Tips for teaching myself the guitar?

Question:My brother has an electric guitar that he never uses and I would like to learn how to play it. I don't have enough money for lessons. I would like any tips on the best way to go about teaching myself the guitar. It's something I've always wanted to do but never got round to doing.
Thanks

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: My brother has an electric guitar that he never uses and I would like to learn how to play it. I don't have enough money for lessons. I would like any tips on the best way to go about teaching myself the guitar. It's something I've always wanted to do but never got round to doing.
Thanks

Get with friends who play!!! Good advice from the guy above me! I hung out at a coffee house with a stupid K-Mart guitar that my mom bought my dad that he never used. There was this guy named Joe who played and sang like James Taylor and I'd sit with him and his other guitar friends as they played. Joe could pick up my stupid K-Mart guitar and really make it sing!!!! I'd watch and follow along as best as I could. Chord changes were hard to keep up with at first but I stuck with it and got pretty good. The guys were really nice and seemed to enjoy helping me learn.

The other thing that helped me the most was I bought guitar books by bands I liked and played along with the record (CD). This was a lot of fun because it made me develop my timing and keep up with the beat. Creedence Clearwater Revival is a band I'd recommend for starting out because they used very simple and basic chord progressions. Then I also play with Beatle records; a little more complex.

The other thing that helped me was whenever I'd watch TV I had my guitar in my hand working on chords and chord changes. I worked on switching faster and faster between chords. I even take my guitar in the bathroom if I"m going to be in there a while - don't laugh! - It's quality guitar time!

Now I have a home recording studio with 2 keyboards, 2 acoustic guitars, and electric guitar, a bass, and a mandolin. I've really grown since the coffee house days. If you find that the guitar doesn't suit you, try exploring the mandolin. It's easier to play and a lot of fun. It's compact size makes it easy to transport (or play in the bathroom!)

But the best thing is to sit in with friends who play.

Also, you can buy tutorial DVDs at your guitar dealer that will train you. My daughter really learned to play even better than me by watching those!

Good luck and I hope you enjoy playing as much as I do.

There are two things you need to focus on when learning to play guitar. Technique and discipline. As you learn to play make sure you are playing properly and comfortably. ANY strain on your arms or muscle will embed itself into your muscle memory and will come out when you play. Even if you tense your shoulders or legs, that will effect your playing. You can google sites for proper technique and developing it. If you know any friends who play ask them if you could play guitar together, this is the best way to get good fast.

And for discipline you are going to need exercises and methods to develop skills on the guitar. Theres a ton of these on any guitar help site. Start off slow with any exercise, concentrating on playing every note clearly and loudly. It will also take a little bit for your fingers to get calluses and adjust to playing on the guitar.

Here's some good sites:
http://ultimate-guitar.com/
http://guitar.about.com/

Good luck.

You need a teacher to start. That's because you won't notice little errors in finger or wrist position at the outset--let's face it, ten fingers and two wrists and six strings and 24 frets are a lot to keep track of. If you don't have a teacher who will observe and correct those errors, they can turn into bad habits. It's hard to break a bad habit, and in addition to limiting your potential, on guitar those bad habits can cause repetitive motion injuries. You don't want wrist surgery at age 30, do you now?

It might take only a dozen or so lessons to get your fundamentals down properly. If you can afford maybe $15 a week for three months, it would be worth it--try putting a note on a bulletin board at a local college music department and see if a guitar major will teach you for cheap. Or advertise your poverty on Craig's list and elsewhere and see if anyone will volunteer.

After you get your fundamentals right, I'd suggest that you self-educate by buying a lot of books, cds, and dvds from a used bookshop or on ebay. Don't worry about whether they're good or not--all of them are! Just get four or five that look like beginner-level and try them all out. Eventually you'll grow into intermediate and advanced stuff and you'll subscribe to Guitar Player magazine (which is the best source for the most advanced ideas, IMO).

One more bit of advice. When you start out, practice for no more than ten minutes at a time, four to six times daily. Then every week, extend at least one session by a couple of minutes. As you slowly increase the time, you can reduce the number of practices until you're down to a single one of an hour or more. This plan yields faster results for a beginner, and it builds stamina with less risk of tendinitis or blisters.