So I'm learning to play guitar...

So I got my own guitar for Christmas (a Dean Vendetta to be exact. Nothing too special, just a starter guitar kit) and I'm trying to learn how to play. I already know most major chords and a few minor chords and I can play major scales from where my sister tried to teach me some stuff a while back. I think I frustrate her because she and I have such different tastes in music (I of course love hard rock and metal, while she prefers indie rock, acoustic, folk, etc.), plus the stuff she tries to teach me just seems above my head. What I want to know is where I should start learning. I wanna learn how to play lead guitar the most, but I realize you have to work up to it.

So do any of you experienced players have any suggestions on where I should start?

Even if you do lead, those chords and strumming patterns she is showing you will come in handy.

For an inexpensive guitar teaching course, you should go to Pastor Brad (the guy on Roxx Records) and get his downloadable lessons. They are really inexpensive and can show you what you want in each section. You can buy as many or as few as you want. I've been meaning to get teh introduction to lead guitar and speed tricks myself.

That's great silentthunder you are learning how to play guitar.
Maybe you have to think about taking guitar lessons?
Then you learn other things too.

alldatndensum wrote:

Even if you do lead, those chords and strumming patterns she is showing you will come in handy.

For an inexpensive guitar teaching course, you should go to Pastor Brad (the guy on Roxx Records) and get his downloadable lessons. They are really inexpensive and can show you what you want in each section. You can buy as many or as few as you want. I've been meaning to get teh introduction to lead guitar and speed tricks myself.

I forgot about Pastor Brad's guitar videos. I also found another site called Truefire.com that sells guitar lessons by big name guitar players as well for about $20 per package. Each package has about 80 videos in it. It's also the same site that Jeff Sheetz offers his guitar lesson videos (more advanced stuff though). But the packages offered on this site focus on specific styles for all different learning levels, such as blues, rock, acoustic, bass, country, Jazz, and techniques. I was thinking about picking up either rock or blues for beginners. But I'll definitely have a look at Pastor Brad's videos as well.

Quote :

That's great silentthunder you are learning how to play guitar.
Maybe you have to think about taking guitar lessons?
Then you learn other things too.

I wish I had time to take weekly guitar lessons. But between school, all my extraciriculars with Campus Ministry, the fraternity, and a potential internship I just don't really have the time to go someplace for face to face guitar lessons.

Fantastic. Playing guitar can be a lot of fun.
If you want to play lead you definately need to know all of those scales forwards and backwards, but don't forget to practice your chords as well. I ran into a few guitarists who spent so much time learning scales they were really poor as rhythm guitarists. (actually BB King claims to be terrible at playing chords)

Staybrite wrote:

Fantastic. Playing guitar can be a lot of fun.
If you want to play lead you definately need to know all of those scales forwards and backwards, but don't forget to practice your chords as well. I ran into a few guitarists who spent so much time learning scales they were really poor as rhythm guitarists. (actually BB King claims to be terrible at playing chords)

Cool, thanks for the tip! I'm really interested in learning more about Chord structure. I know most of the major and minor chords, but there is SOOOO much more to chords than that. I think what I'm most eager to learn about is Chord progressions. Anybody can play chords, but it's knowing which chords sound good together and how to create a progression out of them that makes playing guitar so much fun.