Any experienced guitar players have advice on how to learn better?
I played very little in highschool and now, 15 years later, I have the urge to go back to it. I've been playing for an hour or so most days for the last month which I know isn't a lot but lets be honest, it's just for my own enjoyment, I have no illusions of being a middle aged rock star.
Anyway I was wondering if people had any advice, good resources, sheet music that isn't garbage?
In my position would you go the self taught route or is it really important to have a tutor? I'm particularly concerned about picking up bad technique and then practicing that, I feel like that was a big part of why I gave up in the first place - fucking up the same things no matter how many times I did them because I learned them wrong.
Thanks all.
I can't tell you what's right or wrong but in my opinion, learn songs you like for a while. The first rule is to have fun.
Pretty much every song's chords are available online so you can start slowly by strumming along to any song. If that becomes boring or tedious for whatever reason try singing along while playing.
Try using your ear to play the melody on a single note. You shouldn't be trying to sound amazing at first, because really, even after years of playing no one feels satisfied with how they sound. You should be building your dexterity, training your ear, pushing your talent, and as always, having fun.
There's going to be a bunch of technique snobs everywhere in every community of anything. Guitar is one of those things.
After 2 years of playing I realized I was holding my pick "wrong". I re-trained myself with a "correct" technique within a week. A couple years later I found a new technique of holding the pick. Again, within a week I was able to play everything I could previously while holding the pick in a dramatically different way.
Technique is something you can pick up along the way. Yes, if you practice "proper" technique from the start you will be better off, but that's only if you continue playing. Playing in a regimented fashion where you must play "properly" often times turns people away from playing at all.
All of this depends on what you actually want to do with the guitar and what your goals are.
Is it to be able to play along with some of your favorite songs? Is there a certain skill level you want to attain? Do you want to focus on lead, or rhythm?
I, for example, wanted to play the entirity of Crazy Train. I thought that as long as I could play that, I would be happy. After I learned Crazy Train, I figured, if I could play whatever note I heard in my head I would be happy. Then it was whatever phrase or riff I was hearing in my head. Then it was jamming. My practice of learning songs, paired with some very basic dexterity exercises got me beyond what my initial goal was.
That said, a good guitar teacher being there one on one will absolutely accelerate your learning. They should be asking you a lot of these same questions and directing you accordingly. More importantly than anything though, they should be making sure you're having fun. Fun gets done. Chores get ignored.
Thanks for the advice. Totally feel you on fun vs. chore and I'm very much trying to be mindful of keeping things fun.
The frustration I have with online chords/tabs is that I can find 10 different sources with 10 totally different transcriptions of the same song, and I've definitely seen some examples of badly transcribed songs where they are very hard to play and sound off when you do play them and then I've found a different version and it just sounds right with a fraction the effort. I guess it can be discouraging when you think it's your skill level that's holding you back in getting a sound or tune you like but it turns out it way your reference material. Still I know I have to kill the perfectionist in my head, because I do enjoy the experience regardless.
Really I just want to be able to reproduce some of the beautifully rhythms and cool sounds that make me love to listen to music, like singing along to a song on the radio, just projecting your love of a song out into the world. Makes it feel like it's part of you, ya know? It's not my goal to do, like, super technical lead or anything - more like just me and the guitar is enough to make music, like Neil Young or Johnny Cash - and be able to just pick up new stuff quickly so I can play what I'm passionate about.
The idea of playing all of Crazy Train is absolutely wild to me though, I would never dare to dream that big but that'd be something!
I appreciate it though, pushing through the self-doubt is gonna matter as much or more than any particular technique.
I understand your frustration and want you to know my completely personal opinion but I'm going to explain it through my own experiences.
As every aspiring lead guitarist does, I loved Van Halen. Their verses and choruses weren't very hard to learn once I got the basics down, but obviously the solos would have to come later. Anyway, I loved "Ain't talkin bout love". I found some tabs and learned the intro after a week and I had it down. It never sounded perfect but it was super fun to play.
A couple years later I found that the tabs I learned were entirely "wrong" from someone who learned it the way EVH actually played it. That guy thought the way I played it was way cooler than the way he played it. All the notes were the same but it was more technical and apparently more impressive looking, and he wished he could play it that way I did.
There are so many ways to play every song note for note, but only one way to play it "correctly". That correct way may be easy, or it may be hard, but if it sounds good, it is good. The wrong way can make you a better player and sometimes learning "wrong" can be a good thing.
If it's so hard that you are getting frustrated, you can always bench it for later, find easier ways to play it, find more technique based lessons on how to play it, or break it into smaller parts and practice those small pieces until you have the dexterity.
Another opinion of mine that Marty Friedman said best is "learning a song perfectly is a hobbyist's goal." There's so much nuance to every guitar players style that there's little chance you will ever sound exactly like them. Even the greatest guitarists can only get close to emulating another great guitar players sound. If you focus on sounding perfect, you most likely won't progress very far and it won't happen very quickly. The concepts are key.
Learn to strum the chords, doesnt have to be perfectly strummed. If it's a G-C-D progression, even if it's fingerprinted, just strum along. Maybe add some embellishments. Maybe use your ear to add some harmony, or try to come up with your own chord shapes.
As for self doubt, you're most likely going to have to live with it, so get used to it. Are you going to be the next EVH, Hammet, Rhoads, Yngwie, Tosin, Holdsworth, Guthrie, or Lane? Most likely not. They're freaks of nature. Can you make beautiful, insane, creative music that is all your own and exactly what you want to hear? Absolutely. You'll likely even surprise yourself with how good you get when you let the pressure of being perfect go.
The fact that you even asked about how to get better shows you want more, and you're willing to ask the questions to get there. If any of this sounds patronizing I apologize and don't mean it as such. I just don't know what level you're at with your playing and knowledge, but I wish you the best, and if you have any questions about anything guitar related you can feel free to message me and ask. 🙂
Hey, sorry about late reply, didn't have a lot of time lately and I wanted to be able to take your post in properly before responding.
I totally get what you're saying though, while all the advice I got is great and very appreciated I think I also needed people to just tell me to go for it and maybe make some mistakes. So that I knew I wasn't missing some "right" way to do things.
So thanks for typing that up, definitely taken in a positive spirit, not patronizing at all. I've got a bit more confidence to just get stuck in now and worry less about doing it wrong. I'll be back if I have some more specific questions later on though.
Fuckin go for it bud.