Guitar self teaching literature

[Jase22]

Greetings on this beautiful sunny day :D

Having owned a guitar for a fair while now, but never really gotten into playing it due to lack of time and patience, I recently picked it up again and am really getting back into playing it. Took a while to get the old fingers hardened up, but seem ok now and I find playing great for relaxation. Certainly beats the tat on tv!! :)

However, I'm getting a bit stalled and need some good literature to work through to learn scales and techniques, aswell as understanding the technical side of playing now that I can strum out your basic chords and a couple of tunes.

Seem to remember there being a fair few budding guitarists on here, so was hoping someone could make me some recommendations. I can read tabs and have a basic grasp of reading music, but there's that many teach yourself guides out there I didn't know where to start!

Any help much appreciated.

Jase

[fizzwheel]

I bought music books for songs / bands I liked and then sat down with the books and played along to the CD and worked out how to play that way.

I read tab, but I cant read music and I managed to pick up quite a bit quite quickly, after that its just perserverance and practice IMHO.

[Jase22]

I've got a couple of tab books, which I've been working through, and that's helped. Just getting a bit stalled with it, and wanted a bit of a different challenge.

Might you be able to recommend a couple of good books you've got that are good for "playing"? I'm pretty open to most tastes in music.

[mister c]

I dabble with guitar pro 5 which, if you have torrents is available with up to 50000 tabs to go at, or I use 911tabs.com or ultimate-guitar.com

[gettin2dizzy]

The Hal Leonard ones are good, but tbh I'd save your money and just follow Tabs online. You can pick up any song you want for free nowadays in seconds.

Alternatively screw the lot and buy Guitar Hero! ;)

[Jase22]

Alternatively screw the lot and buy Guitar Hero! ;)

Already got that :D Pretty good innit? Can just about handle the hard level now!


Cheers for the pointers though, I just felt I needed another angle to come at it than tabs. I'll have a look into Hal Leonard books.

[dizzyblonde]

I play by ear, can't read tab, or music. I listen to all my fave music, and can usually start playing along to a new one half way through. I have sat in jam sessions with my mates ad found that learning that way was so much better. You get the feel of the music on top of the plink plank plonk of reading tab etc, if that makes sense.

Only thing is with jamming with your mates, if your shy it don't work...

[Alpinestarhero]

Just play things that take your fancy, youll soon see that power chords are all you need :D

I never really learn full songs, mostly just the main rythm then the bits of solo's I find interesting. Learn the things you find fun, and try and build up a good range of techniques.

Don't neglect the way you play though; its easy to get into bad habits....try and get into the idea of using down and upstrokes when picking, and dropping your thumb down behind the neck to open your hand out a bit, specialy when doing those lead licks and solo's

riffage-wise, metallica Black album stuff is pretty easy but you'll learn things about the fret board.

Learn some simple scales (pentatonic scales) to help you find your way around the frets, all that kinda thing

Dizzy has a point; listen to the song you are learning. I thought i was playing Tornado Of Souls by Megadeth right for ages, until i listened to the song properly and realised i was fluffing it up...tabs are good, but use the CD to play along with.

Have fun!

Matt

[fizzwheel]

Dizzy has a point; listen to the song you are learning. I thought i was playing Tornado Of Souls by Megadeth right for ages, until i listened to the song properly and realised i was fluffing it up...tabs are good, but use the CD to play along with.

Definately a good point.

I had a similar experience, I learnt from tab to play Waterfall by The Stone Roses I thought I had it down perfectly, then I played alongside the CD and I'd missed one note out of the main riff, DOH !!!

[thedonal]

If you're specifically into rock guitar, there's a couple of books by a German Guitar teacher called Michael Fischer.

Rock Guitar Secrets- loads of good warm ups and excercises to improve skills from co-ordination and scales to tapping and sweeping.
Masters of Rock Guitar- a load of examples in the styles of great guitarists from Andy Summers through to Steve Vai

Both with a CD. A bit cheesy in delivery, but excellent content.

Also John Petrucci's (Dream Theater) DVD/CD Rock Discipline is fantastic with some brilliant warm up excercises and lessons on all the major rock techniques.

The skills in these books are easily transferable to other styles...

Also look at Lick Library on the web- you can subscribe (costs cash) for online video lessons and also band specific stuff- including books and dvds for most major bands

[thedonal]

Going back to this again, once you're on your way, I find that actually working things out by ear teaches you an awful lot about music and your playing. Well recommended.

[EssexDave]

Very good books are written by guthrie govan - never stops amazing me how immense he is at so many different styles of music. I have the Creative guitar; Advanced Techniques 1&2 but check the PM i sent and i'll get back to you, hopefully with something fun and useful.

[Jase22]

Cheers for pointerss guys.

Cheers for the PM also Dave, sent you one back.

[Alpinestarhero]

Jase, is there any particular style you are interested in? For example, do you want to indulge in all manner of fretboard w***ery, or do you feel destined to become the rythm meister?

[Jase22]

Jase, is there any particular style you are interested in? For example, do you want to indulge in all manner of fretboard w***ery, or do you feel destined to become the rythm meister?

If I'm honest, I'd say I don't know. I'd like to get involved with a bit of impressive fretboard work at some stage, although at present rythm guitar is more of an obtainable target!

We shall see where it takes me, but my ideal would be to pick up a guitar and impress onlookers with my guitaring guruship. :D

[Balddood]

You might also want to try www.justinguitar.com . He's an australian bloke but we won't hold that against him. He has some interesting DVD's and books which you can buy as well as online lessons for free. Most of the videos are on youtube but the links for them are on the main site. I bought the master your major scales dvd and tbh, his teaching methods are brilliant. Worth a look at any rate.

HTH

Sean