how do you play guitar?

I play piano, i know all of the scales, can play with my eyes closed and all I am just really experienced so to say...I know it like I know 2+2=4

Obviously the best thing to do is invest in a guitar with a very thin neck so you can easily play as fast as possible.  Forget chords and structure.  The faster you shred, the better player you are.  Also, the more expensive your rig, the more talent you obviously possess. 

on second thought, I learned to play guitar by ear by learning chords and scales and learning to jam along with 12-bar blues.  Obviously if you know theory you can apply it to simple structures on the guitar and eventually be able to play more and more complex things.

Start simple - use tabs - figure out how to read them (they are very simple string and fret number diagrams). Find some easy stuff - lots of sites that have tab - and try to play them. Use songs you know well, cause tab gives absolutely no idea of structure, but if you know the songs you can probably figure out what happens when and where.
And- ignore the shredder comments above.
    

Edited by cobb - August 28 2006 at 01:04

Start with the pentatonic scale - learn it in as many positions as you can - the same way you learn piano scales, ie playing it over and over until it's second nature.


It won't take long before you're soloing like a 1970s guitar God - you cannot play a wrong note if you use the pentatonic scale!
    

The big difference between the guitar and a keyboard is that the keyboard has the sharps and flats clearly marked with the black and white keys - frets are all the semitones presented in a "flattened out" way.

I took pretty much the same approach when I got my first guitar - I could already play piano to a very high standard, and didn't want to go through all that learning malarky all over again with the guitar.

The first song I learned to play on the guitar was "The Boxer" by Simon and Garfunkel - it's got pretty much every chord you'll ever need in it. I learned it by playing a tape recording of it over and over and over until I had nailed it.

Edited by Certif1ed - August 29 2006 at 04:14

It's very simple. Start off by learning chords, become a chord macheine. Then learn scales and you're set.

The Lost Chord wrote: I play piano, i know all of the scales, can play with my eyes closed and all I am just really experienced so to say...I know it like I know 2+2=4   Anyways, I have been trying to learn guitar naturally, and have figured out many things about it, but can anyone here recommend taking lessons or any tips about the construction of the guitar and how it applies to piano or vice versa?   I also play flute and know it very well.   Thanks!  I am just having alot of trouble with the idea of strings and frets and everything.

LC...

suggestions:

1. get this book a.s.a.p.  if you cannot afford to buy it, get it from your local library.
you will not regret it.... trust me

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Handbook-Ralph-Denyer/dp/0679742751/sr=1-1/qid=1157547877/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-7399183-7285631?ie=UTF8&s=books

2. get a good quality electric to learn on. why ? they're easier on your fingers and hands.

3. don't use a capo if you really want to learn to play a guitar... well, at least NOT until you've learned how to play barre chords.

4. learn chords first... THEN solo fingering.

i go into guitar shops and i am surprized to see how many young/new players don't have any clue about chords...they just want to play "lightning-fast" fingered solos.

5. learn to play BOTH barre chords AND "open" chords
.


Edited by utah_man - September 06 2006 at 09:26

MikeEnRegalia wrote: I suggest you take some lessons to get started. It's quite difficult to learn to play the guitar simply "by doing".

That was my approach to it and I turned out just fine (although my dad did show me a few chords when I was just starting out everything else I learned came quite naturally over time).

I recently bought a DVD out of curiosity more than anything else - I thought I might have a good laugh.

It's called "50 Killer Metal Licks" and is produced by LickLibrary - see why I thought it might be funny?

Instead, it turned out to be really good - the tutor is Danny Gill, a student of Joe Satriani, and really, you might just as well be having lessons from Joe himself!

The screen is thoughtfully laid out so that you can see both his fretting hand - and his picking hand in a smaller window, so you can clearly see how he holds the pick and the pick movements.

Danny starts at base level with the pentatonic scale, and works up to a moderately advanced level incorporating major and minor scales, including the ubiquitous sweep-picking techniques, two-handed playing and some fun at the end.

I went from "could just about sweep-pick" to proficient in 6 weeks (I only get 30 minutes practice time a day if I'm lucky, and most days I don't practice), but my favourite "trick" is intervallic leaps and octaves, which I've already incorporated into a couple of solos.

Most of it is simply developing a "memory muscle" so your fingers get used to moving in certain ways at speed.


This DVD is great for soloing, but for songs, nothing beats listening to your favourites and playing along by ear.

Or even better, fingers...
    

Edited by Certif1ed - September 07 2006 at 04:51

about effects: delay/echo + ebow + wha wha to have a deep mantra-like sound.

Well, I've got nothing to sugest (can't play guitar myelf), but for what it's worth my brother self taught himself at twelve, w/ some Rage Against the Machine videos, and now he is a very accompished musician at the age of 18.