Since I am new, who here plays guitar?

Galliano, huh?

Well guys, I have to disagree with a few things here as far as playing guitar goes.

Although learning songs and such from tab is fun it is not something I would recomend relying on as a whole.

If you only read tab you are never going to learn the basic need to knows of the guitar. You dont even learn individual notes from tab, all it does is show you what finger to put on what frett. This will allow you to play a song but thats about it.

Lessons are essential if you are at all serious about playing. A good teacher will start you off by teaching you each individual note on the frett board as well as some of the essential scales that will improve your playing amazingly in a relatively short period of time.

I also think by just reading tab you wouldt know in 8 years what a kid that has taken lessons for a year knows. He will understand his instrument while the guy reading the tab only understands what songs he has learned through tab. You wont know when to use teh right scale over the right chords, there is just so much that you are missing by useing tab.

The biggest thing I recomend is not start useing tab. Go take lessons for a few moths and learn your basics. Then take that structure you got froma qualified teacher and build from it. Once you have the raw essentials down you will be able to play anything you want and everything will come 100xs easier than if you sat home noodleing and reading tab.

Jason

My uncle learned to play acoustic in his youth (early seventies) off an lp called "How To Play Acoustic". He does quite well, and could probably play a number of "professionals" under the table. Aside from that, I thought Mick Jagger learned from listening to old blues records and trying to duplicate them?

As for the goode Sarah's comment on the thirteenth note, a Simpsons quote should do well to wrap up my feelings on that rubbish:


"You have to listen to the notes she's not playing"

"I can listen to them at home."

I mostly play bass (I have a Carvin LB75 and some crappy Samick thing) through a big ol' Roland guitar amp, but I also have a bunch of keyboards (see the fanrastic Hammond B-3 thread) and a 35-year old acoustic guitar. I used to play trombone, and I actually took lessons for that, but I got tired of it and now I'm teaching myself the more conventional rock instruments mentioned previously. 'Money' never sounded right through the trombone, anyway.

I am pretty much self-taught. My brother showed me how to do power chords and the 'regular' chords to C, G, and D. I learned everything beyond that, which isn't much.

Gerald: what make is your 35-year-old acoustic?

Epiphone.

Cool. I'm just a vintage guitar buff... even though I don't own any.

Unless you want to consider 1996 as 'old'.

Not really.

That's good, because I didn't consider that 'old', either.

Ive been getting on with guitar fine without lessons for a year and a half. But i do have a good knowlegde on music (doing it at Alevel).

Ive had lessons on trumpet since i was about 9 (now 17) and i reckon im better at guitar.

My grandad was really musical so when he died we got some of his toys

I got 8 guitar type instruments: 3 ukeleles, 1 banjo, 12 string guitar none of which work anymore and a mandolin, a beautiful old Hofner and a fender strat

Used to try play the piano he left behind, all i could play was the 1st movement of moonlight sonata. Flip, my whole house is covered with his instruments!

What's wrong with the ukeleles, banjo and 12-string?

I've taken lessons for a couple of months now, and though I'm not all that fantastic at playing guitar I'm a lot better off than I was before. And it's not so much the learning of theory and scales and what not but for me it's much more the experience. My instructor's a delightful bearded college student whom I can discuss music and movies with and occasionally swap materials, it's a pretty good time. As far as equipment goes, just a used Hohner accoustic picked up from a pawn shop for a hundred bucks. Sounds pretty well, good to learn on, I like it a lot. I think I can play a total of maybe two songs on the piano, aside from teaching myself the intro to "Baba O'Riley" on a little toy keyboard...not the synth part.

Absolutely untrue! A teacher is teaching you rules. Music existed before man invented names for the notes! European music had all the rules. Ancient music often had no bar lines or conventional chord changes. It was pure music. Not tied down in formality. Like Careful with that axe Eugene. Schooled musicians would never play that way. Listen to certain types of african or indian music. No academic contrivance. I'm just saying it is definitely not essential to get lessons depending on what you want to play.

What came first ...sound or music instructors?

Lessons don't just teach music theory, though. They also teach techniques. I think what OnTheWing meant was that, while you can gain the same knowledge of your instrument without lessons, taking lessons will point you in the right direction and therefore speed you on your way to knowing your instrument of choice better. I have taken lessons for some instruments and I have learned others without the benefit of lessons, and I must say that they really do help. I wouldn't say that they're essential if you're at all serious about playing (I seem to recall some guy named John Lennon who didn't have any music training), but it certainly is a boon.