from uke to guitar

luckyends

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::The first part is background that is not so important skip to second part to get to meat of the post if you would like::

so i have been playing the uke for 6 or so months and after a lot of ribbing my dad has finally convinced me to take up guitar as well.
I have decided to start with acoustic as aposed to classical classical guitar....but i will learn those eventually. Any way this is all beside the point

Basically
-I'm starting guitar from playing ukulele
-What are some tips for beginners
-What are the things i should learn first
-Does any one have any sights or online places that have good lessons that are helpful and will guide me in the right direction?
 
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A few things to get started are:

1. Get a nice book of chord shapes. I got one at Books a Million for 10 bucks and it has around 1000 chords I think. Practice and teach yourself new chords each day.

2. Buy a book or two of tabs of you're favorite artists/style of music.
Practice those every day too.

3. Scales and fingers exercises like this: http://www.cyberfret.com/scales/primer/index.php

4. If all else fails, or you're too broke to buy books, try Youtube. Plenty of good lessons on there.

Some good sites I've used:

www.justinguitar.com - lots of nice
www.blguitar.com - scales and such
www.youtube.com/user/ichthus888 - Great lessons and songs by Ken Middleton.
 
Just some pre-cautions. Your fingers, thumb muscle, wrist, forearm, and fingertips will hurt after a while. Just take a 10-30 minute break and go back to it, it's natural...sort of? Any pain is your body's way of telling you you shouldn't be doing that, but you get used to it. Anywho.

http://www.wikihow.com/Read-Music <----link to help you with reading music. Most songbooks come with tabs nowadays. I used to know how to read music when I played sax and piano. Now I just read numbers and letters from drums, uke, and guitar. It's always nice to know how. I can do it still...just really really slowly, haha.

A chord book really does help.

One of the most helpful things I've found(and still find) with any instrument, is that learning all sorts of different kinds of songs helps.
 
thanks alot
and im going to go out today and find a chord book
i think all i have to do is dig around in the garage for one
and thanks for the site
is there also one that shows the notes on the guitar?
 
thanks alot
and im going to go out today and find a chord book
i think all i have to do is dig around in the garage for one
and thanks for the site
is there also one that shows the notes on the guitar?

You mean like, what note each fret is?

Oh, and like the other guy said, most books come with TAB nowadays.

Heres a tutorial on TAB:CLICK!
 
For note on frets:
fretboardmap.jpg
 
It'S not far from Uke to the guitar. At first you'll have to adjust to the big frets and you will have minor problems finding the right strings, but after a weak or so you'll feel comfortable on the guitar. The rest, is somehow similar to the uke, learn the guitar the same way you learned to play the uke, yeah the chord shapes are different and you have 2 additional strings, but the mechanisms for fretted string instruments are the same.
Plus i would recommend to train scales at first, this will make it easier to adjust to the 6 strings. Strangely, I found it easier to play on the e-guitar than on the uke, and i usually play without a pick. That's mainly because the action is so low on the e-guitar.
 
Dude Im just like you- I started playin uke, after awhile (3 years..) I started to play guitar. I bought a electric at first, and got an acoustic for X-Mas :) Its pretty hard, stretching your fingers over the six strings but you'll get used to it after awhile. Heres a HELPFUL HINT: guitar and uke are used for different music, and strumming and picking will change. Picking mostly, dont pick with all four fingers, it gives a not heavy artificial type sound. Pick with your pointer supported by your thumb, sort of like that making the X with your finger and thumb on one of those uke minuites or whatever. Pick with a pick when your better, but thats if you pick. If your good at muting stums, thats going to help alot; it pops up in a lot of songs with guitar.

HERE'S WHAT YOU SHOULD DO FIRST!

Learn basic chords and get familiar with them. There's a D chord (on the guitar) that looks like G (on the uke) on the 2nd fret of the guitar, but you cant move that arround. Learn chords you can move arround, the first ones I learned were G and D, and Bm. With that I got all the stationary chords and all the flat chords down. Im not sure about 7 chords yet (C7, G7, etc..). I dont know any yet.

The first string. That loud E. BOONNNNGGG. Dont stum hard, try and mute strums slightly for better sound and focus strumming on parts of the neck. For instance, chords that use up the 3rd 4th and 5th fret, try and strumming only in the middle. If you cant, try mute the surrounding strings. Takes practice, but you'll get it.

Thats about it. Good luck...
 
The transition from uke to guitar is difficult, but not as bad as if you didn't have expierience with a uke. I don't know if anyones said this because I'm too tired to read all the posts, so... I recommend taking lessons. Any good teacher will lead you away from bad habits that are easy to fall into when you try to learn by yourself. Also, if you get lucky (like me), you might get a hot teacher. Ironically, I don't take guitar lessons (although I should), I stopped taking uke lessons last week.
 
The transition from uke to guitar is difficult, but not as bad as if you didn't have expierience with a uke. I don't know if anyones said this because I'm too tired to read all the posts, so... I recommend taking lessons. Any good teacher will lead you away from bad habits that are easy to fall into when you try to learn by yourself. Also, if you get lucky (like me), you might get a hot teacher. Ironically, I don't take guitar lessons (although I should), I stopped taking uke lessons last week.
I fully agree. I am self taught on all my instruments.. You'll learn much quicker and have far more direction with lessons. I feel like a good guitarist and an average uke player. But I didn't start learning theory until a year after stating playing. I just looked up tabs. You don't learn anything but a song that way. Theory has rewarded me immensly.. I've written 9 songs in the last 6 months, without even trying.. They just happen on random nights when I'm bored and have a spare hour.

Anyways, rants aside... lessons = yes.
 
if you get to a point when you hit a brick wall, put a capo on the fifth fret and play some stuff you know on the uke using the high toned four strings ,ignore the other two strings, the g is a lower octave (if you played high g tuning)but essentially the same. that will remind you that they arent so different
 
Funny, I just started up guitar a couple days ago with a high-action crappy hand-me-down from my brother, and this thread gets bumped out of nowhere.

Knowing what I already know from ukulele, the transition was extremely easy. The main difference is you might have to add an extra finger or two for the two extra strings on certain chords.

I even did open G tuning on both uke and guitar, which is pretty fun. With a burned out keychain flashlight taped to my pink as a makeshift slide, I was playing tHeDirTyJoHnSon style in no time! I recommend everyone to dip into a little slack key once.

I'm actually learning guitar to learn more about my ukulele for theory on jazz theory chord substitute stuff. I need a better guitar though. I'm looking into an archtop, which is putting my UAS on hold for financial reasons. I didn't realize guitar prices go up each year even in a recession/depression.
 
in uk guitar prices seem to stay the same, they are a lot more expensive than the us or mainland europe but my parker nitefly is still worth the same as when i bought it ten years ago
 
i started off trying to learn guitar but after a while i got frustrated with trying to learn, the i came across the uke. i picked up learning really fast, and then i decided i would try my hand at guitar again and it turned out so much easier for me. it seems like a good way to start learning guitar. start off with 4 strings then advance to 6. uke really has played a big part in me learning guitar though.
anyways heres a site that use that really helps

justinguitar.com completely free
 
Ok, what about from guitar to Uke? I just found and bought a Larrivee Uke a few months ago and have been plucking around on it. I have been playing guitars for a while. The uke is quite new to me.... I bought it as a novelty, but have since ended up liking it. Funny how that happens :music:
 
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