How hard is it to learn to play the guitar?

Viazon · 09-20-2012, 05:46 PM

Learning to play guitar is something I have always wanted to do. But I know what I am like. I have no discipline and I give up way to easily. But it has always been something I want to do.

How easy is it to teach yourself to play guitar? Are there any people here who were self taught?

prmtherocker · 09-20-2012, 11:39 PM

I am self taught guitarist but believe me learning to play guitar is very hard than other instruments like piano, drums, etc. But if you dedication and interest you can surely be a pro. Persistence is the key. Never give up at first because "Everything is hard before its easy."

There are lot of ebooks, videos and learning stuffs all over the internet. I mostly learned myself using Guitar Pro.

Neapolitan · 09-21-2012, 12:31 AM

It all depends where you want to go with it. If you just want to strum a few chords to a song and you own a decent instrument to play on it can be fairly easy. On the other hand if you want to get more involved and learn lead guitar for Rock, Metal or Country it can be somewhat difficult.

phoenix17 · 09-22-2012, 03:52 AM

It's easy to learn. Just takes a lot of time to train your mind and hands. There's a lot of online resources available now to self-teaching guitar.

mr dave · 09-22-2012, 08:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viazon

I have no discipline and I give up way to easily.

You need to address this first because if you're going to try teaching yourself any instrument you will only get what you put into it. If you can't be bothered to pick it up and practice you're never going to develop into anything worthwhile.

Learning the most basic functions and theory of the instrument isn't that hard, but unless you practice those elements it's never going to matter. I used to buy every copy of any guitar magazine that had tablature in it back in the 90s. Whether I knew the song or not it didn't matter, I'd sit there and play through the tab just to learn new licks or to see how different parts were put together.

Getting a teacher also won't change the fact that the ability to play the instrument is still entirely your responsibility and directly related to how much you choose to play it.

Plankton · 09-22-2012, 08:48 AM

^wut he said^

Was gonna pull that little gem out of that post too.

blastingas10 · 09-22-2012, 11:22 AM

It's not easy at all. It's all about patience and discipline. It's really satisfying to look back and see how far you've come and it makes it all worth it. From my experience, guitar is harder than the only other instrument I have experience with which is piano. When you have a ****ty guitar with really high action, changing chords can be a big task. I found it to be a lot easier on piano, but I know they both have their own aspects that make them difficult.

Howard the Duck · 09-23-2012, 04:12 AM

i'm half-self-taught and half received lessons

strumming a few basic chords is easy

and that's all you need in punk, really

ferdie_poly · 09-23-2012, 06:22 AM

aside from discipline, I think inspiration plays a major role in learning how to play guitar

The 5th Horseman · 09-25-2012, 05:35 PM

Learning to play guitar is hard typically. Ive been playing for 8 years, piano for 10. Ive been giving private music lessons for near 6 years now and have had all types of students.

When learning to play guitar, at first, your fingers will hurt due to not being calloused. Once youget past that, depending on what you want to learn, it can be difficult to build dexterity, speed and playing cleanly. You can just jump into playing guitar and be steve vai in a month or 2. Once you get past the intermediate stuff, comes learning how to play outside of the scale boxes, along with playing melodic lines in tandem with chords (think hendrix, john mayer, etc).

All of that being said, if youve got the will and drive and inspiration, playing guitar can be very rewarding and very fun.

As a closing statement, if you are really interested in playing or learning an instrument, I very strongly suggest learning piano first. This is because Piano is a relatively easy instrument to learn due to the fact that you can actually see all of the pitches laid out sequentially as opposed to the guitar which has overlapping tones depending on what string youre on and where you are on the fretboard. A lot of the time, playing piano will make a lot more sense to someone who doesnt have any musical training.

Hope this has helped.

09-20-2012, 05:46 PM	#1 (permalink)
Viazon Groupie Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Bedford, England Posts: 16	How hard is it to learn to play the guitar? Learning to play guitar is something I have always wanted to do. But I know what I am like. I have no discipline and I give up way to easily. But it has always been something I want to do. How easy is it to teach yourself to play guitar? Are there any people here who were self taught?

09-22-2012, 03:52 AM	#4 (permalink)
phoenix17 Groupie Join Date: Aug 2012 Posts: 12	It's easy to learn. Just takes a lot of time to train your mind and hands. There's a lot of online resources available now to self-teaching guitar. __________________ [advertising removed]

09-22-2012, 08:48 AM	#6 (permalink)
Plankton Just Keep Swimming... Join Date: Apr 2012 Location: See signature... Posts: 7,765	^wut he said^ Was gonna pull that little gem out of that post too. __________________ See location...

09-20-2012, 11:39 PM	#2 (permalink)
prmtherocker Groupie Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 9	I am self taught guitarist but believe me learning to play guitar is very hard than other instruments like piano, drums, etc. But if you dedication and interest you can surely be a pro. Persistence is the key. Never give up at first because "Everything is hard before its easy." There are lot of ebooks, videos and learning stuffs all over the internet. I mostly learned myself using Guitar Pro.

09-22-2012, 11:22 AM	#7 (permalink)
blastingas10 Music Addict Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 2,126	It's not easy at all. It's all about patience and discipline. It's really satisfying to look back and see how far you've come and it makes it all worth it. From my experience, guitar is harder than the only other instrument I have experience with which is piano. When you have a ****ty guitar with really high action, changing chords can be a big task. I found it to be a lot easier on piano, but I know they both have their own aspects that make them difficult.

09-23-2012, 06:22 AM	#9 (permalink)
ferdie_poly Groupie Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 13	aside from discipline, I think inspiration plays a major role in learning how to play guitar

09-25-2012, 05:35 PM	#10 (permalink)
The 5th Horseman Groupie Join Date: Sep 2012 Posts: 5	Learning to play guitar is hard typically. Ive been playing for 8 years, piano for 10. Ive been giving private music lessons for near 6 years now and have had all types of students. When learning to play guitar, at first, your fingers will hurt due to not being calloused. Once youget past that, depending on what you want to learn, it can be difficult to build dexterity, speed and playing cleanly. You can just jump into playing guitar and be steve vai in a month or 2. Once you get past the intermediate stuff, comes learning how to play outside of the scale boxes, along with playing melodic lines in tandem with chords (think hendrix, john mayer, etc). All of that being said, if youve got the will and drive and inspiration, playing guitar can be very rewarding and very fun. As a closing statement, if you are really interested in playing or learning an instrument, I very strongly suggest learning piano first. This is because Piano is a relatively easy instrument to learn due to the fact that you can actually see all of the pitches laid out sequentially as opposed to the guitar which has overlapping tones depending on what string youre on and where you are on the fretboard. A lot of the time, playing piano will make a lot more sense to someone who doesnt have any musical training. Hope this has helped.