its not that hard after you learn all the basic chords....then it just comes

_________________
riley

+1, best guitar instruction site on the net, hand #$@*&!% down.

And there is no right way really. Just whatever works for you. I personally am totally self taught, but I'm sure I do everything wrong as a result

_________________

Well I understand the confusion but try to take one step at a time in learning how to play a guitar. The way that the Allman brothers plays is already advance. And I'll be guessing that you are new to guitar playing. I would suggest you to take lessons if you want to learn everything there is in guitar playing.

I started playing at 32 and my introduction was this. My first 6 months I had a half hour weekly lesson with a guy who looked like he was 12. My wife came with me to my first lesson and got a huge smile when she saw my instructor walk out to meet me. The one cool thing that he did for me was ask a lot about my musical preferences and found songs with some of the chords in it that I needed to learn. I still to this day run through the same chords he taught me on day one and go through my scales as my warmup. It's not glamorous but you need the basics. Even cooler was when he told me at the end "you know your basics, you come in weekly and show me things that you've picked up online and in tab books. You know enough that you don't need to be throwing money at me to teach you anymore. Start working on completing the songs that we started and keep on moving along with the music you love.". Now I have found some great online instructors and I'm so happy that I stuck with it. So my long winded path was : basic lessons followed by Internet videos and free tab pages. Of course it's lots of practice but it's all worth it when you can play the basic framework of some of your favorites and later on start adding more and more meat to those bones.

This guitar site is a great place to go. Justin does a wonderful job. Start here in the beginners section.

Good tips from everyone. I too am trying to learn on my own. I will turn 66 next week. During the last year I have become better setting up and collecting guitars than playing. Is it a good idea to try and learn how to read music from the start. I sometimes think it is slowing my progress down, and it might be best to learn and play tabs. How important is it to read music from the start?

Hello, jcookschillin! You have already taken a great first step coming to this site. There are a great bunch of really talented folks on here that share a lot of good info. I've been playing for 30+ years, am old enough to be your daddy, and never took a lesson until about three years ago. I've probably made more progress in those last three years than any time span prior. Having said that, I believe it is entirely possible to learn guitar on your own, it just might take a little longer. I too started our with the Hal Leonard books, learned the basic cowboy chords, bar chords, etc., and now play a lot of lead. Playing with others is probably the best way to speed the learning curve. I was fortunate enough to have three sons who also play and we've had some great times playing together. By the way I tried keeping my shoulder to the wheel, my ear to the ground, and my nose to the grind stone only to find out I couldn't hold my guitar while in that position.

_________________
OK, I'll hum a little bit, got it now?

Reading music should come later. I still don't do it. Learn chords, learn your strings and each note on the fretboard, learn your scales all the while you're playing tabs. This was the way I went. Reading some theory is a great thing to do so you'll have a good idea as to what to do with scales, etc. Unless you plan on writing music, you may never need to learn to read music. This is just my opinion.

Glad to see this thread and now hoping that you are playing and having fun doing so jcookschillin. Let us know how you're doing Bro.

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

Cool to see these pic's again CRGuitarMan. OK back to the subject

_________________
you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.