, on how to go about it.

In passing, I wanted to offer this website in reciprocation for your help people! Hopefully some of you will find it helpful.

The site offers you means to create , listen to and store chords for later use. Hope it's nearly as helpful as the sound advice I've received!

http://www.chordbook.com/index.php

[PeterT]

Justinguitar is good, but I think for good, solid, foundational lessons that prepare you to grow, also check http://markweinguitarlessons.com/ Mark Wein starts with some very basic stuff, rhythm, keeping time, etc. (metronome work included) then a variety of techniques for proper fretting, picking, etc., then on to basic fretboard knowledge, then more knowledge (scales, theory, triads, etc.), phrasing, timing, improv, etc.
I took a look at the lessons section on this site. You mention that he starts with basic stuff and then progresses from there. It doesn't look to me like the material is structured in any progressive fashion at all unless I was looking in the wrong place.

[donsjuand]

I took a look at the lessons section on this site. You mention that he starts with basic stuff and then progresses from there. It doesn't look to me like the material is structured in any progressive fashion at all unless I was looking in the wrong place.

I think it's important to gather information, then decide for yourself (provided you have ample philosophies/knowledge). After visiting that site last week, I came to the same conclusion as you...that there was no structured progression...which is what I need. By that point, I had decided on justinguitar.com as a fit. Now, as a total noob after 2 weeks of practicing only an hour a day about 7 times, I'm onto practicing the stringing together of chords for my first simple song...I'm pleased with my choice as a result of justinguitar.com's structure for progression and also the fact that I'm not expected to rocket forward (it can be disappointing to expect unreasonable progress musically - which could cause a newb to quit).