Many who wants to start playing any musical instrument asks around and see how others got started.
many questions were raised, any the first of them would probably is, "can I learn that by myself?"

this poll is actually to show those who will be learning in near future and those who might want to learn in further future how musicians got started.


do post a reply on the instrument that you play and how to got started...


to start off,

Instrument: Guitar
Method: 1

learn by myself by getting a chord book that cost rm2.50 at my time,and that was around 6 years ago.
achievement so far,i composed songs not for music industries, just my hobby. Played for a few churches. taught quite a lot of people how to play guitar before. played for events for schools like those convo nights, freshie nights, even for other schools...

erm...that's all.

PS: learning guitar by yourself isnt as hard as you think it is.

actually learning anything uses the same principles... there is idiot books everywhere teaching anythings you need to know on book or on the internet. The only question should be are you passion enough? Do you have the time?

Guitar - Self taught

i saw my younger bro go for professional guitar classes to learn.
he bought a RM40 guitar... since its my holidays, i take his guitar and go find tabs online ... guitar pro... and watch covers from youtube so i know how 2 strum... sometimes i ask my younger bro teach me also la.. but he also just learn... not pro. slowly slowly, can strum and pluck a few songs lor... still dont remember chords, i dont care actually , as long as i know which chord to press and strumming pattern.
until now i face alot difficulty changing chords fast enough, always press like not hard enough, dont know what the strumming pattern strum up or down .. how fast all... and always the tabs on guitar pro give like wrong strumming pattern and tabs.. even when i find tabs always i think its wrong one... so i have difficulty playing properly, i know sure is mistake one. i also got learn some songs that need to put capo .. and sometimes i know if same chords , got a few ways to press the chords, like can shift here shift there barre chord all... then got shortcut if use capo all... i dunno which is which, so sometimes when i see the tabs and then see the cover on utube, different, i also blur blur already. and i also dont know what is drop D tuning... somebody tell me how to do this pls.. coz some songs need drop D.. i tune guitar use electronic tuner. i donrt know how to hear get use ear. and lately i bought NZD200 2nd hand walden320T acoustic guitar. much better guitar lor.. but still low budget.

it's all about the passion...

i play the bass guitar

Originally, i wanted to play the guitar cause its always a kid's dream to stand out the most in the crowd. But then, i get myself in a position as the bassist instead for my band cause my friends all want to play the guitar. So, I started to play the bass. Learn it by myself cause i thought it'll be easy to play the bass. But, it turned out to be harder than expected cause when it comes to slapping, I'm really suck at it. So, the point is, learn by yourself would be much easier. Experience is the best teacher of all...

whoo, mine is a little confusing.

drums ==> Started taking classes. Ditched classes after 1 month. Received unofficial technique coaching for a few months. Self-taught since.

guitar ==> completely self-taught

Bass ==> received some kinda guidance at first, but about 99% self taught.

the standard tuning of guitar is E. which is the tune of the first and the last string.
drop D means tune the guitar so that the key is in D for the first and the last string.
and by changing those 2 strings only, it will sound REALLY weird for most songs(some songs require only tuning of of the strings), so, you will need to tune all the strings.

one of the shortcut (not really recomended) to down tune to D is, put your capo on the first fret and tune it according to the standard tuning. when you take off the capo, it should down tune to D already.

self taught FTW

Guitarist & Pianist
Professionally taught by my mentor(yoda) xD
personally, i think by teaching yourself, you tend to adapt many "bad" habits that you can never change. But learning professionally enables you to learn the "correct" techniques and produce good tone.
Though, that being said, most famous guitarists nowadays are self taught.... meh

sorry, but u got your facts wrong.

Standard guitar tuning: EADGBE (from low to high)
Drop D tuning: DADGBE


i hope you taught them the right thing

This post has been edited by echobrainproject: Jun 23 2008, 04:11 PM

and also to add, if you capo first fret and tune back to standard, you're tuning it a half step down into Eb tuning. you gotta capo the 2nd fret to tune it a whole step into D standard, which will be DGCFAd

makes u wonder what ppl are teaching nowadays.

and is it so hard to tune the 6th string 12th fret to open D on the 4th string to get drop-D?
actually u dont even need to, just tune it while playing the 6th and 5th together until u hear it sound like its supposed to

speaking bout tuning
i hate changing tune in a floyd rose
makes me wonder why did i bought 1 of those
haihhhh

just tune it to the octave on the 3rd string kaotim... no need think so hard

really? lolz... never tried playing songs what requires changing of tune, just what i heard from my fellow guitarists when i was in secondary school...
sorry for the wrong info guys...

piano- since i was 4

violin

classical guitar

Electric guitar

bass counted a?

Guitar,self taught for 2 years,got stuck in a rut and joined salvation army music classes.Classes stopped after sometime(Instructor didn't teach anymore) and continued self teaching.Recently joined formal music classes about a month ago.

Didn't actually start on interest,I was more interested to learn drums but my brother had a friend who wanted to sell his guitar and asked me if I want it so I just obliged.


Ended up as an obsessed guitarist.

Actually, to get DADGBD, just use the 4th string(D) to tune the 1st and last string .
Then you will get,

D(1st)
B
G
D(4th)
A
D(6h)

If you need DADGAD,
Than use the 5th string(A) to tune the 2nd string to A.

But I wouldn't recommend that for intermediates though =)
Else, use www.chordbook.com/guitartuner.php for sound check guidance.

I hoped I help anybody =)

is this the same thread as jamtank?

Self taught (learn by using books,online resource eg.ultimateguitar.com,youtube etc)

practice,practice..