What

Do you enjoy actually playing? If you don't like playing guitar it might not be your thing (my piano wasn't exactly right for me either). Otherwise I'd advise you to just pick it up and start playing even if you don't feel like it, I noticed that the more I play the more I want to. I can't really put it down when I start, and maybe it's the same for you. I would also tell you to just try and learn some songs you don't know. Variation keeps it fresh!

-Set some goals. or targets for yourself to achieve.
-Focus on learning a certain song.
-Remember to have fun with it, not just ploughing through the drudgery of the same scale overandoverandoverandover...

Think about why you wanted to start playing in the first place.

absolutelty, - goals are everything for me when it comes to motivation. they are usually something simple like - " i want to play THAT solo from THAT song i like etc", but they definatelty keep me motivated.

I'm not sure I have advice, just wanted to say that for myself I am hooked on the thing. 33 years and I play every day cause I feel a compulsion to pic the darn thing up. It was a long time ago but I do think it may have been an aquired taste. Keep at it, if it's for you you will get hooked. If not, why do something you don't enjoy?

after a number of years of playing the act of playing became an act of breathing.
if I don't play I don't breathe. I need to breathe.
what keeps me going, really, is those ,oments where you can do no wrong. the notes are sweet, the tone is awesome, everything is clicking, time stands still. it is the desie to expereince that again has me opening the guitar case daily.
of course I don't get there eevry time, but I am motivated.

I have a goal of wanting to play in a group with others. I'd like to play in a small band, either as rhythm guitar or bass (I'm working on both) depending on the immediate needs of the band. That's really always been my goal, though somewhat undefined as to the venues. I always thought maybe a company picnic, upscale backyard bbq, etc. Due to recent personal reasons I think another type of venue for me would be a small low-key worship group, in addition to those others. So there is my goal, whether I achieve it or not. Set a goal; not necessarily a timeframe or too high a goal, but have a goal in mind to achieve. What do you want to do with your playing?

Personally, when I started I really enjoyed it. I...horribly sucked, to put it bluntly, but I liked what little I could do.

After I learned all of One, besides the solo of course...and could play it well, I was pretty proud of it. I want to be good enough to enjoy what I play, and emulate the musicians I've always sort of looked up to, and got so much enjoyment from their songs.

However, I find it difficult to remember and repeat different chords, and such. I swear I have a memory problem, I can't even remember the basic chords. The things I've learned have basically been small parts from songs, that I have repeated over and over and over until I had them right. I'm not very good at tuning my guitar either, and don't exactly have any friends that know how to either, as I don't see them often, so things are usually a bit out of tune, if they're supposed to be played in anything but standard.

Over and over and over ... you got that part right. Thats how you do it. There are plateaus we all reach in learning and it sounds like your on one. Just keep at it an d one day you will say "Hey! I got better when I wasn't looking!" As far as tuning, electronic tuners are really cheap these days. I remember the first one I got and how much easier it made my life not to mention how much better it made my guitar sound.

You have to really make it a habit - set a time every day and try to stick to it. It's much easier to do it if you have a scheduled time. If you leave it to whenever then it never ends up happening.

Another thing you could also do is the "trick" that I use for going to the gym. Whenever I feel like not going I tell myself that I only have to go and do 10 minutes and if I still don't feel like it then I can stop. I've almost never stopped (just once when I was starting to get sick and probably shouldn't have gone anyway). Just tell yourself that all you have to do is your guitar warmup and then if you don't really feel like it you'll stop.

It can also be that sometimes you need to change up what you're doing. If you've been working a certain lesson book then mark you position, put it away for later, and get another one. Try a different style or a different area of the same style or work on new techniques.

i'm guessing your new to this game? :?:

starting out can really suck...but trust me on this.....NOBODY picks up a guitar from scratch and makes great things happen.....

it takes time,patience and practice...lots of all three :?

the maestros you hear and aspire to got there by maybe playing 8+ hours EVERY day! (probably)...maybe from a very early age, encouraged by musical parents (or a lack of real lives).

keep plugging on and in no time you will hit a golden moment that will give you such a buzz that all will be forgotten and you WILL want more....it keeps us all going :D

search youtube for songs you love and i promise inspiration is there

all previous advice given is spot on so keep posting :)

Man I'm so slow.

I keep getting preoccupied and forgetting about this site -_-

Thing is, I just don't ever have a lot of determination. I haven't even picked up my guitar in the past month :

I have an electric tuner, but I don't know exactly how to use it. I'll tune it to "standard" , but it doesn't sound like the ones I hear on the web and such. Its a bit annoying .

On top of that, I don't know exactly what to practice to get better. From what I know so far, I can do single notes easily, but doing chords and switching between them is SO difficult, yet it looks and feels like it should be very easy. I can't just switch from one chord to the next without looking at the guitar and my hands, and taking a moment to do it.

Also , I really don't know my chords- like a, b, c etc... I had a former friend try to teach me one time, but my memory sucks, and its really hard for me to learn something like that . I really should pick it up faster, but I'm not . :?

OK, do you really want to put in the time to learn how to play guitar or do you just think that it would be cool to be a guitar player? I'm not trying to be insulting. Your posts tell me that you are impatient to learn. Yet you haven't picked up the guitar in a month. There's nothing magic about learning to play. It's like anything else. You have to practice a lot to learn the fundamentals. At some point it starts to be more fun. If you wanted to play baseball, you would practice throwing and catching and hitting the ball and running. You would learn the rules of the game. You wouldn't expect to get out there and be a good player without a lot of practice.

If you're serious about this, maybe you need a coach, i.e. a guitar instructor.

As far as tuning your guitar, I hesitate to suggest getting an electronic tuner because then you might never learn to listen to the pitches. But maybe it would help you to get a type of tuner that has a needle or a light that tells you when your guitar string is at the right pitch.

If you can't get motivated, you'll be among a very large group of people who picked up a guitar or other instrument at sometime in their lives and never learned how to play. But it's a great hobby that can take you lots of places, so I hope you get over this hump.

OK, do you really want to put in the time to learn how to play guitar or do you just think that it would be cool to be a guitar player? I'm not trying to be insulting. Your posts tell me that you are impatient to learn. Yet you haven't picked up the guitar in a month. There's nothing magic about learning to play. It's like anything else. You have to practice a lot to learn the fundamentals. At some point it starts to be more fun. If you wanted to play baseball, you would practice throwing and catching and hitting the ball and running. You would learn the rules of the game. You wouldn't expect to get out there and be a good player without a lot of practice.

If you're serious about this, maybe you need a coach, i.e. a guitar instructor.

As far as tuning your guitar, I hesitate to suggest getting an electronic tuner because then you might never learn to listen to the pitches. But maybe it would help you to get a type of tuner that has a needle or a light that tells you when your guitar string is at the right pitch.

If you can't get motivated, you'll be among a very large group of people who picked up a guitar or other instrument at sometime in their lives and never learned how to play. But it's a great hobby that can take you lots of places, so I hope you get over this hump.

Oh, no. I understand, no offense taken.

I'd really love to learn to play, but it feels bad that I can't do much. I usually end up just screwing around, or trying to learn a part to a song I like, and I want to know what would help me to grow above that. I had a friend that was teaching me , but hes very impatient, and got aggravated because I can't learn easily. Like I said, switching between chords is difficult for me.

Also, I have a decent ear for when my guitar strings sound stable, but I tend to second guess myself on whether its right or not. Thats where the tuner comes in. Even then it doesn't feel I'm doing it correctly.

First thing is find someone or maybe a video online on how to properly use your electronic tuner and make sure your guitar is in tune when you play. It's important obviously because you'll never sound "right" if you are out of tune but you also will never develop your ear if you don't.

Once you can do that this site is as good as any to start with the beginner lessons and then work on them until you get them down no matter how long it takes.

Maybe get yourself a couple beginner books and start working through those.

I kind of agree with Hobson you can't just want to be a guitar player you have to put the time in and I'm not talking a couple weeks or months here.

I might have been a bit slow in developing and maybe still am but it took about two years to start really playing any of the songs I wanted to play halfway decently so there's no quick fix it all comes down to how much time you put in. But once you get a couple songs down then the momentum will start building and the more you learn the more you'll want to learn.