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Does Anyone Play Acoustic Guitar?
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11-04-2012, 05:19 PM | #1 |
Skittles, OT OG
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Does Anyone Play Acoustic Guitar?
I've been telling myself for years now that after I graduate, I wanna learn how to play the acoustic guitar. Since I will graduate in December of this year, I wanna start looking into it. Can anyone offer any sort of advice on guitars, lessons, ways to teach yourself, etc. Thanks guys.
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11-04-2012, 09:08 PM | #2 | |
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Ive been playing guitar for about 3-4 years, starting with electrics. I started on a Fender Starcaster starter package. It sucked, bashed on it for about 1 year. Saved up some $ and bought an Epiphone Les Paul and a nice 15watt Marshall amp. Those were both electrics, both great. Since then, ive bought two acoustics. The only one of substance is an Epiphone, which i link below. I suggest you go to a GuitarCenter and grab a few and see what fits your body/eye. Im partial to Epiphone since ive owned two and loved both very much. If you didnt know, Epiphone is the baby brother to Gibson, a very reputable guitar manufacturer. I suggest you find yourself one like this: Epiphone PR-150 I own this one and love it. I was AMAZED at how it felt/sounded compared to the $500 electric guitar next to it. Only an expert could tell the difference in sound compared to a Martin ($x,xxx!!!!!). As far as learning guitar goes, there are several ways to do it. I was really motivated, and taught myself for 6 months. I eventually got myself an instructor (turned out to be a crack addict lol ). He didnt teach me much, other than a bunch of scales and a few chords that didnt help me progress. I personally learned the best by listening to who i loved (Guns n Roses, Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, BFMV) and tried to play the tab to their songs. I dont consider myself and expert by any stretch of the word, though. To be honest, it kind of depends upon where you want to take yourself with you guitar. What kind of music do you enjoy? Theres a difference between learning hard rock and learning jazz The difference is typically who teaches you, and what they teach you. The basics are all the same, but it eventually branches out. -e EDIT: The absolute most INVALUABLE resource for guitar i have EVER HAD: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ I use this to look up Guitar tabs (which is a form of written music for guitar. Its the easiest to read/write/learn. Very intuitive.)
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11-04-2012, 09:43 PM | #3 | |
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I really don't know much about guitars but that Epiphone looks great. I don't want to spend more than $200 on my first guitar so that's right in my price range. I definitely want to check it out in person. I love all kinds of music. From country to rock. When I start, I don't expect to be able to rock out to anything such as Metallica. I'd love to be able to play some slower rock, pop and country songs. And obviously as I progress, I want to be able to play more difficult songs. You think teaching yourself is the best way to start? I feel like I might be able to learn the basics on my own and then hire an instructor to help sharpen my skills. |
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11-04-2012, 09:53 PM | #4 | |
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1)Strap (to go over shoulder so you can walk and play. I used to pace around and play the same riff until i got it right) 2)Some picks, i prefer the sharpest possible, some people use rounded ones, others use only their fingers, and even some weirdos use picks on each finger 3)Wax/spray/cleaner/towel (Its very soothing to clean your guitar, helps me calm down after a stressful day at school) 4)Guitar Stand 5)String Winder and extra set of strings (I prefer to change my own strings. Honestly a 30 minute job at the most ) Thats exactly what i did, but i wouldnt say its the best way to start.... I played on my own for a while, got a few guitars-for-dummies type books, and mixed in some of my music (heavy rock). Eventually i got an instructor, but i wasnt terribly interesting in what he had to teach. I kick myself now for not trying harder when it came to scales/chords. Very important basics, even with heavy rock music. My goal of trying to emulate my favorite guitarist (Synyster Gates) was how i started off. I played in drop-d tuning just as much as standard tuning (drop-d is kind of a metal-style tuning). If money is tight, learn the basics on your own, and try your best with books/videos/forums. If you can afford it, having a guitar-instructor start you off right is probably the best bet. I wish i had a proper education. My instructor was... an interesting guy
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11-04-2012, 10:32 PM | #5 |
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in my experience, there's two ways to approach this.
1.) you can memorize songs by looking at tabs and learning it that way. you can hire an instructor, watch videos, or teach yourself. 2.) you can study some music theory and understand chord structures, scales, and progressions. once you learn enough of this, you can listen to may songs and figure it out pretty easily (rhythm-wise if you are a beginner). songs revolve around big chunks of common progression or pattern of chords specific to its scale or family of chords. i find the second option to be more rewarding just because once i have learned why things are the way they are i didn't have to look online to find chords as often. once you get your guitar post on this thread or shoot me a PM and ill point you to a direction that i think will help you learn faster. i have a lot of things that i can share that i wish someone taught me instead of me spending years trying to figure things out myself. go to a guitar store and try out a lot of them. get one that is comfortable to play and easy to handle. things to watch for are the size of the fret compared to your hand and fingers and how high the action is (the strings from the fretboard).
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11-04-2012, 10:50 PM | #6 | |
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I agree with everything he said. Im not expert by any means, but nobody replied to you, so i felt the need to share everything i have learned over the last 3 or 4 years
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11-05-2012, 09:20 AM | #7 | |
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11-05-2012, 12:35 PM | #8 | |||
Skittles, OT OG
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I will definitely shoot you a PM when I get my guitar. I'm probably gonna pick it up after finals week (first week in December). I'm gonna go to the guitar store today and take a look around. Thanks for the advice! Quote:
I've had plenty of those types of hobbies. But you never know until you try. |
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11-05-2012, 12:47 PM | #9 |
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What kind of guitar style do you want to play? If you want to play pop songs for instance you'll be doing a lot of chords and if you want to go more classical then you'll be finger picking.
Get a guitar lesson book with pictures and learn the frets, basic chords, etc. Chords are pure memorization and muscle memory. For instance learn the G, C, D, E, F, A, and B chords and you can probably play most of the current pop songs. However learning scales such as the pentatonic scale will help immensely when you start learning more complex songs. Once you start getting into it learn how to construct and augment chords and the theory behind it. Then the good thing about youtube is that there are literally thousands of guitar lessons and tutorials. Pick an easy song you want to learn and follow along. I had a few bookmarked on my old laptop but there are some really good acoustic guitar 101 classes on youtube that were probably 10x better than the private lessons I got in highschool.
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11-05-2012, 01:11 PM | #10 |
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hey man, i was in ur situation not long ago and here is what i did:
i had a budget of around 200$ for my first guitar, i picked up a yamaha at my local music shop. (was recommended by a sales associate). until u get really good i dont recommend spending a shit load on ur first guitar. in general i am a very impatient person and love to learn quickly. i did start learning the guitar on my own listening and playing songs that interested me. however shortly after i went online and found myself an instructor, was about 20$ for the hour and helped out tremendously in my learning curve. u kick out bad habits right of the line and it dramatically increases the speed at which u learn. in my opinion i would suggest finding which style u would like to play.. i myself, love finger picking and find it turns on the ladies the most hahah. but see which style u love and find an instructor that can help u with it! good luck!!! it will take about 6months of solid work to get all the notes down and being able to switch flawlessly (or even longer) so dont get turned off!
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11-05-2012, 01:14 PM | #11 |
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p.s as spiike said.. youtube is AMAZING for someone like u... millions of tutorials and guide on "how to" im currently saving up for my next guitar i cant wait!
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11-05-2012, 01:48 PM | #12 |
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I started 4-5 years ago and once I got going I couldn't put the damn thing down. I've never taken a lesson, so I can't comment much on that but I have learned quite a bit myself pretty effectively.
For starters, expect to spend a few hundred on an acoustic. I feel if you cheap out on your first guitar just to see if you like playing, you'll inevitably hate it, as playing on a guitar with bad action [action is the height of the strings from the fret board] is pure agony. As someone else said, action can be adjusted but you shouldn't have to mess around with a new guitar, they should come set up from the factory. As far as brand to get, there are lots of good ones. I highly recommend Seagull, Fender, Epiphone, Martin and Taylor. The latter two are more expensive, but you can find a new laminate top Martin for 300-400$. If I were to recommend one, I'd say Seagull. The action is great, the bodies are big so you get rich sound, and they have solid wood tops. That's probably the biggest determining factor you'll want to look for, when selecting an acoustic. Solid wood tops always sound better than laminate [however my laminate martin sounds great and gets more complements than most of my other guitars]. If you want a new guitar, I'd recommend going to a shop and telling the salesman you want a solid wood top, and go from there. If you don't mind a guitar with a little character, go to a pawnshop after doing a little research and you can likely stretch your budget. You'll need some picks as well, get a few thinner jazz style, as well as some heavier gauge. They both play different and have totally different attack [attack is how aggressive the picked note sounds]. You should also go ahead and pick up a set of strings and a string winder, stringing it your first time is daunting but the sooner you learn the better. There are a ton of lessons online about how to string a guitar. Most, IMO, are not the proper way. When you are ready to string your guitar the first time, feel free to PM me and I'll walk you through it. I've literally never broken a string I've wrapped myself and I play very aggressively. As far as teaching yourself, there are several ways to go about it. I use www.ultimate-guitar.com to look up tabs for songs. Tabs are a bit confusing as they show which note to hit, but doesn't display rythym. You can download programs like Guitar Pro that play the tabs so you can see both notes and rythym. Learning tabs is an easy way to learn songs you're familiar with, but you won't learn much about music theory. Learning music theory is arguably less fun, but more rewarding in the end. This isn't to say you can't do both, but you'll likely lean closer to one. Youtube videos can be very helpful as well. If I were to recommend where to start learning, after you learn basics like how to hold the pick, I'd say to start learning your 7 basic 'cowboy chords', and then to start picking up the blues. If you want to play any rock and roll or most modern music, you'll need to know basic blues shuffles. But, this is up to what kind of music you want to end up playing. Remember the first couple weeks are rough, but once your past that it gets more and more enjoyable, exponentially.
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Last edited by Augenbrauezug; 11-05-2012 at 01:57 PM.. |
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11-05-2012, 06:15 PM | #13 | |
Skittles, OT OG
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I looked at youtube, and there are a ton of how to videos. That should give me a nice head start hopefully. |
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11-05-2012, 06:19 PM | #14 | ||
Skittles, OT OG
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It seems like we are very similar. I'm gonna do the same things you did when I get my guitar. Thank you for the advice! |
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11-05-2012, 06:25 PM | #15 | |
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Since you said pick up an extra set of strings, do the strings go bad relatively fast? |
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11-06-2012, 01:10 AM | #16 | |
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make it a habit to clean your strings after you use your guitar and your strings will last longer. use a cloth to wipe it to get rid of the dirt and oils from your hands. there are brands that are more expensive but sound good and last pretty long. check out the elixir and cleartone strings. pick up a guitar that has a balance of easy playing and good sound so you don't get frustrated easily and give up. break up your practice session in shorter ones and play more often when you get frustrated with long sessions. (this is a very simple thing that people don't realize and they just give up instead of practicing in shorter sessions) i like placing my guitars where i can easily pick it up and play between doing house chores.
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11-06-2012, 09:58 AM | #17 | |
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11-06-2012, 01:25 PM | #18 |
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I've been playing an Epiphone Les Paul Studio electric on/off for 3-4 years. I bought a cheap Takamine off a coworker for $120. It's garbage. I've never played an acoustic, and I noticed right away that the action sucks. I've heard others that share the same sentiment with Takamine, so I'd steer clear of them.
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11-06-2012, 01:59 PM | #19 | |
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Someone recommended the Epiphone earlier, those are awesome, that was my first acoustic. What songs are you guys learning right now? It seems we've all got around the same amount of experience, I'm always trying to learn more stuff. SRV - Mary Had a little Lamb Al Green - Love and Happiness Incubus - Pardon Me Jimi Hendrix - Little wing are a few of the ones i've been jamming lately.
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Last edited by Augenbrauezug; 11-06-2012 at 02:20 PM.. |
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11-06-2012, 04:03 PM | #21 | |
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im trying to play "river flows in you" going to take me a month and a bit to learn tho (of constant playing)
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11-06-2012, 05:22 PM | #22 | |
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