Everyday people will ask in LYN, i want to learn guitar how should i go about it. Over the years i asked myself plenty of times and went through different teachers that taught me different things, but after that period of time i realised that i made plenty of mistakes (coz of noobness) and thankfully some gains on my guitar playing. I want to share my experiences and the important points that i learnt over the years

I wont tackle everything, but i will tackle the most important question of all, Should I Get A Teacher? and i will separate it into two sections to suit people of differing needs. First question you should ask is How Serious I Am About This and if your answer is ...............

i) i just want to play to get chicks and look good.

Don't get a teacher, learn the basics and chords cause well a teacher might cost a bit. you also might want to look at a entry level guitar and a packet of tissues, coz girls these days, they no dig guitarists; they dig dj bois. so prepare to wank yourself to delightful happiness.

ii) I love what i do and i want to improve myself.

So you went through stage one, you realized that guitarists are actually folks that spend too much time penetrating holes with input jacks than banging hot chicks AND you still want to go on and learn this wonderful instrument. Now i got an advise for you............

GET A TEACHER, no correct that GET A GOOD TEACHER

now let me share some of my experience, in my early years i had this teacher, and i went to some classes. he taught me how to hammer on and pull off, wonderful stuff. he then taught me how to play a lick, then mods and then scales. months down the road i have learned 10 scales, a few techniques and i still sound as bad as ever. I told myself, hey i can learn this online! its cheaper

i believe a lot of people go through this, never realizing a very fatal mistake in their music learning program

what went wrong? you might ask. the teacher didnt bother to teach "teh fundamentals" do i blame the teacher? no. because fundamentals are hard, its easier to plug a guitar into an amp play the lick (tho sound bad to everyone but you) and convince yourself you are good. Its easier than sitting down learning notes, timing, positioning etc etc, its a lead guitarists nightmare, its not cool, and certainly doesnt help your mojo.

that was my mistake, i dont know "teh fundamentals". I spent my later years learning off internet programs, some mates and i thought i was good. then one day i met my second teacher that taught me how important fundamentals was. I didnt learn much from him (coz i left soon after), but that idea struck me hard, he said "guitar is all about the fundamentals" and considering that he was one of the best ive seen in my life i dont question his thinking. Again i went around trying to find this illusive idea over the internet, no one says it, everyone mention vague things like - tone is in teh fingurs, use da metronome. well i tried and it just didnt work.

this is where a good teacher comes in, now what are the fundamentals you might ask

- timing
- intonation (tone)
- metronome, (again timing)
- playing relaxed
- notes, (no im serious about this, you need to learn the difference between 8th and 16th notes)

things that well i know but no one taught me, i know tone is from the fingers, but how? i know i should play a metronome, but why after soo many beeps i barely improved? thats where a good teacher comes in, this is where it is important because without fundamentals it will be hard to go far.

A good teacher would need to guide you though all these hard stuff, to tell you what playing on and off the beat, how important is timing, how to structure your notes, approach a song and learn it relaxed. these things are small but important, simple yet critical, and you as an aspiring guitarist or someone who loves to play it needs to get down and dirty and do those laps that we hate. the sad part is teh intrawebs no teach you such good things

so get a teacher? yes; get a good teacher? god yes.

Jejari ibu diberi

very well written

i can quite relate to this, as i have been a student, a teacher and a self learning musician in all my years of playing. well i have a bit of an advantage as i have been a student, learned how to play the piano from a teacher at the age of 6. so i started quite young, learning all the fundamentals of piano. i didn't last though but the teacher was good enough because i have been able to carry along and applied much of those basic lessons i learned all the way back when i was still a kid.

a few years later i learned how to play the guitar from my brother, but straight to chords and tab reading. later on i was all alone, self learning. applying all i learned from my piano teacher and my brother, and more of experimenting. and take note, i'm a 90s kid - youtube (or rather the whole internet) was not around to show me stuff. it was all me experimenting, watching other fellow musicians at my young age and sharing ideas with them.

i also became a teacher to some kids, notably on this one korean kid who was learning the bass. on our first session, i did not allow him to touch his guitar. all i taught him for 2 hours was the basics - heavily on note reading and timing. i even gave him an exam on paper the next session. on the succeeding sessions, he was picking up the lessons nicely as how i wanted to. though i hope he can still remember very well all the stuff i have taught him.

i even teach fundamentals to my bandmates. much to their amazement that they now have a better understanding of what they were doing before i taught them

my take on the newbies (or even the experience ones especially who just learned by themselves) - learn the fundamentals. and how do you learn the fundamentals the best and right way? get a GOOD TEACHER.

Guys, something like this should be made a sticky la, there's been waaay too many threads of this nature that keepz popping up.

probably merge threads?

better if someone can rewrite a guide, taking all important notes.

such as walkthrough though. easier than to read/search tips across the thread..

sifu!

can u elaborate more on the fundamentals. ie. must know things in each of the topics u mentioned (timing, notes, etc.) . There's just too many infos and guides online, it's difficult to pick up the important points that would really help in playing. tqvm for ur guides. very much appreciated

the honest response is that ll of them are equally important as they are all fundamentals, however to go deeper to pick topics to suit your playing requires a teacher because i dont know how or what you play. most online stuff focuses on technique not fundamentals.

if you want to have an idea , think piano classes, they often teach fundamentals in note reading and timing.

useful tips!

besides that, can give any good sites for technical stuff/techniques?

im not too sure, as im not much of a technical player

but if theres anything that mots guitarist i know goes by for technique, its the speed mechanics book. that costs RM70-80 the last time i checked la.

no prob.

i'm beginning to play solos recently, so any help on techniques are much appreciated. for now, i just learn from utube..

the best opinion i can give you is get a teacher.

i can relate this on two fronts, ive not improved technically for a long while because no one taught me how to (im a bit stupid so yea). basically i was not taught the fundementals of things, i didnt know metronome nor did i know how to increase speed with accuracy and clarity. in simple terms i hantam aje.
needless to say i sound like shit for a long while untill i realise that most good guitarists have this strongly and have been working on it since.

another story i can tell you is that youtube only teaches you 80% of the stuff, the last 20% is up to your understanding. this comes quite bad considering that there are many youtubers, lesson fellas out there with different ideas. for one you might miss the right finger posistion (this is critical) or you might not do something that is critical in the technique. my friend came to me once, after trying to pinch harmonics for a long time to no result, he went through you tube, did it a lot of times and nothing worked, when i looked at it, his technique was wrong because he didnt allow his thumb to touch the string. i told him to do it in a digging motion, immediately he could pinch harmonics.

such things are common with people like us who youtube our lessons, hence i think ig you have the means to do lessons, go for it

youtube is ok, provided you find the right person, in learning a song and in what position of the neck to play it in etc.
learning technique from youtube? i never understood that.

anyway, for technical / speed stuff...
buy / rent / download paul gilbert's intense rock series.
for even harder stuff, john petrucci's rock discipline.

then again, those stuff are obviously not meant for complete beginners or even those who want to improve their technique.
you need some technique before even attempting that stuff.
its more for ppl who are like stuck at say doing 8th notes at 140bpm, and still have the need for speed...and want to break 200bpm...
none of that fancy pants sweeping stuff...that one for dbkl road cleaners to do.

but one thing is for sure, when u start going into the technical stuff, ur playing will change, ur picking style will change, ur choice of picks also will change...dunlop jazz III ftw

for 'technique' stuff, go take classical lessons until say grade 3...unless ur parents paying for it then u got no choice but to continue all the way...

This post has been edited by Everdying: Jan 21 2013, 11:49 AM

thanks , but i don't plan to go just youtube ftw . it just that i want to get some ideas and see how pro players do it and perhaps pick up some tips here and there, although some of them may not be suitable for me. that is for myself to figure out.

nothing beats learning from real man/teacher + lots of practices but at least got some ideas first.

go watch some local players...go gigs...go see club bands...
so many opportunities to watch ppl play...

must say also, go gigs not everyone is good.
locally, one of the first names i would say is jack of naked breed / tempered mental...

This post has been edited by Everdying: Jan 21 2013, 12:19 PM

it depends on what you are looking for, just as there are many forms of technique there are many forms of being a "good musician"

there are a few good pointers i like to share,

- the metronome is god, learn it and learn it well
- slow, go slow until you want to feel stupid doing this, but make sure every technique is correct.
- see your effects? dont use it, plug straight vanilla guitar to amp esp for solos. if you need to play stuff with gain, lower it down to less than 4, use OD instead of distortion. (it doesnt sound good yes, but it will train your dynamics which is a critical aspect of playing where youtube doesnt tell u)
-learn your bends, i dont mean "bending teh strings" if its one step up, bend one step up, no compromise.

follow this to the book lol, its very very hard, heck i find it super hard myself but its like a 10 commandments of guitar kinda thing

i used to practice my electric unplugged.
does 2 things...
prevents u from picking like a girl, which is really essential if ur aiming to really build up speed in alt picking.
and forces u to play cleaner.

bends like vibrato is also technique, and from the wrist not fingers which i see alot of ppl do.
u can also work bends into metronome practice, which essentially also does double duty in helping vibrato.

This post has been edited by Everdying: Jan 21 2013, 12:30 PM

+1 ! Everytime, it'll sound better when I plugged in

any suggestions where can i find a good teacher??

if you dont mind spending theres az samad, i think his schedule is very tight and im unsure if he is taking students.

then theres this jazz school somewhere in damansara (ive no experience over it)

my there was a good teacher in chambers that i heard of,

i dont know many others,