+1. I've been playing for 2 years as well and still "suck" (IMO) but love playing and tooling around.

By playing for many years to come and practicing those scales and basic techniques and keeping at it.
Sorry,but nowadays it seems that everybody expects instant gratification,when I was learning,we understood that to use that word you used "master",meant to put in years of study to advance to that point.

the easiest way...

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***God made men and men made guitar***

Learn one melody.

Then learn to play it in every key.

Good luck!

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

ah man dont worry. I cant play half the stuff i want to play, but i can play 100 times more than i could when i was just beginning.

enjoy the journey.

break your practices up into sections:

1. warmup playing songs you know. give you confidence that you can play something.
2. new stuff. youl struggle but practice and you'l get there.
3. fun stuff. songs you like playing and come easy to you. start off, and finish up on something your good at.

Practice regularly and you wont find yourself improving.

And if you want to "cheat", learn the pentatonic and blues scales. become comfortable with both of them you can hack out almost any tune played on the guitar.

I am playing long enough to know now that if i want to get better i need to be playing for at least 1 hour a night. i cant dedicate that right now, but i know that i can play for 20 mins and play a bunch of songs im comfortable with. thats fun and thats enough for me for now.

Enjoy yourself and look for shortcuts ( pentatonic!).

I've been playing for four years now and I still royally suck. But I enjoy it so much I don't really care.

But in order to better oneself, it would be a good idea to continue learning things such as music theory and scales. Two things I need to go back and pick up on, because there's only so much you can do with pentatonic scales.

i've been playing for over 20 years and still feel like i'm on square 1. please read all of these posts a couple of times. great advice here.
what has helped me the most is playing with other musicians. i also play a wide variety of music. just take your time and play as much as you can. i'd bet you are better than you think.
have fun

I have to disagree with one point made by Danthebassist, that you can't enjoy the guitar if you're no good at it.

I totally suck at guitar (been playing for 2 years also), but I still enjoy the hell out of it! Otherwise, I would have given up long ago. Right off, I have a stunning appreciation for guitarists with actual talent, when I used to take guitar rock more for granted.

My brother, who taught me my first chord, which inspired me to buy my first Squier, is frustrated with my lack of progress. But, I'm not in it to play a paying gig, or to make anyone else happy, I'm in it to exercise the right side of my brain after days of technical left brain work, by relaxing and doing something that borders on artistic and creative, whenever I have a few moments to spare.

I have a 1998 Mexican Deluxe Super Strat, and that is my favorite guitar I have ever picked up. I once held a $3,000 Les Paul in my hands, and I was over it as soon as I felt the neck. Although it was no doubt a beauty, in my mind it had nothing on my $350 (used) MIM Deluxe, and couldn't match the beauty of my Strat's honey blond ash body and glossy smooth low profile C Neck. At my level, this is the only guitar I really need (though that won't stop me from looking and maybe buying more in the future). I've collected a few modest guitars over the months, but once I had my blond beauty, I stopped looking.

It doesn't matter if I'm struggling with chords, practicing scales, or falling asleep with the guitar on my belly, I just feel good holding it and trying to master it which, at my age (baby boomer), is a challenge.

Some day, I will get good enough to justify having such a beautiful instrument. Maybe then, I can start looking at some higher end gear, but my modest MIM baby could remain my favorite for a long time to come.

Having friends to play with is certainly great, but in my case, my unpredictable work schedule and overtime makes that almost impossible. I'm lucky if I get an hour or so on any given evening, just to sit and veg out in front of the TV. My secret is having the guitar and amp sitting right next to the chair where I watch TV. That's the first place I go when I'm exhausted and ready to unwind, and I can just grab the guitar and make my own sound track to whatever I'm watching. If you're a working stiff getting home at 10:00 at night, with a half hour to spare between e-mail, dinner and bed time, it's great to have your guitar at your right hand while you're watching the news.

For me, I just start noodling around on the guitar, paying attention to the relative note positions (a little theory helps here), playing with the Blues scale, or 12 bar Blues progressions. If I get bored and uninspired, I'll do scales and practice basic chords. It seems like I'm stagnating, but I suddenly realize that I just recognized a minor third to fourth interval in a song I just heard, and even knew it started in A! (Even if you think you're learning nothing, your brain is still picking up patterns.)

I just recently had a little jam come up in my head, which required all of the basic open chords (CAGED), and managed to hit the D most of the time correctly! For me, that's a break through! All just from goofing around in my own style. I know that's not how serious musicians do it, but for me, it works.

Find a guitar you love, that you can't keep your hands off of, and play.

Or, you could just forget everything I've said here and take lessons! That works for people more disciplined than me! After all, what the hell do I know?!!!!!javascript:emoticon(':lol:')

If you're young and are developing, it is a good time to practice scales to get the ear and dexterity. If your older than young, it will take more effort. But the main thing is to have goals for your playing. And if you don't want to have goals than do it for other reasons (relaxation, expression, socializing, taking out fustration, shopping, etc...).

Enjoyment is the key.
Expectaion can be downer.
Seek inspiration grasshopper.

I'm coming up on my third anniversary of playing guitar. By any objective standard, I'm still pretty weak. But I've come a long way, and I'm having a great time.

The thing that has helped me the most has been finding a really great teacher with whom I really click. Sometimes we'll just jam through most of our sessions together, and it's an absolute blast.

You're probably never going to put Eric Clapton out of business, and neither will I. But who cares? Just hang in there and have fun.

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

I've been playing for 20 years and still "suck" LOL. I still have goals and aspirations above what I've done.

Keep at it, my brother (or sister)...you'll have plateaus and breakthroughs and epiphanies and regrets, but there's nothing like nailing a sound/riff/song in your head.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals