If you had to give one piece of advice.....

[Thundergod]

I would say don't use tabs.

If you start out learning stuff by ear' date=' you will have a MUCH easier time later in your musical career.

Start small, I suggest Happy Birthday and Twinkle Twinkle, those were the first things I learned by ear.

 

[/quote']

 

 

+1

[tuckomf]

I remember trying to jam with my friend and his brother. They were both tab readers. Whenever they played, they'd count exactly how many times they had to hit each note. "okay, so it's 7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7, then how many times do I have to play 5?"

 

edit*

I got all excited about the tab bashing on page 1, I didn't stop to read the next page of posts, so that's out of place.

 

Also, to answer the original question, I'd say that even though electrics might look more appealing, come gig time you'll be glad that you just have to carry an acoustic and a D.I. That, and keep your acoustic humidified!!!!!!!

[pippy]

dont give up.

 

This is it.

[G u e s t]

Tabs - man, they mess with your head. They don't make 'em pure like they used to. Steer clear.

 

Oh. Guitar tabs..... woops. Hey - same applies though, the same applies!

 

Use your ears and train your heart and soul to feed the notes to your hands.

Steal everything by watching pickers at gigs or on video.

MOST importantly - Enjoy.

Don't giver up works too (good call pumpkin and pippy.....)

[Homz]

When you get good enough to play in a band make sure the people in the band are friendly and your goals are all reasonably the same. Life's to short to play with a group of Alpha-male a$$holes.

[Steven Tari]

Play what you like in music and you'll never get tired of playing. When you get to the point you start writing your own music. Don't try to sound like everybody else, Do your own thing. If you want to sound like someone else, go to you tube and see how many other people are allready doing that. As long as you don't lose your focus in what you want, You'll be happy.

[TheLiveSoundGuy]

Stay out of the Lounge Forum!

[Rocky4]

You have to crawl before you can walk

[albertjohn]

the people you irritate by playing simple songs poorly now will beg you to play for them later and probably ask you to teach them.

 

This is fantastic advice - I've been there!

 

Also, generally, acoustics and electrics are very different. Don't try and play it too much like an electric.

[saturn]

The best advice I could give is to play every day. Even if it's just for a few minutes...Play it every day.

 

+1 That's the one piece of advice right there.

 

Especially on acoustic, your fingers are going to get sore at first and you have to build up some callouses. It should take about a week or two for your fingers to toughen up.

[heymisterk]

I don't particularly like or use tabs very often, but before music was written for guitar using notation, it was written for instruments similar to guitar - lute and oud - in a form very much like tab.

 

To answer the question, I would find a good teacher. I also believe that learning all the open position chords and Barre chords is important early on, because it's relatively easy and very gratifying once you can play some tunes.

[MikeRom]

dont give up.

 

+1

[FirstMeasure]

Don't fool yourself. The first few months are gonna hurt (building calluses and finger muscles). The next few months are gonna be frustrating (realizing the basics are enough to get playing, but there's a lot more to learn before you can be "Entertaining").

 

Oh yeah, one more.......If you're doing it for Chicks, take up dancing or get a Motorcycle. Same effect, less homework.

[callen3615]

 

There's nothing really wrong with tabs' date=' but if people rely on them too much they can be bad.

You should try and learn things by ear, it's a much more practical tool.

And I've found, a LOT of tabs are wrong...[/quote']

 

Oh, I learn piano by ear. Ive been doing that for a long time.

[:oilpit:]

 

Oh' date=' I learn piano by ear. Ive been doing that for a long time.[/quote']

 

If that's true, then you shouldn't need tabs to play guitar...

[FirstMeasure]

I don't see how you can read Tab without learning how to read music first. at least a little bit. I learned to read music on a Trumpet first, so when I discovered guitar tab it was easy. I understood note value, beats, time signatures, and most importantly How to Count the beats and note values.

[Duende]

I think reading and writing tabs is a great use as a shorthand, but reading and writing music is the way to real freedom

You decide your own fingering when reading the music etc.

 

There is a myth in the rock guitar world that becoming musically literate loses your own individuality. I would say at Frank Zappa. He was no sheep!

 

Matt

[Californiaman]

One of the local Guitar Shop owners sits in with the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts. When teaching his students he impresses on them the importance of learning to read music. That way they can get a cool gig like performing with the PCPA and he can take on other gigs.

[pumpkin]

my husband uses tabs occasionally & plays by ear. he taught our daughter to play. started her off with chords, then some songs, power chords, then started her on the panatonic (spelling?) scale & then the blues scale. since he couldnt read music, we sent her to guitar lessons where she learned to read music & in turn, SHE taught HIM to read music.

 

i think its a good thing to be able to do all 3. ear, tabs & read.

[James Allen]

Play every day. I read a quote once from Ted Nugent. He said to practice, practice, practice. Practice until your fingers bleed and you have a whelt in the shape of a guitar across your chest. Then, don't put it down. Practice more!

 

There you go.