How Long Did It Take For You To Learn Guitar/ What Did You Learn?
Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at
10:56 pm
I want to know how long did it take for you to learn to play guitar (acoustic/classic/ electric) What age where you when you first learned, and was it successful? How many chords did you learn? 50-60 ? What was your instructors technique? Learn by book?
US $.99
I started around age 17.If never touch a guitar before , it took several weeks to have master some major chords and here you go ,you started with simple songs, learn from observing friends playing,listen to the music behind the songs, you go for more difficult chords,different technique, and soon you develop yr own style. But the key peice to succees is still the same old phrase – pratice make perfect!
I went to music school…it was a two year course that I did in a year and a half….then I had a private teacher…I play and teach classical and finger style….in the year and a half I would say that I learned lots of chords…as to exactly how many I don’t know…..When you start school you learn by their books…but today they have a lot better system, you can learn by tutor on line or by Cd, DVD, video, or books that have Cds in the back of them. I was in my late teens….when I went to school but I had played before….my father played the jazz clubs in Philly when I was growing up so I was around it all of my life….Guitar is not an easy instrument to play, as I’m sure that your finding out….If you just want to play a few chords it’s not too bad but if you want to learn everything correctly such as reading music notation and learning all the keys and scales and theory it could take as long as five years to get it all down….why not look at some of these sites to see if there’s something online that could help you….but remember that your not going to learn this over night…there’s no fast way to learn….it takes a lot of hard work and detacation….daily practice, and patience. Look at some of the sites below and see what you think….at the end I’ll give you some of the free sites….I’m not crazy about the free sites…you be the judge when you check them out. http://www.guitarchords.com/http://www.billbrutal.com/http://www.jamplay.com/http://www.8notes.com/ (click on the guitar…this site has a free electronic tuner…and where it says chords, just type in the name of the chord and it will show you how to make it, great site for guitarist)http://www.learn-to-play-guitar-online.i…http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/http://www.guitar-about.com/http://www.justinguitar.com/http://www.infiniteguitar.com/http://www.stringdancer.com/http://www.chordfind.com/http://www.guitarnotes.com/http://www.worldguitar.com/http://www.fretplay.com/http://www.learntoplayguitar.net/http://www.guitartutoronline.com/
Free Sites :http://www.guitar.about.com/http://www.freebasicguitar.com/http://www.abclearnguitar.com/http://www.learntoplayguitar.com/http://www.cyberfret.com/http://www.ultimateguitar.com/
I hope that you find something here that helps you, put them it favorites or print them out so that you’ll have them for furture refference….bye !!!!!!!!
ok, I started late in life. I bought my first guitar (acoustic, at 20 yrs old) and an “intermediate level” study guide on music theory as it applied to guitar. That was 1981.
I learned the fret board. The position of all the natural notes, did not bother with sharps and flats, cause, one man’s sharp, is another man’s flat.
I noticed the “number system” in the book while I was learning the “Major” and “Minor” scale intervals, but still tried to learn the scales by “alphabet”.
In 1985 I took private lessons from, Ron Pruter, owner of the Ailing Axe, in Phoenix, Arizona. He showed me the “Number System”, aka the “Nashville Number System”.
With the knowledge of the intervals for Major and Minor Scales, I know can play in any key and only need to know the root note, I do not think in terms of Sharps or Flats anymore, but numbers instead. Diminished 11th or Augmented 5th is how I “see” the fret board.
Ron also taught me Chord Construction and Structure, how to think out inversions and stuff like that.
He also showed me Harmony.
Because of this way of looking at things, he was a very flexible player.
One part of his style that I really liked was his rhythm playing, his accent fluctuations, which varied on the up or down stroke, giving the chord rhythm a “voice”.
Also he taught me basic “barr” chord structure. (One pattern moved around gives you many chords, one pattern to remember, it all correlates to the root note and any deviations from the Major or Minor chord statement, (again Diminished 4th’s and etc..)
This was 1985, Stevie Ray had just released his second album. Mr. Pruter had not “heard” Stevie until I mentioned him and Ron caught him on Austin City Limits. Ron told me that Stevie wasn’t playing anything that he hadn’t taught me.
This meant that I was taught the Minor Pentatonic Scale, which is what I mostly play out of cause every Major Scale has a relative Minor, and I just follow the “root note” of what ever key or chord I want to match.
So basically other than chords, I usually phrase my leads with only 5 notes plus octave variations of each note, blending them together to create a, harmonious melody.
I don’t remember when, but I started letting go of “thinking of notes” and started listening to sound coming out my Fender HotRod Deville amp, mainly thru my Tele, which sounds so pretty with a mostly clean setting.
My luthier instructor told me I had a natural tendency to lean towards “bluesy” leads and phrases, so that is why he focused me on the Minor Pentatonic.
Which after 27 years of “studying”, I still find amazement at the endless possibilities of what you can do with basically, just 5 notes.
BTW, you can transpose this theory to any musical instrument, once you learn the “fret board”.
This will work on the saxophone, which I would like to get some day. I am shopping for a bass right now.
I would say that Ron Pruter’s teachings have been successful for me, I even say that I have been “Pruterized” !