xmas prezzie
 

ok i know there are lots of edumicated people on this forum, but my wife has bought me a guitar after months of wingingabout not ever learning when i was 13 years old.....
so i now am the proud owner of a yamaha guitar , whats the next...BEST move befor taking classes?????

come on, someone else out there is better that me on the guitar.
as a born again what is the best way i can prepair myself before i take classes

How about learning the basics of reading sheet music.

try here for a start

http://www.emusictheory.com/learning.html

Been playing guitar for over 25 years now, never had a lesson yet but picked up things by ear and watching other guitarists. You do not really need to learn music to be a decent guitar player but it wouldnt do any harm I suppose. I know a lot of very good players who still cannot read music and it does not hinder them at all. I suppose if you wanted to a classical guitarist things would be different and you would need to be able to sight read.

Theres never been a better time to learn as there are so many instructional books out there now usually complete with CDs etc. Also plenty of guitar mags such as Total guitar that have lessons ranging from beginner to advanced. There is a form of notating guitar music know as TAB which is very simple to use. All the guitar mags (and most instruction books) use TAB these days and it very simple to follow.

If you are serious and have the time then lessons would be a good idea to get you going a little more quickly. The problem with trying to learn yourself can be its easy to lose heart at the slow progress and give up. Ask around (local guitar shop etc) for a good tutor. I keep thinking of having a few lessons myself to try and improve my playing. I would like to be able to fingerpick a lot better than I do and really need someone to push me into learning properly.

Good Luck

get a girlfriend who loves Eric Clapton in his Yardbird days!

II spent a small fortube on my daughter when she wanted to leasrn how to play the guitar. 3 years and £££££'s later she discoverd boys. So I thought I would learn. Total waste of time because I didn't have it in me to put the time in to practice. Every time I picked it up, I'd have to relearn what I had already learnt. Really frustrating

Acoustic or Electric??

I have an electric guitar and have tried and given up several times. Thought i would give it another bash this summer,but go down the instructional dvd route as i really struggle trying to learn from a book . I need to see how it's being done. Any good dvd recomendations. Love to be able to learn in a blues style. Even if i could play one tune i'd be happy.

cheers for the replies
Ive managed to find a few "learn to" DVDs from the net that have really helped, as you both said before i also started and then lost interest.
lets see if i can keep it up this time

First buy a tuner and make sure you can tune the thing otherwise it will sound awful! Then dig out a couple of your favourite tracks on CD and try to play along, you know pick the riff out on one string or something, AC/DC is good for this cos its not too complicated! At least when you start to learn bar chords from your DVD's you'll know a couple of basic tunes and in the meantime you get an idea how the guitar works by playing along with Angus!
I think finding a guitar tutor that will teach what you want to learn - rather than what they think you should know - is the fastest way to get there.
(I taught myself and I'm sure lessons would've helped and probably still would!)

Anyway good luck, its worth it!!

I stuck a few more tracks on our site before christmas if you want a listen:
http://www.theadhesiveexperience.co.uk/Music.html