Guitar Hard

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February 11th, 2004 admin Leave a comment Go to comments

Guitar Hard
I want to learn how to play the electric guitar, is it hard?

So basically i find myself with alot of freetime being bored and playing football manager, i cant help but think i could do something better with my time, like learn how to play the electric guitar like ive always wanted to, so basically iam asking -

Is it easy or extremly hard to learn?
&
Whats a good Guitar to start off with?

Most of these people are giving you pretty good advice. If you have musical ability , then it won’t be too difficult. If you don’t have “guitar” ability it will be difficult.
Some people will never be able to play a guitar, no matter how hard they try or want to. All instruments take a different set of skills. I’ve known some really great guitar players who have absolutely ZERO ability to keep a beat either by clapping their hands or playing a drum.Truly pitiful to watch them try. Bad guitar players sometimes mistakenly believe that they could play bass. They are WRONG. If you suck on guitar you will suck at bass.

I say this not to discourage you, but to encourage you. If you find that guitar is not for you, try other instruments like drums, or keyboards.

That being said, one person was actually somewhat correct…..A steel string acoustic is actually “harder” to play than an electric. Electric guitars have much easier steel strings to play. and the strings are usually closer to the fretboard than an acoustic.

They are played with the same fingers and chords and everything soit really depends on what kind of music you want to play.

The best guitar to “learn” on would be a nylon stringed classical guitar, since the strings are very soft and eay to play and they are much thicker, so they are easier for a beginner to learn proper fingering technique. And the neck is wider so your fingers don’t stumble over each other as much when learning to switch chords.

But if you want to learn on an electric, that’s OK, too.

The Squier Strat pack is a good beginning set of equipment. You get everything you’d need to play the guitar, except lessons. It comes with a tuner and a strap, and a guitar bag and all the other stuff you’d need to have.
If you get a squier strat, make sure to have the guitar store set up the whammy bar for you. They come from the factory unadjusted to prevent damage. If you don’t, you’ll have to do it yourself, it’s not hard, but it helps to have some guitar knowledge when you are doing it. You can download the set up procedures from Fender.com.

Many people don’t realize this and their whammy bars only work in one direction.

However at first you won’t be needing the whammy bar, that’s for more advanced playing.
If you can’t take lessons, then go online as google “guitar lesson” there are tons of video lessons for beginning players. they aren’t the best way to learn, but it’s a lot more than I had growing up and learning to play. I didn’t have the internet or DVD’s or any of the modern ways to learn.

Avoid learning guitar by reading TABS. Those are for learning songs, not to learn how to play guitar. Learn chords and scales and what notes are on the fretboard, and then practice them. After you get the basics down, you can play songs by reading the chords above the lyrics and not with Tabs.
I learned just about every song I know by ear or sometimes with a song book. If you know your guitar, you can sound out songs by yourself and won’t need Tabs.

It does take time to learn, don’t expect to be able to rock out your favorite songs right away. You will get discouraged. Remember that you must learn to crawl before you can walk. Be patient and the rewards will be that much better. And you will blow the doors off the TAB players.
When I was 15 I was a better player than you could imagine. But I started playing when I was 8. I was playing paid gigs at 17. So be patient.
Those tab guys I would pay NOT to listen to, frankly. Because they don’t really KNOW their instrument.

So do go ahead get a nice starter pack and go slowly and you will find later on (hopefully) How fun it can be to be able to play music and make your own music just by knowing your scales and chords.

Good luck to you.

GHWT Metallica – Trapped Under Ice Guitar (Hard)