A newbie here!

[mockingbird]

I used a book called Guitar Chords and Scales by Raymond Teoh (i think). It's a cheapo book, not very good, and the author sports a 70's haircut but overall does the job.

 

[serene]

Well for now try aiming the frets with precision.Strength develops by time without you even realising it.Playing it cleanly is much harder that trying to exert force on the strings.So try hitting the chords properly first.

Such examples would be like playing chords G to Am to E to C and repeating the whole line again.This will help with precision.

alrights! i will try that today! maybe i have been pressing too hard. i got blisters on my finger tips. i guess the biggest prob is still trying to obtain that curve to avoid touching other strings. i will try. thanks!

 

[serene]

LOL! i have that same book too! so all you got to do is practice the chords inside?
barre chords are like a newbie killer! :/

 

[dmagelneo]

chord changing exercises do help a lot in increasing the speed of chord changing from my experience..

I started out by
D , Em , C , G
and repeat them , d/d/u/u/d/u <--- 8 beat strum.

Then as I learn more chords like those barred I tried
E , F , G and so on

might wanna try learning the 8 beat strum before the 16 beat strumming pattern
which is something like

d/u/d/u/d/d/u/u/u/d/u/d/u <--- im struggling with this one cause its a lot faster.

 

[Syahwylder]

If I were to tell a total self taught newbie on what to know when starting guitar:

-Get a freaking good tuner and always play with a tuned up guitar. Over wounded untuned guitars are tight and sound horrible. Same goes for loose untuned guitars. You ears should be exposed to the right sound and notes. This develops a good ear. So you know when stuff is out of tune and such and you can start recognising chord sounds and notes all by yourself.

-Normal chords are overrated. They are good but don't get too hooked up on them. Go for the Barre chords. Might as well get started.

-I'm a firm believer of the POWER CHORDS! I learned to pull off Enter Sandman and Smoke on the Water riffs with them the first few weeks of starting Guitar.
I played only those riffs over and over at extreme distortion and volume levels for the next few weeks after. Crude but it got me thru the frustration of learning the other stuff. Start learning these too.

-Learn to read and use TABS.

-Youtube has beginners vidz. Look them up.

-Learn where all the notes are! Where all the ABCDEFG are and all the sharp and flats are too. On every string and every fret on the guitar. Seriously the earlier you start on this the better for you in the long run.

-Start learning lead guitar! Yes your path to becoming a shredder starts NOW!

-You have more than 2 fingers to use to hold notes. Start working in your other fingers into holding the notes.Yes get that weak struggling pinky working baby! And yes you can pluck the strings with your other fingers too if you're a fingerstyle player.

-Don't look up Justin King or Michael Angelo Batio on Youtube. You'll only get depressed and discouraged.

- REST! Playing till your fingers hurt like mad and bloody blistered is not really good. Your fingers need time to build up and get used to the new stress its going thru. It all takes time. Just keep at it.

-A lot of that can play guitar now started just like you.

 

[Likui]

Don't look up Justin King or Michael Angelo Batio on Youtube. You'll only get depressed and discouraged???
Some ppl like me feel encouraged

 

[theunknown]

If I were to tell a total self taught newbie on what to know when starting guitar:

-Get a freaking good tuner and always play with a tuned up guitar. This develops a good ear. So you know when stuff is out of tune and such and you can start recognising chord sounds and notes all by yourself.

Agreed

-Normal chords are overrated. They are good but don't get too hooked up on them. Go for the Barre chords. Might as well get started.

Please explain what are normal chords. Barre chords is the E shape of CAGED, no? not normal?

-I'm a firm believer of the POWER CHORDS! I learned to pull off Enter Sandman and Smoke on the Water riffs with them the first few weeks of starting Guitar.
I played only those riffs over and over at extreme distortion and volume levels for the next few weeks after. Crude but it got me thru the frustration of learning the other stuff. Start learning these too.

disagreed. learn the terms. what are power chords? why use power chords? why is power chords used in certain types of songs and why not others? playing with extreme distortion n volume masks the mistakes a person makes. feel good, yes. play good, not really

-Learn to read and use TABS.

tabs may be of use when you really need to find out some things. but learning the notes are even more important. E#? got such thing? is F# same as Gb? too much tabs make u go 355 instead of C.

-Start learning lead guitar! Yes your path to becoming a shredder starts NOW!

up to one's preference.

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