by Slayertplsko on Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:28 pm
Welcome. You're the first one whom I'm gonna tell yes you can teach yourself and don't need a teacher. Why? Because you can read music and probably know the basic theory. Most of the 'I wanna play guitar in three weeks' types don't know what you do, so you've got a great advantage.Whether it's hard?? It depends. If you just wanna mess around with a few chords and fingerstyle progressions, no, it's not hard at all. If you want some serious playing (acoutic or electric), then yes it is hard and it takes years to become good at. You'll have to understand one thing, which you maybe already understand: you're never gonna 'learn it' as such. You can become better and better but as you probably know from your piano lessons, music is not something that can be 'completed'.I can give you one site which deals with theory and I found it comprehensible and great:http://www.smu.edu/totw/toc.htmJust in case you need some additional theory.As for tabs...they're useless. You already can read notes so there's no reason to waste your time with something that completely forgets to give you any information on the rhythm.Make sure you download the Guitar Pro 5 software:http://www.forumwz.org/guest-section/8636-guitar-pro-v-5-2-realistic-sound-engine.htmlCheck ultimate-guitar.com for lessons and GP tabs (they include the regular staff as well). Unfortunately, some copyright-illegal retards have banned mysongbook.com, and gratz guys you've reduced the chances of young musicians to learn and gave more room to Disney retards like Jonas Brothers....really...excellent job, I'm amazed!!!The technique used for acoustic is not as varied as that for electric, so I think I'll leave it at that. Just learn to hold a pick correctly:http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa071200g.htmNot really the best way, but probably better for your chord strumming since you'll need to hold it with greater strength.And one more thing: acoustic teachers seem to be obsessed with saying everyone that they have to keep their left thumb behind the neck opposite to the rest of the fingers all the time. I don't know why they're so exited about this discovery, but they often forget to say that it doesn't apply to electric guitar all the time at all (in fact, in blues soloing, almost never). So keep in mind, as long as you play acoustic, listen to what they say, as soon as you switch to electric, they already teach a different instrument! I'm saying that because some don't realise it and think it applies to both. Poor victim Emppu Vuorinen...Good luck. Any questions, feel free to ask: takymail66@gmail.com