Teaching Myself (electric guitar)

Ragdoll,
Keep doing what your doing, Immerse yourself in it.
Use GOOGLE and search for Guitar Tabs, Guitar Lessons, Drills etc.
There are a ton of websites on the net, you'll figure which ones are junk and which ones are good.

Speaking of websites, this is the BEST by FAR. Check out the "LESSONS" page(s). There are hours worth of practice for you along with MP3s to make sure your sounding right.

Also, I pause and take a deep breath.... I know this will come up and If I don't say someone else will.

FIND AN INSTRUCTOR..... GET SOME LESSONS!!!! :)

If money is an issue right now for paying for lessons, that's OK, but eventually you'll want and NEED to find an instructor even if its for a couple of weeks only.

My last bit of advice... read, read read. Read the posts in this forum and others like the Amps forum, the Gear Forums, there's so much information and answers to your questions right here. :)

Play Loud, Play often and Never quit!!! :):):):)

Hi Ragdoll,

I'd second what Dagwood said.

I learn mostly from books and from experimenting, but I still take some lessons at times.

There's some great free stuff on the net too, but the danger is always that you can teach yourself wrongly. You might be doing one aspect beautifully but completely messing up something else without knowing it.

Of course, some things that people will say are "wrong" can turn out to be just different ways of doing things - but some habits actually are bad and unhelpful.

I think it was NoteBoat who said here "Practice doesn't make perfect, it just makes you learn whatever you practice" or something like that (he had a neater version than that. :) ) . The point being that you can put a lot of time into getting very proficient at being a bad guitar player!

When you first start there is just way too much to take in at one go - timing, posture, left hand positions, right hand styles, and a million little details that go into making up a decent sound. Inevitably you give some aspects a bit of a back seat while you at least get something working. But if you have no consistent guidance you can go way down the track without realising how badly you've overlooked something that you should have started getting into shape earlier. It's not fatal if your path isn't perfect, but a bit of friendly eye to eye help is a huge bonus.

Good luck anyway. :D

Cheers, Chris

Thanks for all the advice, damn the people here on guitarnoise are so helpful...Put I'm the type of person who has to go out there and do it whatever ;it; is, if I'm not I feel like I'm not actually doing it! But when I sit down and practice, I learn a few new chords, scales, read a little chord theary from my book...I feel like I'm not getting ANYWHERE, and I still don't know how to go from point b to c... :( I am going to take your advice... thank you.

Ragdol, Get powertab editor (search google), then goto http://www.powertabs.net . Find a tab of your favorite song (making sure it has a good rating) and break out the CD. Then just make the guitar say the same thing it is on the CD. Lots of hard work, but it ALWAYS pays off.

Ragdoll...I love your passion for guitar.

I found some friends to play with. eventually we became a band. laughable when I think whow bad we were. but the best thing that came out of that was learning songs. I still play some of them. Gloria was one.
playing a;long with someone is not only fun but it keeps the energy up; you're watching and listening the whole time you are playing your own guitar. hows that work??? its amazing.
hopefully you can connect. even if it is one other person. get a chaep Casio with a drum track and have at it.

another thing I do is play along with CDs.
I use the low E string to find what key and then do my best to play along. sometimes rythym , sometimes the lead. a great way to learn and et some songs under your belt.

best wishes to you. damn I like your energy. !

OK, you've learned one scale pattern. But do you know how much you've actually learned? Far more than you probably actually realised!
I'll assume that you've learned one pattern of the major scale - if you know where the root of the scale is to be found, in the pattern, you can move that pattern and play in ANY major key. Let's say it's the pattern, with the root note on the low E string. Play the pattern, with the root note at the 5th fret and you're playing in A (the note found at the 5th fret of the low E), move the pattern to start with the root at the 7th fret and you're now playing in B.
Pretty good start, huh? ;)

You guys are freakin' awsume thank you so much you don't relize how much inspiration you have brought to me :)