play guitar

oh boy do I want to learn to play the acoustic guitar!

I had always wanted to learn how to play, and about a year ago I picked up my sister’s old guitar and taught myself how to play. It was a bit discouraging and overwhelming at first, but once you get comfortable playing it is very enjoyable. I taught myself, so I learned chords and notes from different books, but I think just finding a tab online and playing it helped the most.

Tonight while I was practicing, I blended a couple of different things together and made some new sounds. I’m going to try and push this some more. Tonight was the first night I actually took this angle. Usually I’m just trying to faithfully repeat what I’ve learned. Feels like another breakthrough :)

My teacher wants me to look up as much as I can, to see if it can help speed up my transition between chords. By doing this over the last week I discovered not only can my fingers can actually find some of the chords by themselves, but it’s also heightening my listening ability.
It’s been a few months now. I still don’t feel like a guitarist (yet), but I’m perfectly happy to just keep going with it. There are many songs I would like to play :) One day I might even make some tunes of my own. That would be fun!

you see…
i dont have a guitar
or the money to buy one…
but i want to play..i want to play so bad..ill teach myself..ill work hard..i just want to be able to play..it will set my mind at peace…

I just got the Learn & Master Guitar DVD training series. I’m going to devote an hour each day to practicing my guitar (Ibanez V70CE). I’ve completed my first lesson and know how to tune, proper hand placement & bracing, reading tablature, string names and all notes, as well as how to play C & G7 chords.

Fingerpicking was difficult at first, but I’m getting better with practice. I figured out most of the bass runs for ‘Hobo’s Lullaby’ on my own. Teacher had to correct one of them, but I was really close. In Lesson 4, I officially ‘graduated’ from the ‘Blue Eyes’ and ‘Gold Watch and Chain’ songs, though I need to keep them fresh. In Lesson 5, Teacher ask me to play ‘Blue Eyes’ and I was stumbling a bit, not having practised.

In Lesson 5, she introduced a new song by the Beatles! I was very excited about this one because it uses the ‘hammer on’ technique and new chords, C and Em. The song is ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face.’

I have a lot to work on, but I’m not going to have another lesson until mid-May, so I have a lot of time.

I’ve just been introduced to bar chords now. Learning guitar is great. It doesn’t matter how long I keep learning, I will be constantly challenged.
Arms Around Me
This is the song I’m learning at the moment. I’ll need to get my teacher to help me with intro some more, but it’s coming along :)

I’ve always played the same guitar tune for more than 10 years. A little while ago I decided to learn guitar once and for all AND play real good. I am more visual than in a classroom environment, so I checked on the web for tips, videos and other tools. I found my virtual teacher on YouTube. There are many people like me and in different levels. I can simply watch the videos and go back and forward whenever I want to until I get it right. I love it and already know how to play cool songs.

I was talking to my mom once and guitars came up; she said she had wanted to learn when she was younger. I said that was cool, and that I had a few friends who played, and I might take it up sometime. A few weeks later, she got me a yamaha electric guitar off someone she knew, it was a really nice surprise. Happened three years ago. I later changed to acoustic, which i now prefer. I looked at internet tabs and watched my friends play. I didn’t like the idea of lessons so I learned at first by listening and playing along to songs. It was a slow process (nearly a year of sounding quite messy), but I have a good sound now :) Don’t worry at all about chords at first; just get used to the strings and play in bed until you fall asleep.