The Poojer Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 are there any good online references or software that you would recommend for a starter? got a geeee-tar for my son, and looking for a starting point. thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopsGuy Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 I'm sure there will be some folks with a better opinion (Johnny Coli?), but if you go to YouTube and type in "Beginner Guitar Lessons", a whole bunch of stuff comes up including an entire channel devoted to the subject named (get this) "Beginner Guitar Lessons". It's a starting point, anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VOR Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Learning simple chords is the best place to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMadCap Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Find a chord chart and practice the main chords and the transitions between them before you do anything else. A good song to start with once you know these is Tangerine from ZepIII, it has nearly ALL the main chords... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corp000085 Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Learning simple chords is the best place to start. I concur. Look up some simple open chord progressions. Get those down, then work on barre chords. After you can barre your way up the fretboard, you have limitless possibilities with chords and various picking techniques. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Coli Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Agree with all posters. There are plenty of websites with the basic chords on them for beginners. As HopsGuy said, youtube is great for beginning guitar players, and there's a whole channel for it. The tabulature for most mainstream songs are on the 'net, so once a kid gets the feel for the chords (both open and barre..barre chords hugely important) have him try and play songs he actually likes. One cool thing, if your child has an iPhone, there are dozens of quality applications, many free or very cheap. Tuners, chord charts...I've even downloaded a pretty cool app that turns the iPhone into a guitar (Pocket Guitar...very, very cool). Great time to be a beginning guitar player. Lastly, the best way to learn is to play. Learn a couple chords, then start making up your own tunes. You'd be surprised how fast you pick it up if you start writing your own material. Sometimes its kind of discouraging for beginners to play a song and it sounds horrible. If you're writing your own songs, no one can tell the difference, and if it really sounds bad, tell people you're playing jazz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cugalabanza Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Great gift! I'm sure he'll be psyched. A couple things are essential I think for a beginner… 1. A good chord book. These are cheap and you can find them in any music or book store. 2. A chromatic tuner. Usually about $15-20. This is the one I have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 I've started thinking about learning, not knowing anything other than what one looks like, is this a good deal? Fender CD60 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar (with Case) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tcali Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 are there any good online references or software that you would recommend for a starter? got a geeee-tar for my son, and looking for a starting point. thanks in advance get beginner BOOKS online or at a music store. Learn the chords first then the intricacies.Private lessons would be very good as well. Same thing for piano /keyboards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Adams Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 I've started thinking about learning, not knowing anything other than what one looks like, is this a good deal? Fender CD60 Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar (with Case) My advice to beginners is this. If you have a buddy who really likes playing guitar, he probably has a crappy guitar laying around that he'd be happy to lend you for 6 months or even sell you. Otherwise, get a junker and see if you like playing. So many people give it up that buying a new one is not worth it. On top of that, a new low end guitar is a waste because if you like playing, you'll want an upgrade in a few years and if you don't, you just overpaid. As long as the guitar stays in tune, any beginner guitar is fine. For $100, you can get an Ibanez or something like that on Craigslist I had a $200 Ibanez acoustic for 5 years before making an upgrade. (I do not necessarily recommend Ibanez over a million other low end guitars--just happened to be the one I had.) You will hear a lot about "action" (height of strings over fretboard--or how hard you have to push to make a note) but for a beginner I actually think it's ovrrated. On any acoustic guitar, it's hard for a beginner to make chords. Not impossible, but your fingers will hurt a LOT after the first few times. If you go electric (not my playing preference though I have a couple electrics), you don't have the pain/action issue as much because they are much easier to play. The issue with electrics is that you make notes but they don't sound as good (at first) AND they are really loud! In short, for beginners, acoustics are harder to play but have a more forgiving sound that covers your mistakes. Electrics are easier to play but way less forgiving of your mistakes. In the acoustic vs. electric debate, just pick the one you think you're going to play more. Most people will say beginners should pick acoustic. I don't think it matters. People should pick what will make them practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Adams Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 are there any good online references or software that you would recommend for a starter? got a geeee-tar for my son, and looking for a starting point. thanks in advance First understand how to read guitar tablature--just google it. It isn't that hard. For songs, I go to this site: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ The site has a ton of songs written by regular Joes. For a beginner, here's how to BEST navigate it. Type in a song name. The songs will come up--lots of versions translated by different people. If more than one band performed it, those versions will be there. A good example is "Teach Your Children." Once "Teach Your Children" comes up, the BEST version for a beginner are the ones that say "chords" next to them. Those are the easy versions of the songs (usually). Click on one of those and look for versions with words and chords over the words. Some of the better versions have how to play the chords written into the songs as well. Also best to look for songs with 3-5 chords in the entire song (easier than you might think) and where the chords are spaced out (lots of words) between chord changes. That makes the songs easier to play. Eagles, Crosby Stills, Beatles--all have many nice easy songs to play. Within a couple weeks, he can probably push out a passable version of Let it Be or Take it Easy. A supplement is Youtube. If you type in a popular song name and then "guitar lesson," you often get some helpful videos. Between that website and Youtube, your son will start to get the hang of things. The beauty of knowing some basic chords as other suggest is that once he's mastered those, he can see the chords to any song and start playing it. He might not know some of the intricacies of the songs but with just a little chord knowledge, he could play it well enough for people to recognize and sing along. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeFerguson Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Another piece of advice I would give is never to store your guitar in a complicated case, unless you're taking it out of the house. I like to have mine at the ready whenever the mood strikes me. You will be less likely to play it if it is hermetically sealed in an excessive case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted May 5, 2009 Share Posted May 5, 2009 My advice to beginners is this. If you have a buddy who really likes playing guitar, he probably has a crappy guitar laying around that he'd be happy to lend you for 6 months or even sell you. Otherwise, get a junker and see if you like playing. So many people give it up that buying a new one is not worth it. On top of that, a new low end guitar is a waste because if you like playing, you'll want an upgrade in a few years and if you don't, you just overpaid. Picked one up off Craigslist for $50 today, came with a soft case. The woman never played it, still had a tag on it for D'Addario Strings. Not sure on the brand, can't find any identifying marks, other than a 'made in china' sticker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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