Learning guitar and music theory on my own

I took lessons but I also taught myself, mostly by soloing or playing along with music and then trying to learn the songs on my own.. eventually your ear can develop so you can find correct chords though it takes a lot of time and work, good luck to you.  I don't really recommend songbooks as they often inaccurate.

I've never had a single guitar lesson in my life, but I can play Buckethead and Opeth songs note for note, learning purely by ear and never using tablature, if that is worth anything.
I can sight read, albeit at a very low level and I have a very good understanding of modes too, as well as concepts like counterpoint, polyphony etc.

But, if I could go back in time, I would have gotten a teacher.
I spent the first year and a half of playing electric guitar with horrible technique, so I literally had to start from scratch.
I spent months working on scales and economy of motion to unlearn all those bad technique habits.
It was worth those months in the end, but I wish I got it right in the first place.

If you don't have a guitar teacher, get one ASAP because it will be the best method to learn how to play, easily.
A good teacher will be some of the best money you'll ever spend and a good teacher is hugely inspirational too.


Edited by HughesJB4 - February 01 2009 at 23:15

Actually no, never start learning songs straight away, as that is a common cause of incorrect technique.
Sometimes incorrect technique can be detriment on your wrists and possibly fingers, to the point where you may never be able to play again.
Seriously, make sure your technique is correct before you play anything and you'll actually progress faster and easier that way too.
You're body and your arms/hands/wrists need to be as relaxed as possible at ALL TIMES, and I cannot stress this enough, because I know many people who have injured themselves from being too tense and having incorrect technique.
It may look dorky and not very classic rock and al, but I have my strap set to maximum height on my guitar and this ensures my wrists are at a comfortable angle to the neck and also means I can stretch my fretting hand out further too.
Warming up is of utmost importance. Absolutely never go full speed blazing out as soon as you pick up the guitar out of the case/off the stand.
10 minutes AT THE LEAST, but a full 25 minutes if you can.


Hence why a teacher is important because they will get you onto the correct road to good technique sooner.

You don't learn standing up - that comes much later - you'll generally find the sitting position that's comfortable for you is dictated by the shape of the guitar (so don't rush out and buy a Flying-V or  BC Rich ).

Edited by Dean - February 02 2009 at 02:48

Loads of advice in just one day , thanks for everyone.

http://justinguitar.com/ gives really good lessons on basics. Things like proper handeling of the guitar, ways of positioning your body as you play so that you won't strain yourself, all the major chords, some easy song lessons, etc.

Edited by p0mt3 - February 02 2009 at 09:59

Negoba wrote: I've never had a single guitar lesson in my life, but I can play Buckethead and Opeth songs note for note, learning purely by ear and never using tablature, if that is worth anything. I can sight read, albeit at a very low level and I have a very good understanding of modes too, as well as concepts like counterpoint, polyphony etc.   Hughes, you're a tricky feller. These things are extremely misleading. If you have a good understanding of modes and counterpoint, polyphony, it means you've had a significant amount of formal training on some instrument (Piano????) or at minimum many hours of self-study from formal materials. No beginner is going to be able to learn complex music completely "by ear." Readily available video has made self-study better than ever because you get closeups of good teachers hands and you can rewind and really study it. Some of them are better than the many lessons I had in terms of basic technique. (There's this complete redneck who actually has some very good free youtube videos that involve how you hold the pick and economy of motion)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXNABMV-hu4&feature=related   It's hard because there are terrible teachers out there, terrible videos out there, and really good example of both. I suggest learning from every possible place you can.   Here's my favorite story about guitarists. Randy Rhoads used to find a local guitar store at every town they entered to get a lesson. Rhoads was not only obviously better than half of the teachers in technique, but he was also a good teacher (his mom ran a music store herself). Half the time Randy would end up giving the lesson, but almost every time he'd end up adding a little something to his store of knowledge. That's been my example.

Haha, I didn't learn theory by ear
Don't think you can just innately start playing arpeggios and think to yourself 'this is an arpeggio' without having read about it first, for example.
I've never had a guitar teacher and I've never been to a music school of any kind is what I meant.
I have studied theory using books of course (other I'd doubt I'd even know what modes or counterpoint even are) and then devising my own study methods, but it's all been on my own without the aid of a music or guitar teacher.
There is nothing to say you't can learn things like counterpoint or modes by yourself because plenty of others have before and I'm just one of them that went it alone and used books to help me get there.
I couldn't play a piano to save my life, haha.
I'm no theory god, I honestly don't know any modes of the melodic minor yet (I only have a good grounding in the modes of the major scale) and only know one mode of the harmonic minor scale, the Phrygian Dominant, but that always seems to be that 'if you learn one mode of the harmonic minor scale, you learn that' mode:P
I know the Locrian mode, but I've had lots of trouble applying it in a way that sounds musical, it comes off too 'theoretical' sound if you get what I mean, but it seems I'm not the only one that has trouble with it.
It's not the theory that's the problem, I understand how it relates to the diminished chord and all, but if I try to improvise using Locrian, I just can't get it too sound good and flowing.  Something to work on I guess.

OH YES!
Randy Rhoads!
It's good to know other guys around PA apart from Atavachron (David) know who he is.
I bought the live Tribute album one day a few years back, having no idea what to expect and basically I was blown to pieces by Randy's playing.
He was one of the best guitarists of all time and to this day, Diary Of a Madman is one of my favorite albums. Excellent guitar work on that record, simply stunning.
I have a Guitar World Magazine issue from a few years ago, it had a transcribed lesson (as in, what he said was transcribed and the guitar stuff too). I could even tell from that, what a great guitar teacher he would have been.

Off topic, yes, but Randy deserves a mention now and then.



Edited by HughesJB4 - February 03 2009 at 02:34

As a part-time-teacher, and taught by a really good teacher, I can say it usually is worth it taking two or three lessons at least, if you're serious. But at first your teacher should ask you to play some songs on the stereo to make up your mind on what you want to play. Some, like Guitar Pro here work pretty fine learning what Harry here does pretty well par exemple, but I'd hate to see you learn jazz through that. I teach spanish guitar and classical picking, but at times do rock/funk with the el. -guitar, Not really shredding, that's a nother art.

To answer the first poster, if you're going to try to learn on your own, there are certain steps and stages to move through. I had a few teachers who would just ask what songs I wanted to learn and then they'd teach me. That was almost useless. My best teacher had a program of finger exercises that were assigned each week and then we'd have a song I was working on IN ITS ENTIRETY. At that stage we worked on alot of Hendrix and Angus Young, but really for tone, vibrato, and execution as the solos themselves weren't all that fast or tricky. And we often practiced without amps or on clean.

^ I basically agree, but I think that taking guitar lesson is still very important in order to learn *how* to play properly. The guitar is not an easy instrument to play - at least if you want to master most of the various techniques. I learned both keyboard and guitar in my adolescence, and in retrospect I'm glad that I took professional lessons.

BTW: IMO modes do come in handy on the guitar. I'd suggest to any player to learn the diatonic modes and how to play them on the guitar in an efficient way. For example, if someone plays a major or minor chord, it's definitely good if you're able to play some stuff to that chord that "sounds good". Of course you can simply use your ears, but knowing the modes and how they translate to the fretboard (-> scales) can give you a big advantage. I don't even think that it's so much about theory - it's simply about knowing your fretboard.


Edited by Mr ProgFreak - February 03 2009 at 10:03