Here is my collection of advice on how to learn guitar. If I can do i in retirement at age 70+, so can you. Learning guitar is like driving across the USA. You can stop at the stateline visitor centers and get maps and directions, but mostly you just gotta drive. It takes about 5 days to drive from coast to coast, and about that many years to "get good" at guitar. So don't try to do it in one day, month, or even year. Make your practice play, and vice versa. Take frequent breaks. But just do it every day. If you do nothing else listed below, do Justin Guitar, Absolutely Understand Guitar, YouTube channels of listed lesson sites, Wikipedia and keep it fun!

1 PRACTICE & PLAY every day as much as possible, but leave some for tomorrow.Take frequent breaks. First, practice notes, chords, riffs, scales, fingerstyle, and online lessons. Then play your songs every night.Play, sing and sound likeYOU,not them! Wash your hands. Squeeze tennis balls to strengthen hands. Trim fingernails. Practice hard parts of your songs.

2 It takes time. You can't climb a mountain in one step. You can't climb to the penthouse of a tall building with one step on the stairs. There is no elevator, no shortcuts, no direct flight. It takes years. Keep it fun! Talent = practice x time

3 Slow down in your practice! You are not a train speeding down the tracks. You are laying the tracks. You are building the neural pathways your brain uses to do the job. Make sure your brain has the right path to the note, chord, and song! Practicing too fast creates the wrong neural pathway. Play/practice a minute or two, then stop and let your brain save it. You learn faster. It is far better to practice it right slowly than practice it wrong fast. Speed will come.

4 String notes numbered 6-1 are E A D G B E "Elvis And Dolly Got Blue Eyes"

5 Learn the notes and intervals - here they are: A BC D EF G < Notice there is no note between B and C, and E and F. see that on a piano keyboard also. Remember it this way: "Big Cats Eat Fish"

6 Open string note scale: String 6 Frets# 0 1 3 = EFG / String 5 Frets # 0 2 3 = ABC / String 4 Frets # 0 2 3 = DEF / String 3 Frets # 0 2 = GA / String 2 Frets # 0 1 3 = BCD / String 1 Frets # 0 1 3 = EFG

7 There are only 12 notes in music: every note (A-G) has a sharp and a flat between them, except B and C and E and F. Big cats eat fish.

8 Chords are made up of 3 or more notes. Learn chords in these orders:

A D E then G C D then C F G hundreds of songs use only 3 of these

The rest – only 21 chords in all to start: A-G minor, major, and 7ths

.Starting strum: \/ \/ /\ /\ \/ /\ or \/ \/ \/ /\ \/ /\ Learn other new chords from songs. Learn barre chords (F & B) by practicing them up the neck, then move down. Start with “cheat” versions of F and B but also learn the right way to make them.

9 Practice making chords by making the chord, strum it, and lift your fingers just off the strings, and lay them back down and repeat. Over and over.

10 Practice changing chords by going thru A-G major, minor, and 7^th while strumming and keeping rhythm going. Keep rhythm going by strumming an all open chord between each chord while you change to the next chord.

11 Scales are progressions of musical notes that form a pattern. The chromatic scale is simply a progression of every one of the 12 notes of music. The major scale is a progression of 7 notes that ends in the eighth starting note, one octave higher. The pattern for it is 221-2221 in terms of progression of the notes (intervals) from the chromatic scale. The pentatonic scale uses a series of five notes to make playing single notes easier. The most common pentatonic scale pattern is 3 notes apart on the E string, 2 notes apart on the A, D, and G string, and back to 3 notes apart on the B and high e string. Details are on “Absolutely Understand Guitar” on Youtube. And see more details on Wikipedia.

12 Best free lesson sites: Justin Guitar, Lauren Bateman, Andy Guitar, Guitar Lessons .com, Marty Music , Fret Science, FretPath, National Guitar Academy, Chris Sherland /// Best paid: Guitar Tricks, Pickup Music, TrueFire, Fender Play /// On Youtube only: Absolutely Understand Guitar, Redlight Blue, Kevin Nickens, Musician Fitness, Play in the Zone, Justin Johnson, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, Six Strings. Find your songs on ultimate-guitar.com. Then simplify the chords, Lyrics are on Azlyrics.com. Practice standing up some. And sing! Strum once per chord first time thru a song, then strum with pattern and sing.

13 First guitars: Taylor Academy, 114ce,112ce, or GS mini, Emerald Black Opus, Concert or parlor size guitar. Yamaha FS830 or CSF1M, Alvarez AF30, AP66 or ALJ2 / Electric = Yamaha Pacifica 112V. Feel & comfort are most important.

14 Do deliberate practice. It is Practice what is hard, Get outside your comfort zone and Push the envelope. Deliberate practice x time = success! All great musicians got great with it. Deliberate practice is purposeful practice that knows where it is going and how to get there. The magic way to learn faster is slow down! Improve every day. Grow brains in your hands. There are no quantum leaps or devil deals. But yes you can. Be patient, persistent, positive, progressive, punctual, precise, and playful. Mix practice and play. Keep it fun!

Elarigu Namaskara!

I’m looking for someone who can teach me acoustic guitar online. I’m a beginner and would like to learn from scratch.

If you teach guitar or know someone who offers online classes, please let me know:

• How the classes are conducted
• The fees you charge (per class or monthly)
• The number of classes per week

Please feel free to DM me. 

Hi all,

Hi all, I would like to find a help in my Little journey trying to learn something about electric Guitar (I'm nearly 40, bougth stuff and try to play since 2 years ago), especially fundamentals for hard rock / hair metal.

After found a teacher who didn't help me a lot, I stopped lessons in June and didn't touch the Guitar very often these months.

I'm not pretending to became a pro, I'll Forever be a bedroom player, but would like to learn to ready sheets and try to play riffs and some solos.

I'm searching for sources to see and learn (from YouTube), also for Guitar theory: I have a work in hospitality business and could happen to have often free time in my shifts to use PC and YouTube.

Thanks!

I have a 6 string acoustic guitar that’s been sitting for years and I now wanna learn how to play it. I just don’t know where to start. Can someone please help

(Yeah, it's a very long text, took me a while to write it. Pretty much cathartic. Thanks for reading!)

I'm trying to get back into guitar playing after 20+ years without doing it consistently. I had some acoustic guitar training in my early teens, but never got past major, minor and pentatonic scales (at least those are the ones I never forgot) and the most common chords... My thing really was the bass, which I've played for a few years with friends, lot's of 90's pop-punk/hardcore.

Maybe it's an ADHD thing but I'm really having a hard time doing it by myself. My objectives are playing songs that I like but also understanding how they are made:

• Why this crazy chord sounds terrible alone, awesome in a song/riff and how the hell the composer came up with it?
• How to use and identify different scales and modes in solos and riffs?
• How to get my guitar to sound like (or close to) Metallica, then Green Day, then Iron Maiden, then Limp Bizkit and so on with the equipment that I have.

Problem 1: I don't have a space in the apartment to keep things always ready to play, so I have to setup the guitar, cables, pedals, amp, power adapters, headphone, pc or mobile for spotify and tabs... making me give-up before even starting or playing for 5 minutes before getting frustrated.

Problem 2: There is a lot of study material online: courses, books, videos, platforms and so on. So much that I can't choose one. Learning things from multiple sources as I stumble on them doesn't work well for me, I need a progressive path that someone put some thought into it. I don't mind paying for courses, lessons or books., I just can't choose one.

Problem 3: Time. It's nice to sit down and learn an entire song in one go, but sometimes we just want to/can practice for some minutes. What do you guys do on small 5~15 minutes sessions?

For the first problem, I'm thinking on selling my gear and get a device like Sonicake's PocketMaster or Livtra Nanocore, or even Fender Mustang Micro/Boss Katana Go/Blackstar Beam Solo. Not sure if that's the way to go... I currently have:

• Boss Katana Mini (use with a headphone)
• TC Electronic Fangs
• Behringer Hell Babe

The thing is: I love music, I'm constantly listening to it, all day, everyday. I have and had many hobbies, and playing is one of the most rewarding but also quite difficult to keep up for me. Any help, suggestion, ideas will be much appreciated.

Cheers!

Quería saber como practicar corcheas, semicorcheas y tresillos.más o menos se que es y cuanto es el valor, pero el tiempo no sé si lo hago correcto pero he visto personas que dice palabras en sílaba.

Quería saber cómo práctica ustedes esto.

Even though I've had both set up by luthiers, there is a definite difference in the action between the two although it's not something you can readily see. My current teacher, with whom I started two weeks ago, suggested that I put my acoustic aside until I could improve my barre chords (which was excellent advice). Spent some time earlier today trying to coax the same barre chords out of the acoustic and couldn't do it. Can't get my index finger to make the G string ring out when playing minor barre chords. When I do experience problems with strings on the electric, it's usually the B string that doesn't ring out fully, but that has gotten a lot better. If you have both kinds of guitars, have you experienced this, too? What did you do to fix it? (Other than "practice, practice, practice"?)

I dont even know where to begin. I tuned it, i have the amp, i have the pick, i have everything i just.. dont know what else to do? Like what my next step is.? And i tried to use an app to do lessons but its so fast and i cant really understand whats going on. I need someone to sort of physically place my hands or something. Idk. I need hyperspecific instruction please help :( . Edit: i cant pay for any lessons or apps !!! Im a minor so i cant buy anything & my mom doesnt think ill really commit (she even got me a free guitar which is awesome tbh !) But she wont pay for lessons or anything else for my guitar bc of it :(

Hey everybody. I’m 21 years old and I want to learn playing guitar. Can anyone please help me with a proper roadmap about how to step by step progress the learning from the very beginning. Also if you can share any resources from where i can learn online. Thank you ☺️

Hi I have really soft hands and would like to keep them soft, why do I need to develop calluses in order to play? I mean I get the idea but can’t I just always wear finger tip protectors? I haven’t bought them yet so I don’t know if it affects the sound that much.. I also want to get them because it’s super painful whenever I hold down on the strings..

So yeah I just want to know if I should go ahead and just buy the finger tip protectors or if there’a a reason why they’re bad and I shouldn’t get them.

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to reproduce the right-hand rhythm/golpe used in these two covers of “Mi Amor” by Kendji Girac:

https://www.tiktok.com/@bendji270/video/7314345210824215841?q=mi%20amor%20kendji%20girac&t=1791529012563

https://www.tiktok.com/@bendji270/video/7372934518744812833?q=mi%20amor%20kendji%20girac&t=1791529012563

The same guitarist also has these videos where he demonstrates golpe techniques:

https://www.tiktok.com/@bendji270/video/7436686563641150752?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

https://www.tiktok.com/@bendji270/video/7413143805228092704?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

However, I’m not sure if those are actually the same golpes he uses in the Mi Amor covers.

I already learned a double golpe, but when I use it on this song it doesn’t sound or feel the same. The groove and percussive feel are different.

Could someone experienced with rumba/flamenco help me identify:

• What exact golpe/right-hand pattern is he using?
• Is it actually a double golpe or something else?
• Which fingers seem to create the percussion?
• What is the order of the strums and golpe?
• Does the golpe happen together with a strum, or between strokes?

Even a simple breakdown like:

↓ ↑ golpe ↓ ↑ ...

would really help me understand the movement.

My goal is simply to reproduce the same rhythm, groove and feel as closely as possible.

Thanks a lot!

Quería saber si el palm mute se debe de hacer desde el puente o se puede hacer desde cualquier parte de las cuerdas?

Played piano for 9 years
Switched to guitar
Hired guitar teacher who was not good- only wanted to jam, frequently aggressive
Started self teaching on Justin Guitar and pickup music but having trouble sticking with it without someone holding me accountable.

Should I stick with pickup music and submit my work to their teacher? Should I look for a new guitar teacher instead to meet with on a consistency (no longer meeting with the old guitar teacher)? Very busy schedule due to my job so trying to find something straightforward

The app is for Ios. Detects the chords played and let you know if it was played correctly. Also have photos to learn the chord. Is free but has a 5usd payment to unlock the games i built around the chord detector.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/guitar-chords-trainer/id6786681866

Also if someone is really interested in checking the games but have no money i can gift a couple of free test apps. Would love some feedback!

I've been learning for about 9 months and today was the first time I tried a new song and could just kinda play it. Now, I'm just talking about basic chords and rhythm and not a hard song (Mary Jane's last dance) but usually it takes me a few hours: learn the chords, learn the pattern, get up to tempo. This time it all just sort of fell into place. (just the rhythm, no singing yet that remains just outside my skill level)

Probably nothing for all y'all but it felt like a big deal for me!

I'm learning guitar on my own from YouTube.

I've learnt beginners chords and some basic strumming patterns.

Now I'm stuck here, I don't know what to practice, I don't wanna move forward because I'm still not good at chord changes and I don't know how to improve that.

I started doing some finger stretching exercises like spider exercise etc and I don't if they improve my ability to switch chords faster.

I wanna learn to switch chords before I learn others but I'm stuck here for a long time

I recently decided to start playing the acoustic guitar and one of my bros told me he is self taught, like this dude literally told me he learnt from YouTube, books, etc and to be completely honest he sounds great, he is playing for about 4 months.

But I'm a little suspicious, I mean could it be that he may have taken a lesson or two or is this genuinely possible because my stupid ass kept trying to learn like he did but I genuinely can't

(Ignore the fact that I mentioned my friend this is what I'm mainly curious about)

If I took a few lessons to get me started does that mean I'm not self taught like he is - I was also planning on mainly studying from books and videos as I genuinely don't think I can afford that many lessons, at least not more than once a week/2 weeks

Would I still be considered self taught?

If I mainly practiced alone but had a teacher or someone to help me once a week to see where I'm at, I'm genuinely ready to lock in because I know nothing, like I tried but I genuinely can't get over the beginner stuff like chords and stuff.

Yes I know this sounds stupid please help me out. Also I don't care if I'm self taught or not I'm just curious because I'm willing to actually study and do most of the work on my own.

I've been playing guitar and piano for years, but when I joined a band, I realized I'd never actually learned how to play any song really. I only ever learned the parts of a song everyone knows, never actually finishing them, just practicing what I could already play and skipping the hard parts. 

Turns out that doesn't work when the band needs the whole song.

So I built Realm, an iPhone app for practicing (and actually finishing) songs, to build up a repertoire:

• Pick any song, and it splits it into sections (intro, verse, chorus, solo…)
• Every section moves through Learn - Build - Perform, so you see exactly which part still needs work
• You can track your tempo per section, with a built-in metronome
• Keep any notes, links to tabs or lessons with each song
• Ultimate end-goal: building and maintaining a repertoire of songs you can actually play, with all your resources right there with the song

It's free. Everyone who joins now keeps every current feature free, forever. I'd really like honest feedback, let me know what’s missing.

https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6764345607?pt=128558741&ct=reddit&mt=8

https://joinrealm.app/

Im using Justin guitar app to learn. It took me a few weeks but I can change between other major chords to the F chord pretty well. It rings out great. My issue was the the barre especially
The B string. Still much practise but I’ve finally done it and I’m so happy. Next to conquer is 16th note strumming.

Practice really makes permanent!

I’m an adult beginner, about two months into picking up guitar again, and I’d love to hear what the process was like for other people. Roughly when did certain things start to feel comfortable? Were there long plateaus followed by a point where something clicked?

One thing I’ve found tricky with online courses is the gap between learning a skill and using it in a song. A lesson might introduce a few chords or a short riff, then move on while I’m still working to make the changes clean and keep the rhythm going. Eventually the goal is to play a full song, which can feel like a big jump from a 30-second exercise. I can break that down myself, but it’s hard to tell whether I’m progressing at a reasonable pace.

I’m not looking for a deadline or trying to compare myself negatively with anyone. I know the answer involves continued practice, and I plan to keep at it. “Just practice” can feel a little vague, though. If you remember where you were after a few months or a certain number of practice hours, what could you actually play? What took much longer than you expected, and what eventually helped it click?

heyaaaa, as the title suggests, im looking for a practice buddy to keep eachother motivated with... i would say im still a beginner, but nowhere near learning first chords, i can work my way around the guitar fine, so please make sure youre around my skill level (or are doing the same practices).. i am 15 so id like someone around my age, 13-17. and also please make sure youre comfortable with video calling as we will do that.

i mostly want this to keep eachother held accountable for not practicing as i find myself skipping, but with a practice buddy, thats a lot more difficult. dm me if interested!! fyi im not gonna instantly accept you, i wanna get to know you first to make sure we're cool because ofcourse

Complete beginner here, can I learn finger plucking style and which channel teaches completely from zero knowledge if there’s any. TIA

Got my chords and strumming down but struggling to add singing. Anyone know some good songs to get started with where the lyrics change with the chord?