learning to play guitar at 20....

[mike]

hey guys,

i've just recently really gotten into the guitar, i have an old shitty acoustic that i've been playing.  got it a few years ago, took lessons, hated it, finally just taught myself and have begun to get addicted. i know a few basic scales, most of the easy chords, and a tiny bit of music theory.

i'm not lookin to be the next clapton or anything, just would like to progress to a decent level and eventually pick up an electric guitar which has been one of my longtime goals.

i make time to practice every day, at least 30 mins, despite my busy college schedule, but i can't afford lessons or anything and don't really have many friends who play

any advice or pointers on what sort of things are beneficial?

thanks

[primushead]

Just keep up what you're doing.  It's really addictive when you first start to play.  If you can switch between chords easily, that's the big thing that will make you better.  Just practice alot and try and play along with songs alot.  You'll naturally start to get a better ear and a better technique.
Hope that helps.

[ChiefOKONO]

learn songs you like
play along with albums
try to jam with people or watch them and pick up stuff..
its difficult but keep it going and you will get more and more comfortable.. i started when i was about the same age and now i am pretty decent i think but i have a long way to go myself...

[EC]

You sound a lot like me, mike.  To add to what primushead and the chief have already mentioned, get yourself a basics book.  It's really awesome if you can take like one lesson a month (you can usually find someone who's a student), but they can teach you good ways to hold your arms, and how to manipulate your wrist, and the best fingering for chords that'll just make your life easier.

The book I got was a KISS book (not kiss the band, it's a series).  The best thing about it was the chord charts in the back.  The worst thing about it was the pictures.  holy.

Playing along to your favourite bands and figuring out basic chord groupings is awesome.  It's just getting familiar with how most music works.  (For example, if a song is in D, you know that usually there will be two other chords, and they will be G and A.  That's just the I, IV, V pattern that is standard in western music.  Each chord has a relative minor [D=Bm, G=Em, A=F#m] and you can mess around there to get similar progressions with different feels.)

If you have any previous music background, that might make sense, if not, then it might be hard, but usually you learn that stuff intrinsically anyhow, and the progressions come naturally, and you can hear them almost before they come.

I mean, I am TOTALLY a guitar virtuoso now, so if I can do it, you can do it, too!  

ahahaha.  Serious, though.  Play along to your favourite songs.  That's a great way to learn.  Not My Morning Jacket songs, though.  They're all in messed up string/capo/tunings.  ;) (that's not true, i'm just takin' the piss a little.  check the tabs section for chording mmj songs)

[MyLifeISought]

FIND people to play with. It's worth it
I started playing at 12 (18 now), but i've never taken a lesson. I use songbooks (i learned by playing through a Dylan book, a Neil Young book, and a book w/ the first five Zeppelin albums, over and over again), and i'd recommend The Complete Guitarist, a book by Richard Chapman

[Jaimoe]

Learn the blues. All popular music comes from the blues.

[mike]

thanks guys, all of this helps

-mike

[DD]

Learn the blues. All popular music comes from the blues.

best advice right there.  blues structures are the basis for all of it.


its also a good idea, if you have the resources, to take up piano and bass.  these also help build up ability quickly.

i started playing guitar at 20, just shy of my 21st birthday.  its now a good number of years later and ive played  in multiple bands, multiple states, and one other country.  ive continued to grow not only as a musician but as a songwriter just by working at it and having the drive and desire to do it.  dont let those 15 year old virtuosos out there bug ya.  just do what you can and work on it with whatever spare time you have available.

i started by learning blues riffs along with playing to some of my favorite albums.  it helped to my to buy a couple of song books that went with a couple of those albums so i could have the actual notes in front of me when figuring out the songs.  i also knew a few really good guitarists who not only showed me chords, riffs, and other tips they also turned me onto a lot of great influencial music.  with the internet you have an advantage some of us didnt have.  you can look up any chord you want and you can even look up the notes to most of the songs you would want to figure out.

ill tell ya though.  the first couple of years i played i would practice between 5-8 hours a day.  why all my friends were skipping class to get high i was skipping class because i couldnt make myself put the guitar down.  if you dont have massive amounts of time to invest AT LEAST do the half hour to hour per day of practice.  the hardest part is those first few months.  once you get the finger strength and learn your first few chords its all just practice from there.

good luck.

[corey]

Another thing that might help....

When you are at work or in class or somewhere else killing time, keep a racketball or tennisball with you. If you are right handed, hold the ball in your left palm and squeeze several times in a row with your fingers. This will help build up strength on your chord-makin' hand.

If you can practice on an acoustic guitar, that would help as well. It will make the transition to electric guitar much easier if you learn on an acoustic. Making chords on an electric will feel like heaven if you get accustomed to making them on a thick-ass acoustic guitar.

[Dee.]

Good luck, Mike.  I like this thread because it's making me want to practice more.  I haven't taken practicing very seriously in quite some time and I'd like to get back into it.