Help me start out with acoustic guitar

destine

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My regards to the community. I already have a taste of music as I played Saxophone for 6 years and sang in choir for 5. I want to have my fingers going on an acoustic guitar. I already own 2. . I was wondering if anyone could tell me a good way to start out. What should I be doing, etc... That kind of stuff. Any advice would be great.

Thanks
 
learn your basic major and minor chords in open position and practice chord changes s-l-o-w-l-y and cleanly. Since you already understand music, work with basic progressions.

Put in some time every day with scales. Don't flog yourself with them but teach your fingers how to behave. Again, go slow and clean. Speed will come.
 
bar chords are the devil

try to find a guitar that's setup with low action, otherwise your frustration will build
 
If you want to learn acoustic guitar I think that the best going would be to get an online source.
This is our new fast-track beginner course without notes. In 30 daily lessons you’ll learn the most important chords to accompany various styles. You’ll learn the different styles such as easy ballad, folkpop ballad, groove pop, pop ballad, and more, by playing together with the band. Direct downloadable to your pc.
 
One thing I learned is that you should definitely NOT start out with tablature. Learn chords. I tried with tabs because thats how my slack key teacher taught me slack key, but it is NOT the same when trying to learn songs that utilize actual chords. Defnitely try and stay away from that if possible. And when you know what the names of chords are, learning songs are super easy.

This, of course, doesn't apply to everyone. But that's just what I learned from practice.
 
One thing I learned is that you should definitely NOT start out with tablature. Learn chords. I tried with tabs because thats how my slack key teacher taught me slack key, but it is NOT the same when trying to learn songs that utilize actual chords. Defnitely try and stay away from that if possible. And when you know what the names of chords are, learning songs are super easy.

This, of course, doesn't apply to everyone. But that's just what I learned from practice.

Tablature is alright if you're learning fingerstyle for solo guitar (which is what slack-key is all about). If the guitar is meant more as an accompanying instrument for songs, then you probably would prefer learning to do chords.
 
This is how I learned: I had a guitar, a chord chart, and a magazine of popular songs(at the time) with lyrics and chords, and a whole lot of practice. But honestly If I really had to do it all over again, I would learn the music Theory. Since you already have 6 years with the saxophone, learn how to apply that theory to the guitar. I'm just Now learning basic scales and I totally regret not learning it sooner. makes me wonder how much better I could be if I had. but good luck! dont let pain in your finger tips discourage you! hehe! :D
 
learn to get comfortable with your guitar, relax your hands when you play with it and don't exaggerate yourself if your hands get too tired rest them for while cuz if you keep playing your hands will numb which makes changing chords harder and sloppy i've had this happened to me numerous times
 
One thing I learned is that you should definitely NOT start out with tablature. Learn chords. I tried with tabs because thats how my slack key teacher taught me slack key, but it is NOT the same when trying to learn songs that utilize actual chords. Defnitely try and stay away from that if possible. And when you know what the names of chords are, learning songs are super easy.

This, of course, doesn't apply to everyone. But that's just what I learned from practice.

Yep this is right, go to www.chordie.com and you will learn chord names and soon will be able to write your own peices of music (simple but they will be your own). I learnt that way and till this day I hate tabs and prefer chords. Also teaching yourself is pretty easy, I been playing since January on a Tanglewood Seagull and I like to think I'm ok now and just upped myself to a Taylor. Main thing as ever, don't give up. Also use Youtube to look for tutorials.
 
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