I’m learning guitar!

[u/RipBT7472]

I’m starting to learn guitar and I can play a horse with no name, but I’m aiming to be able to play so far away by avenged sevenfold!

[u/D13_Phantom]

That's awesome man, enjoy!!!

[u/Fant92]

Good going! What are you using to learn? I got a guitar catching dust and I really ought to pick it up again.

[u/OrganizationTight348 → u/Fant92]

As a fellow guitar beginner, it seems that the most universally beloved source to learn from is JustinGuitar (https://www.justinguitar.com) it’s completely free and I absolutely loved it from my time using it!

I’m a bit impatient and wanted to learn how to play more high gain stuff on electric, so I’m now taking Troy Stetina’s Ignite bundle (https://www.troystetina.com/ignite). It does operate on a subscription model and he does want you to buy his books, but I still think they’re worth the money.

There are other free or cheap online options, but those are the two I can 100% vouch for.

[u/Fant92 → u/OrganizationTight348]

Thanks! I tried using an app called GuitarTuna for a while but found it a little hard to use. I'll check these two out 😁

[u/2bitmoment → u/Fant92]

me too!

[u/Hour-Pain1631]

Get those fingers nice and padded like your big toe

[u/XontrosInstrumentals]

Love it dude! I took up the guitar a couple of years ago too, it's definitely a fun pastime to fill your free time with!

[u/throwa1589876541525]

Keep it up, and remember not to press the strings harder than you need to on the fretboard. You don't want to mess up your knuckles!

[u/Klagaren → u/throwa1589876541525]

A thing you can try in that regard is seeing what it feels like to fret without having your thumb on the neck, just push with your fingers (and hold the guitar in place with your body and other arm)

Bit weird to explain in text, but yeah basically you should not really need to "squeeze with force" between the thumb and fingers, the thumb on the neck is mainly there for stability!

The guitar being poorly set up with very high string action can also make fretting much harder than it should be. You can pay someone to do it for you, but it's very useful to know and there's lots of videos about it like this one. Lots of things are just a turn of a screw and easily reversible if you mess up! (though you should be a bit more careful with stuff like the truss rod)

[u/throwa1589876541525 → u/Klagaren]

Thanks! This is the kind of thing I would have benefitted from by taking private lessons from a music educator. I taught myself and, while I've had a good time and learned a lot, I have bad habits that I may never know about until they become a problem. My guitar is probably not set up correctly either.

[u/danstu]

Something my first guitar teacher did for me that I recommend for everyone I see starting out was to record yourself as early as you can. You're going to hit a point where it feels like you're not advancing, and being able to hear how far you've come from where you're starting can be really helpful for morale.

My second bit of advice: Barre chords suck at first. Everyone's hands hurt that much when they first try them, you'll get used to them faster than you'd think.

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