how did you start, share your opinion on what works....

This site was a good resource. And learning a few scales really helped me with finger dexterity.

I'm still a newbie myself, I've only been playing for 5 months, but what has helped me the most is playing whenever I can.

Sorry if this seems long, but the question made me think. I've played on and off over the years, so I am sorta the perpetual newbie compared to most here. When I first started in my HS and early college days, I think the major breakthrough in learning was that with enough effort you "can" play whatever you want. After years of not playing and life just being too demanding... getting married and "the wife" finding out I still had 2 guitars around; It was the different aspect of seeing other people enjoy what I could play so that inspired me to try new things. Then life, kids, work, etc .. years of not playing again, it is now more the personal enjoyment, self expression, and "stress release factor" that draws me in and makes me play again. Each stage for me was a motivation to learn something different based on my reasons for picking up an axe again. So my advice would be to try to figure out why you want to learn to play "now" and find the motivation in that. I'm not sure if that was the type of answer you were looking for but everyone has thier own "breakthroughs" and I believe they will all come from knowing what motivates you to play now and accomplishing it in the smallest form at first then realizing it is just a matter of expanding upon what you've already done.

what would you say was one of the greatest contributing factors to impact your playing???

The desire to play coupled with the fact that I didn't think i was "gifted" enough to play.

Question .....what was a major break through in your learning of the guitar.....was it just plain practice.....a particular book....a great teacher........your own invention......a combination of a few things........

Major break through was the realization that you don't need to be
'gifted" to play, playing well just requires patience and practice, just like anything else.

and if you had to give a piece of advice to help a newbie learn the guitar what would it be??

Have patience and don't get frustrated, you can play "Em" as good as Jimmy Page. Rest are just details :)

Something that helped me was finding someone else to play with. You can really pick up some nice tricks and tips when jamming with other guitarists. I was also more motivated to practice because I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to make a fool of myself!

If you have friends or family that play, try and get together a couple of times a month and play a few songs together. If you don't know anyone that plays guitar, post in the "gigs and jams" forum to see if there are any other guitarnoise members in your area.

You can also try and find a good teacher in your area. The right teacher can really motivate you and help you reach your goals.

Finally, keep coming back to these forums and ask lots of questions! There are tons of fantastic people here that are more than willing to help. It's so easy to find motivation when you can talk to other people who are passionate about guitar!

There were a few things I remembered.

1) My breakthrough wasa 'chip on my shoulder' mentality. Absolutely nobody believed I would keep my interest in playing. They all thought that it was just a dumb fad.
Even my girlfriend thought I would give up on learning after a month.
My parents even asked me the week that I bought it if I should go to a teacher to learn.

But I was really determined to teach myself [with a little help from this site and others] on how to play. In the end, I didn't give up and kept going at it.
What's even more cool is that September 13th was my 3 year anniversary of playing guitar.
It's also fun to bring up the subject of me playing the guitar to my girlfriend because I would always rub it in her face that she was wrong. :lol:

2) On the second day of playing, I was practising the G major open chord and played the very beginning's of 'More Than Words', and I was estatic about this discovery. It definately gave me the moral boost of knowing that I can achieve something, and playing wasn't too difficult.

3) This breakthough is probably a bad one, but it still helped me. My girl's friend also played guitar. He was a bit of a show off because he would use his classical to show off and stuff. There was this one time where he played this song call "Ghost of You and Me" -BBMak to my girlfriend a bunch of folks. That song had a really nice riff and stuff so people were impressed by what they heard. My GF told me about it and I guys that discouraged me a little. I guess it got me a bit jealous, and I refocused and practiced even longer and harder than before.

I know out of the 3 examples the last one is probably a horrible attitude to have when learning to play. But I have to admit without the influence from that guy, I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have right now.

The funny thing about that story is, that guy and I are great friends now and he would often ask me about guitar techniques etc and what to play.
My abilities have surpassed his (not that it should matter) and now that I think back, I feel a little embarassed knowing that I felt that way.

However, I don't necessarily regret feeling that way simply because it really pushed me to go further.

And oh yes, scales help a whole lot. It would help with your reach etc...Before, I would always neglected using my pinky, but I've learned that it should be a number one priority.

Hi again Kev

You got me thinking too, about the real early days. I was a bit like you last poster says, no one thought i would stick at it because i had no musical ability whatsoever. So first up a big thanks to the guy in my local guitar shop who convinced me that this needn't necessarily be a barrier to learning to play guitar. He was 100% right. There is no shortcut, its a case of practice, practice and sometimes....practice!

As a lefty with no musical ability, boy i was up against it ha ha!!!!

My first breakthrough was reading somewhere that the best way to play clean chords is to stop trying so bloody hard, and to just "plonk" your fingers down on the fretboard where you think they should go. Try this as an exercise: Just with your fretting hand (the other one can pick your nose for the time being, or do something equally constructive), form a G chord. Now, move to a C chord shape, slowly. From there move to a D, slowly, then back to G again slowly. Got it?

Now start again, on G. this time, QUICKLY PLONK your fingers into the C chord. From there, quickly plonk them into a D. from there, quickly plonk them back on the G.

Once you can do this, it teaches you something that is fundamental to guitar playing. See my tip at the end of the thread!

This convinced me that it isn't rocket science. Allright, it might be that you are a bit off on the first "plonk" but you can quickly adjust anything that's wrong, and if you had been strumming at the same time, I doubt anyone would notice much difference. Try it and see.

Lastly my one tip for ANY beginner, and to me the most important thing of all. Teach each hand independantly of each other to start with. I can't emphasise this enough, particularly if you want to get good at finger picking. Your brain will not cope very well with thinking "Ok, I do THAT with my left hand, and THAT with my right....".

Far better to spend 15 minutes on one hand, say picking a regular pattern, or a strum that you want to learn, and then spend 15 minutes teaching the other hand to fret clean chords. This will speed up your learning rate so much you won't beleive it.

One other small tip, if you're stuck on something, take a break, and go back to it, don't just flog away.

Good luck

Matt

I first tried in 1970 - failed, tried again in the 80s - failed, again in 2000 - failed.

I had always bought a classical guitar and switched the strings over to play left handed.

Then in August last year I went to london and bought a LH acoustic (despite advice in the shop to buy RH).

Bought Russ Shipton book/CD which starts with really easy chords (E,D,A) and for me good songs (Dylan etc.) then three months later I thought wow - I just strummed along to a song successfully. After that I was encouraged enough to kee going.

Being able to achieve something for the first time was my breakthrough.

jimscafe

what is it about shops telling us lefties to play right handed? Do we go in and tell them they have to play left handed - NO!

Its no wonder there are so few shops with a decent range of lefties, when they have this attitude. I went into a shop last year that had over 140 guitars. 3 lefties.....

i am proud to be a left handed person, and find it very insulting that we can't be allowed to stay that way. Its not long since schools insisted that everyone wrote right handed...!!

I completely agree with you, i went that route too, the Shipton books might not be the best in the world, but they get you playing (Mull of Kintyre ha ha) and that's the main thing.

Its important that as a beginner you get to play something all the way through at some stage, otherwise you have a bunch of chords but no sense of achievement in playing them.

cheers

Matt

Finding a great teacher. A good teacher plays too roles -- guitar instructor and guitar coach. Good teachers not only instruct, they motivate.

1) What helped me most was switching from an acoustic guitar with a wide neck, stiff strings and high action to an electric guitar with a narrow neck, soft strings and low action.

All sorts of difficult things became easy.

All sorts of semi-impossible things became routine.

All sorts of impossible things became possible.

2) Learning the major scale and from that, the names of the intervals.

3) Learning how chords are formed from notes. Simple major and minor chords (triad chords) are of course by far the most important to understand first.

4) Playing with others brought the understanding that rhythm is the most important facet of music, by far. Without it, nothing works. Takes a while to get it right, but after that, it tends to stay with you.

I think what gave me confidence and great encouragment was realizing that I had a good ear. I would sit and listen to songs I liked in my head and try to figure them out on guitar. Then when they would come on the radio I would play along and be surprised that they were actually correct, even in the right key. So I began to believe I actually had a "knack" for guitar.

But I am very stubborn and hardheaded by nature. I made my mind up from day one that I was never going to quit and that I was going to learn to play this thing.

I also loved the challange of guitar. It never gets old. There is always room to improve.

Some people get discouraged because guitar is difficult. But that is what made me want to play more. I do not like to let anything "beat" me.

Another thing that encouraged me to play is that guitar is "mine". Nobody (except the Lord) can stop me from being a good guitar player. You might be the hardest, most diligent, most capable worker at work, and still the boss gives a promotion to someone else just because they like them more. There are so many laws and restrictions on us in society. But with guitar, nobody can keep you down. You can get just as good as you choose to be. It is yours. You are in total control. I like that.

Number 1- Taking my guitar to the shop and having it properly set up. it made a world of difference. I believe this is why I never stuck with it when I tried to learn back in '87.

Number 2- This web site and particularly this forum. I was able to benchmark myself against other beginners and realized that the challenges I am facing are also being faced by everyone else, so it wan't just me, this made me realize that I can actually do it.

Number 3- Hasn't happened yet but I expectwhen I get to play with others it will also give me a boost. As of now I play with CD's and have a good time with it. Just imagine, no more air guitar!