So I'm going to learn to play guitar

There are two instruments I've wanted to learn how to play, the bagpipes and guitar. For the sake of my family and neighbors the choice was clear. Now obviously there are 1000's of "how to play guitar" guides on line, which makes it harder to pick out which one to go with or even what equipment to start with.

So for anyone who self taught themselves guitar I'd like to get your opinion on what kind of guitar to start with, and what sort of learning program to start with. Anything to avoid would be nice to know too.

Acoustic or Electric?

You get what you pay for with guitars but these days most companies do decent budget ranges. You can't really go wrong with Fender both electric and acoustic.

Electrics tend to be bit easier to learn on but then you have to think about amplifiers and your initial outlay starts to rise pretty quickly.

A budget Fender acoustic should set you back around £100-200. Anything more than that and you might end up with an expensive ornament (if you don't keep at it) and budget acoustics don't have a very good resale value. They tend to come with a medium gauge strings (10's) so you shouldn't have to worry to much about them for awhile.

Electrics; Fender stratocaster is the best all round guitar and you can get a good Japanese built one for around £300-400. It's worth it though as you'll never have to buy another guitar unless you get really serious about it and even then you can just swap out the pickups. Fender do have a budget range (Squire) which you can pick up for between £100-200. Also Fenders tend to retain their value so you should get a fair bit back if you decide to sell. A strat has single coil pick-ups which will serve you well for most music style but are best suited to clean and slightly overdriven sounds. If you want dirty overdrive or screaming distortion you'll need humbuckers, then you're best looking at something like a Yamaha Pacifica, a decent guitar and a good all rounder and not to expensive.

If you're loaded. Get an American made Fender strat. If you're really loaded get a custom shop one (Fender Strat Plus Deluxe) or a Gibson Les Paul or a PRS..

Amps; If you go the electric route get a cheap Marshall amp around £50-60 for a 10-15watt amp will do for starters.
The MG10CF is pretty good.

Best place to learn is Youtube, there are hundreds of tutorials on there.

There are plenty of free tuning apps (for your phone) too.

Tip; practice singing while you learn to play..
Tip; Never buy a guitar online unless you have to and only ever from a reputable dealer, there's a lot of Chinese fakes out there.

Originally Posted by Halie Satanus

Acoustic or Electric?

You get what you pay for with guitars but these days most companies do decent budget ranges. You can't really go wrong with Fender both electric and acoustic.

Electrics tend to be bit easier to learn on but then you have to think about amplifiers and your initial outlay starts to rise pretty quickly.

A budget Fender acoustic should set you back around £100-200. Anything more than that and you might end up with an expensive ornament (if you don't keep at it) and budget acoustics don't have a very good resale value. They tend to come with a medium gauge strings (10's) so you shouldn't have to worry to much about them for awhile.

Electrics; Fender stratocaster is the best all round guitar and you can get a good Japanese built one for around £300-400. It's worth it though as you'll never have to buy another guitar unless you get really serious about it and even then you can just swap out the pickups. Fender do have a budget range (Squire) which you can pick up for between £100-200. Also Fenders tend to retain their value so you should get a fair bit back if you decide to sell. A strat has single coil pick-ups which will serve you well for most music style but are best suited to clean and slightly overdriven sounds. If you want dirty overdrive or screaming distortion you'll need humbuckers, then you're best looking at something like a Yamaha Pacifica, a decent guitar and a good all rounder and not to expensive.

If you're loaded. Get an American made Fender strat. If you're really loaded get a custom shop one (Fender Strat Plus Deluxe) or a Gibson Les Paul or a PRS..

Amps; If you go the electric route get a cheap Marshall amp around £50-60 for a 10-15watt amp will do for starters.
The MG10CF is pretty good.

Best place to learn is Youtube, there are hundreds of tutorials on there.

There are plenty of free tuning apps (for your phone) too.

Tip; practice singing while you learn to play..
Tip; Never buy a guitar online unless you have to and only ever from a reputable dealer, there's a lot of Chinese fakes out there.

The squire is tempting since its geared to newbies and if I abort it won't set me back as much, but if I do get serious then I'm better off with the strat. Looking at the strats I think the Mexican ones make the most sense, dropping a grand doesn't seem wise for a US one.

Disclaimer: I am not at all competent on guitar, but I managed to teach myself a bit and I'm generally interested in music so I am semi-credible.

All I can say about equipment is that for a while all you will want is a nice clear tone (no point blurring up chords with distortion when you're first learning them). As said a strat is a very good versatile guitar, nothing wrong with a Squire to start, or any budget brands like Epiphone, but for re-sell potential spending that extra bit for a Fender etc. may be a decent investment.

As for the musical side of things it can be a bit tricky with absolutely no direct face-to-face instruction, but its perfectly doable. On Youtube you can find loads of videos on scales, and my saxophone teacher told me something that rings true for all instruments - you can't play different patterns of notes before you are able to play them in order one after the other. You don't need to know the theory or memorise them all (I've been playing several instruments for almost 7 years and I'm still doing that) its just good to get the fingers moving along and between strings.

Its the same for chords, don't feel like you should be instantly memorising them or you should know how various chords are put together straight away, but simply getting practice contorting your fingers into various shapes, and them strumming them, builds up ability.

Then of course as you go along try and learn songs - websites such as Ultimate Guitar have almost any song you could want. Learn riffs from famous rock tunes, or just the chords underneath. Besides obviously being the fun part of learning an instrument, learning the progressions from songs you know is a very effective way to start building up a bank of chords in your memory.

To start with I'd get a Squire. I had a couple of them years ago and trashed them (burnt the paint, sprayed them different colours, sanded them, covered them in stickers ect ect) and didn't worry about it because they were cheap but fairly well made, but if you decided to join a band you'll always need to swap the pick-ups. The standard ones just aren't top quality. Good news is pick-ups are pretty cheap, even a good set will only cost around £150..

And buy a new one, in fact unless you get obsessive about buying guitars ( it really does happen) it's best to stick to new Strats, old ones are a mine field of specifics like best years, where made, woods used, the CBS years, AM Vs MIM Vs Mij, Squire Vs Fender, it goes on and on.

I have a Squire (Vintage Modified) Telecaster and it's a great guitar for what it cost (exactly 200 euros). That said, it's really starting to wear down a bit after 3 years, so by then I'd suggest you upgrade to something better. I suggest to steer clear of anything around to 500-dollar price range and immdiately go to either the budget American guitars or the better Asian (being Japanese or Korean) ones. PRS SE models are great 500-800 dollar price range guitars, anything higher I'd pick an American Fender, a Gibson SG or maybe a Gretsch for something more laid-back.

You don't need an amp straight away, the first few months you'll basically be struggling with chords or one-string riffs anyway. And you can get decent amps for around 200 euros. I myself am not a fan of Marshall Amps. Their older models (say JCM 800) are obviously rock-classics, but I feel like nowadays they're just trying to make a profit off their former glory. Basically don't buy a sub-1000 dollar Marshall because they're all overpriced compared to other amps in the price range (Fender amps are obviously a standard, Vox AC30/AC15 models as well. If you want a good high-gain amp get an Orange)

I myself have a guitar teacher (not a private one, group lessons) and I really really advise you to do the same. Yes there's always this bullcrap on the internet "you can do it yourself blahblah" but you'll make so much more progress (and most importantly, so much faster) than you would on your own. There's aso the risk of picking up a bad technique which might have effects in the long run when you're trying to play more challenging stuff. A teacher will generally also force you out of your comfort zone, and teach you several genres. You see a lot of self-taught dudes on youtube playing nothing but crappy shred because they never had someone who sat them down and said : "today we're gonna turn our metronome down 200 BPM and play a Muddy Waters blues".

Also I started out on Electric and I think it's a great starting point. It's easier to play (faster neck, generally a gentler action/string gauge so your fingers won't scream out in agony all the time, a comfortable bridge to put your hand on, ..) and they're more versatile once you get an amp and your first effects. I really think they're more encouraging to play (or less offputting) than an acoustic.

Everyone learns their own way. Whether you go to lessons or use YT or just sit at home and practice until you fall asleep with your guitar still lying on your stomach (as I did long before YT existed) I wouldn't say any one way is better than another. It takes determination to get over the initial stage but it really isn't that hard. You just have to practice a lot, and then practice some more and then keep going.

I learned by listening to the radio and playing along to what ever came on, yeh it took longer but developed my own style and have always been happier for it. But that's just how I learned.. I've also taught several people. I always tell a new student to go and learn the basic chords (E.A.D.G.C.F.B) and come back when they have them down, people who really wanted to learn did, those who didn't saved us both a lot of time. And no, I never charged..

Any way. YT Marty Shwartz, a top teacher, starts from lesson 1 and goes through lots of styles and techniques..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZyibDPQiwQ

Edit; One other thing. If you're not entirly enamoured with playing guitar learn Ukulele. Much easier and a lot of fun.. You can also pick up a pretty good Uke for around £70-100. check 'Greg Bennett' concert (that's the size) Ukulele on ebay. I got one, learned to play it in a couple of weeks (I play guitar so it wasn't hard at all) and love it..

So I got a cheapo Gisbon package ($199 US) which was "child safe" (I have two young ones which of course want to touch it) and a good way to figure if I'll stick it out.

My nemesis seems to be my left hand, specifically my pinky. It doesn't want to stretch enough yet to go a full fret. Fingering in general seems to be an impossible task, more complicated then I imagined, and yes I know I'm a noob there, so when I say impossible thats just being dramatic. Amazon had rocksmith on sale for really cheap so I picked that up and its been helpful for fingering exercises.

That's why chords are so helpful/important when you start out. They're great for fingering because you're exercising multiple finger movements at once.

Just practise the damn chords for as long as you have to, and you'll get there

If you want to start on your pinky try D to Dsus4. Which is basically holding D and putting your pinky down on the E string..

D

Dsus4

The intro to Queen's 'Crazy Little thing Called Love is a D-Dsus4 rhythm..

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

zO6D_BAuYCI

But your pinky won't really start to play ball until you start practicing bar chords and scales. Bar chords are difficult at first as your fingers get used to applying enough pressure to make the strings ring out.

For now stick to the major chords until you get strumming in time and strumming patterns and switching from one chord to the next - I recommend E minor to A or F to C for starters.. Remember down up down up down down..

I assume you have a book with pictures of dots where the fingers go?

http://leslieguitarchord.files.wordp...sic-chords.jpg

As for the little un's. I have a couple of expensive guitars (Fender strat plus deluxe/Gibson Les Paul Gothic/Fender Contemporary strat/Epiphone Les Paul Jr/Fender Resonator/Custom built 335 and a couple of mid priced electro acoustics as well as bass and ukuleles (it's addictive).. Which have all come under attack at some point over the years. Best thing to do is buy a couple of cheap ukulele's (about $10) for the youngsters to go nuts on, let them paint them and wreck them all they want as long as they leave dad's gear alone..