# Learning Guitar



## Willow (Aug 5, 2019)

So I've had a guitar for maybe 15 or so years now and I've been trying to off and on learn how to play for most of those 15 years with very little success. I've mostly been trying to learn through an app, but it only allows for a certain amount of lessons a day before asking me to pay for a subscription. 

Really interested in seeing what advice people would have for making better use of my time or if there are any websites you'd recommend. My biggest issues I think right now are strumming and fretting without needing to look at the strings, which are probably the worst two problems to have when trying to learn guitar


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## SusiKette (Aug 6, 2019)

Not needing to look at strings/frets as you play comes eventually from muscle memory (taking that you practice regularly). I've been playing the intro melody of this track (although slower) and I sometimes don't need to look an my hands when I'm playing it because I remember which order strings/frets need to be played after a while. Honestly, I see nothing wrong in looking at the fretboard if you need to, so there is no need to try to learn out of it. Learning guitar unfortunately requires practicing regularly and efficiently to make any real progress, and the lack of progressing can feel discouraging, which isn't helping.


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## Willow (Aug 6, 2019)

SusiKette said:


> Honestly, I see nothing wrong in looking at the fretboard if you need to, so there is no need to try to learn out of it.


If you play songs from memory it's not a bad thing, but if you're trying to read from sheet music or tabs I think it makes you play slower since you waste a lot of time checking your fingers for positioning


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## Render (Aug 6, 2019)

Been there. Put the phone away, its just a distraction. Don't look at sheet music, you don't know what to do with it anyway (at least not yet). In my experience I was trying to focus on EVERYTHING instead of what actually matters. You need a foundation to build on. 

My advice would be to find an image that shows finger positions for chords and set the goal of learning one chord a day. Get each one clean in just a single down strum. Focus on your hand on the neck, try to avoid looking at the other. Each day, play the chords you know plus one new one. Start with the easy chords, the majors A - G and skip any that hurt your fingers for now. After you've got a few major chords down pretty good, try a few minors Am, Em, etc. 

After you have a few majors and minors under your belt to where you don't have to look at the cheat sheet to play them, start to practice going from one to the other. This part it where I got stuck. Best advice I have is to find two chords that are pretty close and just go from one to the other for a day or so. Try to strum pause strum on a 1 second count. You're not so much making music as training your brain/hand to make a strange movements in a hurry. As before, once you get one transition down add another chord, try to get at least one more down a day. By now your fingers will be raw but improving lol.

Once you've got four or five chords down pretty clean and can switch back and forth without to much hassle, that's when you look at the other hand. Strum patterns are tricky to learn and hard to forget. Try down-down-up on each chord, transitioning between up and down strums. 

If you make it to that point, time to find your first song. Pick something simple you don't like to much (you'll get sick of playing it), look for the song in chords instead of the proper sheet music. Google is your friend. Once you find the chords and are pretty sure you can hit them all, pull up the song on YouTube and try to play along. You'll fail, they will play way to fast, but you'll pick up speed as you get used to the beat and chord changes. 

It takes work, but its worth it. Good luck!


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## Joeyyy (Aug 6, 2019)

Render said:


> -really good info-


(dont mean to misquote, you get the idea)

Im gonna double-up with Render here, I tried to think of how my guitar progression went, and this is almost exactly how it went.  

those easier chords will make your fingers hurt, but you'll notice "hey! if I add this chord and this one, it sounds like that part of this song!"  and odds are you're right.  and thats a huge confidence boost.
the minor chords arent TOO foreign,  youll notice "oh this is the major chord without this finger, or added finger, here"  

the barr chords, go easy on yourself;  your bar finger (pointer finger usually) has to get strong.  that damn barr chord gives you access to everything but man it daunted me.  

everything else,  Renders on point.  your chords give you this idea on what sounds good when you move onto scales, and why scales sound the way they do in certain chord progressions.  if you wanna keep going, theres sustains where you augment a chord with funky scale sounds, and then scales, and all that _but you dont have to worry about any of that stuff now._
For now,  chords and strummin'.  you feel great doin it.


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## Willow (Aug 6, 2019)

Render said:


> Don't look at sheet music, you don't know what to do with it anyway (at least not yet).


Eh, I played trumpet for almost 10 years so I can at least sightread, but that's of course not very helpful when you don't know which fret corresponds to which note

This is also still really good advice though so thanks! You too @Joeyyy


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