What

Several years ago I read an online interview with Eddie Van Halen. He said something about how all the young guys want to be a rock star, but they don't realize that learning to play like that is about like going to law school.

Hey, I just had a thought based on cnev's reply. I have at least one old non-electronic pitch pipe for guitar that is just wrong and has never been right. I also have an electronic tuner that can be changed to a different reference pitch. That is, normally A above middle C is at 440 hertz (at least in the U.S.) But on this particular tuner, I can change that. For instance, I sometimes play with a keyboard that I know is a bit sharp and A is at 442 hertz. So I set my tuner to that and tune my guitar accordingly. But a couple of times I have accidentally hit the button on the tuner to change the reference pitch and wondered why I couldn't seem to get my guitar in tune.

So maybe your tuner isn't correct or has accidentally been reset. Read the instructions that came with it. Check it against an online tuner. Here's one:

http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/onlinetuner.html

First of all - you CAN do it. Really.

The work that folks are referring to is the work of setting yourself to figuring things out when you encounter them.
Admitting that you don't know how to use your electronic tuner says that you haven't applied yourself to solving that little mystery. You CAN do it. But will you? It's not hard. It probably won't take very long. But it won't happen until you apply yourself to doing it.

Guitar generally is something a person does voluntarily. It's not like school. It's not like a sentence. It's not like doing the dishes or picking up your room. You can quit at any time. Or you can persevere and learn to play to some level.

Do it because you want to. Because you want to get the cool sounds, solve the little puzzles, see if you can do something.

I'm playing stuff that I figured I could NEVER EVER do just because I've been working on figuring tens of little things out then practicing them until my fingers can do what I want them to do. But it's taken time and consistent attention applied (sometimes just 15 minutes a night for a week is all I can do).

But sometimes I just play things I know for an hour just enjoying the sounds and watching my fingers in awe - like they belong to someone else more skilled than me. It takes consistent effort applied over time to get there.

Well, that link answered something I'd never actually knew. The electric guitar I have is a few years old, and has probably never had it's strings replaced. Of all the times I'd researched about guitar tuning, I never found out that the strings gradually got flattened, even though I suppose I should have used common sense about it.

I'm going to try and get whatever is causing the buzzing fixed, and when I do I'm going to just persevere and learn to play. Any suggestions on where I could take it, as far as guitar stores and shops go?

When I was new I didn't understand what a big difference new strings made either so don't feel bad.

Any guitar store that sells strings is likely to be able to change them for you and show you how to do it yourself.

I have two stores within a mile of me. Your situation is probably different.

Well, I had to change a string on it before because it'd broken on me. So I think I know how to replace the strings myself, but I'm not entirely sure if I did it good enough, so I'll see if they can help me with it.

I think I need to just get a new guitar.

I've been trying the past couple of days to play it, and its not wanting to transfer sound to my amplifier. I have no clue whats wrong with it.

Any ideas fellas?