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Post subject: What is the best way to learn guitar?
Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:44 pm
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Sharon Slickis here...
My friend takes lessons and asks several questions:
Scales, bending strings to get a certain sound, etc.

During the lesson they cover rock to the blues.

To get the most out of the lesson does anyone feel
that it is best to learn a few songs throughly then move on?

This back and forth style seems a bit out of the ordinary.

I feel my friend could progress with a different strategy.

Any thoughts?

Sharon Slickis


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 3:27 pm
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I've had a few guitar teachers in my few years of playing guitar and we've gone over different styles, techniques, lessons.

I've found out that the best way to learn is to mix it up or split the lesson.
With my first guitar teacher we would have an hour class and spend the first hour going over notes, scales, key signatures, and all that other fun stuff.
The second half we would pick a song and slowly learn parts of it, then write it (notes, not tab) onto a sheet of paper. We would normally learn the intro, chorus, and verse (if time prevailed) and practice that for a week, learn the solo (if there was one) then put the entire song together the next lesson.

With my second and third guitar teachers we mix up the lessons weekly. We follow a matrix monthly that goes like this:
Week 1 - Notes & Scales
Week 2 - Reading & Key Signatures
Week 3 - Ear Training
Week 4 - Learning a song

Hopefully that helps you out

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Post subject: The Way I Learned
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2008 10:35 am
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I bought my first guitar (Fender GS8) going on two years ago (I'm twenty eight). I didn't know the first step in terms of learning. So I looked on youtube for a lesson possibly on a few songs that I like, being that I couldn't afford lessons at the time.

That turned out to be a blessing because since then I've learned plenty of covers (mostly Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson) and now I know this chord or that chord was a G or whatever. Since I've never had formal lessons I think it would be a great combo to take initiative and learn on your own (covers) and reinforce that with structured lessons.

Good luck to you and your friend.


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 2:54 pm
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Location: At the crossroads
Find tabs......


Play lots


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 12:19 pm
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yeah no matter how many lessons you get, it's the amount of practice that makes you a better player!

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 12:42 pm
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Because I never have money, (currently in martial arts and working towards a 2nd degree black belt), I can't afford to have a guitar teacher. Sure, the dvd you can get and the chord sheet that you can buy at GC might help. Since I have no money, my guitar friend handed me a book one day to learn the basics. He had only one rule. Keep on playing.

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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:23 am
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I'm learning to play, and what everyone says makes perfect sense to me. The more I play, the better I get (which still amazes me...). I just dumped my teacher because she was NOT mixing it up. If you're going to use teach - I suggest you pick one who also works with you on something until you "get it". Mine was more interested in churning out pages of the book like an assembly line (I guess so I would feel like I was making progress the volume way).


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:19 am
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Helpful thread - thanks!


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:44 am
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Practice..practice...practice...if your into a particular genre then there are plenty of willing teachers who won't charge you an arm and leg...find other "players" and ask to jam with them...most of all though...PRACTICE ;-)


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:53 pm
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I´m glad I saw this forum post. There are lot of great advices here and it saves me the trouble of posting a similar forum :D


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 7:05 pm
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Honestly, the best way to learn in my opinion is teaching yourself. (assuming you already know a decent amount about the basics of music) Guitar's not that difficult. You can find lots of youtube videos to tech techniques, then find some songs that use the techniques you're working on and learn them. It's slow going at first, but you can learn at your own pace, and you can find what works for you, not your teacher.


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Post subject:
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:54 pm
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I think the techniques are far more important than the songs. Songs are nearly worthless without the technique. It is, however helpful to learn something you can apply the technique in. I generally find it more effective to write something using that technique, but for people who don't write, I think learning a song with it is important.


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Post subject:
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 1:15 pm
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Besides taking lessons, it's important to play with other musicians and learn from them.


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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 1:56 pm
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On the subject or learning songs vs. working on your technique, IMHO the best way to go abuot this thing is to learn some scales/theory, practice those scales for a bit, and then play songs using those scales to help you glue things together.


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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:56 pm
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I've been playing guitar for 12 years (I'm 20 now) and have had 3 teachers. Following the teacher's methods wasted a lot of time, whether it was learning music theory and notation, or just trying to learn individual covers. My guitar playing ability has grown more in the past three years than it did in the previous nine because I've just followed my own method. That is, looking up the main say, ten chords (you can do this via online charts) and memorizing them and making sure you can strum them and make quick chord changes. This will be a good base and should only take you two weeks to master, if you practice at least thirty minutes per day. Then, pick simple songs you like and look up their tabs (countrytabs.com is an amazing site that has rock, r&b, and christian tab sites connected to it). See if the songs you like have the chords you know already, or look up the new chords and learn them as you go. Once you are comfortable strumming these songs, you can find all sorts of tutorials on fingerpicking and strumming methods online, or find a friend that plays and ask for a few tips. You'll be enjoying yourself and impressing others in no time with this method, and that's your start.


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