Where to start with guitar?

[pix.fairydust]

Hello,

I'm taking my first tentative steps into guitar and was wondering if anyone had any tips in terms of where a good place to start might be?

Any and all help welcome!
Thanks in advance,

 

[DownUpDave]

I have gone from uke to guitar (played or attempted to play acoustic guitar 15 years ago) and I am really enjoying it.

You have two choices in guitar, steel string acoustic or nylon string classical. It will really boils down to the sound you like and the style of music/playing you prefer. Steel string is associated with strumming and singing but works well with fingerpicking chord melody, think Tommy Emmanuel. Nylon for fingerpicking but can be strummed even with a pick, think Willie Nelson and tons of folk music.

My advice is buy a smaller bodied instrument 1/2 -3/4 size, think Taylor GS mini size in steel or Córdoba Cadete for nylon. You could go smaller like the Cordoba Mini which is the size of a baritone uke with 6 strings. With the 20” scale it is not the best tuned to E-E, standard guitar tuning. It does work although G-G seems best. Don’t make the mistake of buying a narrow necked classical because you think the stretch is easier. It causes problems with fretting cleanly, go 48mm nut width minimum. Feel free to ask any questions I have both steel and nylon guitars now and love both sounds

 

[pix.fairydust]

Thank you so much Dave! I've been thinking about guitar for a long time, but have been nervous to try (feel like I'm being unfaithful to my ukes! haha). But I've just seen a Simon and Patrick woodland pro solid parlor guitar advertised for sale near me. Off to check it's specifications after your very kind and helpful reply! This one is with steel strings. I play a mix of strumming and picking, but picking is my happy place!

 

[pix.fairydust]

In terms of learning, any good places / resources to start with?

 

[DownUpDave]

In terms of learning, any good places / resources to start with?

The most popular site on the web by far is Justin Guitar. It is free and has a huge amount of content. Takes you from how to hold a guitar and pick all the way up to advanced stuff. You start out very early with simple but popular and contemporary songs which keep you interested and motivated. You can use the website or the app. I have enjoyed this learning tool immensely and am getting into music theory because he has a great dedicated section to it. Something I have avoided for all the wrong reasons.

 

[DownUpDave]

Thank you so much Dave! I've been thinking about guitar for a long time, but have been nervous to try (feel like I'm being unfaithful to my ukes! haha). But I've just seen a Simon and Patrick woodland pro solid parlor guitar advertised for sale near me. Off to check it's specifications after your very kind and helpful reply! This one is with steel strings. I play a mix of strumming and picking, but picking is my happy place!

Simon and Patrick make a great guitar at sensible prices, Canadian made so I am biased. The parlour is a excellent size, small enough to be easy to hold and play, big enough to sound good. Good luck

 

[pix.fairydust]

I've gone ahead and have pretty much pulled the trigger on it - see it / play / pay / pick up tomorrow all looking ok. It's a really cool looking sunburst. We agreed on £440 which I think is reasonable.

Thank you, I stumbled across Justin Guitar in my searches so will bookmark his site and start there. Thank you for your help

 

[kerneltime]

I have purchased a DHo 6 strings for Pepe Romero Creations to try my hand with 2 extra strings.. waiting to see how that goes.
I like the steel string sound but the act of changing steel strings makes me very nervous, had a few snap on me.

 

[pix.fairydust]

Yeah, I'm a bit nervous about the strings too! I considered nylon but there wasn't as much choice, especially in the used market.

 

[glennerd]

Steel strings definitely require an adjustment on the fingers, but they sound so much better strummed. I got a steel string 7 years ago to return to guitar after a long break (from a classical guitar) and never really got on with the steel strings, which is probably what pushed me toward ukulele. I still want another classical guitar one day (making do with a baritone uke for now), but you've got to decide if you like the sound of playing non-classical music on on a nylon string guitar. Both would be ideal.

 

[Peter Frary]

Yeah, I'm a bit nervous about the strings too! I considered nylon but there wasn't as much choice, especially in the used market.

Check out Cordoba. They make many "crossover" models with smaller necks but with nylon strings and are widely available. Romero Creations and Pono build several nice small nylon string guitars, albeit harder to find than Cordoba. I think La Patrie has a few as well.

 

[Col50]

Go for a steel stringed electro acoustic.

Classical acoustic tend to have wide nut and hence fretboard that you may find uncomfortable.

An electro acoustic will have a nut width of about 41 mm which is the same as most fully electric solid bodied guitars.

Yamaha, Epiphone, Cort, Fender and Ibanez would be my suggested makes to consider.

As for online tutorials look first at justinguitar.com

He is the best there is with hundreds of free tutorials which is thousands if hours of videos to watch and the cover all genres.

Checkout the Apps that he has which are also very useful in uke playing.

Justin makes his living from the website via donations and the sale of books and Apps so not much outlay if indeed you want any at all since the books are not really hecessary.

 

[pix.fairydust]

Thanks for all the help and suggestions everyone! I went with a used Simon and Patrick woodland pro parlor guitar I found for sale 10 miles away. It has a wonderful sound! I really like it. I've had a bit of a play but won't be able to get properly stuck in till the weekend now.

Justin guitar is a great website! So much content and so accessible and easy to understand. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[DownUpDave]

Congratulations on a great choice. Smart idea to buy a reputable brand that was used, save money and get a great guitar. Enjoy your new journey.

 

[JesterBlod]

Like you I am about to take my first guitar steps... I have just picked up a nice Faith Parlour guitar. I am going to look up Justin guitar and hopefully have some face to face lessons.... good luck to us both!!

 

[Col50]

Good luck to you both.

Look up on Amazon a product called Gripmaster, it is a finger strengthener so good for both Uke and Guitar.

Face to face will help get good posture and technique

 

[DownUpDave]

Like you I am about to take my first guitar steps... I have just picked up a nice Faith Parlour guitar. I am going to look up Justin guitar and hopefully have some face to face lessons.... good luck to us both!!

Congratulations on the Faith parlor guitar. I think you will like JustinGuitar, even just the stiff off his website and or app is fabulous.

 

[Aaron Matthies]

Learning a particular song or piece on guitar, requires you to sit down and actually learn. To keep on and on, until that one bar or riff is perfect! To keep going even when you make mistakes, to know that if you keep working hard you’ll eventually get it, and to know that it will be worth it!

 

[Ron150]

TAC Tony's Accoustic Challenge. Guitar Geeks Unite!

Hello,

I'm taking my first tentative steps into guitar and was wondering if anyone had any tips in terms of where a good place to start might be?

Any and all help welcome!
Thanks in advance,

I found Tony Polecastro online and signed up. TAC has taken my guitar playing to a new level. Tony offers a daily lesson that develops the skills to learn or improve guitar playing. The lessons are split into 5 skill areas. Monday is a warm Up activity that may focus on something like using your pinky or stretching your fingering ability. Tuesday is generally a Lick. Wednesday is a scale that may use the Lick learned on Tuesday usually with a backing track. Thursday is a rhythm related to the lesson of the week. Friday is a Major or Minor chords related to the week. It may be Barr Chords or playing up the neck. Both fingerpicking and flatpicking are explored throughout the lessons. He provides insight to music theory but has a specific course Fretboard Wizard. I have not taken that course yet but clearly see the need. Tony's Acoustic Challenge is that you check in and play at least 10 minutes on the daily lesson. Usually I spend from 30 minutes to an hour. His online community is great and helpful. He offers an Acoustic Tuesday show that is open to everyone and a monthly Guitar party were he awards a free Taylor mini to some one that completed everyday of practice. Decided by throwing a dart at a dartboard. I could go on and on but it's an experience in many levels. Try the link below and you will get a sense of his humor and great teaching.

Good Luck on your Journey

https://acousticlife.tv/at145/