Comments on: Guitar for the Absolute Beginner, # 1: Make a practice plan to ensure your success

By: sillydoodah

sillydoodah — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:52:01 +0000

I saw post last month, and thought, "I'll have to remember that when I finally get around to learning to play."

Well, I hung out with family this weekend, and several of us are in various stages of learning the guitar. We had fun passing the guitar around and goofing off, but decided we should organize a bit. Our goal is to jam to the "Free Credit Report Dot Com" song at the next family reunion. LOL! After years of my guitar gathering dust, I have some motivation.

So, today, after work, I tuned my guitar and started my "Guitar Lessons with Mark Lee". Thanks so much for these posts! The practice plan advice is great. Having "practice guitar" broken down into specific (bite-sized) chunks is helpful and motivating.

By: Chris Sullivan

Chris Sullivan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:57:15 +0000

Cool. This got me excited to to start trying to learn again. Looking forward to more posts.

By: Dan_Gross

Dan_Gross — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:12:48 +0000

When you buy the guitar, you'll want to buy a tuner with it. If you buy an electric guitar (or even an electric/acoustic), get a tuner with a jack in it so you can plug the guitar into the tuner. The cheaper tuners tend to be "guitar tuners," which just have the six standard guitar string notes. There are also "chromatic tuners," which show what note (on the scale) your string is playing (and how/sharp/flat from the note it is) when you pluck it. I personally bought chromatic, but a standard guitar tuner should suffice, unless the Professor has other thoughts…and Mark, it might not be a bad idea to put together a post on "how to buy a guitar." Things to look for, terminology the sales person will throw past you, and one of the bigger things for the absolute beginner is "how do you evaluate a guitar when you don't know how to play?"

By: Dan_Gross

Dan_Gross — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:12:23 +0000

You know, I guess I had automatically assumed that because she was asking she wasn't sure which she wanted to play, so thanks for adding that! Bad on me for assuming!

By: Dan_Gross

Dan_Gross — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:09:57 +0000

As the good Dr. (who is a lefty if you didn't already know that) said in another thread, try right-handed, unless you're really strongly left-handed. It's a two-handed instrument anyway, and you'll have a lot bigger selection of guitars to choose from.

By: Christy

Christy — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:01:25 +0000

Ok, this is what I am doing. Step 1, buy a guitar. Step 2 learn how to tune it, right? From a post that comes later? I am excited to think that I can learn everything I need to know about playing guitar from GROUND ZERO on this website, right? Just go buy the guitar?

By: marklee3d

marklee3d — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:33:01 +0000

No you haven't misunderstood - I do plan to unfurl an entire month's worth of lessons. It sounds like you're wanting me to guarantee that if you do this that you'll know how to play guitar. I can't do that. While I do plan to show you the basic basic things you can learn in the first month of playing, it's kind of a one sided conversation, isn't it? I don't know what you're doing!

So use it as a tool to get you started, to get you on the road to playing guitar, and to whet your appetite for further learning!

I guess it does come with a money back guarantee, seeing's how it's free

By: marklee3d

marklee3d — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:27:21 +0000

My answer would be to get whatever kind of guitar you want to play! If your goal in playing guitar is to play electric, by all means, get an electric. If your goal is to strum chords while you sing (or someone else sings), get an acoustic!

Yes there are issues with either one. An acoustic is portable but a tad more difficult to set up and maintain. An electric set up well is marginally easier to play, but involves buying an amp, cables, etc.

Bottom line: don't base your decision on what you SHOULD get, base it on what you WANT to get! If you're doing what you want to do, you have greater odds you'll succeed at it, right?

By: Christy

Christy — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:25:09 +0000

Thanks Dan for that. Speaking of the fingers that reminds me, I am left handed. I can do a couple of things right handed, so start left handed try right handed or am I officially kicked out of class?

By: Dan_Gross

Dan_Gross — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:01:32 +0000

Again, I know you asked the Professor, but I'll chime in here. An acoustic giutar would be more versatile in that all you "need" is the guitar (no need for an amp like you would an electric), which means fewer things to purchase up front and opens up the ability to play "anywhere." That said, I don't know how "budget" acoustics compare to "budget" electrics. I

The one big downside (if you consider it that) to an acoustic is that the "action" (distance from string to fret) is higher so it can be harder to play (especially barre chords, where you use an index finger to press all the strings on one fret). But once you've mastered techniques on acoustic, they do translate pretty easily (in theory, at least…).