so i bought an electric guitar yesterday! guitar players...how did you learn?

Ive been going back and forth of late deciding what to have for xmas now that i wasnt getting the lowers for the late curvy (RIP)

was toying with the idea of a console, most likely xbox, but 2 things my mrs rightly pointed out, any spare time i get i spend in the studio, and my phone contract is up in 2 months so if i still want a console then i can get one with the new phone (makes sense)

so yesterday she gave me her credit card and said fill ya boots (and who said romance and surprises were dead!)

went down to my fav music shop, and walked out with a beginners set thing, a squier se special strat with 10w amp, stand, case and tuner etc.

plugged it in when i got home to make sure it works before it gets wrapped and instant rock god i was not, but very enjoyable and really looking forward to learning.

so to the guys and girls on here that play, how did you learn? did you have lessons or self taught with books and vids?

this is the one i bought http://www.dawsons.co.uk/acatalog/info_00060002.html

i know its not the best in the world but im only starting out!

[fizzwheel]

Just get some of the beginners books or find guitar tabalture for a song you like and then just follow it along. Thats what I did.

On a sort of relevant note, acoustic tabs are a bit different to electric I believe, so would Dappa D have to make sure he picks one to be played electrically or does it not matter in the beginning? I've never played electric so not entirely sure how much difference there would be...

[fizzwheel]

I learnt on an acoustic, I dont think the notation for pulls off's / hammer on's / slides are any different though.

[Mr Speirs]

Electric Tab and Acoustic Tab are the same Miss YC. They just tell you what fret to put your finger on. Electric and Acoustic have the same fret layouts.

Dappa D. Find yourself a song you would like to figure out. I choose alot of Oasis tracks as they were fairly simple. I then went to a site that gave you the guitar tab to the songs.

Like this one for example: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com

Once you learn to play the chords you can link them all up and play Rythym Guitar with the tracks.
This is how I learnt (actually I started on the bass) and it served me well.

But the main thing for me was finding a song I really wanted to play along to. Otherwise you are just learning and it gets a bit boring after a while. But once you learn to play along to something you'll find yourself with the song on repeat

Ah ok ta Fizz.

DD learning a song you'll want to take the trouble to learn fully is good...for some reason the first one I learnt was Brahm's lullaby on all the strings, odd choice but I suppose I'll have at least something to send my kids to sleep later on

Scales are a good way of getting to grips with the strings plucking-wise and just play chords constantly at first. If you pick a song with at least 3 or 4 chords in so you're playing them a lot, you'll soon get the hang of it. Most importantly, have fun!

[Mr Speirs]

Oh and don't worry about the Dmaj7's and the like for now. Just learn D and when summat like Dm7 comes up...just play D

Oh heres the chord D:

e]---2---
b]---3---
G]---2---
D]---0---
A]---x---
E]---x---

Just get playing it! Sounds like your musical already- so you'll pick it up fairly quickly.

I played keyboards before picking a guitar up. So I started just learning from music books (I could read music easily then- not just tab!) and playing by ear. I had lessons at school for a few months, but after that just taught myself. Sometimes, it's the best way to learn, though it can be quicker with tuition/someone to bounce ideas and learning off.

Tab books are good. There's loads of beginners books about...

There are some good tuition DVDs about- try the lick library site- http://www.licklibrary.com/?source=g...FUwb3godU0cUSA

There are 'how to play guitar' tutorials, also how to play music by specific bands. Quite helpful (even if you've already got the tab).

nice one thanks all much appreciated

http://www.vocalist.org.uk/downloads/chords.zip

I wrote that Ages ago when I was learning to mess around with Delphi. Gives you a chunk of chords to be getting on with.

You can form chords in several ways, and on a leccy guitar you may often make one shape and slide that shape up and down the neck to make the different chords wheras on an accoustic you're perhaps more likely to learn the classic shapes which are shown in that program.

Top leccy riffs to get you started and are dead easy.
Smoke on the water.
Teen spirit.

You can do both of those with one shape (basically an E) slid up and down the neck with your index finger barring.