learn-guitar.org

OK, I am now seven days into learning to play my new guitar, and my fingers are still sore and they still hurt.

I know this is going to pass soon. In fact, it is already getting better. But…. ouch. I have probably been playing an hour to an hour and a half a day. And I have gotten to the point where my guitar playing doesn’t hurt my fingers much more whether I am playing or not playing.

That is a good thing - it means that my fingers aren’t slowing down the amount of time I am playing my guitar. In the first few days, I was really limited to how much I could play - my guitar playing just hurt my fingers so much.

I know this sounds like just so much whining… and it is. But nevertheless, I am having fun, despite my sore guitar fingers.

From what I understand, if I got a classical guitar with nylon strings (ie, a classical acoustic guitar), then it would have been a lot easier on my fingers.

Same thing with an electric guitar - I guess they are much easier on fingers.

But I wanted a steel string acoustic guitar, and I am really happy with it.

Really, the sore fingers thing just is NOT a big deal. It is just something to whine about. I couldn’t be happier playing my guitar.

And now… the search for guitar tabs! I haven’t been at this for very long (and that is a severe understatement)… but I already know all about guitar tabs.

Actually, I don’t know ALL about guitar tabs, but I have learned quite a bit in a very short time. In fact, it is amazing that I have only had my guitar for less than a week, and I am already scouring the net for guitar tabs.

Some things I know:

- The term guitar tabs is really short for “guitar tablature".
- Guitar tablature has been around for a very long time.
- Guitar tabs are easier to read than music, at least for THIS novice.
- Not everyone means exactly the same thing when they talk about guitar tabs.
- Lots of people are looking for free guitar tabs!

So this is what I am going to do… compile a list of good places out there to get guitar tabs online. There are lots of places that have them, so I might as well put together a list of them. And this seems like as good a place to store them as any other.

As a complete novice (less than one week as a guitar owner/player), it simply amazes me that I can already read tabs. I love love LOVE the fact that they are so simple to understand… and that I don’t need to struggle to read music at this point in the learning curve.

In the meantime, I am going to keep looking for those songs I love that I can play with a G chord and a C chord.

Well now, is it really possible to get free guitar lessons?

Of course it is! After all, my neighbor Will got some free guitar lessons a few years ago - and now he has his own rock and roll band, and I have even seen him perform. He is even writing his own songs!

So how did Will get his free guitar lessons? Well, he got them from a friend of the family… a friend of his Dad’s, who is a really kind soul and likes to teach guitar. He doesn’t ask for any compensation, just that sometime down the road his students do the same for another person who wants to learn to play guitar.

So how do you go about getting free guitar lessons? I am not quite sure… but I am going to be searching around the net. I am sure there are some good sites out there that provide some free lessons or at least free guitar tutorials. If you know of any, let me know - just leave a comment and then we will be building a knowledge base for everyone.

In the meantime, here are some not quite free resources that look awfully solid. I am a tenacious learner (or at least I can be), and a very thorough researcher… so I will be checking out ALL of these and reporting back. And I will also be looking for free guitar lessons:

Learn To Play Guitar With Jamorama
Stripped Down Guitar
Acoustic Guitar Workshop

OK, I guess I am getting a bit obsessive about this whole “learning guitar” thing. My biggest problem right now is my sore fingers from practicing on my guitar. I have been going at it for several sessions each day - maybe a half hour each session. And boy do my fingers hurt. I assume this is going to get better soon. As it is, typing this really hurts right now.

In any case, I just read this “Stripped Down Guitar” site that promises that I will be playing after just one weekend. I suppose I am already playing to some extent - I know about 5 or 6 chords now. But I sure would like to get a quicker jump on learning the basics of playing the guitar. Does anyone have any experience with “Stripped Down Guitar“?

And now… guitar lessons - the top question on everyones mind. Do you know how after Christmas everyone asks what you got for Christmas? Well, I tell them - I got an acoustic guitar… and I couldn’t be happier.

After they hear about my guitar, the next question they ask is whether I am going to take guitar lessons. Or the other question is “who are you going to take lessons from?".

So what’s my answer? I have absolutely no idea! After all, I just got the guitar!!

I suppose I should take some lessons… but right now I am really not in a rush to find a guitar teacher. And when I look at the progress of some people I know who ARE taking guitar lessons, I am not all that enthused about going and shelling out the money and spending the time to get lessons.

The way I see it, in my current uneducated state, is that the quality of the lesson will mostly depend on the quality of the teacher. So that means I need to find a good teacher. I am sure there are great ones, but I am also sure there are lousy ones as well. After all, I had a really lousy spanish teacher in high school.

I know I can find good books, good web sites, and great home study programs - I am sure there are bad examples of all of those as well, but I have a feeling it will be easier to sort out the bad from the good with these.

So just how do you set about to learn how to play the guitar?? There are lots and lots of people who are willing to give you their opinion. Sort of like there are lots of people willing to tell you what guitar to buy.

Since I am a rank beginner and I want to learn to play the guitar, I have quite a keen interest. Should I take lessons? Buy a book? Get a video?

I tend to be a pretty good self-learner, and I am a big fan of self-published information products that sorta break the normal rules for any given learning situation. So I have been poking around and have found some very highly recommended courses. The first one that I am going to check out is this course on learning to play the guitar.

It includes audios, books, games, and ear training. I haven’t ordered it yet, but I plan on doing so soon.

Naturally (or so it seems to me), along with the Christmas gift of my acoustic guitar, I also got a couple of books from the music store about learning to play guitar. One of them looks really good, the other one looks a bit stuffy but should still have some good stuff in it. More on those books later.

Santa Claus was very good to me - he brought me a Walden D610 acoustic guitar. I had strongly hinted that this was what I was hoping for… and Santa delivered.

I am really happy with this guitar so far… I looked around at a bunch of guitars and in three different music stores, and this is the one I ended up wanting. It came down to a choice between the Walden D610 and a Taylor 110. The Walden cost about $400, and the Taylor was about $558 at my local music store - Canyon Music.

When I looked around online, I couldn’t find the Walden on sale anywhere online, although I found the Walden Guitar web site here. This is a link directly to the D610. Here is a picture of my guitar:

I really liked the Taylor, and the Taylor has an excellent warranty and it sounds like it will have far better re-sale value than the Walden. However, after I spent a couple of hours just noodling around with them - playing the two chords that I know - I just felt more comfortable with the Walden. And I just liked the sound a little better.

In any case, I am very happy. And I have very sore fingertips.

So the big question is how am I going to learn? Do I take lessons? How about videos? Books?

What will it be?

What style do I want to learn?

So many questions?

But first things first… I need a guitar. A first guitar.

How do you go about buying your first guitar? Darn good question.

I started off asking just about all the guitar players I know… and that is probably at least ten or so. And of course, I got ten different opinions. Most of them thought I should spend at somewhere around $200, or maybe $300 for a guitar. One of them told me to be sure to get a guitar that felt comfortable to play… but how am I supposed to know what is comfortable.

Another friend told me to go to music stores and try playing the guitars. But how am I supposed to do that - I haven’t learned how to play guitar yet… it isn’t like I can walk in an play the various guitars if I don’t know how to play.

Another friend told me to spend at least $400 to $600 on a guitar. And you know what, I can definitely appreciate quality… but what if I bought a guitar and ended up not playing it? I would feel awful about having such an expensive guitar sitting there not being played!

Then I started researching online. And I found pretty much the same thing - lots of folks with lot of opinions. None of them really very useful. Actually, make that most of them not very useful.

In any case, I found some good guitar forums, some sites with decent reviews, and several online music stores that sold guitars. But I am going to save that for another day…