Learning To Play The Guitar?

I really want to learn to play the guitar. Would it be better to get lessons than try to teach myself? I know people who have taught themselves but I don't know where to start. How much does the average lesson cost? What would be better to learn with an electric or acoustic guitar? And how hard is it to learn?
Thanks any advice will be appreciated

B) If your in a hurry to become famous and don't have time to learn how to become good on the guitar you can just downtune the guitar, get an intense effect without having to be skilled. :) Plus you can just play on the A and E strings.

my advice to you would be get an electric if you want something easy to pick up and play. also lessons are a very good idea even if its just to get the basics. unless you have a few guitar playing friends to help you out it can be hard to get started and learn new stuff. thats my advice anyways.

I learned guitar when I was 16 8 years ago

when I first learned I was given chord Sheets at school to learn the shapes and the basic shit. from going to chord to chord D G C or the easy ones.

then I got given a guitar 1 week before my grandmother passed away my grand parents said they always wanted to buy me an instrument I chose guitar.

got music lessons mind you 300 bucks for 10 weeks!!!!!

at first he tort me how to read music on guitar not tablature but manuscript music. and rhythm and all that boring as hell stuff. and at the end he would teach me a song. just before the lesson ended. and I had to practice though the week. got all straight A's too

after learning rhythm and all the scales notes pentatonic scales Blues etc. I basically brought in a song on tape he worked it out and wrote it on manuscript for me too learn.

then I studied Music at Uni for 1 year got in from the audition .

So let em tell you Lessons do help!!

ppl get lazy in teaching themselves they only learn the TAB chords and shapes. if I hadn't got lessons I wouldn't have got into my course.

you either have it in you or you dont

1st things 1st:
learn how to tune the instrument by ear.
it took me a good year before i knew what an 'E' was by ear alon. if you get stuck use a tuner, tuning key, or piano/keyboard.
the next thing to focus on is the major chords.
there are 7:
A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.
start off practicing the A, C, D, E, and G.
practice strumming these chords.
a good chord finding website is:
http://www.chordfind.com/
while practicing these chords in different patterns
(i.e.: A,E&D, or G,C&D etc)
get yourself familiar with the pentatonic blues scale in 'A'
it starts on the fifth fret.
memorize it and practice this up and down up and down.
this will get your fingers moving faster and you will overtime memorize the individual notes. experiment with bends, hammers and slides.

once you feel comfortable struming the major open chords
and transitioning back and forth between each of them to teach you fingers where to effortlessly go on the fret board. then try the chords 'F' and 'B'.
they will introduce you to bar chords, mostly played on electric.
as well as learning those two new chords it is about this time to learn the minors for every chord youve have learned.
now practice and experiment with all the new chord combinations youve learned.

also, as you continue to get better with the pentotonic blues scale in 'A', learn the blues scale in 'G'
compare the relationship of the fingering positions as the blues scale in 'a' that you have been practicing. it is the same finger placements, exept played on the 3rd fret rather than the fifth. then learn the blues scale in 'E'. this will give you another way of playing the same note positions as the 'G' and 'A'.
you can play these same scales in the same way on different frets to change the chord. try on the 1st fret to play over the F chord.

learn blues chord progressions. such as (E, A, and B) (G,C and D) (A, D, and E)

go online and learn your favorite three or four chord songs.
many popular band only use open major chords or bar chords in thier songs.
(note: not the great bands though i.e. the beatles)

once you have become familiar with the open chords:
A, B, C, D, E, F, and G,
learn them in bar chords or power chords.
for instince, instead of playing the open D chord on the 2nd and third frets,
you can bar it starting on the 'a' string on the fifth fret to make it a barred D chord.
(generally you play open chords acoustically and barred chords electrically)
notice the relationship between each of the bar chords and thier positions.

there is a whole step (skip over one whole fret) between the barred D chord and the barred E chord. (on the 'a' string)
as is the same between the C chord and the D chord. or the G chord and the A chord. notice the relationship between the newly learned bar chords and the corrosponding blues scales.
also notice that the only chords that are not separated by a whole step is :
E to F, and B to C...only a half step away in relation to each other (the very next fret)
(notice F and B chords are not open unlike the other 5 chords)
in the steps inbetween all the chords (except E to F and B to C)
are sharps (#) and flats (B)

so one half step Above the barred 'D' chord is D#. (#=sharp).
one half step above the 'C' chord is C#.
and so on and so forth.
also
one half step Down from the from the barred 'D' chord is Db. (b=flat)
one half step down from the 'E' chord is Eb.

(you will come to realize that one half step down from 'D' is the same thing as
on half step up from 'C'. therefore* C# is the same chord as Db)
(*generally speakin)

now experiement with all the new chords in different combinations.
now after you are comfortable playing those chords...learn all the 7ths.
(A7, B7, C7, D7, E7, F7, G7)
the easiest to start with is: A7, B7, E7, and D7

also learn the ionian scales for each of the chords to play lead that is more serious and less bluesy.

this should at least get you started.

[email protected]
www.emayhem.com/nomsans

ive never had lessons in my life...
figured this out on my own...
(with the help of the internet thank god)
not saying lessons are bad...

also...try learning the chords that you are learning on a piano or keyboard and
note the relationship between the keys and the finger positions. the piano is a much much easier instrument to play...so if you learn the guitar first, the piano will be a breeze.
joe